Category: Healthy Pastors

If you’re old enough, you may remember the anti-drug abuse campaign: SPEED KILLS. If you’re even older, you may remember the highway safety campaign: SPEED KILLS. In leadership, speed can be deadly as well.  Before I explain how, I need to say this first (just in case you don’t know me): I do believe in…

Many people are surprised to hear that a lot of pastors are introverts.  More specifically, they are – in my opinion – introverts in an extrovert’s job. For the record, the basic differences are as follows: Introverts are less outgoing, talkative, enthusiastic and energetic, than their extroverted cousins. Introverts are more oriented to the world…

A few years ago I came upon a delightfully different title in a bookstore’s psychology section: Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking.  I wonder if anybody heard me saying “Amen!” as I paged through the book.  Author Susan Cain argued that modern western culture is biased against introverts, noting…

I’ve mentioned, in two previous posts on this subject, that many pastors are “introverts in an extrovert’s job.” By an “extrovert’s job,” I mean that the general population, widely believed to be more extroverted than introverted, carves the pastoral model in its own image.  Here’s what I mean: While I’ve had people compliment me for…

Introverted pastors have been around at least as long as the Apostle Paul’s young protégé, Timothy. It didn’t help that his father was an unbeliever (Acts 16:1).  While his mother and grandmother were Christ-followers (II Timothy 1:5), there are encouraging words which introverted sons need to hear from their fathers, and Timothy probably didn’t hear…