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Introverts have gifts for the church and the world. But many churches tend to be extroverted places where introverts are marginalized. Some Christians end up feeling like it's not as faithful to be an introvert. Adam McHugh shows how introverts can live and minister in ways consistent with their personalities. He explains how introverts and extroverts process information and approach relationships differently and how introverts can practice Christian spirituality in ways that fit who they are. With practical illustrations from church and parachurch contexts, McHugh offers ways for introverts to serve, lead, worship, and even evangelize effectively. Introverts in the Church is essential reading for any introvert who has ever felt out of place, as well as for church leaders who want to make their churches more welcoming to introverts. This expanded edition has been revised throughout and includes new research on the neuroscience of introversion and material for parenting and encouraging introverted youth. Discover God's call and empowerment to thrive as an introvert, for the sake of the church and kingdom.
- Sales Rank: #1735331 in Books
- Published on: 2017-08-01
- Released on: 2017-08-01
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
Review
"This is a timely and badly needed book which will encourage thousands of Christians who have felt they don't quite fit in. This book gave me hope that it was okay to doubt and be uncomfortable in some settings and group styles." (Jan Arkills, The Lamplighter)
A mixture of biblically grounded psychology, examples from Scripture, personal anecdotes, and practical advice on how to reach out to introverts as well as what to do if you're the Introvert in ministry. His goal is to show that introverts and extroverts alike have a place in the church despite how they handle relationships and process information. (Rachel Lonas, Pulpit Helps, December 2009)
Any introverted Christian who ever has felt misunderstood because of his or her personality type likely will find this book a revelatory, mission-affirming reading experience. (Todd Hoover, Youth Worker Journal, January/February 2010)
McHugh challenges churches to recognize that the significant numbers of introverts in their bodies have been gifted to serve in unique ways and to encourage them and open up avenues for service. (Pulpit Helps, November 2009)
Full-time and lay ministers within churches will enjoy reading this book to understand better the struggles and strengths introverts can bring to church ministry. Highly recommended. (Ray Arnett, Library Journal, November 1, 2009)
With clarity, logic, practical examples, and scripture Introverts in the Church offers ways for more reticent types to effectively serve, lead, worship, and share their faith with some helpful advice to the terminally introverted on how to be more involved in the world outside themselves. Introverts offers hope and reveals how more restrained people can approach relationships differently and practice spirituality in ways that fit who they are. (Jim Miller, Jim Miller Book Review, November 25, 2009)
"For the longest time, I've considered my wiring as an introvert a thorn in my side. After spending time engaging with others, I felt so empty and overwhelmed . . . and lonely. With my calling as an author and pastor requiring me to publicly speak and consult, I wondered if I misunderstood my place in this world. In Introverts in the Church, Adam brings a voice to those of us who often trade ours in for a little bit of respite. This is not only a needed resource for introverts; all leaders need to read Introverts in the Church for a better understanding of how introverts can lead, how they follow and how they refresh." (Anne Marie Miller, pastor, blogger and author of Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic)
"As an author and consultant, I have seen firsthand the struggles that introverts face in a society built for extroverts. But I have also seen how powerful introverts can be once they embrace the gifts of a quiet and thoughtful temperament. In this deeply felt and beautifully reasoned guide for introverts in the church, pastor Adam McHugh shows the way for introverted Christians to find peace within themselves and their community." (Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
"As an introvert who has experienced both the strengths and weaknesses of my temperament, I appreciate the way McHugh goes well beyond the facile stereotypes and conclusions of armchair psychologists. If you've ever felt vaguely sinful for not being a gregarious Christian I suggest you spend some quality time alone with a copy of Introverts in the Church." (Don Everts, minister of outreach, Bonhomme Presbyterian Church, Chesterfield, Missouri, and author of I Once Was Lost)
"As a fellow introvert, I well know the tension, irony and even contradiction of being in vocational ministry where public speaking and being with people are major and vital parts of our roles. This book puts together extremely helpful thinking to better understand who we are and how to navigate and celebrate being introverted and in leadership in an extroverted world." (Dan Kimball, author of They Like Jesus but Not the Church)
"Introverts, take heart! As an introvert myself--an off-the-chart 'I' on the Myers-Briggs--I find certain aspects of church life, like speaking to other human beings every Sunday, really taxing. McHugh thoughtfully explores the gifts introverts bring to the church, and he considers both how introverts can live well in the church and how churches can be more hospitable to us." (Lauren F. Winner, Duke Divinity School, author of Girl Meets God)
