 |
One Body, Much Intelligence
“…so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:5
In 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, he proposed eight different intelligences:
- Linguistic Intelligence (“word smart”)
- Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)
- Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)
- Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)
- Musical intelligence (“music smart”)
- Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)
- Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)
- Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)
Members of our congregations see their personal relationship to the church through one or more of these intelligences. As leaders and laypeople in the church, we need to recognize and celebrate each person’s gifts and how these gifts fit into the “one body” of the church.
In December 1989, Leonard Bernstein conducted the historic “Berlin Celebration Concerts” on both sides of the Berlin Wall, as it was being dismantled. The concerts were unprecedented gestures of cooperation, the musicians representing the former East Germany, West Germany and the four powers that had partitioned Berlin after World War II. Imagine, if you will, the difficulties that Bernstein faced in bringing a group of musicians together for the first time, and rehearsing them in a setting where many of them, because of language barriers, could not understand the conductor’s verbal directions, let alone speak to the person in the chair next to them. Yet Bernstein succeeded in bringing the ensemble together and creating one of the great recordings in classical music history—Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9—in which the chorus asks the question, “World, do you recognize your Creator?” Literally hundreds of musicians formed one body to ask the world to recognize their creator, and to respond as one.
Leonard Bernstein used multiple intelligences to bring the orchestra and chorus together as one. Each day I pray that the many talents that are found in our congregation will continue to come together to form one body, in order to celebrate the life of the church.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we pray that we will recognize the multiple ways in which people think, and find ways in which to bring them together as one body. Amen.
Mike McBride
Director of Music
Calvary Baptist Church
Denver, CO
|
|
-Read past thoughts-
|
