Developing Culturally Intelligent Christian Leaders

We are here to help equip you and your organization (church, ministry or school) to develop your cultural intelligence so that you may better care for and serve and deepen relationships with those who are different from you.

We do this by using the Intercultural Development Inventory® to provide assessments of your current orientation in dealing with cultural differences and similarities. We can also provide mentoring, and coaching opportunities for those who want help and support in developing their cultural intelligence.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment he responded:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)

In order to love our neighbor, we need to know how our neighbor thinks, views the world, and interacts with others. Neighbor love requires us to celebrate the ways we are different and the same. It also requires us to serve others in ways that are culturally appropriate. We often call this incarnation ministry. This is in fact what Jesus did for us.

Cultural Intelligence helps us:

• develop an understanding of how other cultures work and

• develop the skills necessary to adapt to other cultures in ways that are appropriate.

The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) is a highly researched, well respected, and widely used online self-evaluation tool.

• It effectively helps individuals, groups, and organizations understand their intercultural capabilities.

• It helps people understand how they process cross-cultural interactions and allows them to gain a realistic and accurate picture of where they are on a “continuum of development” in their intercultural abilities.

Because one’s intercultural competence can change and grow with intentionality, training, and interaction, the IDI also provides an individualized Intercultural Development Plan.

Intercultural Development Continuum®

The Intercultural Development Continuum® describes a set of knowledge/attitude/skill sets or orientations toward cultural difference and commonality along a continuum from the more monocultural mindsets of Denial and Polarization through the transitional orientation of Minimization to the intercultural or global mindsets of Acceptance and Adaptation.

The capacity to deeply shift one’s cultural perspective and bridge behavior across cultural differences is most fully achieved with an Adaptation perspective. 

The Intercultural Development Inventory provides a framework to think about developing cultural intelligence. It also can help individuals and groups assess their current orientation when navigating similarities and differences across cultures. Additionally, the IDI can be used to foster growth in your own intercultural awareness.

• Team Development - The IDI can be used to help train staff, sessions, church planting launch leadership teams, etc. in the skills necessary to effectively lead their organizations.

• Leadership Development - The IDI can be used to train pastors, pastoral residents, key leaders, teachers, and other individuals in developing cultural intelligence.

• Church Renewal/Revitalization - The IDI can help churches in the midst of revitalization see blind spots in how they are engaging the culture around them.

• Church Planting - The IDI can help church planters and launch teams to start churches that are effectively reaching the diversity around them.

• Coaching - The IDI can form the basis of a coaching plan.