Outliers

After Chaney and I saw Steven Colbert's inteview with Malcolm Gladwell on November 17 and then we each heard Gladwell interviewed elsewhere in subsequent days, we decided we ought to read his new book - Outliers: The Story of Success. An "outlier" is something that lies outside of normal experience - something that falls outside of the statistical norms. In this fascinating book, Gladwell argues that extremely successful people owe their success to much more than personal intelligence and ambition. In fact, people who seem to have maximized their individual potential owe far more to their families, their birthplaces, and even their birthdates. 

Gladwell had me hooked with his introduction about the Roseto mystery. In the 1950s, a physician named Stewart Wolf launched an investigation into why the people of Roseto, Pennsylvania, had astonishingly low rates of heart disease compared to the general American population. As Wolf explored why these Italian immigrants were largely immune to a disease that was at epidemic proportions nationally, he discovered that the secret to their health wasn't diet, exercise, genes, or location. Instead, the key was the sense of community that the Rosetans had imported to America from their ancestral home in the Italian province of Foggia. In Pennsylvania, three generations of Rosetans lived under one roof and shared meals together. Neighbors lingered on porches to chat, and passersby greeted each other warmly on the streets of Roseta. Individual health reflected the overall health of the community.

As I read Gladwell's account of the Rosetans, I thought about the sense of community that existed in the days of the Early Church, when Christ-followers gathered regularly for meals, fellowship, worship, and prayer. I also thought about how the Apostle Paul's emphasized the importance of the interdependence of believers. Individual spiritual health is indeed directly related to corporate spiritual health. This would come as no surprise to the Rosetans. 

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27).