To shake or not shake...

Today we celebrated our International Sunday at church - which included joining together for lunch afterwards with food from many of the twenty or so countries that were represented - should have got some pictures! 

This past week in our Community Bible Experience we have been reading Hebrews, James and Mark - and today we looked at a few verses from James 1 that have something to say to us on our International Sunday.

When you live and work and go to church with a range of people from all over the world it can be very easy to misunderstand each other. Even the simplest of hand gestures can mean very different things depending on where you come from. Raising a hand to acknowledge a considerate driver who stops to allow you to cross the road says 'thank you' in this culture. But in other countries the same gesture can be very offensive. 

Even the way we greet each other can be a cause for confusion and offence if we allow it. Some people are quite happy with a nod of acknowledgement, others prefer a firm hand shake, others don't feel happy with anything less than a hug. Today we wore stickers with either head, hand or hug - indicating our preference (a nod of the head, a hand shake, or a hug) - and then we greeted one another based on the other person's preference. It was almost impossible to get people to sit down again.

James tells us to be slow to speak and quick to listen and slow to become angry. Good advice - especially in a multicultural context. It is always good not to jump to conclusions, and to give people the benefit of the doubt - think the best of them, rather than the worst.