Book Review: Cross-Cultural Connections

In his book Cross-Cultural Connections, Duane Elmer seeks to lay a foundation of understanding and help for those preparing to enter another culture. He specifically intends to address Christians headed into cross-cultural ministry opportunities, but his text would be of value to many other situations – be it business, travel, or otherwise. Reading through a text like this should be a mandatory starting point for anyone seeking to minister cross-culturally...

Elmer's book goes beyond simply opening peoples' eyes to the existence of cross-cultural pitfalls. It's basic strength is in the way it is formated. By working his readers systematically through a general perspective, expectations, coping skills/attitudes and specific (and common) sources of frustration, Elmer's book is very practical. I can even see someone reading this book while on route to culture X benefiting from it (though certainly more thorough thinking and training would be ideal).

Especially useful are his chapters on “attitudes and skills”. There are a theoretically infinite number of possible cross-cultural pitfalls, so instead of trying (in vain) to enumerate and work through them all, Elmer offers a general-purpose skill set that can be used to help process whatever cultural difficulties or tensions might arise. It is not coincidental that his suggested “attitudes” are in reality simply extensions of how a Christ-follower should live and move and breathe in his/her daily life anyway. Openness, acceptance and trust (the three primary attitudes Elmer discusses) are all skills/attitudes that each of us (as Christians) should be striving to demonstrate whether in our own culture or another.
Very practical; very relevant; very helpful – Elmer's book will be of value to anyone in Christian ministry, but especially to those who seek to work cross-culturally. Don't let it's brevity fool you – this is one book that should be on the “must read” list of anyone who wants to better understand his/her neighbors in the world.

Hatushili