Course Description: This practical five-week course is an introduction to intercultural competence in the context of local churches and religious organizations. Participants will explore what it means to be a culturally competent and inclusive leader in a diverse and changing world.
 
The course will allow participants to explore current concepts, frameworks and models of intercultural competence, articulate how intercultural competence is essential for effective leadership in an increasingly cross-cultural world and assess their current intercultural competence and develop an action plan to continue to enhance it.
 
The IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory) will be used as a cross-cultural tool for assessing and developing intercultural competence at the individual, group and organizational level. Each participant will complete an IDI assessment the first week of the course. The course leader will provide each participant an individual interpretation of their IDI. The program fee covers the cost of the assessment and individual session with the instructor.
 
Location: Online

With: Rev. Dr. Youngsook Kang, PCC. Kang is a leadership coach and a trainer. She has been coaching pastors, laity, mid-judicatory leaders and bishops across different denominations over the last decade. Her particular interest is intercultural coaching, and she is an intercultural competency trainer as well as a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Kang previously served the United Methodist Church at District and Conference level positions, and as Deputy General Secretary for Mission Context & Relationship at the General Board of Global Ministries. Youngsook is married to JinHo and together they have two grown children. She loves operas and musicals.
 
Schedule:
  1. Week One:  Introduction to Intercultural Competence
  2. Week Two:  Culture and Identity: Race and Gender.
  3. Week Three: Intercultural Competence Continuum/Orientations (IDI-Intercultural Competence Inventory)
  4. Week Four: Inclusive Leadership 
  5. Week Five: Toward Culturally Inclusive Leadership in a Diverse Changing World
This is an asynchronous course; participants will not be required to log on at specific times. 
 
Participants should purchase The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community, by Eric H.F. Law, Chalice press, 1993. All other readings will be posted on the course site.

Program Fee:  $187 early registration before Dec. 31, 2021; $207 after that date.