The Gospel Communication Project allows students to apply the principles of Cultural Intelligence to a specific cross-cultural evangelistic encounter. As a cumulative project throughout the course (through 2 papers and a video presentation), students will research cultural elements which will affect a person’s understanding of the gospel message, create a plan for communicating effectively with a person from a specific culture, and present the story of God through video as they would if they were able to share the gospel with that person.
For this paper, you should choose someone who is from a significantly different culture than your own (look for differences in things like country/region of origin, ethnicity, language, religion, time orientation, etc.).*** This person should be an unbeliever (or you will need to pretend that they are an unbeliever for the sake of this paper), and they should be from an ethnolinguistic macro-culture (think of a culture associated with a foreign country who speaks a different language). You will write a formal academic paper about the cultural elements of this person. This paper will prepare you to share God’s story with them in an effective way considering their culture and worldview.
If you do not know an unbeliever from a different ethno-linguistic macro-culture than your own, you may use a fictitious character and make up the cultural background information.
While there is no specific word count or page count for this project, significant effort should be made to thoroughly explore each of the topics below through application of the course materials as well as research of sources outside of the course. Your paper should be neatly formatted and organized, and it should include a cover page, page numbers, footnote citations, proper headings and subheadings, and a bibliography. It should be double spaced and in Times New Roman, 12- pt. Font. You should cite all of your sources through in-text citations or footnotes and include a bibliography or works cited page of all of your sources at the end of your paper. You may use any academic writing style you choose (APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago, etc.).
You should review the assignment rubric to understand how this project will be assessed and how to maximize your score on this project. This first paper should have 4 sections: Introduction, Cultural Systems, Cultural Value Orientations, and Elements of Communication.
Introduction
In this section, you should introduce the person you have chosen to receive the Gospel message. Answer the following questions in a paragraph or two. (Questions in parenthesis are suggestions to help guide you as you describe the person.)
• Give details about your friend’s personal story. (What is their age? Ethnicity? Where are they from? What religion do they follow? What language do they speak? Where do they live now? What do they do for school/work, etc.?).
• Provide information on your relationship with the person. (How do you know them? What are your interactions with them? Are they a coworker or neighbor? Do you see them on a regular basis or just periodically?)
• Discuss how their current circumstances affect their cultural practices. (If their family is from a foreign country, but they have grown up most of their life in America, how does that affect their worldview? Do they adhere to all the traditional cultural practices on their parents?)
• Discuss their interest in issues of faith? (Is this person open to hearing the story of God?)
Sample Solution