googling God’s Will: Why Keep Searching For It When It’s Not Lost?
Winn Griffin
Harmon Press (January 7, 2011)

Years ago when I was first told that God loved me and had a wonderful plan for my life I believed it. I still do. But in recent years I have come to the conclusion that His plan for my life is not as elusive as I once thought. Dr. Winn Griffin, in his succinct little book, Googling God’s Will, agrees. While acknowledging an overabundance of books and websites devoted to the subject of seeking God’s will, he feels the need to offer his own insightful view using contemporary metaphors like Google, GPS systems, and power steering in an attempt to remove what he considers unnecessary barriers that muddy the water and prevent us from resting in God’s will.

Although I would have never phrased it this way, I used to suspect that God was playing some sort of cosmic hide-and-seek game with me. It was like he had this perfect will for my life but wasn’t about to tell me what it was, preferring to hide it from me, forcing me to search for it by trial-but-mostly-error fashion. Some days I would think I was warm but mostly I felt cold. I would wonder why it was so hard to know what God expected from me. These days that seems like a silly notion, and the way I have just phrased it to you it probably sounds silly to you, too. So, if it is silly, why do so many of us practice “seeking” God’s will in that way?

A particular insight Dr. Griffin helped with is that the worldview of the Bible (Middle Eastern) and ours (Western Enlightenment) are markedly different. If we are to understand the Bible’s intended message, we need to understand the context in which it was written. For example, one of the marks of “Enlightened” thinking is its emphasis on individualism, a concept that would have seemed strange to the Middle Eastern mind that thought more in terms of community than individuality, and pronouns we often read as personal are, in fact, collective. So, when we read “you” in the Bible it often, if not usually, means “you all.” Griffin writes, “When it comes to God’s will, we are often looking for answers in all the wrong places. We [Westerners] want to know what God’s will is for our individual life. What we often get as an answer by our teachers is a bandage, but the sore never heals, because we have never treated the root cause of our problem. God appears to act and guide from a community base than an individual base.… God’s will can be as simple as understanding our need for belonging … It may be said that God’s will for us is to be intimate with him … for the sake of others.”

Dr. Griffin’s book, though concise (just 100 pages), is one of those books that takes a while to read. It’s like a nutrient rich meal, a little goes a long way—it takes time to digest. But for me that is the mark of a really good book.

Winn loves spending time with his family, collecting baseball cards, watching movies, eating banana sandwiches (now with Splenda), traveling, reading mystery stories, and watching sports. He has received Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and two Doctor of Ministry degrees: the first was in Biblical Studies; the second at George Fox University, Portland, OR, in Leadership in the Emerging Culture. He serves as an adjunct professor at Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, WA, and he is the author of God’s EPIC Adventure: Changing the Culture by the Story We Live and Tell (Harmon Press: 2007).

Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ
Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola
Thomas Nelson (June 1, 2010)

Years ago, as a rather insignificant young pastor in a large denomination, I fearlessly (too fearlessly, as it turned out) stood before some 10,000 delegates to propose we change the order of our denomination’s statement of faith and move our No. 3 article of faith, “The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ,” to the top of the list and the then No. 1 article, “The Scriptures Inspired,” to the No. 3 slot. Was not interested in changing the language of the articles, just their order. My motive was pure, I thought. I believed that Christ, as the Bible said, should “have the preeminence in all things”; especially, one would think, in a Christian creedal statement. To my shame, I was jeered off the floor. One colleague later scolded me and said he was “ashamed” of me. It took years for me to live down a reputation of being “renegade” and “liberal” (I was neither). Yet here I am, some thirty-plus years later, more convinced than ever that my proposal was a good idea and I have just found vindication in a new book by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola: Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ. (Where were these guys when I needed them?)

Occasionally, despite all my pious religiosity, I get the uneasy feeling that Jesus has left the building. I, like you, have a tendency to become wrapped-up, even obsessed, in whatever my pet issue is at the moment. It may be anything from evangelism to the environment to end-time prophecy. This is understandable since every year hundreds of titles flood the Christian market dealing with every topic imaginable and we sometimes find ourselves swept up in the current hot topic. But in the end it all comes back to that elemental question Jesus once asked Peter: “Who do you say that I am?” When Christ ceases to be the nexus of our faith and we become absorbed in all the stuff “about” Jesus, and not in Christ himself, we lose our focus.

