What is culture?

As many definitions as there are people providing answers. As a seeker and certified cultural intelligence practitioner, it's easy for me to give lofty definitions but we can begin from the lowest common multiple.

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Culture can be summed as "the way we do things around here" where we can be any group level social unit.

The way we do things around here includes customary beliefs taken as truth, a shared language or way of speech, the practices and traditions of a group of people, and the material objects or artifices commonly used within the group.

Culture can also refer to the arts of a people, governing laws and traditions and other formally recognized structures associated with a group.

As a Christian woman, a Black immigrant girl born in Nigeria and now living in the United States, I have come to experience the influence of religion on culture and vice-versa, in a value and belief exchange system that sometimes leaves you wondering which came first.

As Christians we learn about following the Way. The question we must answer for ourselves is whose way and which ways?

The cultural ethos for Jesus and Hot Chocolate is not a new one, infact it was one practiced by the first followers of the Way. Those people called the Berean Christians. In this community, we will ask questions as part of the norm. We will be okay with not knowing or having all the answers. And we will continue to work toward establishing transformational character to be able to live and dwell well in this day and age.

Welcome to a new(er) way of being. A new culture.