Trevecca has changed dramatically since I was a student in the 1980s. At that point, most people looked like me with the exception of a couple of international students. Sadly, I didn’t get to know any of them well.
The development of intercultural competency in the lives of Jesus’ disciples can be traced back to the books of Luke and Acts. Luke’s gospel shows Jesus constantly crossing barriers and leading his disciples out of their comfort zones. Jesus always drew the circle wide enough to include those whom others excluded.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples must have been aware that following Jesus would never mean staying comfortable with the familiar. Still, it took them by surprise when they had to make cultural adjustments or learn cultural humility.
In Acts 10, Peter had to receive a rooftop vision three times before he was ready for the knock on the door that would take him into a different world where Gentiles were already hearing directly from God. If Peter had learned one thing growing up, it had been not to consume forbidden foods or eat in the home of a Gentile. He had no imagination that he might have to change these cultural habits to follow Jesus.
Yet the vision he received in Acts 10:15 was clear: “And the voice clearly said, ‘Do not call unclean what I have called clean.’”
For the early disciples, learning intercultural competence was a huge part of waking up to their new calling.
Years after I graduated from Trevecca, I was working at First Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles when I experienced my own rooftop vision. In the spring of 1992, the city went up in flames after a not-guilty verdict was issued in the Rodney King case. We had all seen the video of violence and injustice based on race. We all knew it was wrong, but someone was calling it acceptable.
I watched as angry crowds, hurt by a blatant disregard for their humanity, began to march through the city. Ash floated in the air. The smell of smoke wouldn’t leave our clothes for days.
Our pastoral staff set out to walk the blocks of our neighborhood. There was much to see and even more to hear. I needed to learn to listen to the experience of those different from me. I needed to sit beside them in the rubble of their storefronts and hear their stories. I needed to work beside them for the healing of our city.
Discipleship in those days became about more than me and Jesus; discipleship also meant developing intercultural humility, becoming a listener and becoming aware of my limited understanding of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God includes those of every culture group. Discipleship means practicing holy ways of relating to and honoring those who sit with us at the Savior’s table.
And so, in that weekend following the riots, our local church practiced what the Kingdom of God looks like as we gathered four different language-based congregations to worship together on Sunday. There, in the middle of a city with ash, fear and hatred still in the air, we proclaimed that we lived by a different story.
In recent years, Trevecca has become a place where we cannot help but interact with people from different cultures. Individuals from different religious traditions sit together in classes about the Christian faith. Students and faculty make regular runs to a Somalian coffee shop or a Guatemalan food truck.
Dozens of international students bring vast richness to the campus with their many cultures and traditions. Many commuter students are recent immigrants and refugees. Clubs on campus celebrate groups such as African American students, Spanish-speaking business majors and Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians.
These changes open the door for all our students to become interculturally competent. This isn't a political agenda, but a form of Christian discipleship. At a time when society is lessening its commitment to embracing the richness of cultural differences, Trevecca is heading the other direction. As the diversity of our student population continues to increase, Trevecca has an opportunity to proclaim by our actions that we live with a redeemed imagination.
And so this year, you will find students, faculty and staff who are not only investing in the development of their own intercultural competency but also coming to see this as a vital part of Christian formation. Book groups across campus are becoming places to build relationships and to dialogue about cultural issues. Students, faculty and staff are beginning to take the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) so that they can identify needed areas of personal growth.
We’ve also introduced a new program called the Kindom Fellows, a cohort of 12 students chosen for a yearlong fellowship on intercultural competency. Composed of students from nine cultures, the fellows are working to embody what the Kingdom of God looks like as they share life and learn from each other.
Developing intercultural competence is not easy. If we slide in any direction, it will never be toward cultural humility. Yet, we embrace this work because it reflects a true and beautiful picture of Christian community. We are a people who imagine and embody a different Kingdom. We really do belong together.