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Adam McHugh is a spiritual director, chaplain, speaker, and retreat leader. The author of Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture, he is an ordained Presbyterian minister, having earned a Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology in Greek New Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also the author of The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction, and lives in Santa Barbara, California.
Episode Highlights
4:30 Becoming an ordained minister
7:30 What led to writing Introverts in the Church
10:50 Explanation of introversion and extroversion
16:00 Problems that introverts experience at church
19:00 Understanding the discomfort of personal vulnerability and sharing beliefs as an expression of faith
22:00 Introverts generally prefer depth over breadth
24:00 The power of listening: experience at a hospital
30:00 Introverts and small talk
34:00 How introverts approach dealing with conflict and decisions
40:00 Silence, reverence, and the internal experience compared to active social environments
45:20 Cultural clash of introvert and extrovert leaders: overcoming stereotypes and encouraging introverts to be leaders
48:50 Reaching out to invite introverts to participate
Links
- Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture
- The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction
I was so excited for this topic. I’m currently serving as a YSA Stake RS President. I’m a convert who misses the connecting moment of tturning to other congregants and greeting them with a “peace be with you” in the service. I’m a strong public speaker and not shy but definitely an introvert in my energy and know I need to develop strategies to minister that overcome my shortcomings and discomfort with small talk. So much of the content in this podcast is lost in the speaker phone. Please please please don’t do that again.
Sorry for the technical difficulties. We tried to enhance it in post production but that was the best we could do.
This interview was fabulous! I did have a hard time hearing Adam at times, usually near the end of a thought or sentence. I would love to hear more on this topic! Thank you for doing this interview!!
LDS Inteovert FB group is here:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1579290269044643
Maybe a transcript on this one, you know, to fill in the blanks on the audio? ?
Great interview (as usual) nevertheless! Very interesting topic. As an extroverted introvert, I related to much of what was said, but could also see the extroverted side of things. Loved your distinction between the temples and the chapels (vs the church building). It seems no matter how hard the leaders try, we can’t get the chapels reverent before sacrament, but when it’s time to clean the building, I love to be in the chapel alone. It feels like what it should be like… Peaceful. Although I can’t imagine being ordained in one denomination but attending another, but I get why.
I was feeling smothered by the extrovert culture at church which has become increasingly so and was wondering what I was missing. This conversation was fantastic and thanks for the transcript. Growing up in the Church that had a more anglicised approach to worship with more silence and less chatter my spirituality could thrive. Now the culture has shifted to what has been aptly described as a cocktail party setting. The question this provokes for me is…Are extroverts able to feel the Spirit intensely where there is lots of energised talking, chatter and no down time and quiet moments of reflection?
Thank you so much for this topic! I have labeled myself as shy, as an introvert, and as a “shy extrovert” at different times in my life. I feel that introversion needs to be talked about more often at church and especially when calling and training leaders. Having a calling (aka being “voluntold”) is a huge responsibility for anyone but it is extremely daunting to a
Introverts. I’m going to read his book but I appreciate your LDS perspective and questions.