BY LESLIE N. POLLARD

HHHHH, A PERFECT POSTCARD Thursday afternoon, I think to myself as Istand near the isolated Keekorok airstrip, anticipating the arrival of Air Kenya flight 422 to Nairobi. The temperature is 75°F. The breeze is balmy. The month is July. Kenya is good for me. She teaches this driven North American how to hurry up and wait. She also teaches me how to enjoy that waiting.

Today I sit amid the peaceful surroundings of Kenya's Masai Mara. My airstrip is an isolated red rock and sand stretch of land about 150 miles (240 kilometers) west of Nairobi in the region known as Keekorok (meaning "place of the black trees" in the Masai language). This well-utilized landing area rests squarely in the grazing lands of thousands of wildebeests, zebras, Thompson gazelles, and impalas. I have arrived during the season of the great migrations in Kenya, and as I inhale my surroundings I am keenly aware that this plain is fraught with both breathtaking beauty and incredible danger. For all of its apparent tranquillity, hungry lions, stealthy leopards, and crouching cheetahs lurk within the golden strands of the Mara's grassy knolls.

I sit in Masai land. Generous and approachable, the Masai are among Kenya's pastoralists, i.e., herdsmen and shepherds. Their flaming red shawls light up the Mara and warn predators that the Masai will fight to the death to protect a cow or goat. I cannot help feeling impressed that the Masai are a proud and beautiful people.

Geoffrey Kulet, my 52-year-old Masai driver and tour guide, sits quietly beside me. Geoffrey wears a carefully coordinated khaki safari outfit. A gentle and quiet man of slender stature, Geoffrey seems reluctant to leave my side, since doing so would be considered grossly inhospitable within his Masai values. Presence with a guest matters, and I am his guest. And me? Like the typical American, I've never met a silence that I really liked. So in an effort to make conversation, I laughingly say to my host, "Hey, Geoffrey, suppose I wanted to become a Masai. What would I have to do?"

Geoffrey's gentle eyes widen first; then he laughs heartily. "There is no way you could become a Masai. You could live on the Masai land, but you could never be a Masai."

"Couldn't I be adopted into the tribe?" I ask.

He laughs even more robustly as he remarks, "It does not work that way."

I respond lightheartedly. "But you are Black people, and I am a Black person. That should be enough!"

Then in his beautifully accented Kenyan English Geoffrey says, "We have 42 tribes of black people in Kenya. Being Black is not enough. They cannot be Masai, and you cannot either. It is where you are born and the way you are raised. You are an American."

While Geoffrey could point to 42 tribes in Kenya, I wonder how many racial and cultural "tribes" we have in the North American Division (NAD). Justifiably, we have spent significant energy in our division's history rectifying racial disparity and discrimination in North America, particularly in the United States and Canada. But effective outreach within our division in the twenty-first century will require an awareness, and even the competency to witness across the subcultures and cocultures within our division. Our NAD's diversity makes the idea of limiting cross-cultural training for mission to departing missionaries an antiquated fallacy. The fact is that every cultural tribe and nation on the globe lives within North America. Just visit New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Philadelphia (or Dubuque, Stockton, or Fort Lauderdale). Thus church growth, evangelism, church planting, educational leadership, health-care training, delivery, team-building, as well as a host of other mission-based ministries, consist of significant cross-cultural encounters in North America.

Further, as conferences, churches, hospitals, and schools diversify, the issues of multicultural cohesion and partnering in the local conference, union, and division will assume more significance. I am impressed that one of our greatest needs at the beginning of the twenty-first century is leadership training in NAD at every organizational level that equips our institutions to competently accomplish the mission of the church in our changed demographic situation.

Culture and the church
So how can we begin? In the NAD it would be helpful to carefully explore the relationship between race and culture. After one departs from the notion of the existence of only one race--the human race--one must then define race based on biophysical characteristics. The weakness with this approach alone is that pigmentation, hair texture, and physical features have no inherent meaning for the values, outlooks, and attitudes that diverse persons hold. Socialization, acculturation, and choice influence these. That's what Geoffrey was trying to say to me in response to my query about an African-American becoming a Masai. Ultimately, subsurface differences--values, beliefs, outlooks--make us who we are, and make other people who they are. Culture matters!

Probably the first recorded use of the term culture as we know it is credited to Sir Edward Tyler, a British anthropologist. In 1871 he wrote that culture is "the complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Culture represents a way of perceiving, behaving, and evaluating one's world. It provides the blueprint or guide for determining one's values, beliefs, and practices. Please note the following four characteristics of culture:

1. Culture is learned from birth. Culture is learned from birth through learning one's primary language, and through socialization or how one is raised. Socialization is the way culture is passed on and how the individual is fitted into a people group's organized way of life.

