What is third culture? In the book The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church, Dave Gibbons puts it this way, “First culture is the dominant homogenous culture you live in. … Second culture is the culture of those who aren’t quite comfortable with the first culture and often react to the first culture’s ways, maybe even rejecting their parents’ home culture. Third culture is being able to live in both first and second culture, and even adopt an entirely different culture.”
Dave’s book, which recently received two awards from Christianity Today, has been out for just over a year, so I asked him, “What have you learned about third-culture leadership since your book came out last February?” Here was his response:
1) Third culture leadership is growing throughout the world.
2) There are systems, structures and nomenclature that can keep people from being liquid, third culture leaders.
3) Third culture in two words is: painful adaptation
4) Third culture is biblically rooted in the way Jesus relates to the world (John 1), Paul relates to humanity (I’m all things to all men) and our calling to be servants, extraordinary lovers of people.
If you haven’t already, download a free chapter of The Monkey and the Fish to read more, then order your copy. You can learn more about Dave at his blog (http://davegibbons.tv/) or by following @davegibbons on Twitter.
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Stephanie Plagens is the Publications Manager for Leadership Network.
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