"Introverts are very, very relational. They just aren’t sociable."
"It is true that deeper relationships are needed at church, but the route isn't always best achieved by throwing strangers together into forced conversation."
I've always hated those "turn and greet the person next to you" times. Worse yet, I've been in huge meetings where you're surrounded by strangers and we were expected to turn to our neighbor, pour our hearts out to each other and pray for each other. I'd rather spend several hours at the dentist rather than go through that again. Talk about awkward.
oh yes!!! absolutely!
ReplyDeleteif deeper relationships are needed at church, then give us more opportunity for quiet one-to-ones, or for a small group to sit together and talk about meaningful stuff.
turn and greet the person next to you is just so artificial. turning to someone you've never said more than hello to and being expected to pour your heart out and to pray together is just a pretence at relating. human relationships don't work this way - at least for introverts. we need time to get to know a person, we need to build some trust.
awkward doesn't begin to describe these situations...
btw, I've been known at times to actually turn to the person next to me and say: I'm sorry but I really can't play this game.
ReplyDeleteoh! i'll have to remember that one.
ReplyDeleteit's the sort of thing you have to learn if you are to survive a Christian counselling course ;)
ReplyDeletespeaking of courses, i'm curious how other introverts feel about role playing, especially roll playing in such an instance as a class. there are times when i shy away from it (especially if i'm going to be expected to emote as part of the process -- but then again, i'm a T not an F) and times when i can really get into the roll (especially if i get to be the bratty student making the teacher's life miserable.)
ReplyDeletehmmm... yes, for me it kind of depends on the role I'm expected to play, and all sorts of other factors like how awake/tired I am, level of chocolate in my blood, that sort of thing...
ReplyDeletea lot of it depends on how much time I have to prepare - being put on the spot is really hard for me, I need time to think and I've generally found on counselling courses that there has rarely been enough time for me to think properly before being plunged into an exercise.
there was one time we were told to role-play being a client who is feeling angry, and I just couldn't get my anger worked up quickly...
being forced to act angry didn't make you angry enough for the part? lol!
ReplyDeletelol... it should have :)
ReplyDeletesome of the role-plays were fun though. there was one time I had to be the counsellor and I had to be really impatient with the client... and there was the famous exercise where those of us who were being the clients had to declare our infatuation with the counsellor - that was hilarious.