"At last a book for and about introverts in ministry, and a wonderful book it is! McHugh unpacks the challenges and characteristics of the introvert leader in a ministry world designed for extroverts. He offers practical guidance for developing as a leader, evangelizing, joining a community, preaching and becoming spiritually mature in Christ. The book not only helps introverts, but it can serve as a great resource for extroverts who lead, coach, mentor or relate to introverts." (MaryKate Morse, author of Making Room for Leadership, and an introvert)
"This is a book that all leaders in the church should read! It made me realize that I owe an apology to all the introverts whose insights and contributions I have not understood or have overlooked. McHugh's perceptions are crucial for churches in our extremely extroverted society--we are missing some of God's best treasures for Christ's body. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wishes more thoroughly to understand the Holy Spirit's creation of a diversity of personalities and gifts." (Marva J. Dawn, teaching fellow in spiritual theology, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, and author of My Soul Waits, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly and In the Beginning, GOD)
"What a timely and badly needed book! Introverts in the Church will encourage thousands of Christians who have felt as if they don't quite fit. It will help them find their rightful place in Christian community, so that their gifts might be well used in the work of the kingdom. This book will also help churches to be a place where all people can flourish as disciples of Jesus. Adam McHugh has given us a precious gift through his openness, theological soundness and godly wisdom." (Dr. Mark D. Roberts, senior director and scholar-in-residence, Laity Lodge)
"Adam is addressing a huge number of folks in the church. Read it and heal." (John Ortberg, author, senior pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church)
"What Adam McHugh's Introverts in the Church did for me the first time was unmask the extroversion-shaped churches that we have and open up possibilities for how an introversion-sensitive church might conduct its business. . . . The reason our church is sensitive to introverts is because our leaders have absorbed the insights of Adam's Introverts in the Church and become one of those places of grace for introverts and extroverts." (from the foreword by Scot McKnight)
"Introverts in the Church changed my life when I first read the book seven years ago. Adam's voice on the topic of introverts resonated with so many people like me, who found themselves as introverts functioning in extroverted positions and living in an extroverted culture. In many ways, through this book I was given permission to be myself, and I have continued this work with my clients each week in my private practice. I regularly recommend this book to both introverts and extroverts." (Rhett Smith, licensed marriage and family therapist, author of The Anxious Christan)
"Introverts in the Church is thoughtful, validating, and charming. It's the book for all churchgoers who have ever wanted to disappear into their seats when the pastor said, 'Turn and introduce yourself to three strangers.' Adam teaches an important lesson: spirituality should not be measured by sociability. The introvert who quietly reflects on her faith is as true a believer as the extrovert who preaches exuberantly to others." (Jenn Granneman, creator of IntrovertDear.com)
"God must love the introverts, because he made so many of us. In this wonderful new edition of Introverts in the Church, Adam McHugh helps us see that there is a place for us in communities of faith. His wise observations are rooted in experience and deep study, and his advice is both practical and profound. So let us make a joyful quiet unto the Lord!" (John J. Pitney Jr., Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics, Claremont McKenna College, author of The Politics of Autism)
About the Author
Adam S. McHugh (ThM, Princeton Theological Seminary) is an ordained Presbyterian minister and spiritual director, and a regular contributor to Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution website. He has served at two Presbyterian churches, as a hospice chaplain and as campus staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He is the author of The Listening Life, which won the 2017 Christianity Today Book Award for spiritual formation, and Introverts in the Church, and lives on the central coast of California.
Scot McKnight (Ph.D., University of Nottingham) is professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. He is the author of The Jesus Creed, The King Jesus Gospel, A Community Called Atonement, Embracing Grace, The Real Mary and commentaries on James, Galatians and 1 Peter, and coeditor of the award-winning Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. He is also a widely recognized blogger at the Jesus Creed blog. His other interests include golfing, gardening and traveling.
Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
A somewhat unsatisfying treatment of an incredibly important topic for today's churches
By Will Barto
This is a helpful book that describes the difficulties that introverts have in contemporary churches in America. It provides an illuminating description of how "extroverted" the modern evangelical church has become. The author shares many suggestions as to how introverts could more fully integrate into the life of these churches. It should be read by any pastor who wants to understand the flock better and how modern church movements like Alpha, the small group movement, Amore, and even the "coffee hour" can be extremely off-putting and even destructive to the faith of introverts.
