Adam S. McHugh Quotes & Sayings

Introverts have layered personalities, and they prefer to slowly unpeel the layers as they bond with people over time. — Adam S. McHugh

Because introverts are typically good listeners and, at least, have the appearance of calmness, we are attractive to emotionally needy people. Introverts, gratified that other people are initiating with them, can easily get caught in these exhausting and unsatisfying relationships. — Adam S. McHugh

We define ourselves in relationship to Christ: who we are is how we relate to him. The Son, sent by the Father, lives in us through the Holy Spirit, and we can't truly meet ourselves until we meet him. — Adam S. McHugh

I believe that the truly healthy church is a combination of introverted and extroverted qualities that fluidly move together. Only in that partnership can we capture both the depth and breadth of God's mission. — Adam S. McHugh

While extroverts commonly feel loneliness when others are absent, introverts can feel most lonely when others are present, because ours is the aching loneliness of not being known or understood. — Adam S. McHugh

I am convinced that true healing ultimately comes from the outside; it comes as an act of hospitality, as we respond to and welcome the indwelling presence of the Creator God who "formed my inward parts" (Ps 139:13). — Adam S. McHugh

Introverted seekers need introverted evangelists. It's not that extroverts can't communicate the gospel, either verbally or nonverbally, in ways that introverts find appealing, it's that introverted seekers need to know and see that it's possible to lead the Christian life as themselves. It's imperative for them to understand that becoming a Christian is not tantamount with becoming an extrovert. — Adam S. McHugh

We could paraphrase "repent and believe" with "close your ears and listen." Obedience has both a stop and start to it. We turn our backs to the old voices and offer our attention to Jesus' voice.

We desire for God's voice to crescendo in our lives, with the competing voices fading away. This means that we must ruthlessly silence the calls of other masters. We confess our auditory rebellions to others, since somehow moving the jaw in confession seems to unplug our ears. — Adam S. McHugh

We cannot find freedom in our introversion until we embrace our primary identities as sons and daughters of God. — Adam S. McHugh

When introverts are in conflict with each other ... it may require a map in order to follow all the silences, nonverbal cues and passive-aggressive behaviors! — Adam S. McHugh

Introverts treasure the close relationships they have stretched so much to make. — Adam S. McHugh

Introverts' wounds usually begin in childhood. Our families of origin convey to us messages about introversion, which set us on a path of either self-acceptance or self-criticism. — Adam S. McHugh

When introverts go to church, we crave sanctuary in every sense of the word, as we flee from the disorienting distractions of twenty-first-century life. We desire to escape from superficial relationships, trivial communications and the constant noise that pervade our world, and find rest in the probing depths of God's love. — Adam S. McHugh

One of the most unexpected findings of my research was that introverted pastors felt very comfortable preaching, irrespective of congregation size. Many of them actually considered it their biggest strength and favorite part of the job. They found that their natural tendencies toward study, scholarship and writing translated into effective preaching and teaching. — Adam S. McHugh

Introverts often prefer writing to speaking, because writing uses a different neurological pathway in the brain than speaking does. — Adam S. McHugh

Introverted wounds bleed in our minds and hearts, and bleed out in our behaviors, actions and relationships. — Adam S. McHugh

He is not a man that is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him." STAMFORD, DESCRIBING SHERLOCK HOLMES TO DR. WATSON, IN SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, A STUDY IN SCARLET — Adam S. McHugh

A church that is self-focused and insular is a social club, not a church. — Adam S. McHugh

Even the healthiest of people struggle to measure the world and themselves with an accurate yardstick, as the power of sin infects everyone's mind as well as his or her actions. — Adam S. McHugh

Healthy introverts are not recluses. Just because we are oriented toward our inner worlds does not necessitate that we live in a private world, devoid of social contact and activity. It means that whatever context we are in, we are predisposed toward what is happening inside of us more than we are in what is taking place around us. Introverts can be in an unruly crowd, still immersed in our internal worlds. — Adam S. McHugh

Though introverts look calm on the surface, our brains are bubbling with activity, and thus we require less external stimulation than extroverts. — Adam S. McHugh

Let God make you fully you. Rejoice in your God-given temperament and use it for God's purposes. This point cannot be emphasized enough. We must be authentic. If we try to be someone we are not, people will see it instantly. — Adam S. McHugh

The verbal tool of exploring mystery together is not confrontation or preaching but dialogue. We subject ourselves to the same questions we pose to others, and as we traverse them together, we may arrive at surprising conclusions we could never have reached when simply trying to defeat one another's logic. Our questions are open ended, granting the other person the freedom to respond or not to respond. The questions stick with us, even haunt us, long after we ask them, and we await insight together. The process is more important than an immediate decision. — Adam S. McHugh

We seek healing both from the internal wounds of distorted self-understandings and feelings of inadequacy, and from the outward wounds of alienation from others and exclusion from our communities. We desire the freedom to be ourselves and to love others as ourselves. — Adam S. McHugh

Introversion and shyness are not synonymous. Introversion is a natural personality trait where we go inside ourselves to process our experiences. Shyness, on the other hand, is a condition marked by fear or extreme anxiety in social situations. — Adam S. McHugh

God has always been about the business of shattering expectations, and in our culture, the standards of leadership are extroverted. It perfectly follows the biblical trend that God would choose the unexpected and the culturally "unfit" - like introverts - to lead his church for the sake of greater glory. — Adam S. McHugh

Others are able to mediate the gentleness of Christ to us when we are not able to be gentle with ourselves. — Adam S. McHugh

In a team setting, leadership is shared by a community of people, which counters the tendency for pastors to form congregations in their own images. — Adam S. McHugh

The Bible should never close us to hearing God's voice in other venues; rather it ought to open us to recognize it whenever we hear it. In a sense, the Scriptures are a tuning fork for adjusting our ears to the tone of God's voice. It attunes us to the quality, the pitch and the cadence of God's voice, and to the character that his voice expresses, so that we can identify his true voice over false ones. — Adam S. McHugh

Our slower pace of life, our thoughtfulness, our spiritual and intellectual depth, and our listening abilities are prophetic qualities for the evangelical community, calling us to a renewed understanding of God and a fresh reading on the abundant life Jesus came to give us. Yet because of the extroverted bias in many of our churches, introverts are leading double lives. We are masquerading as extroverts in order to find acceptance, yet we feel displaced and confused. We are weary of fighting our introversion, and we long to live faithfully as the people we were created to be. — Adam S. McHugh