Three introverted pastors wrote a blog entitled Six Essential Practices of the Introverted Pastor. Serving others in the name of Christ presents a special challenge for the introvert—having a personality that prefers silence, solitude, individual contemplation. And the blog provides some helpful handles to help accomplish the task.
But it is the last practice they listed that really caught my attention: “fake it.” Even though the phrase “fake it” may not be my first choice of words, their explanation has an important truth that applies to both introverts and extroverts:
No matter how unnatural it may feel there are times in ministry that we introverted pastors have to “fake it.” It is not that we are insincere, but we realize that “I’m just not wired that way” is not a valid excuse to not engage in the areas of ministry we find difficult. There are times when we must force ourselves to communicate verbally when our tendency would be to remain quiet. We have to allow God to stretch us in healthy ways as we seek to be effective in reaching a church that sometimes requires us to reach out when we would rather stay still.
People could judge and perceive this practice as pretending to be someone or something we are not. There even are Christians who would see this as deceptive and hypocritical. And so they hold back and end up being stagnant in their faith. But, as the blog writers point out, such perceptions are mistaken. It’s not really “faking it.” It’s doing what God wants us to do; that is, being an authentic disciple.
There are many things in Christian living and service that call the disciple out of his or her comfort zone, “the way I am.” The call may be to tasks or behavior that may not be in keeping with our personality or natural tendency, but are unquestionably in keeping with our identity in Christ. Who we are in Christ is what matters. And when our identity in Christ is our priority, then whatever matters to Christ becomes our priority. And that often means doing things that we do not “naturally” do. That’s what it means to “deny yourself” or to “die to self.” The point is that a faithful disciple will do whatever God wants us to do—personal disciplines, service to others—that leads us beyond where we are to “stretch us in healthy ways” that we may mature in our faith and extend our ministry.
And so any action that is not in keeping with our natural tendency but is in accordance with our identity in Christ is not hypocritical at all. We simply are being obedient to the call of Christ to become more like him. And when we are obedient, we actually are being who we really are. We get rid of all our excuses and just obey him.
—Keith Jainga