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  The same dynamics apply to short-term missions. Most short-term participants have low CQ Drive when it comes to truly engaging in the life of a culture. We have a strong desire to complete the roof project and do it well. We want to reach as many kids as possible through the vacation Bible school program we’re running, or we want to really help the pastors we’re training. Those are noble and worthy forms of motivation, but by themselves, they aren’t enough. In fact, too much motivation to do our tasks well may impede our ability to engage with people. We’re inclined to be so focused on our task that we miss out on some of the more important conversations and experiences. As a result, many of our short-term projects are done with a low level of CQ Drive. We end up observing the novelties of a new place from afar rather than really immersing ourselves in the context. We look for familiar foods and crave a current copy of USA Today on our way to paint the wall, and so we miss a huge part of the experience.

  CQ Drive goes beyond simply the excitement of traveling to a new place. It’s the perseverance required when the novelty wears off and the differences start to chafe at us. Given its importance and our tendency to neglect motivation, it’s essential we consider a few ways to nurture CQ Drive.

  Nurturing CQ Drive

  Nurturing the desire and motivation to adapt cross-culturally is especially challenging when it involves a project as brief as ten days to two weeks. When expatriates move overseas for several years, they often have a much higher level of motivation to adapt because they’re going to be there much longer and adapting to the local culture is essential for them to succeed. However, there’s often little interest in working hard to adapt to a culture when you’re only there for a few days. There are a number of ways to address this. Here are a few considerations.

  Be Honest

  A great deal of the research we’ve looked at in this book raises questions about the long-term impact of short-term missions. There is evidence that short-term missions can have a positive impact on both goers and receivers, but we need to look honestly at the questions raised by some of the findings. One of the things that continued to emerge when comparing the perspectives of North American short-termers and those of majority world church members was our exaggerated descriptions of what happens as a result of these trips.

  Our motivation for short-term missions often involves an overstated description of what happens in others and us. We talk about changing entire communities that don’t look all that different after we leave. We describe the lifelong changes in us, including our commitments to pray more and give more, but within six to eight weeks, most of us are praying and giving about the same as before the trip.[102]

  There are compelling, redemptive reasons to engage in short-term missions. But in our need to defend our trips to ourselves and our supporters, we must not overstate the influence of the trips—upon us or those we serve. I have little trouble believing that some kind of transformation occurs when we leave the comforts of home to live in an entirely different part of the world for a couple weeks. Likewise, when a group of Mexicans hosts a group of North Americans for a week, surely there is some sort of impact. Every encounter in life plays at least some role in who I am and how I view the world and God. However, we need to move toward seeing our short-term missions trips as one of many life experiences that make an impact on us and others.

  When we become more honest about seeing short-term missions trips as one of thousands of life experiences that change us, we’ll be motivated more appropriately, which in turn will help us engage more effectively. Let’s stop thinking about short-term missions as a service to perform and see it instead as another expression of living in the way of Jesus, which includes giving and receiving from our brothers and sisters in Christ globally. Let’s think about missions as a time when we’re responsible to learn. When we’re with brothers and sisters from another part of the world, let’s spend less time thinking about how we can tell everyone back home what we did for them and more time finding out what they’re truly facing and getting their perspective on how we can help them and they can help us. Before we spend time painting a wall, let’s spend time deciding if that’s the best thing we can do. With high levels of unemployment in most of the places we visit, are we taking jobs away from people who need them when we do our building projects? There are probably times when it’s appropriate to do a building project, but be willing to slow down and ask the question before jumping in.

  This is challenging because often the request to build a building or to provide training comes from the local believers themselves. I encounter this all the time. I frequently interact with majority world church leaders who request curriculum and resources developed in the West. I don’t doubt they can make use of them, but part of my being honest about their true needs means sometimes challenging even the requests that come from our majority world church brothers and sisters. The honesty we’re after has to come from a broad perspective of what God is doing among people all over the world and continually learning what our role is in that. Sometimes we need to sacrifice our egos and say, “I’m not going to train. I want to do whatever I can to help you train your people using the material that’s developed by your context for your context.” Or we may need to say, “We’re not going to build that. We’re going to raise the money for you to employ your people to build it.” Or maybe we refer them to another ministry that’s already working effectively in their context who can better meet their needs.

  As we pursue this kind of honest reflection, we begin to move away from the drive-by mission trip mentality. An accurate perspective on what can happen within others and us is the kind of honesty our supporters deserve, not to mention our brothers and sisters in Christ in the majority world and the others who live there. This kind of honesty is an essential part of nurturing CQ Drive. Over the long haul, we’ll stay motivated far longer and persevere through much more cultural dissonance when we are honest about what we have to offer and what we have to gain.