“The Christian life properly conceived and experienced,” affirm the authors, “is simply a reproduction and a reliving of the life of Jesus.” But Christianity is not just a matter of striving to be “like” Jesus. If that is our sole aim, we are doomed to failure. No one has done or can do it. Rather, we must “be” Christ. Don’t jump to conclusions by that statement. The authors go on to say, “Jesus doesn’t want us to be ‘like’ him; he wants to share his resurrection life with us, [not just] imitate him. Christ wants to live in and through us. The gospel is not the imitation of Christ; it is the implantation and impartation of Christ. We are called to more than mediate the truth. We are called to manifest Jesus’ presence.” Or, as George MacDonald prayed, “O Christ, my life, possess me utterly. Take me and make a little Christ of me.” Quoting Bishop Ryle, with whom the authors agree, “Christ is all. Those three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If our hearts can really go along with them, it is well with our souls. If not, we may be sure we have yet much to learn.”

Author’s Bio
Leonard Sweet currently occupies the E. Stanley Jones Chair of Evangelism, serving from 1995 to 2001 as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Theological School at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. A Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon, and President Emeritus of United Theological Seminary, he is a weekly contributor to the online preaching resource, Sermons.com. Author of more than two hundred articles, twelve hundred published sermons, and almost forty books, Sweet is currently working on two textbooks: one on preaching, Giving Blood, and one on evangelism, Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Who is Already There. His most recent book is So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church and his weekly podcast is “Napkin Scribbles.”

Frank Viola is a best-selling author and international conference speaker. His books include Revise Us Again, Reimagining Church, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church and the best-selling From Eternity to Here.

Different but Equal: Going Beyond the Complementarian/Egalitarian Debate
Derek Morphew
Vineyard International Publishing (December 29, 2008)

In the introduction to his latest book Different But Equal: Going Beyond the Complementarian-Egalitarian Debate, Derek Morphew points out that in recent years some sweeping theological changes have taken place in his thinking regarding the place of women in Christian ministry and leadership. Not changed so much, he writes, “but I would rather say that it has evolved, as I have tried to keep pace with literature on the subject.” With that I can relate. Growing things change—even growing beliefs. To never vary one’s point of view and hold the same position one did a decade or more ago is no virtue; it just means that a person has stopped learning, stopped growing. There’s nothing admirable about an adult still sucking the same decades-old pacifier. At least that’s what I have told myself and after reading Morphew, I felt vindicated. Evolving Evangelical—I think that’s a label I can live with.

Morphew’s developing outlook especially regarded the role of women in official leadership within the church, an issue that has been a perennial hot topic in religious circles for centuries. Conservative groups holding to a strict literal interpretation of scripture often exclude women from ecclesiastical leadership on what they consider “biblical grounds.” In this view women are to “keep silent in the church,” and not exert authority over, but always be in “subjection” to, men, holding that only men lead in the church because they are, well, males. In this view, only men are pastors, teachers, and theologians and women, um, their contribution is appreciated—they can cook the meals at church banquets and clean up the mess—but by and large they are expected to dutifully follow … silently. Women, who are qualified in every respect except gender, are repeatedly passed over in favor of often less qualified men. Early-on I wondered how a person’s sex could possibly make an unqualified male more qualified than a qualified female based solely on gender. I wondered what the wisdom was in subjugating half the population of God’s kingdom? But over time, with the rise of feminism (both secular and evangelical) and the blistering debate about women’s place in the church heated up, I, like Morphew, decided to take a closer and hopefully more objective look at scripture and come to some independent conclusions.

In Different but Equal, Morphew articulates some of the changes that took place in his thinking as he weaved his way through the minefield, re-read more dispassionately those hotly debated gender-specific biblical passages, and considered Jewish customs, Christian theology, and church history to offer this timely view that lies somewhere between excessive “complementarian” (men and women have complementary but different roles and responsibilities in society and religion) and extreme “egalitarian” (in God’s sight all people regardless of sex are equal in every respect) viewpoints. Morphew’s is a position that allows for differing interpetations while preserving unity. He writes: “The arguments between these two positions are too nuanced for the differences to become the basis for a breach in fellowship.”

