ACross Culture

Dr Daniel D. Lee, professor at Fuller Seminary joins Jessie for this episode of ACross Culture, where they talk about identity, being Asian American/British Chinese and doing theology as embodied beings. ---

Cultural identity or Christian identity? Can you have both? Which comes first? Explore some of these questions with Jessie and Yinxuan in this episode of ACross Culture. Yinxuan calls himself a Christian, Chinese and a scholar. He shares his testimony of coming to faith from an atheist family with one parent in the Communist Party, and talks about his research - giving us insight into the effects of recent Hong Kong migration to the UK on Chinese churches. Yinxuan reads from 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 at the end of the ep. ---

ACross Culture is back! Social media content creator, speaker & host Paula Melissa is Jessie's guest for this episode of ACross Culture. They talk about learning languages, podcasts, Christian music and passions. Paula hosts two podcasts - SheHH and Hermosas Chicas Negras. ---

Christopher Mazen is Jessie's guest for this episode of ACross Culture. Mazen shares about his journey and practice in worship music across three continents. This episode ends with a clip of Anta Atheemun, an Arabic song which translates as 'You are so awesome'. Lyrics and chords can be found here. He also has a podcast called Divine Immigrant The Podcast. ---

Dayalan Mahesan joins Jessie as her guest for the final episode of the series. Dayalan is an entrepreneur who mainly works in property and is also working with Evangelical Alliance's South Asian Forum. Listen to this episode where they talk about setting up businesses, ministry, monoethnic diaspora churches, multiethnic communities, identity and more. Dayalan also shares a word of encouragement based on Psalm 103:15-16 and recommends the book 'Redeeming Your Time' by Jordan Raynor. ---

Stephanie Biggs is an Ethnomusicologist who calls herself a world traveller! Listen to this episode of ACross Culture where Stephanie and Jessie talk about travelling, experiences in Tanzania and the construction of whiteness there, Stephanie's work & ministry, perceptions of worship norms and more (including song contests!). ---

davecreates is Jessie's guest for this episode of ACross Culture. Hear more about him and his music, faith, identity and more. His latest release was on December 31st with a new collective he formed with some friends called "Reflective". Check out the EP here: https://album.link/i/1601887414 ---

Revd. Mark Nam joins Jessie as the guest for this episode of ACross Culture. Listen to this as they discuss identity, church, the Teahouse, forms of resistance, racial injustice and more. ---

Ruwani Gunawardene is Jessie's guest for this episode, where they explore intercultural reconciliation. Listen to this to hear a little bit about Ruwani's background, interests, and what it might look like to combine culture and faith in her contexts. Apologies for the sound quality in this episode. ---

Rachael Newham, author of 'Learning to Breathe' and 'And Yet' joins Jessie on this week's episode podcast, where they talk about mental health, the charity she founded, lament, and grief. ---

Gloria Fanchiang is a second-generation Taiwanese American songwriter, independent recording artist and worship leader, passionate about decolonising worship and helping Asian American communities develop contextualised worship music and liturgy. She joins Jessie in this first episode of Series 5, where they talk about identity, worship, multi-ethnic worship, songwriting, decolonisation and more. A clip of Gloria's latest release, the acoustic version of 'God Who Sees Us', is played at the end of this episode. ---

Ellen joins Jessie in this week's episode where they talk about the stigma of mental health, therapy, mental health in the church, Chinese and East Asian communities, codeswitching, bicultural identity and more. ---

Cleo and Jessie talk about identity, missions, OM Logos Hope and reentry from the mission field. ---

Philippa joins Jessie on this week's podcast episode. We talk about her music, our experience at Christian Union, identity, intercultural worship, diversity and more. ---

Father Simon Cuff joins Jessie as her guest for this episode - he shares about community organising, racial consciousness, Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory. Fr Simon recommends the following books by Terry Eagleton - Reason, Faith, Revolution and Tragedy.

