Outliers, Chapter 1

This is the first chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers.  So to begin with . . . Pop quiz.  If you were a little boy growing up in Canada, and you dreamed of being a professional NHL hockey player, in which MONTH of the year should you have been born?

Give up?

The answer is either January, February, or March.  Don't believe me?  Just check out the birthdates for all of the hockey players in the NHL.  Not the year.  The month.  In fact, check out the rosters for any elite group of hockey players in North America.  It's astonishing!  "In any elite group of hockey players - the very best of the best - 40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March, 30 percent between April and June, 20 percent between July and September, and 10 percent between October and December."  It's an iron-clad law of Canadian Hockey, as predictable as the sunrise.

So the natural question is 'Why?' 

Why does the December- born child, who is raised in the same town, the same environmnet, the same upbringing, and with the same desire to succeed, have a much smaller chance at making it to the "Big Leagues" as his counterparts born early in the year?  Are Aquariuses better Hockey players than Sagitariuses?  No.

The answer is actually very simple. Imagine that two young boys have the desire to be pro hockey players, one born January 2nd, the other born December 30th of the same year.  They both enlist in Junior hockey leagues.  But, "In Canada, the eligibility cut-off for age-class hockey is January 1st."  So "a boy who turns ten on January 2nd, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn't turn ten until the end of the year."  Does that really matter?  Well, just consider the differences in physical maturity between pre-adolescent boys at that age.  One year of age difference is huge!  And especially in a sport where strength and speed are so important.

So what happens is that the fastest and strongest kids in Junior Hockey League (which are usually the oldest kids . . . duh), rise to the top of their class.  Soon, those kids begin receiving special attention, coaching, and mentoring.  And eventually, in their teenage years, true skill separation begins to develop for the January-born players.  Those player go on to be High School hockey studs, college blue-chips, and eventually NHL Hall of Famers like Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Hull . . . born January 26th, and January 3rd respectively, by the way. 

And those players born in December?  They drive the zamboni :)

The point is, we often live under the delusion that everyone has an equal chance at success.  But sometimes the systems we have created are set up in such a way that they covertly advantages some of us over others.  Similar research has been done with our education system, showing that the younger students (May/ June birthdays) often do far worse academically from K through 12 and are far less likely to go on to higher education than those who are on the older end of their class.  At an early age kids get seperated into 'gifted and talented 'classes, honors classes, 'Advanced Track' classes . . . and low and behold, those kids are usually the older ones in their class.

What about in church . . . It is the job of any person in ministry to help people progress in their relationships with God, moving them from wherever they are spiritually to a place that's closer to Jesus.  But have we created a church system that has created a spiritual advantage for some people over others?

Just consider the number of men in your church vs. women.  In most American church congregations, women outnumber the men almost 2 to 1.  Are women more spiritually advanced than men, or have we created a church system that appeals more directly to women and thus makes it more difficult for men to connect and grow spiritually?  Or how about the ever-important spiritual discipline of "The Quiet Time," the measuring stick of spirituality in all evangelical Christianity.  Is it really necessary to determine the worth of every person's spirituality based on whether or not he or she has a "Quiet Time?"  Is a quiet time more beneficial for some in their progression toward God than others?

Or consider the primary discipleship tool in any good church's arsenal . . . Small Groups.  For many churches if you are not in a small group, you have willfully denied the path to a relationship with Jesus because that is THE ONE strategic method by which a church attender is expected to grow spiritually.  But I know alot of people who feel very uncomfortable in small groups, at least the way "small groups" often appear as a ministry.

Is that they only way people grow spiritually?  No.  And honestly, I think most pastors have only scratched the surface on all of the different ways, practices, and experiences that can aid a person in moving closer to God.  Or consider the people we often ask to be leaders in our churches or our disciples?  How many of us would choose the least educated, least likely candidates to sink our time into like Jesus did when he chose his 12 disciples?  I know for me, I find myself judging a person's leadership merit far too often based on outward appearances.  And I can't help but get the feeling that there's a big block of people we're missing because we simply haven't given them the chance.    

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