Introducing Story-Strategic Methods: Twelve Steps Toward Effective Engagement

The purpose of Introducing Story-Strategic Methods is to awaken us in the cross-cultural context. Our natural tendency is to be asleep to our own cultural values and core worldview assumptions. This tendency applies as well to our expectations in the cross-cultural context. For example in what ways would a justice pattern of culture orient our speech and behavior? To what degree is a justice pattern of culture different from an honor pattern of culture? The book asserts that culture matters in effective communication. Going further to what degree does a story told from the Bible nullify the power of culture? Often we assume that the biblical story trumps culture. It does not. The book affirms rigorously that culture is much more powerful than we first suppose. If in fact culture trumps the biblical story. Therefore understanding and skills are required for effective engagement across cultures. Strategic storytelling is a twelve-step methodology that addresses the problems of miscommunication and syncretism that plague the cross-cultural context. It offers a step-by-step solution that promises success. Insights are firmly rooted in Scripture and equally grounded in empirical research from the social sciences. The stories told throughout the book are true. The answers are compelling. Robert Strauss has made a timely contribution to tell the Gospel story in a way that is world-transforming. Coming from India a land of stories I cannot but deeply admire Strausss extraordinary sensitivity to the local stories in different cultures that may parallel if not rival the Gospel stories and his erudite wisdom in inviting [others] particularly the cross-cultural Gospel storytellers to awake to the way stories function in a local culture so that the Gospel itself may be communicated intelligently and intelligibly. --Babu Immanuel Venkataraman Associate Professor Theological Centre for Asia College Singapore Whether you are one of the four hundred thousand foreign missionaries five and a half million full-time Christian workers or a devoted local church member this book is a great resource for building cross-cultural narrative communication skills and is an invitation for readers to become great biblical storytellers across cultures. Roberts book has become my go-to text for teaching narrative communication in a faith-based institution of higher education. --Mary Kay Park PhD Managing Director Far East Broadcasting Company-Korea Los Angeles; Adjunct Faculty Middlebury Institute of International Studies Biola University and Gateway Seminary Robert Strauss is President and CEO of Worldview Resource Group Owner of Global Perspectives Consulting and Lead Faculty in the College of Business and Economics at Regis University in Denver Colorado. He is a member of the International Academy for Intercultural Research. He is co-editor of Manual de Capacitacion Transcultural (2009). He travels extensively provides consultation to organizations in public private and nonprofit sectors and resides in Colorado.