I thought I was good at sharing, but I learned something on Sunday afternoon.

We had arrived for the picnic and settled down with our chairs and spread out the food we had brought around us. I offered round a tub of Branston pickle pork pies, many of which were glady taken and then the tub was passed back. Those pork pies are a great recipe and I was pleased people enjoyed them.

A while later some of the Africans arrived and put food in the middle – including a KFC bucket and everyone just dived in.

And there I learned in practice, what had been taught in a powerpoint presentation at an intercultural church leadership course during the week. The Western viewpoint on ownership is what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours, but we can share. The Global majority view is what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.

My sharing retained ownership and it was obvious who was sharing. The tub went round and came back to me. The Africans just piled everything in the middle and just shared. No-one really knew who had brought a lot and who had brought a little. And there I learnt something more about being community, family and not so individualistic.

The Gateway Church is growing to be more intercultural – where we learn from each other’s cultures and backgrounds and get a better and more rounded understanding of God’s new culture – the one new man in Christ. The apostle Paul begins to express the concept in Eph 2:15 where Christ forms a new humanity from Jews and Gentiles. The concept of the “One New Man” does not imply that individual cultures or identities are erased. Instead, it emphasizes a spiritual unity that transcends those differences. The “One New Man” principle has significant implications for intercultural relationships, encouraging believers to learn from one another and recognise when aspects of someone else’s culture is more like Christ than one’s own,

At the picnic, a westerner like me, had something fantastic to learn from the Global South. A more communal attitude to food and sharing is a much better way than the typically western way. One new man in Christ, God’s new culture, simply becomes a little more real by putting the picnic food in the middle and everyone diving in!