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Artist Bio
Derek Morphew, Ph.D., University of Cape Town, South Africa is a theologian, pastor, and teacher who has been involved in pastoring and church planting for the past 30 years. He serves on the national leadership team of the Association of Vineyard Churches in South Africa, is the international director of Vineyard Bible Institute, and is a highly respected author and speaker at conferences, churches, and universities.

Learning My Name
Pete Gall
Zondervan (July 1, 2009)

What if Karl Marx was right? What if religion is the opiate of the masses? Newcomer Pete Gall seems to think so. He begins his book, Learning My Name, by saying, “Maybe Karl Marx has a point, whether it was intended or not.” By that he means, “For the most part we don’t really follow God. Instead we build our lives around what we think we know of God and what we think he thinks of us and less around who he really is. What a loss that is, to live in relationship with our religion instead of our God.” Religion, like any other opiate, can be numbing and addictive and we can become obsessive about it. We get caught up in trying to find God’s approval in our righteous acts, our faithful tithing, our charitable deeds, and regular attendance at worship services, but somewhere in the busyness of our Christianity we lose God. He becomes distant and demanding, impersonal, “a frustrated taskmaster who is perpetually disappointed in our performance.” Perhaps he resembles the overly-strict parent you had … or are. In another chapter, Gall writes, “I think most fanatics, or ‘true believers,’ as they’re also called, are motivated by deep shame and fear that their best efforts will not be enough.” Religion as it is often practiced becomes a toxic drug, an opiate; not all the freedom faith is supposed to give us.

But Gall wants us to see God for who he truly is; that, “while it is his prerogative to demand complete and immediate obedience and submission without regard to how his commands impact us, our God is willing to ‘take it on the chin’ for the sake of being in relationship with us.” He will hold us when we cry and argue and shake our fist at him. In fact, according to Gall, God invites it and runs to greet his returning prodigals. He is the parent we can only hope to be.

In making his case, Gall chooses to use anecdotes and stories (parables, if you like) rather than tediously citing scriptural proof texts to validate his points. Most of these stories are reflective and personal and for some may be a bit too candid. Being the anal type that I sometimes am, I found myself squirming at his frankness. I kept saying to myself, “I don’t want to hear this,” yet kept turning the pages, riveted by his stories. That is not to say that Gall dismisses scripture. Far from it. Even the strictest biblicist will appreciate his use of scripture in retelling the events and parables of Jesus’ life, paraphrasing them in a manner that accentuates their relevance to contemporary life. Gall’s view of Jesus is not as distant, either in life or in story, from our postmodern world as one might think. His imaginative chapter-long recounting of Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers was especially insightful for me.

Pete Gall has a remarkable gift for communication and writes in the spirit and charmingly irreverent style of two of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott and Donald Miller. Admirers of Lamott and Miller will understand immediately what that means before they finish the preface of the book.

Artist Bio
Pete Gall is an author, speaker, freelance copywriter, brand strategist, and passion-driven gadfly whose clients range from Fortune 50 corporations to national denominations, tech start-ups, nonprofit organizations, and local churches. Pete and his amazing wife, Christine, live in Indianapolis with their two dogs.

Pete Gall’s website can be found at www.petegall.com.

Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day
Shane Hipps
Zondervan (February 1, 2009)

I am of a generation that thinks a TV remote control is something like high technology. But I’m on a learning track, I think. Along my journey to technological savviness I chanced across a book that has opened my eyes even wider to the world in which we live: Shane Hipps’ Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith. For those of my generation, I probably need to explain that pixels are those imperceptible little dots of light on your TV screen that taken together make up the image you see. These tiny flickering pixels go unnoticed while we watch the larger picture that feeds our imagination and, as Hipps shows, manipulates our lives. He warns, “We are only puppets of our technology” if we remain asleep and allow our lives to be shaped by the shimmering points of light that invade our consciousness (and unconsciousness) all day long. He hopes to awaken us with this book.

Flickering Pixels is actually a follow-up to Hipps’ 2006 book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, written primarily for church leaders and professionals. Hipps newest takes much of the material from his earlier book and makes it less technical, more user-friendly. Hipps is himself a pastor with a prior career in advertising hawking Porsche automobiles, a career that gained for him an understanding of how media is employed through advertising and entertainment to entice and exploit the culture. These forces are the “flickering pixels” of our lives, which little-by-little shape the values we come to embrace and live. The scary thing is, as the subtitle of the book points out, these forces can also shape our faith.