  Look for Relevance

  Few of us are motivated to do something if it feels irrelevant and disconnected from our lives. In order to be motivated to persevere through the challenges of cross-cultural work, we must see how they relate to our other goals. This is a basic rule of learning. We aren’t motivated to learn about things that we perceive to be irrelevant to our needs. The mind-set is, “If I have to learn algebra, help me see why I’ll ever need it!” We have to see how eating unfamiliar foods, sitting through services in a foreign language, and touring ancient temples are relevant to God’s call on our lives. It’s imperative that we frame our experiences as pertinent and related to the overall goals of our lives.

  The average short-term team won’t see how eating at McDonald’s every day could hinder their vacation Bible school program. Yet we need to see the subtle but profound connections between where we eat, where we stay, and how we interact with how we fulfill our mission tasks. We need to soak in the culture and set the tone for others traveling with us about the importance of cultural immersion for effective relationships and ministry. We need to persevere through difficult interactions, try the foods and the language, and seek to understand what’s really going on beneath the surface of what we see. If you’re leading a short-term missions trip, challenge your group members to experience as much of the culture as possible. Help them see how taking it all in can directly relate to fulfilling your mission—both your short-term mission and your lifelong calling to extend the redemptive mission of God.

  Connect to CQ Knowledge

  Finally, one of the best ways to improve CQ Drive is through the next CQ capability: CQ Knowledge. By learning about a culture, its history, and its values, we become more motivated to engage with it, particularly if we can see the relevance of cultural understanding to the mission at hand. And learning about a culture can help us persevere through the things that can otherwise be disorienting and stressful.

  For example, a highly relational, empathetic North American who takes a
short-term trip to a society that sees a big distinction between leaders and followers (something we’ll later describe as “power distance”) needs to relate and serve in light of what he knows about how the culture views status. Perhaps the North American thinks, Forget about all these distinctions based on the color of skin or money. I’m going to show these people I don’t believe in that. Imagine he meets a low-status cleaning lady, stops to talk with her, and then gives her a warm embrace as he walks away. His desire to love her just as she is is commendable. However, she may miss entirely what he’s trying to communicate because he violated the cultural norm about roles and status. This may well be an area in which visiting Christians need to be countercultural. However, the short-term missionary needs to understand that the cleaning lady may get a different message than he intended.

  The first step in dealing with this is motivation. But once we are motivated to best demonstrate our love for God and people, we inevitably come to see the importance of understanding how to best communicate that love in the various cultures we encounter. Sheer willpower to effectively express love cross-culturally isn’t enough, and neither is pure head knowledge about what a culture values. But together, CQ Drive and CQ Knowledge can play a powerful role in helping us effectively love and serve across borders. High CQ Drive helps us use our cross-cultural understanding to love God and love others.

  Back to Shanghai

  Brian had a great night of sleep, and he was ready to conquer a new day—even though he still wouldn’t get to teach for a couple more days. Jun walked in the room, and everybody was sipping instant tea and coffee. “Breakfast has arrived,” he said, as he set noodles and congee on the table.

  Jun looked at a couple of the students and said, “You live close to Chicago—right?”

  “Yeah, not too far,” one of them replied.

  “Shanghai looks pretty much like an American city, don’t you think?” he asked.

  A few of the students nervously chuckled.

  After a few more minutes of small talk, Brian asked Jun for some more information about the teaching later that week. “How long will our sessions be? Can we freely share our faith? What do they know about our visit?” Jun didn’t really answer his questions and just said things like, “Oh, they will really like you. This will be a very good week.”

  Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Brian thought he’d spend a few minutes looking over his teaching notes while he felt fresh. He said, “I’m going to grab a hazelnut latte! Anyone else want to join me at Starbucks around the corner?”

  Jun said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I don’t know if we have time right now, Brian. Some of the university students have invited you to join them at Yuyuan Garden. Yuyuan Garden is said to be part of the Ming Dynasty. It’s a peaceful, beautiful place right in the heart of the city, and a group of my students asked if you’ll be their guests there for a while.”

  Brian asked, “Can I ask what ‘a while’ means?”

  Jun said, “Don’t worry. We’ll just go for a while and see how you like it.”

  “Wow, that sounds really great,” Brian continued. “My only concern is that I really need to spend some time preparing for class.” Inside, Brian was thinking, I don’t need to hang out in some ancient garden! I’m not here to be a tourist. I want to be on top of my game to teach here.

  You see what’s happening here. Brian is the epitome of the conscientious short-termer who wants to perform his task with excellence. He’s to be affirmed for that. He knows teaching Chinese students isn’t something that can be done just by winging it.

