services of worship

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Last week I had the opportunity to get to know our new General Minister and President (GMP), Terri Hord Owens, who was the keynote speaker at the annual Clergy Retreat. There is a lot I could tell you about her, but let’s suffice it to say, we are in good hands as a denomination with Terri at the helm. She is smart, witty, laid back, humorous, and very easy to talk to; she will be good for the denomination.

Her primary theme in the keynote sessions was the necessity of developing our Cultural Intelligence or CQ. I think we’ve all heard of IQ, the measure of raw intelligence developed by Alfred Binet. A couple of decades ago a related term became popular, EQ or Emotional Intelligence. EQ relates to our ability to empathize with others, to “put ourselves in another’s shoes”, and thus to create stronger bonds with people different than ourselves.

Then came the notion of GQ or Global Intelligence, the knowledge and ability to work in a truly global environment. This concept has become increasingly important as the world gets smaller through technological leaps.

Now we have CQ. CQ goes beyond EQ and GQ to a significant degree. CQ defines our ability to cross cultural barriers and thrive in those often perplexing environments.

Terri’s interest is in applying the tenants of CQ to church life. This is important for a global denomination whose largest growth areas are in the southern hemisphere. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are very different from us; the way we look, talk, think, and relate to God.  

Terri says, and I believe she is right, that we must learn to look at each other, knowing that “different is not deficient.”  

When I look around at what’s going on in our country today, many of our problems seem rooted in the fact that we see “the other” as being somehow deficient; less than ourselves. When we see someone as deficient, it becomes easy to dismiss their humanity and to treat them in ways we wouldn’t be treated.

One thing that we know about Jesus, he doesn’t see deficiency in anyone, regardless their station in life, their social or religious status, their wealth or poverty, or any other way we choose to measure how we stack up; everyone is equal and precious in the eyes of God. Our GMP believes that if we want to represent the kingdom of God to a hurting world, we need to up our game in the CQ area. I believe she is right.

Maybe we’ll visit about that.

See you Sunday!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Kelly