The polarized church part 4: expanding our spectrum

Like I said before, where we land on the introvert/extrovert spectrum is like being left or right handed. However, we need to remember we have two hands, just as we have two sides to our personality.  Our personalities, just like our hands are most efficient when we use both sides together. Not just the one, even if it is the dominant one. While it's good to be true to ourselves, it's also good to stretch our horizons beyond our comfort zone and utilize both sides of ourselves on important tasks. Keeping in mind, and I repeat, as rewarding as switch hitting may be, there is still that price to pay. We can't maintain living outside our side of the spectrum all the time. We need to allow ourselves time to recharge after a depleting task. 

We see an example of this in the Bible as well. If we go back to the story of Jacob the introvert, specifically Genesis 32, we see Jacob's horizons being broadened by one of the more perplexing stories in the Bible.  Here Jacob must reunite with his brother Esau. Jacob is obviously scared that Esau will want to get revenge for the theft of his birthright. So Jacob utilizes introvert strategy just in case Esau does attack. The first thing he does is break up his people into two camps, so half can easily escape if needed. He also sends ahead a gift of livestock to appease his brother. Yet even with these precautions we see Jacob dragging his feet in a vain attempt to avoid facing this potential confrontation.  Introverts tend to be non-confrontational that way. Then a man who is eventually identified as God brings a conflict to Jacob. God does not face him on a mental introvert level either, but in a very physical extrovert way; a wrestling match. In essence telling him, it's time to man up and face up to this problem you created. You have an extrovert side, and you need to use it in this situation that you are avoiding. Once God proves to Jacob that he is capable of embracing this side of himself, What does God do? As the passage itself says "When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man." Now think about that. While we see God pushing Jacob beyond his introvert safe zone, would crippling his hip make him more of an extroverted man of action like his brother Esau. Hardly, If anything just the opposite. Perhaps in a way God is saying I accept you as the introvert you are, but still, I need you to know there is more to you than you think there is. We even see Jacob continue being more of an aggressive extrovert by demanding a blessing from God. God rewards this boldness by essentially making him the father of the nation of Israel. As we all know, Jacob's twelve sons would end up becoming the twelve tribes that made up that nation.  All because he answered when God called him out. Then in verse 31 we see an implied passage of time, so obviously Jacob didn’t run out and face his brother like a hasty extrovert. That would have been hard with his newly acquired limp. However, that limp afforded him the time to recharge after this aggressive experience. So that, when he did arrive home, he could face his fears fresh; and he did.

To sum it up, be true to yourself, but don't be afraid to step outside yourself imposed boundaries occasionally either. There is likely more to you than you realize, if you trust, and put your faith in the Lord.  

The Visual PARABLEist

It does not matter when we get there, as long as we get there together

The polarized church part 3: more examples from scripture

In our last post, we established how scripture acknowledges the introvert/extrovert dynamic. However, we have not yet established whether scripture favors one side over the other as the America and the church seems to. While in the case of Jacob and Esau, the introvert inherited the promise of Abraham, but let’s not assume that this one instance is a constant throughout scripture. 

For example, King David, who was called a man after God’s own heart, was a man of action. He was comfortable on the battlefield; he danced exuberantly before the Lord. He also wrote such expressive Psalms of praise and worship that illustrated many external forms of declaration. Clearly David was an extrovert. Yet, David’s son Solomon was a deep thinker who was committed studying and understanding, wrote much of the wisdom literature part of scripture. Clearly Solomon was more of an introvert. So obviously both sides of the spectrum contributed to the Old Testament. 

What about The New Testament? Well John the Baptist is described as a wild man, an outspoken and bold speaker; the sign of an extrovert. Where Paul is described this way in scripture. 

For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” -2 Corinthians 10:10

Introverts often come off better, and prefer to express themselves in writing, for it grants them the time to orchestrate their words at their pace. All his time in prison would have limited his ministry to letter writing and only a few visitors at a time. In a way, it’s an ideal set up for an introvert that would truly capitalize upon his strengths. 

