Hermits & Party Animals!
At my recent masterclass a young lady asked me if I thought that being an introvert was a disadvantage as a communicator.
The question seemed to assume that the extroverts must have an automatic advantage because being more social and outgoing must be an asset denied to the more ‘inward looking’ types.
Our classic thinking about these two personality types is that extroverts are more gregarious party animals and are therefore more confident about speaking in public.
In contrast, the introverts are hermits who hate parties shun being in groups and are socially inept.This stereotypical thinking shows a total lack of understanding about the different personality types that God made as an expression of himself.
God Is both extrovert and introvert; he is both outgoing and inward in his nature.Introverts are not anti social they just socialise differently to the extroverts.
Introverts live more from within, they are contemplative quiet and prefer to process things privately before talking to others.
Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert see it as an advantage because comparison is foolish, one’s not better than the other and neithers’ job is to fix the other.
Another man at the masterclass asked how introverts can reach people for Christ.
My answer was they reach people in an introvert way and reach introvert types something that extroverts can’t do.
Part of what causes this stereotypical thinking is that in the charismatic church we’ve generally favoured the extrovert types, filled our platforms and staff with them and perhaps unconsciously undervalued the more contemplative inward people.
Jesus chose both the extroverted Peter and the introverted John and we are indebted to both men for how they each related to Jesus and allowed us to see him through their eyes.
Be happy in your own skin and be the best you you can be!
(extracted from Paul's Scanlon's article)
