Last week I had my moment of fame. But only anonymously, of course, because that’s
how introverts like their fame.
But before I get lost
in my introverted thoughts, I have to let you know that if you act fast, like, before tonight, you
can enter to win a copy of the book “Introverts in the Church” by Rev Adam
McHugh, by clicking through to comment on this post at Stuff Christians Like.
One of the ways I wisely spend my time is reading
blogs, one of which is Stuff Christians Like.
In a post titled Worship Leader Simon Says, the author wrote about the worship director throwing a “grenade
of intimacy,” commanding everyone in the congregation to hug someone before
sitting down.
I commented, “Aaaaaand…. all the introverts run away.” Apparently 100 people liked my comment. Yes, I know that compared to the Huffington Post or Amazon.com, 100 clicks is nothing to write home about. From my perspective, though, my words have never been so liked before in my life. But when all this liking and feeding of my ego was
going on, I missed it because I was at the Old Folks Home.
While I am belatedly drawing extra attention to my fame, I
just have to say that I think my church does a pretty good job of including
introverts at their own comfort level. It
starts with the children’s sermon. The
minister begins by saying something like, “Good morning, children.” And the children can say “Good morning” back
if they want, and then the minister goes on from there. This is preferable to expecting the children
to respond with a stadium-cheer-volume reply, and if they don’t, cajoling them
with, “That’s not good enough. You can
do better than that. I said ‘GOOD MORNING, CHILDREN!’” thereby giving the kids the
impression that loud = enthusiastic and loud = good, when in fact, loud is only
loud.
At my church we only occasionally (about once every two
months) have a time for “passing of the peace,” and we are never commanded to
hug one another with the holy hug of Christian love. I don’t mind shaking a stranger’s hand and
saying, “May the peace of Christ be with you.” In fact, I appreciate the chance to
occasionally smile and be smiled at by the people around me in worship. Yes, some
people turn it into a ten-minute love-fest or therapy session, but there is no
shame coming your way if you greet three people and then sit down.
4 comments:
Our pastor is Italian, from Jersey. He greets us by saying "How you doin'?" In return we reply, "How you doin'?"
Your comment on that was BRILLIANT! I like it, too!
In the Catholic church I grew up in, we also did the hand-shaking "peace be with you" moment. As a fellow introvert, I also really appreciated that you could just smile and shake hands, and take it no further. I found it friendly without being intrusive.
In the UU Church I currently attend, we have a closing circle, where we all stand in a circle around the chairs (usually 20 - 30 people), hold hands and sing a short verse three times. As much as I like the people in my church, I'm still kind of uncomfortable with this ritual.
Myself, also an introvert, and terribly OCD, I never enjoyed passing the peace in church. Didn't Hiland used to do that every Sunday? My present church stopped doing it in the contemporary service. I'm glad. Not that I don't love everyone. It just seems an odd sort of thing to me.
And that comment totally helped me connect with Jon and make the giveaway happen. Thank you!!
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