There are a number of negative aspects of the book that prevent me from rating it more highly.
- The author paints introverts with a pretty broad brush, relying on stereotypes and eschewing much psychological or sociological research that could have supported his assertions more persuasively. Anyone familiar with Myers Briggs types knows that introverts can also be sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling, and perceiving or judging. By the end of the book I realized that the author purported to speak for all introverts but was a very different introvert than I am.
- Too often the author conflates introversion with shyness. The two are distinct concepts and yet many of his examples involve shy introverts. Many of my fellow attorneys are introverts and yet I do not think that anyone would ever accuse us of being shy.
- The author's advice to the church seems to be that introverts should become more extroverted, or, as another reviewer put it, "get over" their introversion. Most offensively, the author repeatedly uses the term "healing" in connection with introverts without any such use in connection with the extroverted mainstream in modern evangelicalism. I think that a more interesting effort would have been to propose ways in which the church could more meaningfully incorporate introverts into the community while respecting the way introverts do "church." What about a move toward more contemplative communities that de-emphasize extroversion and sociality in favor of ways of community life that incorporate introverts, i.e., smaller groups, targeted groups, avoidance of pressure to join, etc. and an end to the pointless sharing. The final chapter offers some thoughts on this point, but makes no fundamental critique of the larger extroverted paradigm; I would have welcomed some more analysis and thoughts on this part of the culture. It seems like the author cannot envision another model of being the church than the contemporary North American model oriented to growth, entertainment, sharing, and extroverted activity. I got the feeling after a while that the author was a "Manchurian introvert" of sorts, more extroverted than he realizes.
- On a content-neutral point, the book needs significant editing, as the author piles example after example and page after page of less-than-distinguishable vignettes when a single example would have sufficed. When I read books like this, I cannot help but wonder if it started as a class, talk, blog post, or even a master's thesis, and expanded beyond the ability of the text to carry the weight piled on by the author. By way of example, chapter five seemed like it could have been rewritten as several shorter but more accessible chapters. Chapter six spends way too much time elaborating upon "traditional" examples of writing on leadership that focus on extroversion while the rest of the chapter discusses "introverted leadership" with much less verve; a better editing would have shortened the introduction and insisted on a bit more discussion of exactly how and why introversion can be a positive attribute in leaders.
I think that this is an important topic and I recommend this book for pastors and worship leaders who want or need to understand the introverts in their pews a little bit better. I don't think they'll read it, though, and if they do, they are (somewhat ironically) likely to be validated in the notion that what the church needs is more extroversion.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Well written, enjoyable, and helpful
By J Bird
Church should be a refuge from the stress and anxiety of the world. Unfortunately for many, services are, from start to finish, a cause of anxiety. As my wife and I visited churches in the past in search of a place to worship, we came to dread certain things: the endless, almost suspicious questions from total strangers, the forced smiles and empty words during the ever hated "meet and greet," the music leader's insistence on clapping, raising hands, closing eyes, (or whatever that particular person considers to be a display of true worship), etc... While some see these things as signs of liberated, spiritual worship, others see them as shallow, frivolous torture.
If you've ever intentionally walked into church late in order to miss meet and greet, or left early to avoid "fellowship," or been accused of not loving the church because you skipped the church super bowl party, then you'll be thankful for Adam McHugh's Introverts in the Church.
Not quite sure about the difference between introverts and extroverts? McHugh does a great job of explaining the two personalities, while correcting many of the misunderstandings. An introvert, he says, is not someone who is shy, anti-social, snobby, cold, or backward. Rather, an introvert is one who gains energy and strength from solitude and contemplation. Extroverts gain energy through social interaction, while social interaction drains the energy of introverts. Therefore, introverts need alone time to "recharge." They also prefer to spend more time thinking than speaking (that's not such a bad thing!), and they need more time to process thoughts. Most introverts can identify with McHugh's own preferences: "If I could, I would spend hours every day in my study--thinking, reading, and writing."
That's not to say that relationships are not important. Relationships and leadership are really what this book is about.
