Here it is. The first sermon of what I hope will be many about introverts in Christian community. I ease my way into it a little, and I don't actually use the word "introvert" until around minute 12, so be patient. This sermon combines elements of chapter 5 (introverted community and relationships) and chapter 9 (introverts in church) of my book. It takes a larger look at how and why we participate in Christian community, and how common models of involvement in the church may be unfriendly to introverts (and others too). Let me know what you think.
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"The Goals and Perils of Community Life"
La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church 10/19/08
I really enjoyed it, Adam! I hope you'll be able to take your message out into churches where participation in group-this and group-that have been declared to be a measure of a congregant's growth and maturity in Christ.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from the UK.
ReplyDeleteI am 73 and I've been aware of being an introvert for many years. A number of us discussed the article in Atlantic monthly (and its follow-up) last year.
I have been a committed Christian for about 50 years but I had never had a faith that I could share - there was always something missing!
I could relate to just about everything you said in the sermon. In the 1960's I was treasurer of an Anglican Church and as an insider I really enjoyed it for a few years - but then I realised that there was a lack of radical Christianity.
What happened after that is a very long story - some of which is related on my web site.
It was in the summer of last year that I read "The Shack". The impact was enormous - 57 years after walking away from Sunday School because of what I had seen as the ridiculous teaching of the trinity, I had a picture that at last made sense. That was exciting.
Then a few months ago as a result of a comment on a blog I came to the conclusion that I had lived with Aspergers Syndrome all my life. My granddaughter was diagnosed with a form of autism. Unbeknown to me my son had come to the conclusion that it was probably AS. Then in conversation with my son - telling him how I couldn't look people in the eye (a typical characteristic of AS) he told me that he had the same problem - and I had never noticed!
In a sense AS is simply an extreme form of Introvert. I found this discovery really exciting - at last I could understand why I had difficulty making friends despite having been very active in the community over the years. It also accounted for my obsession with detail.
My journey has led me away from traditional church and what I see as much divisive theology (and I know from the contacts that I have that there are many thousands of committed Christians who have been drawn away from the churches that they may have attended for many years). But at the same time I recognise that God in his wisdom is working with people within the traditional churches.
I loved the picture you painted of the development of loving relationships within community. I know that can be true in a few cases, but my own experience has not been that way.
I also loved your comments in another post of how you like to be the narrator. I can relate to that. In fact I would describe my experience over the last few years as coming to understand why people believe what they believe - often as a result of divisive theology!
I'm inclined to think that God works through his church - the ecclesia - the called out ones - on a one to one basis first. Could it be that there first has to be a firm foundation - that can perhaps only be built by introverts - but the traditional churches as we see them are built by extroverts who need to talk in order to begin to understand what they think?
I know I'm only scratching the surface.
Pete