what's my style?

Last night was OurSpace -- our small group from church that gets together once a week. We got started watching Rob Bell's Nooma videos and have since developed into a more eclectic discussion group. Right now we're all reading The Shack and plan on discussing it once everyone finishes (hurry up, Ed & Drew!!!).

Anyway, last night we watched You've Got Style, a DVD sermon by Andy Stanley, the pastor of North Point Community Church, a prominent & progressive church in the Atlanta area. The sermon was based on Hebrews 10 & the book Sacred Pathways by Gary L. Thomas. It really made sense to me, especially when he was talking about the 4 major pitfalls we are all guilty of when it comes to misunderstanding worship styles. The basic premise of the sermon was that there is only one path to salvation, which is through Jesus Christ, but that there are many different expressions and ways of connecting with God along that path.

He introduced 9 different styles that Gary Thomas mentions in his book:

1. Intellectual - Loving God with the Mind:These Christians live in the world of concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about Him.
2. Contemplative - Loving God through Adoration:These Christians seek to love God with the purest, deepest, and brightest love imaginable. They want nothing more than some privacy and quiet to gaze upon the face of their heavenly Lover and give all of themselves to God.
3. Enthusiast - Loving God with Mystery & Celebration:Excitement and mystery in worship is the spiritual lifeblood of enthusiasts. They are inspired by joyful celebration; cheerleaders for God and the Christian life. They don't want to just know concepts, but to experience them, to feel them, and to be moved by them. They like to let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe.
4. Caregiver - Loving God by Loving Others:Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Caring for others recharges a caregiver's batteries.
5. Activist - Loving God Through Confrontation:These Christians define worship as standing against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They are energized more by interaction with others, even in conflict, than by being alone or in small groups. Activists are spiritually nourished through the battle.
6. Ascetic - Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity:Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer. Let there be nothing to distract them--no pictures, no loud music--and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity.
7. Traditionalist - Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol:Traditionalists are fed by what are often termed the historic dimensions of faith: rituals, symbols, sacraments, and sacrifice. They tend to have a disciplined life of faith and have a need for ritual and structure.
8. Sensate - Loving God with the Senses:Sensate Christians want to be lost in the awe, beauty, and splendor of God. They are drawn particularly to the liturgical, the majestic, the grand. They want to be filled with sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm them. The five senses are God's most effective inroad to their hearts.
9. Naturalist - Loving God Out of Doors:The naturalist seeks to leave the formal architecture and the padded pews to enter an entirely new "cathedral", a place that God himself has built: the out-of-doors.

I found a couple of places online that you can take quizzes to find out what your style is. If you're curious, you can take the quizzes for yourself. The first two are the same quizzes, just different ways of answering the questions (I like the 2nd one). The last one is a different quiz with 7 different styles based on the book An Ordinary Day with Jesus by John Ortberg & Ruth Haley Barton. It can be printed off but you have to self-score it.

http://common.northpoint.org/sacredpathway.html

http://www.sacchurch.org/action-steps/sacred_pathways.htm

http://www.willowcreek.org/pdfs/Spiritual%20Pathway%20Assessment.pdf

In case you're curious, I was quite a mix of the 9. I was strongest in the Contemplative and Intellectual areas and significantly weakest in the Traditionalist category. I haven't taken the third quiz yet, but if you're curious, I'll let you know when I do. :) I think I might get the Sacred Pathways book at some point... sounds like it might have some good insights on how we relate with each other and with God.