A Case for Pentecostal Interculturality


 Interculturality has been promulgated by many scholars from the 1970s onward due to world transformations such as postcolonialism, migration, and globalization. In the context of Southeast Asia, one of the ways this becomes obvious is through South-to-South mission, in which a sense of mutuality becomes the basis for intercultural partnerships. Such is the case for the Filipino Assemblies of God mission in Cambodia. Their development from cross-cultural to intercultural in their missionary endeavors can be traced through their history. The three areas of mutuality between Filipinos and Cambodians that emerged from a triangulation of their oral history, related literature, and secondary interview data are a mutual experience of socioeconomic struggle, shared acceptance of a spirit world, and the closeness of their ethnicity. Because of these areas of mutuality, Filipino AG missionaries have been able to share Christianity in a contextualized and culturally sensitive manner. These areas of mutuality also made them more relatable to Cambodians, enhancing long-term partnerships in the field.