Intersect Community - Serving With Eyes Wide Open

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Serving With Eyes Wide Open

Doing Short-Term Missions With Cultural Intelligence

Dave's new book is due for release on April 1. We wanted you to know about it!

Here's the promo piece on the book. Click the book to find out how you can order it!

With a massive missions outreach response to the catastrophic global disasters of 2005, more Christians are participating in short-term missions than ever before...

Grand Rapids, Mich., April 1, 2006—More than one million people go on short-term mission trips outside North America every year, while millions more are involved in domestic cross-cultural missions. In 2005, disasters domestically and internationally motivated countless volunteers to devastated areas in response to hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Are these missions teams fully prepared to engage a new culture? Serving with Eyes Wide Open by David Livermore (Baker Books) helps Christians understand the changing face of Christianity—and how it affects short-term missions.

Livermore serves as the director of the Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and co-founded Intersect, an organization that provides leadership training and consulting for emerging leaders around the globe (www.intersectcommunity.com). He has led and participated in dozens of short-term missions trips to over fifty countries.

In three parts, Serving with Eyes Wide Open examines:

• What the 21st century church is doing in missions and the changing face of Christianity;

• The conflicting perspectives between Americans and the global church (Nationals) about short-term missions;

• Cultural Intelligence (CQ)—a research-based model for adapting effectively to new cultural contexts.

“Serving with Eyes Wide Open is for anyone who wants to be more effective cross-culturally. It’s also a resource for churches, mission agencies, universities and other parachurch agencies that continually grapple with the issue of cross-cultural interactions,” Livermore writes.

David A. Livermore, (Ph.D., Michigan State University), is executive director of the Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and is cofounder of Intersect, an organization that provides leadership training and consulting for emerging leaders around the globe.

Endorsements for Serving With Eyes Wide Open

"In Serving with Eyes Wide Open, Dave Livermore has provided a deep and rich resource that will not only enhance our perspective of short-term missions in general, but will help us and those we lead to grow as globally-oriented followers of Jesus Christ. This is a long way from a simplistic 'how-to' handbook, but a challenging, well-supported, and carefully crafted tool that will transform your missions and service ministries into opportunities for lifelong growth in service in the kingdom of God. I will be using this book in classes for years to come."

—Chap Clark, Ph.D., professor of youth, family, and culture, Fuller Theological Seminary

"David Livermore is passionate about effective cross-cultural ministry. In this must-read book, he draws on his formal training, personal experience, theological insight, and contemporary research to challenge our cultural understanding of short-term mission experiences and its impact on our service and ministry. This challenge will be resisted by some and welcomed by others, but it’s a helpful text that should be widely-used, from local youth ministry groups to seminary classrooms."

—Terry Linhart, assistant professor of youth ministry, Bethel College (Indiana)

"This is a must, not only for church mission committees, but for anyone who participates in short-term—or long-term—missions. And not just missionaries but everyone who travels and lives abroad. It's a highly readable manual for the 21st century follower of Jesus who is often viewed as an 'ugly American.' The chapter on the use and misuse of the Bible cross-culturally offers a common sense approach that is most insightful."

—Ruth Tucker, associate professor of missiology, Calvin Theological Seminary

"Finally! The wave of short-term missions in youth ministry has been wonderful, but not always thoughtful. And many of us have been concerned for years that we've created a monster, doing more damage than ministry. Dave Livermore isn't a short-term missions basher; just the opposite. But Dave wants us to be culturally intelligent and intentional. Every youth worker thinking of leading a short-term trip needs to read this book!"

—Mark Oestreicher, president, Youth Specialties

"Serving with Eyes Wide Open is very insightful and helpful for anyone interested in effective cross-cultural ministry. David Livermore does a terrific job of looking at the world today, asking stimulating questions about our approach to missions, and giving practical insights into cultural intelligence. David's opening analysis of globalization and the church is worth the price of this book."

—Daryl Nuss, international coordinator, National Network of Youth Ministries

"Some of us live in our own small world; others have a 'global perspective.' The difference is travel, but the result in our understanding of the cultures and needs of our brothers and sisters worldwide can be vast. Dave Livermore's book can be the means of 'filling in the gaps' and extending our perspectives enormously. It's a major antidote to sympathetic ignorance and helps us to help our world in the name of Jesus."

—Rev. Dr. Clive Calver, former president, World Relief

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