Beauty revealing truth

For me an unforgettable experience was the Bach concert that Leonard Bernstein conducted in Munich after the sudden death of Karl Richter. I was sitting next to the Lutheran Bishop Hanselmann. When the last note of one of the great Thomas-Kantor-Cantatas triumphantly faded away, we looked at each other spontaneously and right then we said: "Anyone who has heard this, knows that the faith is true". The music had such an extraordinary force of reality that we realized, no longer by deduction, but by the impact on our hearts, that it could not have originated from nothingness, but could only have come to be through the power of the Truth that became real in the composer's inspiration. ~from an essay by then Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI)

I don't have a lot to say this week other than to note that the sliver of the Christian culture that I live in is very weak on beauty. The essay linked above discusses the Beauty and Truth in Jesus with more detail and delicacy than I can, so I encourage the brave to read it slowly.

But I will make the follow comments. I understand my role and my community to be a missional outpost. This means that we live on the far edge of a boundary, let's call it the edge of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the World (this may be too high falutin' but it'll work for now). So we call out to and receive the weary and worn, we triage them with the truth of God and send them on in, deeper into the kingdom, further in where they can settle into the kingdom life and kingdom rest.

It's the edge-ness that I want to draw attention to. If we are what we say we are, "evangelical" or "missionaries to our zipcode" or "attractional" or whatever, why aren't we more devoted to beauty? Isn't beauty by definition attractive?

I spent 6 months studying in St. Petersburg, Russia. This is a city that was called the Venice of the north. The Hermitage Museum houses art on par with the Louvre in France. The Russian choirs, ballets, and operas were frequent and magnificent. When I rewind through my memories, I had some of my most intense experiences of beauty there--stumbling into choir practice at the Smolny Cathedral, catching sunset in Tavrichesky Garden, that aria in La Traviata. These left me with the deepest sting of loneliness. I was in St. Petersburg alone, I experienced these on my own. But it felt like such things should be shared.

What is truly beautiful draws us out of ourselves, Ratzinger says that it "reawaken[s] a longing for the Ineffable, readiness for sacrifice, the abandonment of self" and contrasts this with false beauty which "stirs up the desire, the will for power, possession and pleasure."

As it happens, I enjoy and value beauty for the missional outpost, but I don't know how to comes to be. But I daresay it's a question worth wrestling with.

**
Image of Smolny Cathedral

Book Review: Introverts in the Church

I've been reading lately, so I thought I'd do some reviewing.

First up Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh, IVP. 222pp including discussion questions, further reading, and notes*

Who should read this book
Introverted pastors or lay leaders who feel like they are always out of steam or lagging behind.
Average Joe introverts who find many church ways alienating and difficult to connect with.
Extroverted pastors or lay leaders who have an uneasy feeling that some people are being sinfully anti-social.

About the book
The book starts off arguing that we live in an extroverted culture that prizes those abilities that come naturally to extroverts. Then it discusses characteristics of introverts, affirms those characteristics and then in response to the extroverted culture, calls introverts to healing.

McHugh covers a number of different aspects of introverted spirituality, from private devotions to community relationships to evangelism to church service. However, clearly the McHugh's heart is for introverted church leaders specifically pastors.

Thoughts and commentary
Well, turns out that I'm not the target audience for this book even though I am an introvert and a member of the church universal and a local church. I'm not the target audience first because I have embraced being an introvert. I have spent the better part of a decade and a half thinking about and working out how to be an introverted follower of Christ. I have no problems telling extroverted pastors to pound sand. I'm also not the target audience because I am not and do not desire to be a pastor. You can just tell that the pastorate is what jazzes McHugh. That's fine, that's just not me.

I was interested in the introverted spirituality chapters and I think these are the chapters that would interest the average Joe introvert in the church. The chapter on evangelism was particularly good.

Despite both being introverts, my husband and I didn't completely connect with some of McHugh's experiences as an introvert, nor do we completely connect with one another. And while McHugh does mention this, I think it must be stressed that introversion isn't the only reason a person responds in a particular way. There's a lot of diversity across introverts. For example, in the chapter on introverted evangelism he encourages introverts to leverage listening well to people to connect with people and walk with them on their faith journey. First, just because an introvert isn't talking doesn't mean that they are listening. They might be talking to themselves. Second, everyone including extroverts should work to listen better.

Conclusion
I was personally disappointed in the book because of the various points of disconnect. However, I am tempted to buy a bunch of copies and give them to various leaders in my life. Heh. Introverts new to this stuff--sure, check it out from the library.

*Not an affiliate link