Smarter or Dumber: How We Evaluate Our Intelligence

great piece from TIM ELMORE here...love the questions and the comparisons...

Six Questions to Ask Ourselves as We Build Intelligent Graduates:

1. How can we teach them to be focused without being obsessed?

“A dull person has just as quick a peak reaction time as a brilliant person,” James Flynn said in an interview with LiveScience. “The difference is that someone with a low IQ typically can’t stay focused and so their reaction times won’t be consistent throughout an experiment; their scores vary more widely than those of high-IQ people.”

2. Can we foster free thought yet ensure change leads to moral progress?

Progress means change but not all change means progress. We must instill a moral compass inside students to guide, guard and gauge their choices. C. S. Lewis said, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road. In that case, the man who turns back the soonest is the one who is most progressive.”

3. Can we help them balance two opposite ideas and see them objectively?

F. Scott Fitzgerald noted, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” This is what enables students to be civilized and wise as they make decisions for themselves, their families and their communities. This is the essence of true critical thinking: The ability to weigh and evaluate all data.

4. Can we be disciplined to listen before we speak and reject the impulse to only think about what we’ll say next?

This one’s tough. Especially since we live in a day of impulsive social media messaging, little critical thought and our innate human need to be heard. We are not a patient population, and I am usually guilty of pondering what I will say in reaction to the person I am speaking with, rather than really listening to their ideas.

5. What must we do to produce graduates who are life-long learners?

Far too often, people finish school and never read another book in their lifetime. They stop seeking, discovering and learning, at least on purpose. Ours is a day of rapid change; we cannot afford to remain “stuck” in thought patterns that may be irrelevant in the future. We must build curious grads who know how to research, identify what’s important and make changes to faulty perspectives.

6. How can we equip students to be both timely and timeless?

Too often, we can assume that a value or virtue from the past is automatically antiquated. I don’t buy that—honesty will always be valuable; discipline will always be valuable. The question is: can we prepare students for jobs that may not exist today, but thoroughly equip them to carry these timeless values with them into the future?

Let’s work to ensure our intelligence translates into wisdom. This means we hear and digest information and learn to “eat the fish and spit out the bones.” Aristotle said it first, “It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

https://growingleaders.com/blog/smarter-dumber-evaluate-intelligence/

Critical Things Passionate People Do Differently – TRAVIS BRADBERRY

Interesting stuff from the WCA GLS blog on what makes passionate people different from everyone else...

Passionate people are obsessed. Put simply, passionate people are obsessed with their muse, and I don’t mean that in an unhealthy OCD sort of way. I’m talking about a positive, healthy obsession, the kind that inspired the quote, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” No matter what else is going on, their thoughts keep returning to their passion. Not because they feel burdened and pressured by it, but because they’re just so excited about it. They’re obsessed with their muse because it inspires them and makes them happy.

They don’t waste time. You won’t find passionate people wandering around a park all afternoon playing Pokemon Go. They don’t have time to be bothered with things that don’t matter or things that just kill time. They devote every minute available to their passion, and it’s not a sacrifice, because there’s nothing else they’d rather be doing.

They’re optimistic. Passionate people are always focused on what can be rather than what is. They’re always chasing their next goal with the unwavering belief that they’ll achieve it. You know how it feels when you’re looking forward to a really special event? Passionate people feel like that every day. 

They’re early risers. Passionate people are far too eager to dive into their days to sleep in. It’s not that they don’t like to sleep; they’d just much rather be pursuing their passion. When the rooster crows, their minds are flooded with ideas and excitement for the day ahead.

They’re willing to take big risks. How much you want something is reflected in how much you’re willing to risk. Nobody is going to lay it all on the line for something they’re only mildly interested in. Passionate people, on the other hand, are willing to risk it all. 

They only have one speed—full tilt. Passionate people don’t do anything half-heartedly. If they’re going, they’re going full tilt until they cross the finish line or crash. If they’re relaxed and still, they’re relaxed and still. There’s no in between.

They talk about their passions all the time. Again, we’re talking about people whose passions are inseparable from who they are, and you couldn’t form much of a relationship with them if they couldn’t be real about who they are, right? It’s not that they don’t understand that you don’t share their obsession; they just can’t help themselves. If they acted differently, they’d be playing a role rather than being authentic.

They’re highly excitable. You know those people who probably wouldn’t get excited if an alien spaceship landed in their front yard? Yeah, that’s not how passionate people operate. It’s not that they’re never calm, or even bored. It’s just that it takes less to get them excited, so they get excited more frequently and stay excited longer. One theory is that they devote their energy to one or two things, so they make more progress, and that momentum fuels their excitement.

They’re all about their work. Passionate people don’t worry about work/life balance. Their work is who they are, and there’s no separating the two. It’s what they breathe, live and eat, so there’s no such thing as leaving it at the office. Asking them to do that is tantamount to asking them to deny who they are. And they’re OK with that because there’s nothing else they’d rather be doing.

http://www.followthegls.com/leadership-lessons/critical-things-passionate-people-differently-travis-bradberry/

Are millennials just entitled consumers or are they ready to get to work? BRAD GRIFFIN--FYI

Love this piece from the folks at Fuller Youth Institute...and I'm really excited about their new book GROWING YOUNG...this is truth I've found to be very much true about millennials...and why I love working alongside of them in Kingdom ventures like Night of Nets (www.nightofnets.org)...

 

Could this go on without me?

If I stopped showing up, would they notice?

When will I get asked to do something that matters?

