A religious news article I read recently began by asking a question I have occasionally wondered myself: if Jesus took the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator Test, would the results show him to be an extrovert or an introvert?  Hardly surprisingly, the gospels would seem to present a very balanced psychological portrait of this perfect manifestation of God in human form.  Jesus of Nazareth appears equally as predisposed to wading into large crowds and public speaking as he is to solitary retreats with God and intimate gatherings with his closest disciples.

It may be the case, however, that the modern-day church is less balanced in its embodiment of extroversion and introversion.  This certainly is the view of Adam S. McHugh, ordained Presbyterian minister and author of the new book, Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture (IVP Books, 2009).  McHugh was a featured guest on a recent edition of Mars Hill Audio Journal in which he explained his view that our culture values leaders who are gregarious, upbeat and entertaining. Americans generally tend to be drawn to the hard-charging, friendly and big personality. This cultural bias has infected the church, especially within certain strands of American evangelicalism whose leaders are so often adept at public persuasion and performance.

This religious reality begs certain questions: where is the place and role for introverts in the church? Where are the virtuous practices of quite reserve, prayerful contemplation, and thoughtful reflection honored in today’s churches?  McHugh argues that such questions about introverted personalities within the church are distinctively western and modern ones.  For example, these would have been nonsensical questions in the fourth and fifth centuries when monastics were the de facto leaders of Christianity.

McHugh attributes our propensity to identify with extroversion as a product of consumerism in American life and the ubiquity of television and other mass media over the past 50 years or so. The discerning pastor or congregation might be wise to consider that in a commercial culture such as ours, one in which advertising and selling plays a significant role in market interactions as well as in social life, the appeal of extroversion might become overblown and the gifts of introversion undervalued.

It is worth the time to visit McHugh’s blog site: www.introvertedchurch.com, especially as his two most recent posts reflect on the life of the church during Advent.  Here is a quotation from one of these posts, “Advent for Introverts”: “I experience a deep division within myself during Advent. My inner world stirs with longings for deep experiences of grace, for moments of pregnant silence, for times of candlelit reflections on the fullness of deity wrapped in a child. But my outer world is harassed by the rampant activity, the hurried crowds, and the consumeristic clutter of the season.”

To read a couple of insightful interviews with McHugh, click on these links:

http://www.christianity.com/Home/Christian%20Living%20Features/11626582/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-introverts-corner/201002/interview-adam-mchugh-author-introverts-in-the-church