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Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ...27 28 29 NextThese days I’m reading Faith and Doubt
by John Ortberg, senior pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (my church in college) and a Fuller trustee. He provides 3 helpful buckets for his own doubts:
Bucket #1 – Why doesn’t God provide more indisputable proof of Himself?
Bucket #2 – Why aren’t Jesus’ followers, and the church, better examples of Jesus?
Bucket #3 – Why is there suffering?
Bucket #3 is the more prevalent in my own life, especially given the earthquake in Haiti. Honestly, I can’t even watch the news for much more than 10 seconds. One of our friend’s daughter is in the process of adopting a two year-old from Haiti. The paperwork is all finished and she and her husband were awaiting a passport for their soon-to-be daughter when the earthquake hit. The marvelous news is that the orphanage and the kids are OK. But she’s still in Haiti. That situation has brought it all home for me.
I don’t have easy answers. Anyone who tells you they do is in denial.
I don’t even have a nice way to wrap up this blog.
One of my dear mentors and coaches, Wally Hawley, attended the November Sticky Faith Summit we had in Pasadena with 20 amazing youth workers in November 2009. As we were talking about the importance of helping students express their doubts (one of our findings in our College Transition Project), Wally mentioned the book by John Ortberg called Faith and Doubt, which I’ve been reading lately.
In some ways, the most powerful message of the book is summed up in its very title: faith and doubt go together. I love what our youth pastor shared this past Sunday in light of Haiti. When you look at Haiti, it’s hard to put God and our faith in a neat, orderly box. If you look at Haiti and see nothing but despair, maybe it’s time to reflect more upon God’s goodness and the glimpses of that goodness we get every day. If you look at Haiti and see nothing but God’s goodness, then man oh man, please take a few minutes and give yourself space to experience doubt.
And let your students do that also.
And encourage your students’ parents to be the ones to talk with them about their doubts. It’s often easier for us as youth workers to sit with students and ask them about what faith questions Haiti raises for them. But actually, I’d rather have that conversation happen with students’ parents. I’d rather have it be part of the tone of the home, if at all possible. As important as youth workers are in a kids’ life, parents’ influence is more important.
So last Wednesday when I was speaking at a church to parents, I encouraged them to talk with their kids about Haiti. Maybe you’d like to send that same message to parents yourself.
I often think to myself, wouldn’t it be great if the church was known for THIS… My “this” ranges from a quick and effective response to Haiti, to the way we care for the poor here in the U.S., to our compassion in general, to the topic of this New York Times article on churches’ focus on the environment in the Northwest.
Interestingly, one of the slants in this article is that focusing on the environment is a good “growth strategy”. I suppose it is that, but it’s also something deeper – it’s part of our Kingdom theology of stewarding the creation God has given us.
Wouldn’t it be great if the church was known for…you fill in the blank.
In this week’s final post about leading with cultural intelligence (CQ), we look at steps 3 and 4 in the process of developing more cross-cultural effectiveness:
Step 3: CQ Strategy (Interpretive)
CQ Strategy is your ability to effectively strategize when crossing cultures. Can you draw upon your CQ Knowledge to plan an appropriate strategy? Your usual ministry strategy won’t have the same effect in every culture so CQ Strategy is needed to develop a plan of action, revise the plan as needed and assess the effectiveness of the strategy in the particular cultural setting.
Step 4: CQ Action
Finally, CQ Action is your ability to adapt appropriately in a range of cross-cultural situations. Can you effectively accomplish your goals in different cultural situations? When working in a different culture, it may seem like a good idea to mimic what you see; however, locals often perceive this as humorous or worse yet, insulting. On the flip side, not adhering to any cultural norms or behaviors may come across as disrespectful and impede your success. Developing CQ Action will help you decide when to adjust your behavior to fit a cross-cultural setting and by how much.
Enhancing CQ is proven to enhance your effectiveness in serving the people inside and outside your mnistry. It contributes to your personal development as a leader and best of all, it allows you to treat people with a greater degree of dignity and respect, whatever their cultural background and thereby make the world a better place.
To learn more about CQ and take a free assessment, check out resources at cq-portal.com and davidlivermore.com/cq.
This week we’ve been looking at what it means to lead with CQ (cultural intelligence), and why it’s an essential skill for ministry leaders. Today we’ll look at the first two steps:
Step 1: CQ Drive
CQ Drive is your level of interest, drive, and energy to adapt cross-culturally. Do you have the confidence and drive to work through the challenges and conflict that inevitably accompany cross-cultural ministry? Without ample motivation, there’s little point in spending time and money on training, travel, and global strategizing.
Step 2: CQ Knowledge
CQ Knowledge is your understanding about culture and its role in shaping how ministry is done. Do you understand the way culture shapes thinking and behavior? While CQ Knowledge remains at the core of many cross-cultural approaches, this element is just one dimension of becoming culturally intelligent and yields little results when used on its own.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next two steps in the process.
- Why can some leaders effectively serve rural, urban, and suburban youth all within the same ministry?
- What gives ministries the greatest edge in effectively reaching out to youth and families from a variety of ethnic backgrounds?
- Why do some leaders consistently organize short-term missions projects that empower the local communities served and others struggle?
- Why do some leaders seem to work just as effectively with adults and parents as they do with adolescents?
- Why do some youth leaders thrive in the face of a multicultural, globalized world while others flounder?
The answer lies partially in their cultural intelligence, or CQ. Cultural intelligence is defined as the capability to function effectively across national, ethnic, and organizational cultures. And research demonstrates a leader’s CQ may easily be the single greatest difference between thriving in today’s shrinking world or becoming ineffective and obsolete.
