Discover Your Spiritual Type: A Guide to Individual and Congregational Growth

Rating:
Summary: What style of worship best suits you?
Review: I encountered this well-written book in a four week adult study group in my Episcopal church and all the participants found it useful and enlightening. Corinne Ware employs a Meyers-Briggs type of "circle-quadrant" format, but does not tie her designations directly to the standard MB labels, which I believe makes the work more accessible to those who are not already familiar with that system. Ware helps the reader to get a picture of how he or she responds to different worship-styles -- do you feel closer to God while singing rousing church camp songs, or sitting in quiet meditation, or listening to an intellectually challenging sermon, or serving in a soup kitchen for the homeless, or attending a folk-mass, or being surrounded with the resonance of a great pipe organ, or walking a labyrinth, etc. etc. Equally valuable is to identify those "religious experiences" that make you really uncomfortable! The meta message is that ALL worship styles are valid, and while one will work best for you, no one style is inherently superior to others in an absolute way. Ware has the material organized in a fashion that allows for individuals to place themselves in the circle and also for a group to evaluate the worship preference of their church. That discussion can be very valuable in raising the congregation's awareness of why a service is conducted the way it is -- and opens dialogue on whether there are elements of it that they might wish to do differently, other musical styles they might wish to explore, and so on. It was our experience that everyone came away with greater tolerance for others whose preferences differ. The book would also be very useful for a reader seeking to find a personal comfort-zone among the wide array of worship opportunities available.

Rating:
Summary: What style of worship best suits you?
Review: I encountered this well-written book in a four week adult study group in my Episcopal church and all the participants found it useful and enlightening. Corinne Ware employs a Meyers-Briggs type of "circle-quadrant" format, but does not tie her designations directly to the standard MB labels, which I believe makes the work more accessible to those who are not already familiar with that system. Ware helps the reader to get a picture of how he or she responds to different worship-styles -- do you feel closer to God while singing rousing church camp songs, or sitting in quiet meditation, or listening to an intellectually challenging sermon, or serving in a soup kitchen for the homeless, or attending a folk-mass, or being surrounded with the resonance of a great pipe organ, or walking a labyrinth, etc. etc. Equally valuable is to identify those "religious experiences" that make you really uncomfortable! The meta message is that ALL worship styles are valid, and while one will work best for you, no one style is inherently superior to others in an absolute way. Ware has the material organized in a fashion that allows for individuals to place themselves in the circle and also for a group to evaluate the worship preference of their church. That discussion can be very valuable in raising the congregation's awareness of why a service is conducted the way it is -- and opens dialogue on whether there are elements of it that they might wish to do differently, other musical styles they might wish to explore, and so on. It was our experience that everyone came away with greater tolerance for others whose preferences differ. The book would also be very useful for a reader seeking to find a personal comfort-zone among the wide array of worship opportunities available.