As promised, here is a talk that Jessie gave earlier in July 2021. Topic: Anti-racism Passage: Luke 10:29-37 --- I want to thank Dr Elizabeth Sung for her expertise... a lot of the things I said in this talk was learnt from her! ---

Rev Anna Poulson, vicar of St John's Southall, speaks to Jessie about intercultural church, whiteness, being a white privileged woman and more. This episode is really important, and what I call "getting into the nitty gritty"... so please listen and share. ----

Calvin and Jessie talk about students and student ministry. Listen to hear about his story, Cambridge, internationals and more. ----

Parvaneh Nicholson, an evangelist with a strong passion for the persecuted church, joins Jessie to share her story, some miracles that have happened in her life, and losses too. Listen to find out more about the challenges of being a Muslim-Background Believer (MBB), the persecution that some Christians face, receive some tips, and more. This is a wake up call, everyone!! ----

Jessie's bonus episode, designed to sit in between Series 3 and Series 4. Listen to this short episode to hear about the inception of ACross Culture, listen to some reviews and a clip of the new song 'God Who Sees Us' by Gloria Fanchiang. Click on the links below to listen to the full song, which features some of our friends in the US. I'd like to thank all of my guests for their willingness to be interviewed and share about themselves and/or interesting topics! See you in Series 4!

Musical artist Coco Mbassi joins Jessie for Series 3 Episode 7 of ACross Culture podcast. In this episode she talks about her background, music, identity, scriptwriting and more. - Photo by © Ewane Nja Kwa

Eden Dayuha, a certified coach, speaker and trainer, joins Jessie to talk about John Maxwell coaching, singleness and her Dear Singles community.

Jessie is joined by Ian Collinge in this episode where he talks about heart music, music psychology, worship in the church and more. Ending this episode is a clip from Arts Release's Resonance global project of Nara Ekele Mo, a popular Nigerian worship song. Hear the full song here. www.artsrelease.org ---

In this episode, Karen speaks about her experiences being a priest in the Church of England. I also talk about unconscious bias :) ---

Corina speaks to Jessie about intercultural communication, relationship counselling and some joys & challenges of being in an intercultural relationship. Details for her training: https://www.icpnetwork.nl/ https://www.icpnetwork.nl/product/groeien-in-interculturele-communicatie/ ---

This episode is with Anna Tran. We talk about ethnic identity, churches, healing and more. I also talk about Lunar New Year, and the book The Life of a Banana by PP Wong, who is the first published British Born Chinese novelist. Anna's IG: @annabitof_light ---

Kicking off series 3 is an interview with Theo Visser, leader of the Intercultural Church Plants EU network. We talk about fruit salads (seriously), setbacks, lessons learned on the way and some practical tips about church planting.

Christina Tang shares her experiences of being a BBC who recently relocated to Hong Kong. Topics discussed: language, churches, learning a culture, the Hong Kong protests, political tensions. Christina recommends the book The Space Between Us: How Jesus Teaches Us to Live Together When Politics and Religion Pull Us Apart by Sarah Anderson. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

This is part two of the interview with Shakeel Nurmahi. Listen to part one here. In this episode we talk about: South Asian Christian culture, Naujavan, podcasts, British Asian identity and more. Don't forget to check out Naujavan and Shakeel's social media: IG @shakeel_nurmahi, Twitter @shakeelnurmahi --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

