by Jennie A. Harrop (Author), Ken Vanden Hoek (Foreword by)
As leaders, our capacity to hear is often muddied by an inability to acknowledge our own insufficiencies and emotions. Jesus knew his God-given purpose and emotional character so deeply that he was able to operate out of these foundations boldly and instinctively. Jesus's infallible Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) allowed him to focus on a third concept called "Audience Quotient" (AQ): an individual's ability to focus consistently, completely, and effectively on others. As a church, we are failing a twenty-first-century culture that is defined by an unprecedented interconnectedness and speed of information. We are witnessing a scramble to manipulate and manage information that demands renewed integrity, and yet the church is seen as hypocritical, judgmental, and irrelevant. If we are going to earn a voice, the future church cannot be about the components of church at all, but instead the individual souls within the church--pastors included. The better we ground ourselves in the truth of who we were created to be (IQ, EQ, and AQ), the better able we will be to love God fully and love those around us as we love ourselves. That, after all, is what Jesus commanded us to do.
Author Biography
Jennie A. Harrop is chair of George Fox University's Department of Professional Studies. She has a PhD in English (University of Denver), a DMin in Semiotics (Portland Seminary), an MFA in creative writing (Colorado State University), and a BA in journalism (Pacific Lutheran University). Her previous books include The Simple Math of Writing Well: Writing for the 21st Century (2018) and Angling for Repose: Wallace Stegner and the De-Mythologizing of the American West (2010).