I’ve recommended resources created by John Yoder before on the blog, and now I’m thrilled to share that John has written a book! It’s called The Cross-Cultural Partnership Survival Guide: Proven Steps for Launching Healthy Partnerships Between Churches of Different Cultures.

I was honored to be a beta-reader of the manuscript and heartily recommend the book to you. In a field where many books are focused on policy more than practice and theory more than real-life application, The Cross-Cultural Partnership Survival Guide is in the same vein as Loving the Stranger, seeking to be a resource for you when you are boots-on-the-ground, up-to-your-elbows in cross-cultural interactions and needing encouragement and guidance from someone who gets it!

In this book, Yoder is engaging the reality that there are thousands of immigrant congregations across the US with practical steps not just to raise awareness but to form life-giving partnerships that bless all involved. The book follows Susan (a composite of many ministry workers Yoder has known over the years), through the ups and downs of seeking to initiate a new paradigm of cross-cultural partnership in an existing American congregation who is not familiar with the idea.

Susan encounters twin realities that convince her that we (American Christians and immigrant Christians) need each other. First there is “the new reality that has God has brought millions of devout Christians from around the world to America, that thousands of them are pastors, and that they are making disciples and planting churches faster than we are.” Second, there is the unfortunate fact that within many first-generation immigrant congregations, “they are losing the hearts of their children because they are not discipling them in English, or empowering them for leadership as young adults.” Our children can be our connecting point, and “cross-cultural partnerships address the pain both sides are experiencing.”

Yoder intends this book to be a grass-roots level manual that doesn’t require people to have an intercultural studies degree to understand it. He offers practical, proven ideas for American and immigrant congregations to move beyond being “religious roommates.” to “also sharing some level of joint ministry” with a relational focus. Run, don’t walk, to buy this book – I believe what Yoder is exploring here is the future of church growth and revitalization in the US.

Buy the book here!