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Is There a Correlation Between IQ & Pastoral Success?
In her article “Why Smart People Make Bad Moves,” Yahoo! Financial columnist Laura Rowley examines a recent study from Ohio State University on the relationship between a person’s IQ and his or her financial situation. She summarizes the study this way: “Smart people can be boneheads when it comes to accumulating wealth, and the average Joe can become the millionaire next door.” According to the study each point increase in IQ test scores raised income by between $234 and $616 per year. But this didn’t protect higher IQ people from financial woes. In fact, higher IQ people had just as high, if not higher rates of late bills, maxed-out credit cards, and even bankruptcies. The bottom line: Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you’re smart in using your smartness. (Obviously, I didn’t rate real high on the IQ test myself!)...
I guess that’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Scripture pointed this out long ago: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (I Corinthians 1:25).
That got me wondering…is there a correlation between “smart” pastors and “success in ministry”? Would a pastor with a higher “spiritual” IQ have a more vibrant and growing church than someone with a lower, more normal level of intelligence?
According to Rowley, here are some reasons why your average next-door neighbor might be a millionaire while you sit in your living room paying off your maxed-out Visa bill. I wonder if any of these “average millionaire” traits could correspond to the “higher than average” church leader?
Let’s investigate.
They Make Their Own Rules: Rowley quotes Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker: “Many wealthy people didn’t do well in school; it was too structured for them. But they’re creative, intuitive, and have street smarts—they understand how things work, and how to get business done.” I see this same quality in many pastors of vibrant churches. There’s a high value on creativity and innovation. Their leadership is usually very entrepreneurial… they actually like to try new things. And they’ve set up their church leadership to allow things to happen, and happen quickly.
They Get Knocked Down, But They Get Up Again: “It’s hustle,” says real estate magnate Barbara Corcoran in Rowley’s article. “Hustle is being too stupid to know that you should lay low when you keep getting slammed.” There seem to be two different types of church leaders that I see. I’m over-simplifying here, but there are leaders who always seem like they’re being beaten down, and there are other leaders who always seem to be ahead of their critics and above all the conflict. I really think part of this has to do with the ability of the successful leader to get right back up after being knocked down (rather than laying on the ground and allowing people to kick you.) Sometimes the higher your intelligence level, the more time you take to qualify and logically remedy a situation. Sometimes that quality allows you to stay on the ground longer, getting beaten up in the process.
They Succeed Through Social Intelligence: Another characteristic of average people who become millionaires is that they surround themselves with teams that compensate for their weaknesses. While this is mostly in a business setting, I also see this in the church with pastors who have effective ministries. They don’t rely on their own intelligence to make everything happen. They know their weaknesses and gather smart people around them to help them in these areas. They also aren’t afraid to let others around them lead.
They Take More Risks and, Consequently, Reap More Rewards: People with average brains may be more naive and willing to jump in—start a business or make an investment—than their high-IQ counterparts, who ponder every angle and know too much about the potential downsides of a proposition to take a risk. I’ve noticed that highly intelligent people are many times more adverse to risk. If you look at church leaders involved with growing churches, you’ll find that they risk frequently. They try new things. They fail consistently. And they reap the rewards of their risk.
Is it a leap to make a correlation between IQ, millionaires, intelligence, and pastors? Possibly. My only point is that God is in control of the church and its leaders. And your intelligence, many times, is not one of God’s key qualifiers.
So if you’re reading this today thinking about how smart you are… get over yourself. It really doesn’t qualify you to do better things for God than your sub-genius counterparts.
And, if you’re reading this today wishing you had a tad bit more intelligence… be encouraged that there are many things other than your IQ and training that figure into a successful, fruit-producing ministry.
Let’s learn what we can from the millionaires next door. After all, what we’re striving for in our work is much more significant than mere dollars.
Todd
This post has been viewed 1465 times and was added on May 13, 2007 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Leadership Issues Leadership Development Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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My name is Todd Rhoades, the 'behind the scenes' guy here at MMI. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the developer of a of a website called ChurchStaffing.com. I hope you'll enjoy your time here and tell all your colleagues about MMI! 
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Post Your Comments:I think the people who do those things ARE smart, and as a result, reap the rewards. We’ve just mis-identified and mis-defined “smartness” or “intelligence”. The guy with an IQ of 250 who tries to do everything and fails is, imho, not as smart as the guy with the IQ of 80 who tries to get hiimself surrounded by people who do stuff better than him. The REALLY scary guy is the guy with the IQ of 80 who tries to do everything himself…
I am working on a dissertation that is examining pastoral effectiveness in relationship to emotional intelligence. EI is quickly becoming the standard success predictor, especially in highly social environments such as the church.