The most insightful part of the book (for me) is chapter 4 where Hipps confronts Western culture’s marriage to human reason and how the influence of written language and the invention of the printing press have fed our exaltation of cognitive linear thinking, logic, and reason. This devotion to reason has influenced even our theology to the point where human emotion and feeling have been subjugated to the caboose while empirical bytes of factoids have become the engine that drives everything, even our theology. By way of example he demonstrates how the evangelically sacrosanct “Four Spiritual Laws” approach to salvation is linear thinking, the “Laws” clearly warning us not to “depend on your feelings.” Subjugating emotion and feeling, Hipps shows, is a Greek Aristotelian invention that has become the Western worldview; not the worldview shared by Mid-Eastern or Eastern cultures—the culture, incidentally, in which the Bible was written. “The heart does not take kindly to being ignored,” writes Hipps. When feeling is suppressed by stoical logic it often remerges in unexpected ways—addiction to food, sex, abusive relationships, and power. I came away from this book with the idea that God is all about communication. Hipps believes the church—“Y’all,” as he calls it—is God’s medium for every generation, even this technological one.

In the process, Hipps proves to be a superb storyteller, making use of memorable metaphors and anecdotes from such things as great literature to Saturday Night Live, making Flickering Pixels both an informative and very interesting read.

Artist Bio
Shane Hipps is pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church, Phoenix AZ, a growing, urban, Anabaptist congregation. Prior to accepting his call as a pastor, Shane was a strategic planner in advertising where he gained experience in understanding media and culture. Much of his time was spent working on the multimillion-dollar communications strategy for Porsche Cars North America.

Several years into his career, he had a “Damascus” experience in which he realized he was spending his life working diligently to perpetuate consumer culture and promote values that ran counter to his most deeply held beliefs. So he left advertising to pursue his long held interest in spirituality and theology.

He went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and in 2004 accepted a call to serve as Lead Pastor at Trinity. Shane is a dynamic communicator, author, and sought after speaker. He lives with his family in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information about Shane link to www.shanehipps.com.

NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible
Thomas Nelson Publishers (December 1, 2009)

Maybe at this point, a week from Christmas, you have run out of gift ideas. I have a suggestion for that reader on your list: you might want to drop by your local bookstore and see if you can locate a copy of the NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible, an heirloom-bound anthology of 250 of the most remarkable stories ever told, straight from the Bible.

About this time every year people begin making their lists of New Year’s resolutions. Some have resolved that the time has come for them to finally read the Bible through, cover-to-cover, during 2010. But if life proves anything, most of these resolves will enthusiastically begin on New Year’s morning, breeze through all the electrifying stories in Genesis only to get midway through Exodus and bog down at those often-strange and antiquated laws and ordinances of ancient Israel that stretch for the next 3½ books. By the time they get to the Book of Numbers and all those “begats,” they will, as thousands before them have, renege on their resolution and their Bible will likely end up unopened on their end table for the rest of the year. Thomas Nelson Publishers may have found a solution to this perennial and collective attention deficit disorder in their newly released “Greatest Stories” in which they have compiled the more extraordinary narratives straight from the holy writ (i.e., the New King James Version).

I think we often miss the point that the Bible was originally written for the purpose of being read aloud in congregational settings. As such, one of the major strengths of “Greatest Stories” is its dedication to the Bible’s narrative literary style that makes it worth reading on a regular basis and just as enthralling today as it was to ancient audiences. The book contains action stories like Joshua at Jericho, Gideon’s battle with the Midianites, and David’s duel with Goliath; love stories such as Ruth and Boaz and Mary and Joseph; mysteries like Abraham and Isaac and the theft of the Ark of the Covenant; symbolic fantasy literature as found in the Book of Daniel and Revelation; plus a few of the more salacious stories, including David’s disastrous affair with Bathsheba and Samson’s fatal flirtation with Delilah.

Stretching across both the Old and New Testaments, “Greatest Stories of the Bible” provides readers with the most exciting events in the Bible in a concise, easy-to-navigate, storybook format, taken directly from the New King James Version of the Bible. From Creation to Jesus’ promise to return to Earth again, this attractive book chronicles the failures and triumphs of the most memorable people of the Bible and the events that have captivated the world for centuries.