What about Jesus himself, the ultimate model for holiness. While he often taught in a very social way, and wasn’t afraid to say it as it is; like a bold extrovert even. Yet, he also valued his solitude, and often went off alone in private to meditate and pray like an introvert. So it would seem that Jesus was a true ambivert, someone who falls right in the middle of the spectrum. 

Obviously, God recognizes the strengths of both sides of the spectrum, and expects both to contribute to the body of Christ. The churches would do well to do the same, for it has failed to offer that balance for much of its history. 

The Visual PARABLEist

Conditional acceptance

The polarized church part 2: example from scripture

We even see a rather obvious example of the introvert-extrovert dynamic in scripture. You have probably read over this verse many times without giving it much thought at all. Yet, it acknowledges a powerful truth about humanity. 

The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. -Genesis 25:27

Despite the fact that they were twins, these brothers were like night and day. Clearly Esau the elder twin was an active extrovert, while Jacob was more of a home body introvert. Even the famous story where Jacob steals Esau’s birthright reenforces this tendency, but it may not be readily obvious how.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” 

So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. 

- Genesis 25:29-34

First, how does Jacob steal his brother’s birthright? Not through force like an extrovert, but through strategy as introverts do. The strategy he uses is actually using Esau’s extrovert tendencies against him. If you will recall in our last post, we had spontaneous listed as one of the extrovert traits. At least that is what we call it when it turns out well, when it doesn’t we call it impetuous. Which is what Esau was in this story, and exactly what Jacob exploits. Psychologists have studied and confirmed this obvious difference between introverts and extroverts and can sum it up by this example. When offered ten dollars right now, or twenty dollars in two weeks. The introverts are typically patient enough to wait for the higher reward. Where extroverts have a hard time delaying gratification and go for whats before them in the moment.  

The Visual PARABLEist

POV

The polarized church part 1: defining the spectrum

While the terminology of extrovert-introvert originated with the psychologist Carl Jung. These temperaments have been observed by philosophers, doctors, and theologians long before that. Our tendency towards one side verses the other can have a profound influence on how we think, feel, act, and learn. 

Introvert- Extrovert

listener- talker

quiet - gregarious 

thinker - doer

reflective - experience

strategist - spontaneous

One of the biggest things that separates the introvert and extrovert is how they interact with others. The extrovert feels energized by social interaction, and feels drained by solitude. Where Introverts are the exact opposite. Keep in mind, nobody is a pure introvert or extrovert. It is a spectrum, and we are all capable of all of this. It’s like being left or right handed, we can use both hands, but most of us are most comfortable and most productive with our dominant hand. Even if we are successful at becoming switch hitters so to speak that will never change what energizes and depletes us. So we can never switch sides absolutely, no matter how much we push ourselves or others. We must allow ourselves, and others to recharge according to ones own temperament, rather than force one to live a one size fits all sort of life. People are naturally more diverse than that, and scripture recognizes that people have diverse needs. 

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 
- 1 Corinthians 12:21-26

The Visual PARABLEist

The Introvert

The Polarized Church: intro

There is a church in my community that a relative of mine goes to, and they recently did a poll of it’s attendees to get an idea of what people want out of worship. They were given two lists and to pick a preference on each point. Although the lists were not labeled it was obvious that it was divided between traditional and contemporary. However, I noticed another dynamic in them; that being the introvert-extrovert spectrum. A concept I have been reading a lot about lately.  While some of the points may be neutral or had easy crossovers, for the most part, the only true anomaly that seemed as if it should be inverted that I found, was how we treat guests. In a way this patten made sense, since in the past worship centered around liturgy; a quiet meditative and introvert friendly style of worship. While some denominations have held firmly to the past. Others have let liturgy fall out of favor over the decades, and those churches have taken on a more extroverted style of worship in its place. Such cultural shifts are rarely of a one to one ratio, meaning many variables have lead us to where we are at. The real question is, is there reason to favor one of these bias’ or not. Or is this just another example of how we have let the sinful nature of the flesh faction off the church further in defiance of the intended diversity of the body of Christ. I think it’s a question we should take a long hard look at in detail here.  

