Is the coffee hour after church your favourite hour of the week? If it fills you with more dread than root canal, then Introverts in the Church: Finding our place in an extroverted culture (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 2009) is the book for you. Adam McHugh, a Presbyterian minister and one-time hospice chaplain, shows how introverts can survive and thrive in the Christian community without succumbing to anonymous isolation or burnout.
While stressing that Jesus, not personality typing, ultimately defines us, he explains that introverts (who are motivated internally) and extroverts (who are motivated externally) refuel, relate and process information differently. McHugh argues that the “frenzied activity that marks our surrounding culture” is mirrored in the evangelical church’s bias toward extroversion (p. 202). Hence the assumption that “the more activities and social interaction a person [is] engaged in, the closer [he or she is] to God” (p. 18). For introverts, this is the proverbial forcing a ‘square peg into a round hole’.
As a trenchant ‘innie’, I have often observed (with a mingled mixture of envy and bewilderment) how ‘outies’ behave at large Christian gatherings. They invariably fizz, as if with some mysterious spiritual yeast. And they view us fringe dwellers as, at best, wounded, and, at worst, withdrawn and uncommitted.
Yet in attempting to alleviate this tension, McHugh asks us not to coddle introverts. Warning that we must constantly guard against a private understanding of faith, he says you can’t become like Jesus without being uncomfortable and challenged to stretch. That means being in situations where you’re bumping up against brothers and sisters on a regular basis. He clearly states that the Christian life of evangelism and self-sacrificial action must be experienced in the trenches of community where we learn how to serve, love, listen and forgive.
This outward movement toward community and relationships with others is where this book departs from the majority of self-help manuals. It is a God-help book that insists that the healing and energy needed for introverts to make this tortuous journey begins and ends with God, not man. McHugh says that when we embrace our rhythms of engagement, and retreat and use our unique gifts of God-centred reflection, compassionate listening, intercessory prayer, humour, holy and wild imagination, and creativity for the glory of God, we can and should be a vital elixir to the body of Christ (pp. 203-204).
To achieve this end, McHugh offers loads of practical strategies that address issues such as participation in community, relational challenges, evangelism and introverted leadership. Thus he encourages churches and introverts to work with the grain of their personalities instead of against them.
I have only two criticisms. Firstly, McHugh quotes several female ministers throughout the book, thereby endorsing a role the Bible doesn’t. This inclusion undermines his credibility somewhat, and made me cringe a little. Secondly (true to introvert form), McHugh is steeped in nuance, and therefore tends to be repetitive.
Overall, Introverts in the Church is an intelligent and erudite book that even extroverts—leaders and spouses especially—need to read. They may be tempted to think “Stop making excuses and get on with it!” But sensitively used, this book is a helpful tool for both introverts and the churches that are baffled by them. Reading it is a toddler’s step toward the ultimate goal of all human history: God gathering together his people, divided against each other and themselves (Jew and Gentile, male and female, black and white, rich and poor, introvert and extrovert), and uniting us in a sublime new community in an illuminated garden city where we will all sit and feast at the table, presided by the Lamb who was slain.
