Abstract
Ministering Cross-Culturally is a concise introduction to the basic values questionnaire, developed by Marvin Mayers as a self-assessment tool for increasing intercultural understanding. Lingenfelter used the model and questionnaire in his work as an anthropology consultant and university professor. The basic values questionnaire in this third edition was edited by Stephen O’Brien to be more assessable for short-term team orientation. The text illustrates the model’s applicability in both rural and urban contexts, as well as the model’s utility in clarifying value diversity between individuals raised in the same context. The third edition uses radical discipleship to describe the process of reaching intercultural ministry competency.
The book’s structure is straightforward beginning with a chapter on Jesus, God’s model for interpersonal and intercultural ministry. A chapter on the basic values model is next, followed by chapters on each of six value continuums (time and event orientation, dichotomistic and holistic thinking, crisis and non-crisis orientation, task and person orientation, status and achievement focus, vulnerability as weakness or vulnerability as strength). A summary chapter applies key insights. A copy of the basic values questionnaire is provided in an appendix.
This text makes the basic values model easily accessible for short-term team orientation and is useful as a supplemental reading in courses on intercultural competency. The strengths of the book are that it makes a key assessment tool immediately accessible and engages readers in self-assessment that is built on years of applied scholarship and ministry. Two weaknesses occur early in the text that could distract readers. First, the critique of the term “incarnational ministry” in the preface could detour readers from applied assessment to abstract debate. Second, the combination of percentage metaphors used in the first chapter creates distracting cognitive tension. These weaknesses are minor and the remainder of the text flows well. The book is an excellent values assessment tool with the potential of significantly increasing the reader’s intercultural competency.