Towards multicultural Christian community : developing, implementing, and evaluating an intercultural training model with campus ministry staff leaders in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada

Abstract

This project arose from the desire of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, a Christian ministry organization with campus and camping ministries, to develop greater intercultural competence in their campus staff in order to fulfill their organizational purpose, "the transformation of youth, students, and graduates in all their ethnic diversity to become life-long followers of Jesus Christ," launching them as extraordinary Kingdom leaders who minister and serve in their contexts and communities. The project developed, implemented and evaluated an intercultural training model and process to help campus staff develop a biblical worldview of cultural diversity, identify their own developmental orientation toward cultural difference, and choose developmentally-sequenced next steps to foster growth in intercultural sensitivity. The project addressed the following research questions: (1) what is the state of intercultural competence among Inter-Varsity’s campus staff at the start of the project? (2) what elements of training are appropriate for this particular group and purpose? (3) what changes in intercultural interest, awareness and sensitivity/competence are evidenced after campus staff participated in the intercultural training? (4) is there evidence that the intercultural training model and its use of IDI assessment and communal Bible study was effective? The training included assessment with the Intercultural Development Inventory ® (illI ®), developed by Mitchell R. Hammer, the study of Biblical texts with intercultural themes, explanation of intercultural developmental concepts, debriefing of the group profile reports, intercultural awareness exercises, and individual sessions including report feedback and steps for growth. Data was collected at a number of points, including pre-training assessment and post-training survey. Findings included the effectiveness of components of the training model particularly the personal debriefing, the IDI® as an assessment tool, the DMIS as the conceptual framework, and the interculturally-themed Bible study.