7 Core Elements of Introversion

C. John Miller wrote Outgrowing the Ingrown Church in 1986. It is an excellent book that the Lord is using to help me in my sanctification. His basic premise is that many churches are ingrown (introverted/self-focused) because of a lack of faith in God's promises to empower for service.

He offers the following list as an aid to determining if an individual or church is spiritually introverted:

1. Tunnel Vision: the limitation of "potential ministries of the church to those that can be accomplished by the visible, human resources at hand. These possibilities are often further limited by recollections of past negative experiences and perceptions of present obstacles. At bottom, this is unbelief based on a secularized ignorance of the Spirit's power-His ability to supply us with God's goals for the church and the supernatural means to reach them" (29).

2. Elitism: This refers to the elevation and idolization of strengths in order to overshadow weaknesses, and it results in arrogant, self-satisfied, other-desparging attitudes (30)

3. Fear of Man: Although ingrown/introverted persons and ministries have a sense of superiority, they also are "likely to feel inferior and shrivel up and die at the first sign of opposition" (31).

4. Superficial Niceness: He describes this as a group commitment to avoid rocking the boat or disturbing the status quo. Miller offers the story of a mainline pastor who preached on regeneration. Midway through the sermon a woman was convicted and came forward. Shocked, he asked her what she wanted. She replied, "I need Christ so very much. Please tell me how to get this new birth." The minister ignored her, finished the sermon, took the offering, and dismissed the church. Miller finishes: "Afterward the congregation filed out without a single person, not even the pastor, coming to talk to her. What we had there was a churchly conspiracy to make God and Christ something other than what they are. Christ is not a nice, tame God who can be controlled, caged lest He intrude in unseemly ways on Sunday mornings or in other church affairs" (33).

5. Gossipy: Unwillingness to forgive as defined by the Bible

6. Confused Leadership Roles: "In the typical self-centered church there is a hidden determination to eradicate enthusiasm that disturbs the comfortable routine dictated by self-trust, self-exaltation, niceness as a defense mechanism, and the right of gossip" (35). Also, the pastor is expected to do all the work of the church.

7. Misdirected Purpose: "the controlling purpose in the ingrown church has to do with survival-not with growth through the conversion of the lost" (35-36).