Each Christian congregation has a “piety flavor.”
For those of you not super churchy, piety is one’s spiritual “vibe.”
Once this “sets,” it’s virtually impossible to change.
The piety match between pastor and congregation is perhaps the most crucial factor in ministry success.
As Christians, we can play “away games,” and even appreciate a road trip to the other pieties. But we can only have one true “home court” pity.
There may be other “sub-groups,” or even a piety I have not thought of.
But these are the four bouncing through my mind.
They are:
1) Athletic
2) Contemplative (Cool)
3) Warm
4) Hot
I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that aligning these flavors is actually more important in predicting success than denominational association or theological angle of the church.
For instance, a “warm” piety Lutheran will feel more at home in a a “warm” Anglican church than in an “athletic” Lutheran congregation.
Please pass this link on to others, especially the leaders in your congregation.
As in so many parts of human endeavor, the feelings “win.” The vibe of a human group is more important than we have realized.
Call it congregational “tribal vibe.”
There are many pastor/congregation mismatches. The worst ones occur when an athletic or contemplative pastor tries to transform a warm congregation into his/her image.
Most pastors going into a mismatched congregation see “vitalization” as changing the culture of their new congregation to their personal piety flavor.
Here are some brief thumbnail sketches:
Athletic
This piety is strident. There is a missionary vibe. “Discipleship” is the prevailing theme. The congregants, and especially the pastor, have serious looks on their faces most of the time.
They mean business.
These folks tend to have strong political left- or right-wing opinions. “Activism” of one kind or another (abortion, racism, hunger, the lost, you name it…) prevails as the reason for gathering in the first place.
Home schooling is common. They all vote.
This group is the one most likely to have highly developed enemy images, and they are invoked often. This creates group solidarity.
This is the home base of the “theologically serious.”
Contemplative (Cool)
Understated and elevated.
These people are consumers of 90% of the candles used in churches. And the most likely to wear tweed.
No plastic or synthetics in the room. Instead: Wood. Stone. Water. Natural fabric paraments and vestments. The organ has real pipes.
These churches are not afraid of silence.
The sermons are oblique, and often float into tertiary reflection (Outloud thinking about what someone else thinks about the Bible text). Listening can approximate being in a flotation tank.
There may be a Taize-style communion station with candles and kneelers in one of the corners.
These congregations have the best table manners at the Eucharist (only group which uses this word), which is fine dining complete with potent “spell casting” sound bites and real silverware.
Choral readings are key. Creeds. Lord’s prayer. Lots of formally-read Bible passages, but no one actually opens a Bible in the pews. The members (especially if they are audio learners) actually learn a lot of Bible over the years, because they hear so much of it every week.
The more committed of this stripe often hire spiritual directors, and aren’t afraid go on silent retreats.
$25 bottles of wine and European cheeses are available at their social gatherings.
The educational and NPR/PBS quotient is high, and the women wear less makeup than average.
Warm
Affection is the overriding theme here. If you aren’t drawn to physical touch and “stiffen up” when people hug you, then you won’t last long in this group.
The music chosen tends to be affective rather than theological. A relationship with God is eros, in a non-sexual way, if that makes any sense to you.
Small town churches of every stripe lean in this direction. Bible camp for grown-ups. There is a profound informality undergirding everything. No one would be shocked if you raised your hand and asked a question during the service.
A large minority of the attendees of these churches are socially and emotionally broken women; many of them divorced with kids. A good chunk of the men are in some kind of 12-step group.
Hands get raised during singing, and there is kleenex available all over the room.
The sermons are therapeutic and encouaging in tone. Favorite Bible texts are the Psalms and the Johannine canon.
There is always a group of folks in these congregations trying to get you to go on the next Cursillo/Emmaus weekend, where many of them were converted to warm piety in the first place.
Hot
Hot is not its own flavor, it is “warm” piety with the intensity turned up. This one can be downright scary to outsiders.
