August 15, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Year: 2019

Books, Teaming, Book Reviews, Multicultural Teams

Are multicultural teams more innovative?

In theory, a multicultural team should have many more creative ideas than a team made up those of all one culture. But in reality, multicultural teams are often stuck in even deeper ruts of tradition than mono-cultural teams, because so much of their energy is devoted to keeping the peace and learning how to communicate. Rather than coming with a fresh new strategy, the team just continues to do what they have always done because the “way we have always done it” is the least risky and requires the least amount of explanation. In his book, Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity, David Livermore of the Cultural Intelligence Center helps us understand what team leaders and team members on diverse teams need to do to create a climate and a process for true innovation.  As Livermore says, multicultural teams are not automatically more innovative.    … Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Leadership, Mission Leadership, Book Reviews, Books

Book Review: Women in God’s Mission: Accepting the Invitation to Serve and Lead

Women in God’s Mission: Accepting the Invitation to Serve and Lead by Mary  T. Leiderleitner. Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2018. This book is a summary of Dr. Mary Leiderleitner’s research into how women are serving and leading in God’s mission around the world. Her research was framed by two questions: 1) “What are diverse women experiencing as they lead in God’s mission? and 2) “What do they believe they need in order to do their best work as leaders in God’s mission?”  These questions were answered by 95 women from 28 countries through interviews, written surveys, and focus groups. She includes a lengthy explanation in the appendix of her research methodology.… Read the whole post
Beth Eckstein1 min read
Multi-tasking is a cultural trait
Cross-Cultural Living, Mission Leadership, Multicultural Teams

Multi-tasking is a cultural trait

Over the past few weeks, I have been listening to a fascinating series of lectures by Dr. David Livermore of the Cultural Intelligence Center.  I purchased the lectures on Audible as part of one of “The Great Courses” that they offer. This course is 12 hours long and is entitled “Customs of the World: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are.” I would highly recommend the course in learning more about other cultures and as part of learning to work in other cultures and on multicultural teams. In one of the lectures, Dr. Livermore talked about how different cultures view time. Besides contrasting a value on punctuality with a value on relationships, he talked about monochronic and polychronic cultures.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Books, Disciple-making, DMM, Islam, Missionary Roles, Spiritual Formation, Book Reviews, Contextualization, Insider Movements

Effective Discipling in Muslim Communities – a review

In the last number of years, many books have been published about how to engage and do evangelism among Muslim peoples. But few books address the specifics of how to help new believers from Muslim contexts grow in their faith while remaining in their Muslim communities and families. Given that some claim that up to 90% of converts from Muslim backgrounds reconvert back to Islam, discipleship and support of these converts is clearly a critical need in mission work among Muslim peoples. A few months ago, in this blog, I posted a review of Evelyn and Richard Hibberts’ “Walking Together on the Jesus Road: Intercultural Discipling.” Now, I would like to highlight another book in this same vein, speaking even more specifically to the challenges of disciple-making among Muslim peoples – Effective Discipling in Muslim Communities: Scripture, History and Seasoned Practices by Don Little. This book is one of those… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Why did Jesus prohibit his disciples from going to the least reached?
Training, Contextualization, Evangelism

Why did Jesus prohibit his disciples from going to the least reached?

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. – Matthew 10:5–6 Why did Jesus not send his disciples to Gentiles and Samaritans? The Gentiles were the people who knew the least about the true God. From a missiological standpoint, they were the least reached. The Samaritans knew something of the Law but were not accepted as genuine worshippers of the God of Israel. They were also unreached and proved to be among the most responsive to Jesus’ message. Among them, Jesus saw one of his greatest harvests (John 4:35-42). The Jews, on the other hand, had already received many opportunities to hear about God’s grace over the centuries past through the prophets and the Law of Moses. Many of them were very resistant to any message that would… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther6 mins read
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