The continually shifting landscape of youth ministry can be disorienting. Experience and common sense alone are not enough. When working in our own cultures, we intuitively use a set of social cues to lead effectively. We have a wealth of information, most of which is subconscious, which helps us do our work (e.g. managing and motivating volunteers, casting vision, teaching, addressing conflict, etc.). But those rules change once we start leading in a different cultural setting.
Cultural intelligence is a set of capabilities and skills that enables leaders from outside a culture to interpret unfamiliar behaviors and situations as if they were insiders to that culture. It can be learned by most anyone. In testing leaders’ CQ across the world, there’s a consistent set of strategies and practices proven to enhance anyone’s CQ. The findings consistently demonstrate a strong connection between leaders’ CQ and their effectiveness in reaching their goals. Our model stems from rigorous academic research on intelligence and cross-cultural interaction across 30 countries and includes four steps toward becoming more effective cross-culturally. The four steps can easily be applied to any cross-cultural situation (ethnic cultures, organizational, and generational subcultures).
Tomorrow we’ll talk about the first two steps in the process.
Cross-cultural training used to be something primarily talked about by missionaries and high-flying executives. But today, nearly all of us work and live with a diversity of cultures.
Cultural intelligence, or CQ, is a research-based approach to crossing cultures and it’s uniquely suited to the demands most youth leaders face. It’s defined as the capability to function effectively across a variety of national, ethnic, and even organizational and generational cultures. A growing level of CQ helps you successfully move in and out of many different cultural contexts throughout the week.
Here are a few reasons you may need cultural intelligence:
- You can’t keep up with the constant trends in youth culture.
- You observe a growing diversity among the subcultures evident in your youth group including jocks, alternative kids, artists, techies, etc.
- You feel like a constant mediator between the adult world and the youth world.
- You want to do short-term missions in a way that is loving and respectful.
- You want to see your students move beyond their comfort zone in their high school friendships.
- You want to see your students show the same kind of love to people of color in their own high schools as they do on the short-term missions trip.
- You want to see your youth group reflect the diversity in the local high schools.
The emphasis of cultural intelligence is NOT mastering all the ins and outs of every culture represented in your community. That’s impossible. But like IQ and EQ, CQ is an overall capability that helps us move in and out of all these settings with a growing level of awareness and effectiveness as we serve. Cultural intelligence is something anyone can develop and learn. Learn more and take a free assessment at cq-portal.com and davidlivermore.com/cq. Tomorrow’s blog will look a little deeper into why cultural intelligence can make or break your future in ministry!
Note: This week’s guest blogger is Dr. Dave Livermore, our friend and partner in short-term missions research. Dave will share some thoughts about CQ and leadership as we continue dialogue about our new team resource, Essential Leadership. Dave is the author of Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World 
, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success
, and Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence
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Here’s an interesting graphic look at several world issues divided by data about people, economics, health, and more. Not all of the topics are justice-oriented, but some may provide good visuals for teaching kids about specific world issues. Note that they take suggestions for new maps, too!
SHOW interactive maps: http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/
The headlines have been as grim as the details: “Haiti waits in ruins for international aid,” “Bodies lining Haiti’s roadsides,” and worse. But as we pray, watch, give toward relief efforts, and wonder how to else respond to this week’s tragedy (I daresay some of you are getting on planes and boats in hands-on response), one line in Wednesday night’s L.A. Times update caught my attention: “As darkness fell on Haiti’s capital tonight, crowds gathered in the streets…Their lives turned upside down by Tuesday’s devastating magnitude 7 earthquake, many survivors broke out into communal song…”
I don’t know what they were singing, but it’s striking to think about. Earlier Wednesday I was at a memorial service here at Fuller for my colleague Ruth Vuong, our Dean of Students who tragically died last week. At that service, in the midst of our grief and questioning, we did the same: together, we sang our lament. We sang because it’s what we do when we gather to remember, feel, and express something beyond us—in this case lamenting the sting of death in our community.
So as we respond in tangible and intangible ways to our sisters and brothers in Haiti facing unspeakable loss, may we also join in their song with songs of our own that express the questions and pain alongside the hope for God’s presence and power. As we sing in solidarity with the poor and devastated, may our God move us to deeper response. Here’s one to start:
Out of the depths we cry to you, Lord;
Lord, hear our voices.
Let your ears be attentive to our cry for mercy.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
And in his word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:1-2, 5
Recently Christianity Today posted the online version of this month’s cover story, “The Myth of the Perfect Parent: Why the best parenting techniques don’t produce Christian children” by Leslie Leyland Fields, author of Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt
. I haven’t checked on much of the research and parenting book sources Fields uses to support her writing, but she makes a great presentation for why we need to lay off parents (and for those of us who parent, give ourselves a break) when it comes to raising kids who ultimately follow Jesus into adulthood.
Plenty of research does point to the importance of parents in kids’ faith development, like Christian Smith and the National Study of Youth and Religion team’s data. To paraphrase something Smith said in a panel here at Fuller, when it comes to the faith of their kids, parents basically get what they are. The faith of parents tends to be the strongest predictor of faith of kids.
Yet, that can—and does—create all kinds of unnecessary anxiety for parents. Most of us walk around thinking that there’s some long list of things we can and should do that will result in our kids growing up to love, follow, and serve Jesus too. Fields calls this “spiritual determinism”—the Christianized cultural myth that good Christian parenting produces godly children. But it just doesn’t (necessarily) work that way.
Here’s a great quote from the end of her article:
It is faith rather than formula, grace rather than guarantees, steadfastness rather than success that bridges the gap between our own parenting efforts, and what, by God’s grace, our children grow up to become.
What do you think? How can we help parents be intentional while also freeing them from the pressure to, well, be God?
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