This is the first part of a 2-part interview with Shakeel, the host of Naujavan podcast. In this episode you'll hear us talk about: Shakeel's church experience, language, being an Indian Christian, and South Asian culture in Christianity. Follow Shakeel on social media: Twitter @shakeelnurmahi IG: shakeel_nurmahi --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Jessie is joined by Younhee Deborah Kim who talks about her experience doing arts in mission. In this episode you'll hear about the following things: Arts in Mission Korea, mission trips, Ethnodoxlogy, using local arts, positionality as a Korean woman in mission, using art for God's kingdom. She recommends the following books: Worship and Mission for the Global Church Creating Local Arts Together Community Arts for God's Purposes Check out Deborah's artist collaboration videos of African praise songs here: https://youtu.be/2l9BAlYOkk4 https://youtu.be/92fushpWZj8 https://youtu.be/O6c0omEshJQ https://youtu.be/ZK3qk-grjbw --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Josh joins Jessie to talk about his experience of being a Third Culture Kid/Missionary Kid. Topics explored: TCKs, MKs, the 'where are you from?' question, missionary culture, diversity, transition and change. Josh's spoken word piece 'A Different Time' can be found here. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Kicking off series 2 is an episode with Joelle Phua, who talks to Jessie about life coaching, women of colour, social justice, the system, activism, and being a Christian. Insta: @Joellephua_ Joelle's YouTube channel and website She also recommends the following episodes from her podcast Let's Talk with Joelle: Faith & Social Justice and Stewarding a Kingdom Business. These books get a mention: Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho and Raise Your Voice by Kathy Khang. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Bert and Jessie talk about Chinese-heritage churches. Topics include: the inception of Chinese churches, English-speaking congregations, second-generation youth, outreach & evangelism, multicultural churches, racial and cultural biases. Jessie would like to apologise for her poor audio quality in this episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Jessie interviews Temi about biblical interpretation, and why using a diverse range of resources is important. Topics discussed: hermeneutics, using study guides, the Bible's dual nature, pre-understanding, contextualisation and Bible commentaries. Resources mentioned: The Africa Bible Commentary, The South Asia Bible Commentary, The Africana Bible, thewitnessbcc.com , True To Our Native Land Temi recommends these books: 'Eat This Book' by Eugene Peterson and 'Women of the Word' by Jen Wilkin. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Ally and Jessie chat about conflicts, especially across cultures. Topics include: Culture shock/stimulation, Cultural differences, Conflict management, resolutions and transformation. Ally recommends the following books: 'Crucial Conversations' by Grenny, McMillan, & Switzler, 'The Peacemaker' by Ken Sande, 'Foreign to Familiar' by Sarah A. Lanier --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Wien and Jessie talk about many things in this episode, from leadership, to abuse, to awareness and authenticity. 2:12 - The Wounded Leader 6:59 - Mental health 9:35 - Spiritual abuse 12.15 - Emotional abuse 13.15 - Awareness and authenticity 15.17 - Harmony vs hierarchy 16.45 - Authentic redemption 21.13 - Reconciliation/relationships 23.41 - Family systems therapy 27.40 - Awareness, authenticity, action 33.27 - Conflicts Website: https://www.woundedleader.com/ Wien recommends the book 'A Failure of Nerve' by Edwin Friedman. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Eileen, founder of the NGO Creative Hope International, talks to Jessie about using the arts to bring about lasting change. 00:48 - Eileen's introduction 11:45 - what Creative Hope International is 23:38 - Himalayan context 29:15 - where is the place of folk/traditional music in the present age? 31:29 - why combine the arts and faith to create change? 38:41 - book recommendations Eileen recommends: Where Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert, Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, and Children of the Stone by Sandy Tolan. Creative Hope International: https://www.creativehopeinternational.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Ethnomusicologist, musician, teacher and author Rob Baker joins Jessie to chat about his experience in West Africa. 00:40 - Rob's introduction 01:06 - What is Ethnomusicology? 03:45 - What Rob did in West Africa 05:04 - "Music is a universal language" (not!) 07:48 - On making assumptions and reclaiming music 16:32 - Letting your "spirits mingle" 18:00 - Being a white guy in Africa 22:32 - Goals in the community and songwriting 24:27 - Worship using indigenous music 26:29 - Rob's books 32:39 - Book recommendation Rob recommends the book 'The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu' by Charlie English. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

What are Christian Unions? Are ethnic minority groups welcome? Jessie and Matt chat about their experiences at university. 00:48 - Matt's introduction 03:03 - Student ministries in different contexts 04:15 - The purpose of CUs 10:08 - CUs as white middle class 17:38 - Unity 20:45 - Possible solutions 29:31 - Book recommendation Matt recommends the book 'Let The Nations Be Glad' by John Piper. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message

Welcome to ACross Culture! But what is it all about? Find out more in this channel trailer and on IG: @acrossculturepod --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acrossculture/message