Generally speaking, this is the hard edge of the Pentecostal movement. It feels like just about anything could happen. This is the only flavor where shouting is a common form of communication.
This piety is often the norm in non-Anglo, non-Western Christianity.
Parishioners can fall out in trances and even writhe around on the floor.
Deliverance, and the here-and-now prophetic, are as common as doorknobs.
If you visit, sit in the back.
+++++++
Obviously, you can see why the pastor/congregation piety match is so pivotal.
The most pain comes from a pastor trying to “remake” the congregation in his/her piety image. Phrases like “they just don’t get it” are common.
One flavor is not better than another.
The skilled pastor will try to make the congregation into the best version of itself. And will do his/her life’s work in a church that matches where he/she would like to go to church in the first place.
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11 comments
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April 27, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Steve Thorson
I went back and read the Spiritual Temperament piece https://robinwoodchurch.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/what-is-your-spiritual-flavortemperament/ . Good to add “hot.” So who are we in Cokato? And who am I in this congregation? And what does this have to do with the pain so many in our church are suffering as we go through the ELCA kerfuffle? I can think of individuals in our local, small town church who are cool, warm and athletic. My son has gotten a dose of HOT and it’s scared the bejeebers out of some in our family. Personally, I grew up a nice blend of warm and cool. The warm side was nurtured through [Lutheran] Youth Encounter, etc., and pretty much won out except I’m more intellectual and an ENTJ/P “thinker” by nature… The congregation here is a blend of warm and cool… but the ELCA issues have made many of our warm and cool folks more “athletic” with a tendency to label the others as enemies. A nice long Cursillo weekend would do us all good. Please keep us in your prayers.
April 27, 2010 at 9:18 pm
David Housholder
Prayers uploading now. Have your members read this essay–it may help them understand better.
April 27, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Wendy Housholder
I like that you used a photo I took as your “heading” to your journal =] I oughta charge you for that ~ Lol!
I think Robinwood is “warm” and it matches you perfectly. No coincidence there, as you planted it together with the team =]
April 27, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Diane Roth
I liked this when you just had three; I like it a little better with the fourth added. I think I’m a blend of Warm and cool, too. My Lutheran church-camp upbringing was “warm”, then I spent some time around the Pentecostals and became “Hot” for a little while (or maybe athletic, I’m not sure), but when they scared me a little, I found the “cool” side of spirituality, in looking at the history of spirituality (some of the saints, e.g.) I know it seems like you can’t be a blend, from the way you talk, but this is the way I’m experiencing it. I’m pretty sure this congregation is not “Hot” or “Athletic.”
Some people are comfortable with hugging; others aren’t. so…..
Actually, as a large congregation that formed in the 50s, it seems like there isn’t one overriding spirituality, and maybe that’s part fo the problem.
Anyway, lots of food for thought here!
April 27, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Charis Combs-Lay
My husband Leo and I serve in Iowa, two churches, two denominations. Our Presbyterian congregation is warm, I think, although there is a majority of men there. There are either retired persons or young families, little in between. Our Lutherans are united in service of Christ – I mean that, because if we take our focus for a second from our “job in this world” we fight like cats and dogs. We have a dozen very strong personalities with opinions on everything and an outreach in 42 places around the world that depend on us, including our own neighborhood. There are about 200 of us who are very active in ministry and I’ve always thought we were unique. Our Lutherans cross all those boundaries, Dave. Hunger issues, Bible Studies, prayer groups, pipe organ and wax candles, Medical clinics in Nigeria, CNA education for career-building, etc. Our area is low-income, so our ministries are tilted that direction some. I can’t think of any place like it. Are there any other categories? Maybe one for, um, determined and, um, passionate people who like to work hard?
