Every Thursday in June, we’re sharing reflections from some of the Grace DC members who participated in our March panel on cultural intelligence. This week, Kenny and Tianna Gibbs share why cultural intelligence is important to them as members of a Grace DC congregation:
If we are going to be effective in living up to our callings as a church—being “in and for the city,” “in/of/for our neighborhoods,” and having “unity in diversity”—we have to aim to be a culturally intelligent congregation. We cannot love people well if we are not aware of, and sensitive to, where people are coming from. This is the case whether they are from similar or different cultures.
As Christians, we have “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism” (Eph 4.5), yet too often our lines of race, ethnicity, and class divide us. As the church, we are called to redeem, not reinforce, the divisions of our city. Cultural intelligence, is key to God’s redemptive work.