2. Members of the same cultural group share it. It is the sharing of cultural beliefs and patterns that binds people together under one identity as a group--even though this is not always a conscious process. Shared culture also distinguishes groups from each other.

3. Culture adapts to specific conditions. These specific conditions are related to environmental and technical factors and to the availability of natural resources. In other words, our culture can be passed on and modified by the kind of demands of our environment.

4. Culture is dynamic, not static. Culture, although stable at its roots, is on its surface a dynamic, ever-changing process.

Group culture is expressed in the artifacts, religion, values, beliefs, mores, and assumptions that both define and distinguish people groups. It has both macro and micro dimensions.

Some of the concepts around which cultural values are formed consist of the following turning points:

Deity immediacy or distance. Collective group life assumes that Deity is immediately involved in its affairs, or that Deity is distant, detached, and uninvolved.

Roles and relationships between the genders. What are males' primary and secondary responsibilities in the group? What are females' primary and secondary responsibilities? How do males and females rank in relation to each other?

Power accrual and utilization. How is power accrued? Is it a divine gift? Is it a function of political caprice or familial relationship or biological endowment? Does power flow from top to bottom or from bottom to top?

Orientation toward past, present, and future. Will the future be better than the past, or was the past more glorious than the future? Is the present to be endured or enjoyed?

Time as chronological or phenomenological reality. Is time defined by the clock, i.e., is it chronological in its nature? Is time a more diffuse reality marked by historical and social occurrences, i.e., is time a more people- and event-ordered reality?

Public, social, and personal space. What are the expectations concerning how space between persons and sexes will be managed? Will there be public touch between persons of the opposite gender? When does personal space become intimate? Will there be shoulder-to-shoulder conversing between differing "ranks" of persons?

Qualifications for insider and outsider status. How are insiders determined? Are social circles more intimate as one moves toward the center? Can one be more of a cultural insider than another? Who are outsiders? Can and how may outsiders become insiders?

How talking and touching function. Is talk primarily for the communication of information or is it an affirmation of relationship? Is talk direct and precise or narrative and allusive? When and where is touch between acquaintances appropriate?

The role of individual and group identity. In achievement, obligation, success, or failure, does the individual represent herself/himself primarily or is the individual primarily a representative of her/his familial, ethnic, racial, national, and cultural group?

The role and place of formality and informality. Are titles such as Dr., Captain, Mr., Mrs., etc., necessary elements of personal address? Does friendship require that titles be dispensed with? Are religious services formal or informal occasions?

These values formed around these and other notions are starting points for the person wanting to communicate more effectively across cultures.

Each of us must do the personal diversity work that will free us to identify and relativize our own culturalness. This personal diversity work requires us to assess the strengths and limitations of our culture of origin.

Proactive Understanding
Too many leaders and members are only vaguely aware of the presence and impact of their culture of origin on their behavior. Tastes in music, dress, concepts of modesty, preferences in attire, and a host of other personal behaviors and outlooks generally reflect one's cultural origins. Culture is learned not only through formal study but also through a process of cultural "osmosis," in which the values, attitudes, roles, and behaviors acceptable to and expected by the cultural group are absorbed and reflected. This process begins in the family. Parents set examples of "correct" cultural behavior through their use of praise, punishment, and communication to their children. The larger community also participates in communicating its cultural expectations.

For instance, the values of freedom, independence, and egalitarianism are so deeply embedded in mainstream American and Canadian cultures that we Americans often assume that these are normative for others. Our reward systems both compensate and validate these values. However, there are many groups in NAD for whom interdependence, hierarchy, and collectivism guide social relations. In other words, many individuals first reference their behavior against their group prior to deciding a course of action.

While working among Native Americans recently I had to relearn the power of collectivism and hierarchy when soliciting action from my Native American fellows. My point? Effective leadership for mission in today's multicultural marketplace requires new and informed ways of thinking about the various people groups within our division. We need to change our thinking about local mission. George Bernard Shaw was correct when he said "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything!" Change is the price of progress.

Bible and Culture
We could and should explore the relationship of the Bible to our group's culture before we presume to critique another group's culture. The kingdom of God promotes very specific values such as loyalty to God over every human ordinance (Acts 5:29), denial of self (Matt. 16:24, 25), self-abnegation (Gal. 2:20), sacrificial service to others (Matt. 20:26-28), collective good over individual expression (1 Cor. 14:1-5), mutual cooperation over competition (1 Cor. 3:1-9), preference for others over self-elevation (Phil. 2:3), esteem for the socially marginalized (Matt. 25:40, 45) and a host of others. Thus those who in light of the Bible cannot articulate a biblical critique of their culture of origin's cherished and transmitted values are not qualified to objectively evaluate another culture.

