Introverts In the Church

I had mentioned earlier the blog and book by Adam McHugh about how introverts fit into today’s evangelical Christian community.
Introverts In the Church  discusses how many introverted Christians struggle with ways to find balance between their own natural tendencies and contemporary evangelical perspectives on community and evangelism.
Many churches emphasize overt emotional, demonstrative, experiential displays of devotion and public verbal expressions of faith. This is sometimes equated with piety and spiritual maturity. It can devolve into shallow clichés, hollow sound bites and repetitive song lyrics if not countered by the quieter contemplative deeper thinking of the introverts in the body of Christ.
Introversion is not shyness and reclusiveness, but a way of processing information and relating to others based on temperament. Since the Christian faith is relational, introverts do need to move out of their comfort zone and be involved in Christian community. However, the Sunday morning “meeting and greeting” during the worship service, the verbal sharing of testimonies and prayer needs, the fellowship hour or potlucks do thrust introverts into an awkward position. There needs to be some understanding and appreciation of the effort it takes to partake in community in these ways.
McHugh hopes his book will provide some perspective to non-introverts. Extroverts need to realize that introverts are going to be involved in certain aspects of the church in a limited way because of discomfort and dwindling energy from public interactions. That doesn’t mean that they are less spiritual; rather they have a different kind of “spirituality”.  Introversion is more of a contemplative spirituality than the active demonstrative spirituality for which the modern church has designed itself.
Introversion involves an introspective orientation, wherein a person finds primary energy within the self. Extroversion consists of an outward orientation, wherein a person finds primary energy outside of self in the surrounding world and from other people. Introverts are not anti-social, but they need alone time to recharge, while extroverts thrive on social interaction and lots of stimuli. Extroverts process ideas and opinions externally thru conversation and interaction with others, depending on external feedback to shape the final thought. Introverts like to be removed from external stimuli and people to process ideas; for them, thinking precedes verbalizing the end product to others. Introverts’ learning style centers around observation and contemplation, not external feedback.
What other ways differentiate introverts from extroverts? Introverts consider books and authors as “mentors”, midwives to their ideas as they mull over what they have read. They prefer depth over breadth. They find lots of small talk to be tiring. They like to observe more than participate; don’t like being rushed; desire private time and space; treat homes as sanctuaries; prefer working on their own rather than with a group; do not share private thoughts with many people; do not consider acquaintances to be friends.
Introverts have layered personalities, and they prefer to slowly unpeel those layers as they bond with people over time. Goal-oriented socializing such as specific group tasks and projects that require repeated interaction fosters the atmosphere introverts need to get involved in community.
I hope this is a fair representation of McHugh’s work. The book has much more for people involved in vocational ministry, who surprisingly are often introverts, and must set boundaries on activities and social interactions to conserve energy for reading, thinking, solving problems to be effective in their employment.