Kirkepiscatoid

Our church has a book discussion group, and I got the nerve to volunteer to be a book leader for the first time. As a person who has re-entered the world of spiritual awareness, I was struggling to find something other than "first person stories of a spiritual nature" (I like those kind of books, but there is a point I have to deal with MY story!) and books of a more general nature like Diana Butler Bass' "Christianity for the Rest of Us" (again, a good book, but we do a lot of books like that in our discussion group.)

Then, simply by happy non-accident, this book showed up in my Amazon.com recommendations. I thought, "Hmmmmm....ok...." (and the fact they had a used copy out there at 3.99 helped!) It's a little different book, designed for exploring your own spiritual path, based on the 16 Myers-Briggs Personality types. Basically, you go and take one of the many online Myers-Briggs tests out there (actually, most of them are a form of Jung personality test that uses the Myers-Briggs classifications) and discover which of the sixteen types is your dominant personality type, and which is your "shadow" type (the opposite of your dominant type.) Many of the tests will give you a rough percentage of what percent you are of each. Then you use the book to see what kinds of activities in worship, prayer, and study might be more your "inclination" and it gives activities to try and questions for reflection. It's also of some value to see what feeds your "shadow" type too...you might see something a little "out of the box" that appeals to you!

I first read the book on my own and explored the activities. I found them very much on target for me. I am 55% ESTP (Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving) and 45% INFJ (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging). This 55-45 mix in itself was a big learning point for me. The extrovert in me generally does not lead me to things like contemplative prayer (can't sit still very long) or reflection. Yet in the past couple of years, two of my biggest spiritual rewards have been journaling (blogging) and spending time in my "sacred space in the yard"--things that feed the INFJ side of me. It brought me to the realization I was not feeding 45% of my spiritual self until recently! So, what brought me to those two activities?

What I discovered from the book, was that the spiritual path that is my dominant one, is most whole through physical experiences...that "sensing" and "perceiving" side of me. It is heavy in my need to touch, to feel, to taste, and eat as forms of worship, and that I can do those more contemplative things if I can have a physical place, an opportunity to feed my five senses, to do them. I have a hard time sitting in a quiet room being reflective and contemplative, but these acts become far easier for me if I am outside, in the wind, the sun, the dawn, the stars, the dark. It is why the Eucharist is important to me. The act of grabbing onto a bit of Christ and eating it is how I inwardly digest God.

Basically, the book validated what I had stumbled into on my own, and had given me both direction and affirmation for my spiritual path. So I decided it might be a very useful book for our book group, and I could see a different angle for doing the book, compared to past books.

The "angle" has more to do with "I could lead this book the same way I teach medical students"--less lecture, more lab, and more problem-solving activities. Some of our books in book group, if you had stumbled in, you would not even be sure if we were discussing the book! I wanted a way to keep the group more "focused on the book" and the angle I chose allowed people to "explore for themselves."

We usually have our book group on a weeknight. I decided off the bat to tie this one to our worship service, and have it right after the post-church coffee time. This move attracted a different set of groupies, which has been fun. It also attracted three of our new confirmands! Even more fun! The three new confirmands have brought a fun new twist to the book, because they are still new in exploring their spiritual paths in more ways than one. Having the "old guard" mixed in with the "new kids on the block" has been a blast!

I designed the sessions so everyone has "assignments"--one where they try one of the activities outlined in the book for "their" spiritual path, and one where they take different parts of our Eucharistic service and explore it according to their personality type. We then talk about our experiences as part of the next week's discussion. Again, this has been a hit. We are all learning a lot about each other by hearing each other talk about what appeals to them.

Anyway, if you are looking for a book for your own church book discussions, or want to try this one on your own, I highly recommend it!