April 28, 2010 at 12:57 am
carl hamper
I love the idea of matching personality types to churches, and pastors. I believe that an understanding of personality difference goes much farther than a doctrinal statement in uniting Christians, or helping a person find their fit. I consistently meet people in any church who do not believe everything in the doctrinal statement, but love to be there because of the personality! also, psychologists have a term called “the Pygmalion Project”, which is based on Greek mythology, the drive to remake everyone into our own image. a very fruitless task for those in ministry, we should always be guarding against measuring peoples spirituality by our own strengths ans weakness, or worse, by our preferences!
April 28, 2010 at 1:43 am
Kati
Interesting… I know all these categories and liked how you described them. No wonder my husband (of two years) and I are a bit confused. He is warm. I’m hot/athletic. And our church is cool. Mismatches definitely bring challenges, but don’t you think they also provide opportunity for growth? It’s easy to be with people similar to us, but much harder to “jump fences” and love those who are different from us. I see that as the challenge Jesus faced in coming to our world, and the challenge every cross-cultural missionary faces. And because of the Great Commission, we are all cross-cultural missionaries. Fence-jumping. But that’s a perspective I acquired when I took Perspectives, which would probably be in the “athletic” category. Haha.
May 2, 2010 at 3:58 am
David Housholder
Kati is the name of my female protagonist in my novel out May 2011 from Summerside Press.
April 30, 2010 at 12:42 am
DimLamp
The problem with these categories (although I find them a tad amusing and humorous) is that they are too unrealistic in light of the complexities of the human condition. No one person is a perfect fit into one single category, to believe that and apply that leads to congregational judgementalism and conflicts. Moreover, to follow these categories in an either/or dialectical way contradicts Pauline ecclesiology for sure–since he sees congregations as “the body of Christ” with differing functions living together in unity and complimenting one another in a unity in diversity, diversity in unity manner.
May 4, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Jolene Kraft
Dimlamp, I can assure you the categories are “right-on.” I had a strict religious German background from Mennonites, Lutherans, to Church of God. The extreme views & practices of both sides of my parents ancestors had made up my spiritual beliefs & behavior. I’m in a spiritual metamorphosis of huge proportions. Through the teachings of Dave Householder on the Bible, I have risen to a new level with my God.
Cool, at the start then progressed to the warm stage, after divorce & raising 3 children alone. Now, after EASING the barriers or walls, then eventually dropping them through our churches’ teachings, I am reveling in a closeness to my Savior I would NEVER had imagined let alone had the courage to explore if not for exceptional teaching of my pastor & friend Hous. Having the opportunity to look death in the eye & survive to fight another day, has made me keenly award of my faith. These piety categories may be thought of as a progression of faith when we stop worrying about presentation and simply let God take over; just receive His Grace and react to it. A very individual & personal experience to say the least but nonetheless, categorically “right on.” This is coming from a person who has Michaelangelo’s “Pieta” as her screensaver! Thank you Dave for the ear & eye openers! God bless ya’ll
May 6, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Jay Egenes
This typology provides a good lens for understanding congregations and pastors and fit. Most people and congregations won’t fit neatly into one box, though. I’m a warm (love Jesus and the Bible), but I’m also a philosophical theologian at heart. So I can live in cool land as long as you don’t ask me to meditate for hours on end in a dark room. I call that “taking a nap.”
The best use of philosophical theology is tied to mission. For example, how does thinking in philosophical terms help us understand what’s going on in the culture around us and then act missionally. This is an “athletic” concern-although I’m not an “athlete”. Just ask my basketball coach. 🙂
And I’ve had some “hot” experiences–but never lived there.
After about 15 months, I’m still trying to figure out where my congregation fits in this description. Not easily in one box. The prior pastor was a “cool”–just loved liturgy–but he talked athletic at least some of the time on social justice issues. So there’s some of both of those in the way we do things. Many of the people are warms, although the congregational culture doesn’t match–maybe because of some painful experiences in congregational history. The congregation doesn’t fit a category very well.
To quote Michael Aune, “All categories leak.”
With that as background, we are clearly in a process that will move the congregation toward a warm piety if I continue to be the pastor. Or drive me nuts if they don’t get warmer.