Almost without exception, culturally incompetent persons assume that their culture of origin is superior to the culture under their microscope. Once the subject of culture is raised, many well-meaning believers immediately move to condemn what they view as culturally unacceptable in someone else's cultural group.

The story is told of a missionary who worked among a group of Native Americans in New Mexico at the turn of the century. It was the missionary's task to evangelize the Native American group. Over time he had built a warm rapport with the Native American group, particularly Chief Brave Eagle and his tribal council leaders.

In the course of time one of the tribal elders, Running Bear, died. His tribal clan arranged for his funeral. One of Running Bear's tribal customs was for each family to leave a plate of food at the gravesite in memory of the departed elder. Upon arriving at the gravesite, the missionary was surprised to see a grave decorated with platters of food. In the missionary's mind the Native Americans were squandering this perfectly edible food.

Toward sunset, after the family and tribal members had departed the graveside, with the food still sitting atop the grave, the missionary was left alone with Chief Brave Eagle. The missionary leaned over and asked, "Chief, when do you think Running Bear will have time to eat all this food?"

The Chief paused, looked heavenward, and after a thoughtful silence replied, "Just about the same time that your dead will have time to smell all those flowers you leave for them."

Christianity's Mandate
The apostle Paul, the Christian movement's most prolific and effective cross-culturalist, testified that when it comes to mission, culture matters (read 1 Cor. 9:18-21). A comprehensive program of training for ecclesiastical, health-care, and educational leadership needs to be organized and launched. Why? Because we train to what we value. We value soul winning; thus we put time, money, and personnel resources in this area. We value stewardship; thus we pay persons to promote stewardship. In short, what we value we pay for; what we pay for we value.

It is not enough to say that we value diversity if we invest virtually no personnel or monetary resources in maximizing its potential for aiding in mission accomplishment and mutual ministry. Listen to Ellen G. White: "There is no person, no nation, that is perfect in every habit and thought. One must learn of another. Therefore God wants the different nationalities to mingle together, to be one in judgment, one in purpose. Then the union that there is in Christ will be exemplified" (Historical Sketches, p. 137). Her statement enjoins cross-cultural learning upon the body of Christ. This means that every cultural group can learn from every other group. It also means that every other cultural group can teach every other. Where one group is weak, I assure you another is strong.

A second reason to organize and launch training is that every leader's skill sets expand with the acquisition of new insights, understandings, and perspectives. The twenty-first century demands a generation of leaders who are cross-culturally competent! Our mission is to go to "every nation, language, tongue, and people." But what should we do when every nation, language, tongue, and people come to us?

In cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and in all points in between, urbanization is bringing together diverse people groups in a way previously unprecedented. Our greatest need in these cities is for leaders of spiritual maturity and personal security who see in every diverse person a candidate for the kingdom.

A third and final reason to launch division-wide training is that the mission demands it. Revelation 5:9 and 7:9 remind us that heaven is going to be a multicultural place. Heaven's reach-back effect is to transform our present (Heb. 6:16).

I once did a series of diversity presentations in a place where, in a sea of Anglo persons, I was the only Black person in the building. The audience's level of interaction impressed me that they were quite receptive to the presentations on diversity that I was conducting. The group had very good and very honest questions that we discussed in light of our scriptural mission. Now, I do not know why I did the next thing, but I did. I smile now as I think that either the Holy Spirit moved me or I succumbed to low impulse control. At the end of the meeting right after the benediction, I took the mike and asked, "How many of you have never hugged a Black person? Please raise your hands."

At first a few brave souls raised their hands. I then said, "Good, come on down to the front so I can help get you ready for heaven." A chorus of laughter arose and then wonder of wonders! People, old and young, people that I had met for the first time, people living in rural areas, lined up to hug and bid me farewell. Trite, you might think. But does not the plowing of a new furrow begin with the first break of the soil? Does not the falling of the tree begin with the first cut? Does not the collapse of the sturdiest wall begin with its first crevice? Notice Ellen G. White's statement: "The walls of sectarianism and caste and race will fall down when the true missionary spirit enters the hearts of men. Prejudice is melted away by the love of God" (The Southern Work, p. 55).

I attend workshops and corporate training where, despite millions of dollars in expenditures, diversity gurus struggle with these concepts of mission and inclusion. Here is our advantage: "Christ tears away the wall of partition, the self-love, the dividing prejudice of nationality, and teaches a love for all the human family. He lifts men from the narrow circle that their selfishness prescribes; He abolishes all territorial lines and artificial distinctions of society. He makes no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies. He teaches us to look upon every needy soul as our neighbor and the world as our field" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 42).

Our greatest resource is the love of God bathed in a thorough knowledge of how culture impacts group and personal behavior. Let's take advantage of the resources God has granted to us. Let's do it now.

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Leslie N. Pollard is vice president for diversity at Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.