"The Spirit of Ministry is the Spirit of Heaven, and with every effort to develop and encourage it, Angels will cooperate."
- E.G.W. Ministry of Healing 401

 October 12, 2003

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Angel Co-Op Newsletter

Dear Sister in Christ!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As a parallel with the "Reflections on The Body" emails, I thought you might also be interested in reading our Sabbath School Superintendant's recent comments about the way God uses 'brain quadrant preferences' to maximize the functioning of the Body of Christ:

ONE BODY
By Rose Olsen
Sabbath School Superintendent,
Saskatoon Central SDA Church
October 4, 2003

God's wonders of creation are all around us and no more so than when examining the human body. The human body is a complex organism of numerous anatomical and physiological systems interconnected to create a fully functioning, healthy person. If we lose an eye, ear, or spleen, we can still function but in a handicapped manner. If we lose the function of a major organ such as the brain, heart, or lungs, we would die.

The apostle Paul says the church is the Body of Christ and Jesus is the Head of the Body. (Ephesians 1:22, 23) Each of us together make up the body. "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually." (1 Cor. 12:27) Just as our physical body needs all its parts to be healthy, the Body of Christ needs all its members. "For in fact the Body is not one member but many." (1 Cor. 12:14) Paul goes on to say of each part: (read 1 Cor. 15-21). To be a healthy church body, we need the talents of every person, no one is too small or unimportant. God created every part of our physical body to serve a purpose. Each person in the Body of Christ is valuable and has a purpose. God wastes nothing! What to us may seem small and insignificant, to God is valuable and needed. Paul says "Those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary."

In the past few decades, research on the human brain offers us fresh insights into God's creativity and into the differences we experience individually as well as in the Body of Christ. Dr. Arlene Taylor http://www.arlenetaylor.org/ has drawn upon the research of Dr. Katherine Benziger http://www.benziger.org/ and presented programs on 3ABN about research on the human brain that helps us understand how the church can value all of its members and still honour individual differences. Specifically, research confirms that the human cerebrum is divided into four specialized areas and each area makes an important contribution to human life. The four areas are known as the Left Frontal Lobe, the Right Frontal Lobe, the Posterior or Basal Left Lobe and the Posterior or Basal Right Lobe.

The Basal Left Lobe enables individuals to produce food, clothing, and shelter; to organize details in a sequential manner; and to provide and take care of routine tasks in an orderly manner.

The Basal Right Lobe emphasizes relationships between people, helps to focus on building trust, good will and community; deals with nurturing, sentiments, and emotions; creates peace and harmony; and produces music with feeling.

The Frontal Right Lobe enables us to adapt by making change; to provide vision, imagination, innovation; enables us to see the "big picture"; and persons with a preference for working from this lobe are good problem-solvers.

The Frontal Left Lobe provides with us with direction, evaluation, and non-emotional decision-making; structural analysis; prioritizing; logical reasoning; mathematics; and management functions.

Each person has a natural talent or gift in one and only one area of their brain according to the research. We can use all quadrants of our brains and even by competent in each mode, but one quadrant is our natural, preferred mode which uses less energy and is more efficient than if we use all the other three quadrants. As such, a "person's natural talent or way of doing things would reflect the key contributions to life of the mode in which he or she is gifted," according to Dr. Taylor.

For example, a person who is naturally Basal Left would enjoy routine activities like cooking, cleaning, buying groceries, paying bills, bookkeeping, washing clothes, assembling things according to instruction, etc. For a Basal Left person, these routine activities are energizing and fun to carry out. If a person who has a natural preference in one of the other modes has to perform such routine activities daily and continually, they would be bored, stressed out, or exhausted. Similarly, if a Basal Left person were to continually deal with people and relationships which are Basal Right activities, or do management decision-making as a Frontal Left does, the individual would be stressed out, bored and/or exhausted.

God, in His wisdom, has given us natural talents and a physiological brain preference which enables us to enjoy selected tasks and also enables us to be interdependent as a Body of Believers. We need people who are Front Left to be decision makers. We need Front Right people to "see the big picture" and future possibilities. We need Basal Left individuals to carry out routine daily tasks and we need Basal Right people to maintain peace, harmony and interpersonal relationships.

As a Body of Believers, we need people to fill all these key functions in our church and God has created each of us with a natural preference so we can serve Him and each other in service that is meaningful, energizing, and joyful to us. If any one of us tries to "do everything," we burn out and are exhausted. Only Jesus as the Head of the Church is truly "whole-brained" and can meet all our needs. As the Creator and Redeemer, Jesus is Frontal Right. As Comforter and Love, He is Basal Right and is our nurturer and He seeks relationship with His children. As Sustainer, He is Basal Left and provides our necessities of life. As Lawgiver and Judge, Jesus is Frontal Left to provide natural laws, wisdom, guidance, and judgment.

God values differences and differences have been a part of Christianity since Jesus' time. Paul, in comparing the Body of Christ to a physical body, validates the differences and the value that we each have in our service to God and to the church. The research on the human brain further demonstrates God's wisdom in His creation of each unique individual with natural talents and brain preferences, and subsequently, our need for each other as a community of believers. God has created us such that when we function in our natural brain preference, we enjoy our service and we rejoice for Jesus promised "...my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30)

Rose Olsen, M.A. is currently running a Christian Support Group (for women who experienced sexualized violence as children) every Wednesday, 5 - 7 p.m. at Tamara's House Sacred Space, 1605 Victoria Avenue, Saskatoon, beginning October 15, and running until December 17, 2003.

If you are interested in exploring into what your preferred brain quadrant lead is, and using this information to pursue your dreams and customize your career choice, contact Elli Kenney at meadowcottage@sasktel.net