Marriage & Culture

“Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” is a famous book title (John Gray). However, in intercultural marriages, Mars and Venus are in different galaxies! You can’t use the (cultural) assumptions about husbands or wives that you grew up with. They simply don’t work.

Workshop

Thriving Intercultural Marriages

6-Week online Workshop
Build a family culture where both partners belong and thrive. Better understand the culture and worldview of your spouse, gain keys to communicate effectively and build a fruitful relationship. Develop tools to build a healthy family culture that encompasses both cultures, and where all members feel implicitly understood. Leave empowered to thrive in your marriage!

This event is next held on these dates:

17 Oct – 21 Nov

Six sessions: Saturdays 3:00-5:15PM, UTC

Places still available.

We have places for a few more couples. If you are interested in attending this event on these dates, please register before 29 August. Cost is $250/couple

Other dates available.

Register now

what previous participants say

We learned so much about each other in such a short amount of time, and the activities helped put it into practice, too.”

“I have already been stopping myself from reacting when my husband says something that I don’t agree with and first think, ‘Knowing he’s from a Power/Fear culture, what might be the reason he thinks this way?’”

“You gave us a common vocabulary to understand and express our differences in a way we both feel heard.”

“This workshop has been so eye opening not just for my marriage, but also for me personally and in my ministry. I’ve been serving for a long time, but this is the first time to get this kind of training and insight into all that Christ has done for me and how to share it in a way that connects.”
(married 12+ years with five children)

“These seminars helped me understand the ‘why’ behind so many differences we have in our marriage; we’ve long understood the ‘what’ of our disagreements, but now we understand the why!”
(anonymous)

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Program

Heartset & Mindset for Effective Intercultural Interaction

Taking an honest look at our own cultural perceptions and patterns. Coming up with some “Best Practices” for interacting in intercultural situations.

Understanding Worldviews – How do I see the world? How do you see it differently?

Cultural worldview drivers (Honor/Shame, Innocence/Guilt, Power/Fear) are at the heart of culture. They are at the core of your belief system and are powerful motivators and demotivators for our thinking, speaking and actions.

As you begin to understand your own and your spouse’s worldview mix, you’ll learn to discern and articulate what support you need from your spouse to function well in a situation where your own worldview is no longer dominant or implicitly understood.

Worldviews in the Bible – Understanding each other’s Christianity

We’ll explore the three primary worldviews from a Christian perspective. Where do they come from? What do they tell us about Salvation? How do they affect the experience of our Christian faith?

Through discussions you’ll learn to understand the cultural dimension and expression of your own faith and your spouse’s faith and articulate what support you need from the other to do well spiritually.

Intercultural Communication & Trust

Communication in a mono-cultural marriage is an art due to gender and personality differences. Intercultural marriages add a layer of complexity. We will delve deeper into the concept and principles of Intercultural Communication and each couple will make their own communication plan.

Trust looks different across cultures. How do I behave to gain the trust of a spouse who has a different implicit understanding of what trust is?

Intercultural Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution & Reconciliation has a lot in common with communication preferences and we use that to our advantage to make a plan for effectively resolving conflicts in our marriage.

Building a Thriving Family Culture

Building a Thriving Family Culture starts with understanding how various cultures look at the concept of being a family. We use the lens of Three Colors of Worldview to bring those differences to the light. As we understand the implicit expectations of each other, we can start being intentional about building a family culture.

We’ll make an action based on the insights and tools learned. We will also look at the issue of different views on marriage, leadership etc. by the societies and families each spouse grew up in. How do you reconcile those as an intercultural couple and how do you weave in a Biblical view of marriage?

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Format

Most of the learning happens at home where you and your spouse/fiancé work through the workbook, eLearning and activities.

In the weekly Zoom calls we discuss, further unpack and apply what we learned.

We use a chat group on Signal to stay in touch as a group during the week and to swap stories, video clips, etc.

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Before you join...

The workshop is meant for married or engaged intercultural couples who want to gain a better understanding of the intercultural dynamics at play in their relationship.

The material is presented from an evangelical Christian perspective and uses a Judeo-Christian view of marriage.

By signing up for the workshop you agree to respect this.

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Cost

The cost for this 6-week workshop is USD 250/couple. This includes 6 live Zoom sessions, a Personal Worldview Discovery assessment & report for both, eLearning and workbook

Register now