Culture and the Tall Poppy

Culture and the Tall Poppy.

Last year I attended a leadership summit with a senior pastor and friend. The main speaker of the summit was The Leader of a large South African denomination. During the course of one of the speakers presentations, my friend leaned over and asked me if it was normal for the man speaking to be so aggressive in his mannerisms and in the way he spoke. I smiled to myself and told him it wasn't  a problem and that he was just being conversational.

 What we had here was not a problem with content or teaching but of culture. For many English people the manner in which the person spoke appeared to be aggressive and abrupt, and they found it offensive. For people like myself who have been brought up in Southern Africa I found it clear concise and to the point, it was for me a normal way of speaking.

When I first went to live and work in New Zealand I heard a term that I had never heard before. "The Tall poppy syndrome" To have a tall poppy syndrome means to have skills and abilities and to have had achievements that are better and more worthwhile than anything a New Zealander can produce. The figurative result of which is to have your 'poppy head chopped off to bring you down to their level. It is a cultural thing.

I fell afoul of this 'cultural thing' not long after accepting a job to turn around the misfortunes of an underperforming Bible school. When I tried to make changes and to get staff to think and do things differently I found I was being rebuffed. The issue was that though the systems they had were not wrong they were out of date and old fashioned and no longer fit for purpose. This was the tall poppy syndrome at work. I had to think of other ways of getting round the situation. This I did by implementing my new system and then convincing the board of governors that it was a good idea and in keeping with their own ideals. They in turn then authorised it.

Over the years I have lived and worked in numerous countries. I have come into contact with a large and diverse cultural base, from African culture (both white African and black African), Pacific Island cultures such as Tongan, Samoan, Fijian to name but a few. New Zealanders both settlers and Maori, Australians, Americans and of course the English. The examples I have mentioned above are just two of many such instances that I have experienced in regards to culture. Culture plays a large part in who we are, how we think ,the way we speak, the way we were brought up, the way we feel about certain subjects and the way we deal with one another. All these things and much more go into the melting pot that we call 'Our Culture'.

These things are of vital importance more and more in the Christian Church and for the Christian Leader as churches are becoming more and more multi cultural in their makeup and congregation.   The wrong understanding of a person's culture or back ground  could lead to disastrous situations. We must be able to interpret abruptness and aggressive speaking for conversation and not to chop someone's head off- when it appears above the parapet- just for having a different idea or concept. This brings me to other questions; In the light of my description of the melting pot of what makes up 'our culture' does the same apply to the culture of the Kingdom of God? Or does the Kingdom culture supersede and trump all other cultures? Are Christians expected to act, speak and interact with each other in the same way just because we are Christians? I will, I think, muse and ponder on these things for a bit longer. Needless to say I think human nature often trumps most things and that the problem of culture is largely ignored. "The love of Jesus will see us through" is everybody's answer to everything. I also think that in western countries where third generation migrants are coming to Christ and entering the church they are bringing with them a cultural bias that they have inherited from their parents and grandparents that could become problems in our churches and bring about a misunderstanding of a way we want to do church. Tall poppies and Southern Africans can be a great asset to any church.