USA (MNN) — Have you ever felt out of your element when face-to-face with a different culture? Are people at your church nervous to go on mission trips because they feel that way? Are there cross-cultural issues within your own church body? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions (and even if you didn't), Cornerstone University has a conference for you!
David Livermore with Grand Rapids Theological Seminary has written two books entirely devoted to this topic of cultural intelligence. Livermore will be conducting the Cornerstone's Cultural Intelligence Conference, which will also include speakers from overseas and a special ‘CQ' assessment.
"We have a lot of people coming who are already pretty up-to-speed on their own understanding of how to interact with different cultures, but they're trying to think through ‘How do I help somebody on my short-term team do this well without having had a lot of experience doing it?'" explains Livermore, who says the church can be the place where cultural intelligence is most important.
"The church often tends to be the place where they're dealing with a whole myriad of cross-cultural issues. They may be trying to deal with a growing multicultural community in their own neighborhood, or engaged in international partnerships overseas, sending their teams overseas on short-term trips," says Livermore.
The CQ assessment will help participants learn their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to different cultures within their church body or in an overseas setting. Livermore says the test will even help in one other unique way: "This particular approach to cultural effectiveness even looks at how you help different generations get along together."
The CQ Conference will undoubtedly put you in a better position for spreading the Gospel. Knowing how to navigate through various cultures and being able to teach other believers how to do so are invaluable skills to have in order to create boundless ministry. Increasing cultural intelligence will help you and your church know how to best reach out to the nations, as Jesus has commanded.
The CQ Conference will be in the seminary building on the Cornerstone University campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 13. The $159 entrance fee covers a day of invaluable learning and the CQ test assessment, which is not being offered at any other Christian conference right now. If you'd like to register for this one-day event, click here. To learn more first, head to cornerstone.edu/cqconference.