I can see a variety of purposes this volume can meet: as a gift item for family and personal devotions, a book for the coffee table, an addition to doctor’s (and other) waiting rooms, church libraries, a resource for church classrooms, and much more.

Artist Bio
God. (No photo available)

Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day
Jon Walker
Zondervan (September 1, 2009)

I’m a daily devotional junkie. I think I have been through them all—Mrs. Cowman’s Streams in the Desert, Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, Brennan Manning’s Reflections for Ragamuffins, A Year with C.S. Lewis (my favorite). And I plan to do it all over again in 2010 and just may have found my devotional of choice: Jon Walker’s newly released Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day, a book that is meant to be a companion to Rick Warren’s blockbuster bestseller Purpose Drive Life (sales now peaking at 20 million copies), which, incidentally, is a book Walker collaborated with Warren in writing. In the foreword Warren writes, “Jon makes the message of God’s grace clear and practical. God created you for a purpose and this book will encourage you to live a purpose driven life day in day out.”

This handy bedside book combines concise stories from Walker’s life, humorous anecdotes with a purpose, and wise biblical insight. The following entry especially spoke to me, probably because I struggle with it. Perhaps you do, too. Walker writes:

In our clash of wills with God, we are tempted to pray, “My will, not yours.” But that is a prayer of separation and division. It’s the invocation in a worship service of one; the prayer request that brings Christian growth to a slam-on-the-brakes halt.

Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours.” It’s easy to forget he still prays that prayer today, by the Spirit groaning within us when we don’t yet know the words to say. When we say “Amen and so be it,” we become one with God’s will, joining him as he loves others through us. In our abandonment to the Father’s will, we put ourselves aside in order to “help others get ahead” (Philippians 2:3 MSG).

The life of God flowed through Jesus because he emptied himself of all personal concerns for comfort and honor and demonstrated for all time that God’s power isn’t found in seizing and grasping and taking, but in emptying and being spent for others.

You enter God-life by praying, “Not as I will, Father, but as you will.”

Walker brushes away our all-too-human drift toward half-hearted faith and cheap grace by inviting fellow-worshipers to deepen and renew their commitment to Christ. He does this by helping us identify those areas of weakness in our lives that keep us from growing as we would like and offers sound biblical advice to arm us to combat and overcome those weaknesses. Why not drop by your local bookstore and thumb through a copy. It may be just what you are looking for in 2010.

Artist Bio
Jon Walker has worked with Rick Warren for many years, first as a writer/editor at www.Pastors.com, later as vice president of communications at Purpose Driven Ministries, and then as a pastor at Saddleback Church. He’s also served as editor-in-chief of LifeWay’s HomeLife magazine and founding editor of the Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox. His articles have appeared in publications and websites around the world. You can learn more about his ministry at www.gracecreates.com.

Book Review for Busy Pastors (and Others)
by Jim Miller

The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church
Andrew Farley
Zondervan, (September 1, 2009)

Andrew Farley thinks I may have OCD—Obsessive Christian Disorder. That’s the title of the first section of his new book, The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church. The symptoms of this kind of OCD are that no matter what you do for God you feel the nagging need to rededicate, recommit, be different; there’s always that uneasy feeling that you’re not doing enough, that you have to “die daily”; never be satisfied or you’ll get stagnant; never rest because there’s always more to do for God. But in the end you remain unfulfilled, wondering where that “abundant life” is that the preacher keeps talking about. Farley, a recovering OCD sufferer, knows this firsthand. He was once locked in its clutches, a young, hyper-zealous Christian who shared his faith at every opportunity, worked hard in his church, listened only to Christian music and read only Christian literature, attended every Christian function, and religiously abstained from all things “secular”. “Soon,” he writes, “all the exertion with no payoff took its toll. I began spiraling into a deep depression. I needed answers.” That descent into despair would become the genesis of his book. “It’s been seventeen years since I lay sobbing on the floor of that apartment,” he continues. “But today, I wouldn’t trade my relationship with God for anything. In fact, I would wish my relationship with him on everyone! I was introduced to the naked gospel.”

