For the next few weeks in the Magazine, we’re exploring changing norms in the Episcopal Church. In this first piece, Howard Whitaker shares the top ten things he’s learned from closing a congregation; something we’re likely to see more of in the near future
We have intellectual intelligence that we call IQ. We even have emotional intelligence which we call EQ. But we, in the church – Christ’s only remaining body –we need to look harder at SQ, the spiritual intelligence which confines bullying egos, which deters sneaky parking-lot conversations, which loves mercy, forgives easily, names and confines ecclesial terrorists and hostage-takers and hears the laughter every day even in the most terrible of streets … and does something about it
A sad reality of life is that we too often settle for being “the selves we have become accustomed to being,” rather than the selves that God knows and loves.