• Overview of six areas of significant cultural differences

• Suggestions for recognizing and overcoming cultural misunderstandings

• Challenge to build cross-cultural relationships for sharing faith

A Beginners Guide to Crossing Cultures
Making Friends in a Multicultural World
By Patty Lane
InterVarsity Press
2002
206 pages

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Misunderstandings are probably the biggest barrier to effective crosscultural relationships. Its easy to make false assumptions about another cultural group when you interpret their behavior in light of your own cultural experience. In this practical guide, cross-cultural specialist Patty Lane explains some of the lenses through which different cultures view the world.

Lane asserts that different cultures have fundamentally different ways of valuing relationships, community, time, authority and many other aspects of life. What may seem completely proper to a results-oriented, individualistic U.S. American may be offensive or confusing to other people groups. In building cross-cultural relationships its vital to avoid ethnocentricity, the belief that your own culture is the global standard. Lane encourages Christians to build the kinds of relationships that provide opportunities for sharing both friendship and faith.

This book is an invaluable tool for people preparing for cross-cultural missions, whether Gods calling takes them across the street or across the globe.