Serving with Eyes Wide Open - Part X
It’s Friday! That means it’s time to do something fun…
Continue in the series on the book Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence by David A. Livermore!
I promise, I won’t beat the dead horse too much longer. At this point I’m just trying to get all of my favorite take-aways from the book on paper so that I can come back to them as references. So, let’s keep the train rolling with the section of the book called “Sharpening Our Focus and Service with Cultural Intelligence (CQ)”. Today we’ll hit the first of the four elements of “CQ”: “knowledge CQ”.
- - “The most important part of knowledge CQ is gaining general information about how cultures vary. Explicitly and implicitly, how does culture affect the way people view the world?”
- “Growing in knowledge CQ requires more than simply reading the Lonely Planet Guide for the country we’re about to visit; it involves an ongoing process of looking at cultures and beginning to understand how they vary.”
- “Think of culture ass the software that runs our minds. It’s the mental programming that shapes our habits, beliefs, decision making, and the way we see the world. This programming is passed along from generation to generation. Cultural programming applies to national and ethnic groups, to organizations (such as the culture of a particular company or church), and even to subcultural groups such as adolescents, homosexuals, or evangelicals.”
- “Knowledge CQ helps us move beyond seeing the stray dogs roaming throughout Indonesia as simply negelected pets and calls us to look at how Indonesians’ interaction with dogs teaches us something about Indonesian culture and cultures in general.”
- “…the point is not to master our knowledge CQ before we take off on our next trip. Knowledge CQ continues to stretch and grow throughout our lifetime. Growing in our knowledge CQ gives us a healthy starting point for more effectively engaging in short-term missions.”
I especially like the last quote. The point is not mastery; knowledge CQ is a starting point. We don’t need to have a PhD in anthropology to go on a short-term mission trip; but it helps to have the willingness and discipline to learn about new cultures. What are some practical things you can do to increase your knowledge CQ before going on a mission trip?
We’ll talk about a few key components of knowledge CQ on Monday — how these elements shape cultures. Until then, have a great weekend!
