Sending Path · Business as Mission · Lesson 5: Keeping Integrity in Someone Else’s Culture
This lesson in one sentence: A guest in culture, a master of integrity: seek the peace of the city, learn its language and honor its people; in God’s law, give no one an occasion against you.
Timing (about 60 minutes)
- Opening5 min
- Read Together10 min
- Practice Together15 min
- Discussion20 min
- This Week5 min
- Pray for One Another5 min
Opening
What is the most unfamiliar place you have been? What was hardest to adjust to?
Read Together
4The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished. 7Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”
Jer 29:4–7 · WEB
3Then this Daniel was distinguished above the presidents and the local governors, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. 4Then the presidents and the local governors sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion or fault, because he was faithful. There wasn’t any error or fault found in him. 5Then these men said, “We won’t find any occasion against this Daniel, unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”
Dan 6:3–5 · WEB
19For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; 21to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. 22To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. 23Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.
1 Cor 9:19–23 · WEB
but they could find no occasion or fault, because he was faithful.
Dan 6:4 · WEB
Practice Together
Read out the three cases from the lesson (the pastries, the ‘handling fee’, the bigger invoice), and work through them one by one with the three questions: Open or in secret? To get something I should not get, or to thank someone for help already received? Would I dare to write it in the books and tell my co-workers?
Discussion
- “Seek the peace of the city” (Jer 29:7)—have you ever prayed for the peace of the city where you live now?
- Daniel’s rivals “could find no occasion or fault.” (Dan 6:4) If someone went through your accounts, what would they find?
- Which things are ‘differences of culture’, and which are ‘differences of right and wrong’? How do you tell?
This Week
This week, write down three bottom lines of your own: three things at work you will not do, whatever others do. When you have written them, tell a companion.
Each person writes down their three bottom lines at work and chooses one to share with the group.
Closing
Read Jer 29:7 together and pray for the city where you live.
Tips for the leader
- Do not discuss the ‘culture of bribery’ of any country or region; it easily becomes a stereotype of a whole people. Talk only about principles for discerning and about your own bottom lines.
- If someone shares that they have given or received favors, do not judge or probe; as the lesson says, invite them to ask their own church about the specific situation.
- If someone in the group has come from another place, ask them to talk about the ‘cultural differences’ they see—they understand better than we do.
General principles for leaders
- The leader is not a teacher but someone who walks alongside everyone.
- Give everyone a chance to speak; with someone who talks a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s also hear from friends who haven’t spoken yet.’
- Don’t rush to give answers. If someone is silent, wait a few more seconds.
- For a question you can’t answer, you can say, ‘I don’t know either; let’s look it up together,’ and note it down for next time.
- What is said in the group stays in the group.
- At the opening, the leader can give their own answer first, showing that it can be simple and honest.