You’ve probably heard the accusations that Millennials are fundamentally self-centered and want tailored consumer experiences—for church and everything else. If you’re a Millennial, those accusations may annoy the tar out of you. If you’re not, you might be able to identify some experiences that make this ring true, and others that call it into question.

What we hear less about is how churches can be communities in which young people find not only spiritual goods and services, but also purpose, significance, and calling. What if the young people in our churches are asking the questions above? What if they look around our congregations and wonder, do these people really need me, or am I just an extra, a nuisance, or—worse—a trophy?

In our research for Growing Young we interviewed over 1,300 folks—both young people ages 15-29 and adults over age 30—about their churches. We wondered how young people who love their churches would describe them. We wondered how they see their place in the church, and how they are seen by leaders and other adults.

What we found was inspiring.

Among the many insights we share in our new book Growing Young are these three twists on why young people need to be treated as more than just consumers.

1. Family feel outshines consumer show

Among the reasons research participants gave for why their church is effective with young people, worship, music, and preaching were not nearly as prominent as we might expect. Instead, nearly 1 in 3 shared aboutwarmth. They defined their church “like family” more than any other descriptor.

Yes, warm is the new cool.

In practice, this means that fostering a sense of authenticity, belonging, and caring community may be more important to the teenagers and twentysomethings in your congregation and neighborhood than how slick your Sunday morning service appears.

This shift also moves away from consumerism because in a family, everyone has a part to play. Everyone is needed. Remove any member of the family, and the family is incomplete. We want young people to feel this way about their vital role in the church.

2. They not only want to be saved from something, but for something.

Young people are longing for us to show them why faith matters not only on Sunday, but also on Monday. They not only want to be saved fromsomething later, but for something now. They want to get to work. They want to know how to follow Jesus beyond a set of rules of all they can’t do.

Young people need adults who open the vast array of possibilities awaiting the engaged Christian in the world. They want an emphatic “yes” to their lives, not just a bunch of “no’s.” The good news is that this is not only the kind of life young people want, it’s what Jesus wants too. Following Jesus is costly, requires sacrifice, and invites us to actively participate in God’s kingdom. In fact, the church by its very nature is participatory, which means everyone shares the work.

3. Young people want a load-bearing role to play

This might seem counterintuitive, but in our research we found that young people don’t fit the stereotypes of shirking responsibility or waiting around for other people to do the work for them. They’re ready to get to work.

They want significance.

They want to be handed keys of responsibility.

They want to know they have a load-bearing role to play in the congregation. “Load-bearing” because without them, it would fail. Without them, it wouldn’t be nearly as good, because it would lack their unique voice.

How should we invite young people in? 

In ministry, most of us probably walk the fine line between “it’s not about you” and “we need you”, especially when it comes to young people. We tend to fall somewhere on a continuum between perceived opposite messages.

On one hand, since we don’t want to foster consumerist tendencies, we won’t cater to young people—or anyone else—by changing anything we do in response to what we hear. Our mantra is, “It’s not about you,” and of course, we’re right. Worship, community life, discipleship—it’s all fundamentally about God, not us.

But among the unintended consequences on this end of the continuum, we keep doing the same things in the same ways, and the same people (usually us!) keep doing them from week to week. So in the end, it’s not about them, but it is all about us.

On the other hand, we can fall into the trap of being so focused on attracting and keeping young people that we communicate “We’d be lost without you. You are our only hope.” And again, we’re right. Without young people, a church can only survive so long. But once someone becomes a “target demographic,” it’s not long before insiders smother young guests with desperate attention in hopes to keep them around.

Neither end of the continuum is healthy.

Toward a whole church body

Here’s the theological truth in the midst of this quandary: The church cannot be what it is meant to be without each one of us living out our part.

The church cannot be what it is meant to be without each one of us living out our part. 

Paul focuses on the metaphor of the body to describe the ongoing lived presence of Jesus on earth: the church as the Body of Christ (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4). This metaphor is important for our understanding of community precisely because it assigns each person inherent value. Not only are we all made in God’s image, but also we are designed to fit in some indispensable way into the Body of Christ.

Indispensable.

This is why church attendance matters. Not because our numbers suffer when you don’t attend, but because when you’re not here, we can’t be who we really are. We’re missing parts.

This is why hospitality matters. Because when we welcome the stranger (whatever categories they may or may not fit), we welcome someone who may become part of our body, and to whom we then must commit our very lives.

I wonder how many teenagers and twentysomethings feel indispensable in your congregation? I wonder what they’d say if you asked?

Working together leads to belonging

In my own church’s experience, it’s in shared work that people find life. Work as a part of the body becomes an inroad to belonging. It’s where people find community, significance, and sometimes also vocational calling. It’s how “you all” language begins to shift to “we” language. Sometimes newcomers are surprised to be invited into work so soon, but it has become obvious to us that it’s the only way to really be a church—to share the work. Not very flashy, but effective.

Where we sometimes struggle with this—surprisingly—is with our own kids and teenagers. We are continually tempted to let them off the hook, or assume they don’t care, or fall prey to small imaginations about how they might contribute. When we get past these temptations, we’re often surprised. The work may be different than we predicted, but without a doubt better.

Because the whole body mattered.

Could this go on without me?

If I stopped showing up, would they notice?

When will I get asked to do something that matters?

This week, put yourself in the shoes of a young person and ask these questions about your church. Better yet, sit down with a few and wonder together how the church could shift from ministry to them to ministry withthem. There’s a world of difference between the two.

https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/blog/millennials-work