  Unfortunately, Brian doesn’t understand that one of the things that might help him most in teaching is spending time with a group of Chinese peers in a place they’ve invited him to come. A trip to the garden probably won’t directly translate into teaching material; however, persevering through cultural experiences like this and, most of all, spending time with local students will be far more important to how he engages with his own students than he can imagine. Eating local food, walking down Nanjing Road, and lingering in Yuyuan Garden are probably what Brian needs far more to enhance his cultural intelligence and his effectiveness in teaching than spending a couple more hours reviewing his notes.

  Strategies to Improve Your CQ Drive

  Anytime:

  Consider what cultures are most difficult for you. Why?

  Connect cross-cultural engagement with your existing interests (e.g., art lovers can look at the way a culture views art; sports enthusiasts can see how culture shapes the way people compete).

  Get hands-on experiences with different cultures whenever you can.

  On Your Short-Term Trip:

  Notice your biases. How are you tempted to judge certain behaviors?

  Create time to recharge your batteries—emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

  Look for issues of injustice. Cultural intelligence is needed to make a difference. Seeing an injustice may increase your desire to serve with CQ.

  10

  Seek to Understand

  CQ Knowledge

  The team’s first full day in Shanghai was devoted to following Jun and a few of his students around Shanghai. The tour included some of the typical spots for visitors such as the Yuyuan Garden, the Jade Buddha Temple, the Jin Mao Tower, and the Bund. They also went to some less touristy places such as a primary school, a market, and a neighborhood on the outer limits of the city.

  By lunchtime, everyone was starving. Jun brought the team to one of his favorite restaurants. He smiled and said, “Well, I hope you’re okay with the food here. I can’t say it’s the very best at this restaurant, but hopefully, it will be okay.”

  Jake blurted out, “Hey. We’ll make the best of it. It’s all part of the adventure!” Jun’s smile seemed to fade slightly.

  Jenny, one of the other team members, was trying to unpack what she thought Jun was trying to communicate. She had just taken a course in intercultural communication, and she felt something may be going on here that deserved attention. She began to wonder, Is criticizing the food just a typical Chinese custom—something everyone does that really has nothing to do with the food itself? Or maybe he was trying to make a joke. She remembered that humor is one of the hardest things to translate cross-culturally. Jun did have a big smile as he said it, so maybe he was trying to be funny. On the other hand, in the brief synopsis she had read about Chinese culture, she knew they made a practice of self-effacing. So perhaps that’s what this was. Or was it the indirect approach often used by Chinese people when they interact? Or maybe this was Jun’s backhanded way of expressing concern about whether the next three weeks of working together was a good idea.[103]

  Just then Jenny realized Jun was talking to her. “What are you studying?” he asked her.

  She replied, “Oh—I’m majoring in communications and I might minor in TESL.” Then she said, “I heard you just graduated with an English major, Jun. What are you going to do next?”

  “Oh. I already have a job at the university,” he said.

  “Congratulations. Have you found a place to live?” she asked.

  “Actually, the university is right by my house,” Jun replied.

  “You mean your parents’ house?” asked Jenny.

  “Yes. Exactly. Our house,” replied Jun.

  “So are you going to save up some money for a while before you move out?” chimed in Jake.

  Jun replied, “No. We’re quite happy with our place.”

  Jake said, “Well, I guess that’s not all bad until you’re married anyway.”

  Jun said, “I am married.”

  Sarah, the only student on the team majoring in intercultural studies, said, “Oh yeah. All Asians do that.” A couple of the other students rolled their eyes, both because they had been listening to Sarah’s expertise on Asian culture every few minutes for the last couple days and because they couldn’t imagine the thought of living with their parents after being married.

  Jenny’s mind began
to wander again. Why do so many generations here live together? That can’t be healthy for marriage, can it? Or maybe we’re the ones who aren’t healthy by thinking we have to get out on our own.

  “Jenny!” Jake interrupted her thoughts. “The rice, please. Can you please pass the rice?”

  At the surface level, Jenny’s concerns are connected to her limited understanding of Chinese customs. Compared to Jake, who doesn’t even notice that some miscommunication may be occurring, Jenny is aware that something isn’t quite right, but she lacks the cultural intelligence to know what it is and how best to respond. How do we explain Sarah? We haven’t heard much from her, but it appears the rest of the team has. Is she demonstrating the greatest measure of CQ Knowledge because she’s devoted almost all her study to intercultural issues? We’ll come back to these students in Shanghai in a bit. For now, let’s look at the second capability of cultural intelligence: CQ Knowledge.

  In recent years, a great deal of attention has been given to the importance of training people who participate in short-term missions. Leaders spend time preparing groups for what they should expect when they travel to their destination. Others invest time researching the history of the place, the people’s views on religion, their language, and more. This, in part, is what growing in CQ Knowledge means.