Many leadership "experts" claim that an extroverted personality is essential to being an effective leader, but McHugh challenges that. Though lots of extroverts are great leaders, both in and out of the church, there is certainly a place for the introverts. Pastors, after all, need to feed themselves before they can feed the flock. We could benefit from more thoughtful, studious, and contemplative leadership:
"In an increasingly fragmented, fast-paced, chatter-filled world, I consider the greatest gift introverts bring to the world and the church to be a longing for depth. Spiritually mature introverts offer an alternative to our contemporary lifestyle, one that is thoughtful, imaginative, and slower," pg 69.
"People who think before they act and listen before they talk can be very effective leaders. The reflective, thoughtful person may be able to learn, and encourage learning, in ways that people who can't stop talking are not able to," pg. 124.
And although McHugh jokes that introverts "write with a flourish, but speak with a thud," he shows that many are great preachers. "One of the most unexpected findings of my research was that introverted pastors felt very comfortable preaching, irrespective of congregation size. Many of them actually considered it their biggest strength and favorite part of the job."
I've often thought that because of my personality, I wouldn't do well in church leadership, and that still may be true. But McHugh's book has helped me see more clearly how aspects of my personality are strengths rather than weaknesses. His book also encourages me to build relationships, serve in the church, and engage in evangelism, even if the ways in which I do those things are different from how my brothers and sisters do them. Extroverts, especially pastors and other leaders, will also benefit from reading McHugh's book. It may help them think of ways to include the introverts in their church, or at least ways to keep from driving them away.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Resource for Church Leaders, Members, and Christian Introverts
By L. Hawkins
This book could be a great resource for everyone who leads or works with others in a church setting—especially in churches with strong evangelical (that is, proselyting or missionary-oriented) traditions, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The author is an evangelical Christian pastor and an introvert who has worked in several different pastoral settings. He describes ways in which most churches—like American culture in general—value the skills and personalities of extroverts (who are energized by social interaction) over those of introverts (who are drained of energy by social interaction and need solitude and quiet to recharge and reach inner depths of worship). (See Susan Cain’s Quiet Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking for an excellent book on introversion in the general society; these patterns are based on the widely used and validated description of temperaments in the Meyers–Briggs Type Indicator Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type.) Of course, the Savior’s charge to take the gospel to all the world seems like an invitation to prize the extrovert personality. The author asks whether God, who has asked us to become as He is (Matthew 5:48; 2 Nephi 27:27), and who created all personalities on the continuum of introversion to extroversion, expects introverts to overcome their personalities in order to serve Him.
Certainly most churches appear to prize extrovert personality traits and expect their leaders to “be good at all things, to lead in every situation, no matter what the circumstances, and to always be available” (p. 119). The list of expectations that most people have for ministers, detailed by McHugh (pp. 118–19), is something that no one person could meet—thus reinforcing the idea of the value of a lay ministry and of leaders who have counselors and can delegate tasks to others. And McHugh is convincing that introverts can be effective leaders only as their authentic selves, which is true of everyone, regardless of personality.
The ultimate question of the book is the effectiveness of introverted Christians as missionaries. “Even at its best, evangelism summons pictures of animated extroverts, armed with quick wit, apologetic skill and the gift of gab” (p. 170). But the author persuades that some prevalent methods of missionary work—especially the model of evangelism as delivering the message we have come to “sell” and pushing for a quick commitment (p. 172)—are ill-suited to introverts as missionaries and as investigators. Instead, the author suggests that we approach missionary work as “exploring mystery together” through dialogue, sharing our stories and spiritual journeys, and eschewing the model of expert missionary teaching needy investigator; instead we become fellow explorers, discerning the influence of the Holy Ghost in each other. Thus we transform “awkward pauses into sacred silences” (p. 174). This develops the approach of meeting investigators where they are spiritually and exploring religious questions together suggested in Clayton M. Christensen’s The Power of Everyday Missionaries The Power of Everyday Missionaries: The What and How of Sharing the Gospel. It also reinforces the need to follow the Spirit and be flexible in meeting investigators’ needs that is a part of the LDS missionary manual, Preach My Gospel Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service.
McHugh also gives valuable advice to introverts about cultivating solitude and otherwise maintaining spiritual balance in the mostly extroverted church. He emphasizes that personality type is never an excuse to fail to serve and otherwise follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The author details the assets that introverts can bring to the Christian community and to leadership. Because different personality types sometimes have trouble understanding and valuing their own and each others’ needs and contributions, Introverts in the Church can be a valuable resource for everyone in church leadership, or membership.
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