Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Youth, Family, and Culture) (Paperback)

~ David Livermore (Author)
Key Phrases: emergent church, socioethnic culture, cultural strategic thinking, United States, Grand Rapids, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This engaging book seeks to tackle the challenges of cross-cultural interaction in the context of Christian ministry. Livermore, an expert in intercultural studies, urges his readers to become more multicultural people so that we might better express love cross-culturally. While most works on cross-cultural ministry seek to teach their readers about other cultures they may encounter, Livermores book contends that preparation for cross-cultural ministry depends on an inward investigation and transformation. This is what he calls developing ones Cultural Intelligence quotient, and the book explores the knowledge, interpretations and behavior one must develop to heighten ones CQ. While grounded in both theory and theology, the strength of this book comes from the many vignettes from Livermores personal experience in such places as Singapore, India and Cambodia. Questions throughout and a self-assessment test in the appendix give the book an interactive feel, drawing the reader into self-examination and application of the books lessons. Though the book is written for Bakers youth ministry series, all who are interested in the question of cross-cultural ministry will profit from its information and advice. (Feb.)
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Product Description

Twenty-first-century society is diverse, and Christians must be able to understand other cultures and communicate effectively between and among them. Following up on the bestselling Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers, this new addition to the Youth, Family, and Culture series explores the much-needed skill of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), the ability to work effectively across national, ethnic, and even organizational cultures. While rooted in sound, scholarly research, Cultural Intelligence is highly practical and accessible to general readers. It will benefit students as well as guide ministry leaders interested in increasing their cultural awareness and sensitivity. Packed with assessment tools, simulations, case studies, and exercises, Cultural Intelligence will help transform individuals and organizations into effective intercultural communicators of the gospel. EXCERPT What do you do when you encounter someone who isn't like you? How do you feel? What goes on inside you? How do you relate to him or her? These are the kinds of questions we want to explore in this book. Few things are more basic to life than expressing love and respect for people who look, think, believe, act, and see differently than we do. We want to adapt to the barrage of cultures around us while still remaining true to ourselves. We want to let the world change us so that we can be part of changing the world. And we want to move from the desire to love across the chasm of cultural difference to the ability to express our love for people of difference. Relating lovingly to our fellow human beings is central to what it means to be human. And when it comes down to it, Christian ministry at its core is interacting with all kinds of people in ways that give them glimpses of Jesus in us. The billions of us sharing planet Earth together have so much in common. We're all born. We all die. We're all created in the image of God. We eat, sleep, persevere, and care for our young. We long for meaning and purpose, and we develop societies with those around us. But the way we go about the many things we have in common is deeply rooted in our unique personalities and cultures. So although we have so much in common, we have as much or more about us that's different.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801035899
• ISBN-13: 978-0801035890
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #143,329 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent, pithy book, February 23, 2009

By	Mark Oestreicher (El Cajon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

dave livermore, the author of the button-pushing, excellent book "serving with eyes wide open", has a new book out in the baker academic line. it's the 2nd book in chap clark's series of academic books for youth ministry. but, really, it's only loosely about youth ministry (some of the examples are about youth ministry). anyone interested in cross-cultural ministry should read this book.

and, livermore talks uses the term `cross cultural' very broadly, suggesting CQ when working with different age groups in our church, when working in different parts of our own country that have differing values, assumptions and norms, as well as when we interact with people in our own context from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

livermore takes us through the various aspects of developing a "cultural intelligence" (akin to IQ and the recently buzzy EQ - emotional intelligence). the uniqueness, he says, of CQ is that it can be learned (which is not true of IQ, and less true of EQ). so while this is an academic book, it's also a practical book that patiently reveals the process by which we can grow in our CQ (which, by the way, is way more than being culturally sensitive).

i got to read the book early, as i was asked for an endorsement. here's the "official" endorsement i wrote:

In an era of drive-by short term missions, selfish service projects, and ugly Americans, Dave Livermore brings reconstruction. He doesn't merely suggest cultural sensitivity; he helps us deconstruct and build something new - a pathway to cultural intelligence that can guide us be citizens of the Kingdom of God while being proactively engaged as neighbors in the world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read" for anyone working cross-culturally., September 16, 2009

By	Phillip E. Smart - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Daivd Livermore, in Cultural Intelligence uses the phrase "Improving your CQ to engage our multicultural world." And that's what this book is about - engagement. If you plan on reading the book in your easy chair without having to ever meet, work with, or be challenged by those unlike ourselves, it's a nice read. But if you plan to "engage" with others different than yourself or with those who have different world views, and if you want to be challenged in your thinking and stretched in how you see the world, then this book needs to be in your library.

Having lived and worked as an overseas missionary, an international marketer in the corporate world and now as a missions pastor in the US, I can say that nothing is more important than understanding one's own culture as well as the culture of the group or people with whom you are engaging.

This book presents the tools to understand and improve on how we process seeing through the lens of others who are different than "us."

I especially felt the chapter on Attribution theory and the bounded and centered sets was excellent in showing that how we view salvation and church are influenced by our cultural worldviews. The chapter that speaks to "flexing and not flexing" reminds those going overseas as long-term missionaries of where to draw the line regarding understanding culture and going "native."

A great read that pushes the bounds and reminds us that what is best for the "Other" is sometimes not what we think.

Phil Smart
Missions Pastor - KCC