I am a student at Pepperdine University and I am currently taking a course called Multiethnic Ministry and Cross-Cultural Missions. Over the course of my college career I have been on a variety of mission trips and service trips both abroad and here in the United States. While on these trips I have engaged in many cross-cultural and multiethnic interactions and I have grown both as an individual and in my faith. After reading David Livermore’s Cultural Intelligence, I unequivocally believe that Livermore aims to teach and prepare us to engage in more loving, informed, productive, meaningful, and culturally competent interactions with others.
Furthermore, Livermore strives to reminds us that there is a beauty in our ability to love on one another for our differences. He recognizes that our individual unique qualities can deepen the dynamics of our nation and our dynamics with those abroad. These qualities can be cultural, ethnic, generational, socioeconomic, and they can even depend on our geographic backgrounds. If I had read the book before my trips I would have known how uninformed, ignorant, and unprepared I was before stepping into those other cultures.
While one might read this book and argue that a weakness is that Livermore too harshly critiques Americans, I think that he does so to highlight the areas in which we as the dominant American group could engage in the most effective cross cultural interactions possible. When reading this book I was challenged to assess my own interactions with others and I thought back to the ways in which I reacted, spoke to, and approached others. This led me to wonder how my relationships could improve if I am able to learn to act in a more culturally competent way. Some of the strengths of Livermore’s book are that it encourages us to be informed, to interpret, to think more critically about our interactions, to be persistent and it encourages us to be willing to step out of our comfort zone and be willing to stretch in order to more fully engage and immerse ourselves with others.
Even though many argue that this book is only for those hoping to engage in cross-cultural missions, I believe that in our multiethnic world it is important to read this book regardless of faith background. Livermore offers invaluable insight on how to interact with one another in a way that is both loving and informed. Today our society believes in the power of the dominant group and the ways in which others should assimilate into the dominant culture, but by believing this we only feed into the racially and culturally charged tensions and conflict that continue to poison our countries and our minds.
Livermore’s book allows us the means to deepen our interactions with one another, whether it is our family member, our neighbor or someone across the world, and Livermore’s book teaches us to learn to love, to love in a culturally informed and faith-driven way. This book is relevant and necessary for anyone hoping to engage in meaningful, multiethnic and cross-cultural interactions, especially those in the international missions field.
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