Traditional service (introvert skewed) - Contemporary worship (extrovert skewed)

quiet & reverence upon entering church - visiting upon entering church

hymn and gospel songs - praise songs and melodies

expository sermons (lecture) - how to sermons (conversational)

ministers leading the prayers - various people praying

guests recognized in some fashion - guests allowed to remain anonymous

organ and piano - guitars and drums

dressing up - casual dress

Tradition with a capital T - tradition with a lower case t

focus on doctrine and theology - focus on experience with God

focus on God’s remote majesty - focus on God’s intimate nearness

low energy singing - high energy singing

emphasis on predictability - emphasis on variety

responsive readings - no responsive readings

no video or multimedia - video and multimedia

The Visual PARABLEist

Decisions, decisions 

What is Advent?

You might have heard someone mention that it is the season of advent but do you know what that means? Advent is the 23-29 days preceding Christmas that begins the liturgical year. (starting four Sundays before the 25th) The word itself comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming."  Observed as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. While the practice has fallen out of favor in the Protestant church, but in a time of vast commercialization of Christmas it can serve as a valuable counterpoint to such secularization and remind of what the birth of the savior really means. 

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

God's Authority and yours.

As already discussed the standard for holiness is God’s very nature. Jesus is a perfect model of that nature. This is important for church leaders to live up to across the board, but there is one area that is particularly important. That being God’s authority. However, this is often a very misunderstood concept that church leaders sometimes fail to live up to properly, just like our Pharisee predecessors. The Lord’s authority is often symbolized by the hand of God, but what we must remember is that God has two hands. A hand of stern discipline, and a hand of nurturing healing. We become effective church leaders by wielding both hands of His authority appropriately, not just the one we are comfortable with.  All those under the care of half a leader are at risk of being damaged and wounded by said imbalance, and carry a distorted image of authority and God. Even those who actually recognize both hands of God often make the mistake of compartmentalizing them. That the hand of stern discipline was strictly an Old-Testament manifestation, and the hand of healing is the only one that still applies under the new covenant. The world has always and will always need both hands of God’s authority. To offer discipline without healing begets only rebellion. To offer healing and no discipline results in what you might call rich kid syndrome. For even in the Old-Testament there came the time for restorative healing after the discipline was done. Even is the New-Testament there was a time to rebuke. We can clearly see this dual image in Jesus himself. When dealing with the sinners in their brokenness, he offered the hand of healing. When dealing with authorities who perverted God’s truth and offered no hand of healing themselves he offered the hand of discipline. Whatever was needed in that moment.  With that being said we must also recognize that the hand of discipline wields a two-edged sword. (Revelation 1:16). God’s authority does not merely point at others, but one edge always points at the wielder. To truly wield the duel edge sword you must live and hold yourself accountable to it.  Only those who do will have the discernment enough to know when to draw said sword, and when to leave that sword sheathed to offer the hand of healing.  We see this very concept being uttered by Jesus in Matthew 7.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

To live under God’s authority, and not just apply it to others is to know its sting. To heed its sting is to deal with ones own sin. To deal with ones own sin is to realize there is often an emotional scar behind our sin, and a face behind every scar. This knowledge brings empathy and proper restraint in wielding the sword of authority. With that comes the wisdom enough to know which hand to wield in order to help and not just draw blood. Many in the church repeat the same mistake as the Pharisees by never offering healing and waving the sword of authority in the face of the broken, yet never at themselves. Yet, we wonder why so many have a problem with authority. 

To wield the double edged sword is to know it's sting