The central point of his book is that centuries of ecclesiasticism has piled a lot of baggage on faith and he wants us to strip things down to its essential—Jesus. That was where his crisis of faith eventually brought him—to the “naked gospel,” the bare Truth. The issue he confronted was that the conventional church, with its centuries of hierarchy and creeds, has become “Jesus AND …”—i.e., Jesus PLUS all the heady theology and unfulfilling ceremonial rites, dogmas and canons, doctrinal splits, denominations, sects, cults, and isms. Religion has trumped faith. The “and” has literally become larger than Jesus himself, overshadowing everything. For twenty centuries Christianity, as it has evolved (or devolved), has in many ways become the bane, not the blessing, of what Christ intended. To many minds outside the church, Christianity is now a four-letter word. In fact, one of my colleagues, a 25-year missionary to the Middle East, no longer wants to be called “Christian” because of all the negative stereotypes, the unnecessary baggage the label has amassed. He refers to himself simply as “a follower of Jesus,” a tag that seems to muster less aversion among those he ministers. Farley would probably agree and wants us to see Jesus and his message—the Naked Gospel—once again without all the additives.

The Naked Gospel should find friends among those who are soured by cookie-cutter Christianity, chasing after experiences, and trying to live a performance-based faith. Andrew Farley confronts churchy “Jesus jargon” and empty ritualism and offers a simple and unapologetic but life-changing message by taking a fresh look at what we may have been mis-taught. He challenges us to re-examine what we think we know.

Artist Bio

Andrew Farley is pastor of Ecclesia (www.EcclesiaOnline.com). He co-hosts Real Life in Christ, a television program that airs on ABC-TV in the West Texas and New Mexico area. He is a tenured professor of Applied Linguistics at Texas Tech University, and lives in Lubbock, Texas with his wife Katharine and their son Gavin.

Book Review for Busy Pastors (and Others)
by Jim Miller

Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extrovert Culture
Adam S. McHugh
Intervarsity Press (November 30, 2009)

Is there a place for loners and wallflowers in the modern high-energy, goal oriented, purpose-driven form of American Christianity? Adam McHugh began writing his book Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extrovert Culture as a self-apologetic. There were two unmistakable realities in his life: (1) he was called to leadership in the church and (2) he was an introvert. You can take it from me, a fellow introvert, in our contemporary American church these two things, leadership and introversion, blend like oil and water. I faced the fact a long time ago, it is the choleric type-A go-getters, the extroverted good-time-charleys, the never-say-die goal-driven over-achievers who eventually elbow their way to the top and set policy for the rest of us. Unfortunately, they often do it over the docile bodies of people like McHugh and me. In a survival-of-the-fittest form of Christianity the extroverts are the fittest. But God has called introverts to leadership, too, and whether we are made to like it or not, by the grace of God we are who we are. So how does that work out in a religious culture not made for us but where research indicates that that more than one-quarter of American religious leaders are self-confessed bonafide introverts?

McHugh, in a recent interview, pointed out how unique the qualities of introverts are but how they are prone to be overlooked. “In our extroverted society,” he said, “we value aggressive, action-oriented, gregarious people, and most introverts do not fit that profile. We are calm, thoughtful, reflective types who may be invisible to others if they are not looking. But I think introverts have tremendous gifts to bring to others.” These include listening abilities, creativity and imagination, compassion, insight born of self-awareness, peacefulness, and a servant mindset usually expressed in behind-the-scenes service.

From that premise, McHugh looked again at scripture and discovered many notable leaders who exhibited traits of introversion: Jacob, for example, and Moses; Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary the sister of Martha; Zacchaeus, the woman with the issue of blood, and Timothy, the protégé of Paul. Yet they are immortalized forever in scripture along with extroverts like Peter and David. Extroverts may be the drive shaft that propels the church, but it is the introverts, the thinkers, writers, theologians, poets, and mystics, who from behind-the-scene reflective study and contemplation provide the fuel.

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. We are the persons God made us to be and since leopards cannot change their spots, we introverts are stuck with who we are. But it is more than enough.

Artist Bio

Adam S. McHugh (Th.M., Princeton Theological Seminary) is an ordained Presbyterian minister, a spiritual director and an introvert. He has served at two Presbyterian churches, as a hospice chaplain and as campus staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. McHugh grew up in Seattle, Washington and graduated from Claremont McKenna College and Princeton Theological Seminary. He and his wife live in Claremont, California. Visit his website at http://www.introvertedchurch.com/.