Great article to talk about Todd - thanks! The missing ingredient in the IQ quotient is the natural gifting of the individual together with skills they have developed to further enhance those gifts. It was a great day for me when I came to the realization that I will NEVER be a Hybels, Warren, (ooops, did I get something started there?) or whoever we see as “successful.” You have to work within in your strengths which involves God’s unique design for you and staff your weaknesses as Todd mentioned.
The second issue I see here is the definition of success. What qualifies one of the title of successful? Are we impacting lives? Is the ministry we lead growing? Is the great commandment and great commission being carried out in the context where we are serving?
I feel like I am being successful right now, and yet I don’t have a high IQ, I don’t have thousands flocking to a church I built. Heck, I’m not even a senior pastor - I’m just one of the pastors on staff. And apart from reading my name on this blog, you’ll probably never hear my name mentioned. That’s ok. I’m doing what God designed me to do.
Emotional intelligence is important. Pastors who have high IQ’s can be very
immature controlling everything resulting in cultish leadership which is not trusting the Lord to bring the results. One of the key comments in the above article was not willing to let others lead. Too many think they are the HEAD of the body--not. Many of the successful pastors I have seen have great leadership skills. It isn’t intelligent to think you are superior to others (pride). If you can’t relate to your flock, what good is all the high
sounding words with Greek and Hebrew words? The lady in the nursery who is serving faithfully will be there long after many so called smart ministers who had to have their way, bulldozing and bullying over the leaders who were there, building the foundation for them to spring forward as if they did it all themselves. All of this depends on how one defines intelligence…smile.
Thanks Todd for the great ideas you bring to the table and your openness to hear both sides.
I think there is something to be said about getting back up again. What a pastor does with criticism is huge in how he or she maintains healthiness in spirit, in faith, in relationships and in their leadership. A lot of our success is in following. It is in listening to Christ clearly and following him and by following him taking the church you pastor with you. The whole EI thing is huge.
I think that smart pastors (i.e,, intelligent) are limited to specialized ministry. The masses want easy answers, whereas the more intelligent realize that easy answers rarely work in the long term.
Conventional wisdom is that the ideal leader has SLIGHTLY above average intelligence. If a man is very smart, other intelligent people can identify with him—but not the massess.
Unfortunately, by embracing the common Amercian viewpoint ("bigger is better"), there are fewer churches that appeal to the more intelligent Chrsitian.
So the Body of Christ needs churches that minister to the masses and churches that minister to the deep thinkers. The “big name” pastors usually fall into the first category (although there are a few exceptions like John Piper), while a few of the no-names fall into the latter.
Just as having a doctorate works AGAISNT a pastor in a conflict (because his adversaries claim he is all head and no heart), so intelligence works against church growth.
The pastor of average intelligence can preach 4 steps to a happy marriage and really believe he has a complete or deep package; the intelligent minister knows that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; he could not preach that same sermon in good conscience.
And what is popular? Just look at the best selling Christian books.
It seems like we are talking about the difference between IQ and wisdom. One can be extremely inteligent and still do stupid things. Other people can be less intelligent and still do very wise things. imo, success is less about intelligence (as measured by IQ tests) and more about wisdom (the practical application of knowledge and common sense in the real world.)
Throw into the mix that people of all IQ levels have brokeness, sin, addictions, etc. to deal with and you can get just about any combination you like. Highly successful, highly intelligent people. Underperforming geniuses. low IQ millionaires.Great pastors who never graduated high school. Unsuccessful pastors with D.Min degrees.
My Two,
mdd
Freinds
As I was reading the article I was becoming concerned as to secular overtones of the presentation. Glad God was brought back into the picture! Regarding those with ‘brains’ I have a MDiv and the degree gets me into areas where traditional church associations and activities dictates a degree - unlike the individual with a Doctoate (as noted by Ed)! As I recall reading some where.....let me see....Oh yes.....Acts 4:13, talk about low (perceived at best) IQ’s - Maybe we have all forgotten at times the church is a ‘organization’ which operated in the spiritual realm and the HOLY SPIRIT is the ‘brains of the operation’. In an area of the country (New England) where intelectualism reigns, I agree with Michael’s statements. I sometimes feel more grieved over those with ‘everything’ than those who live in a shopping cart! One final thought, I have a puppet ministry and have a program on our local cable public access TV. What I find interesting is the type of peoples who watch the program - those with “brains” and yet refuse to accept the Gospel and the message of redemption and restoration through our Messiah, but like to see me and ‘Fred’!
Always in prayer for all who are reaching out tho the lost
Your Brother in Christ
Where and how do I submit an article pertinent to this one?
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