Cultural Intelligence Quotes

“Instead, there’s a longing among the emerging generation in mission for more “being-oriented” values, including relationships, deep connections, and stories about God working through the underdog. There’s a desire for us to be honest about the pitfalls of Western missions. As a result, there are countless stories of emerging leaders leaving large, stable evangelical organizations to work with friends in small, off-the-radar ministries. Richard Tiplady, a young missions leader in the United Kingdom, says to Western missions organizations, “Don’t try to bamboozle us with talk of the ‘big picture.’ Whatever ‘big picture’ you develop, it will be wrong. The world is too complex, life is too changeable, and God is too mysterious, for us to get fired up by that kind of language.”12 Instead, the interest is in the kinds of supernatural things God will do through people devoted to him. The emphasis is away from the doing end of the spectrum. This is yet another instance where we must discern in community the strengths and weaknesses of culture’s varying ways of viewing achievement.”
― David Livermore, Cultural Intelligence (Youth, Family, and Culture): Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World

“One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly gave in to the temptation of power—political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power—even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did not cling to his divine power but emptied himself and became as we are.”
― David A. Livermore, Cultural Intelligence (Youth, Family, and Culture): Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World

“See table 1 below for a sampling of Webber’s comparison of these three generational eras in the American evangelical church. Table 1 Comparison of Traditional, Pragmatic, and Younger Evangelicals”
― David A. Livermore, Cultural Intelligence (Youth, Family, and Culture): Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World