Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas

A New Book for the Greenbank Parish Church Library

Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas, an American Baptist, is an excellent introduction to nine different routes through which humans can connect with God.  It is a helpful addition to the excellent small library which already exists at Greenbank Parish Church.  I encourage you to browse in the library, which is full of good things.

Why should you read this new addition to the shelves?

It serves as a resource designed to help people discover how you naturally connect to God — what your spiritual style is — and provides practices to try out, based on your own particular style.

We can connect to God in different ways. God created us all with a certain personalities and spiritual temperaments, which make us gravitate towards certain types of practice and prayer.  God wants us to feel free to worship, according to the way he made us.   A sacred pathway describes the way we relate to God, how we draw near to him.  We can identify our sacred pathway and use practices which come naturally to that pathway as an easier way of connecting to God.

We do not necessarily have to have just one pathway; most of us, however, will naturally have a certain predisposition for relating to God, which is our predominant spiritual temperament.

There are three steps to this process:

1. Take the spiritual style test

2. Identify your spiritual style(s), below

3. Try out some of the spiritual practices suggested for your style; these are laid out clearly in the book.

To find out your own spiritual style, you might try the test at:
  https://www.soulshepherding.org/sacred-pathways-survey/
 

Here are the styles outlined, with a little commentary:

1.  Naturalists: Loving God Outdoors

The naturalist seeks to leave the formal architecture and the pews to enter an entirely new “cathedral,” a place that God himself has built: the out-of-doors.  Any place that has some trees or a stream or, at minimum, open skies, can be God’s cathedral.  Naturalists have found that getting outside can literally flood parched hearts and soften the hardest soul.  Naturalists often learn their best lessons in the out-of-doors.  Three particularly come to mind: they visualize scriptural truths; they see God more clearly; and they learn to rest.

2.  Sensates: Loving God with the Senses

Sensates are moved more by a sensuous worship experience than by anything else.  By sensuous we are referring to the five senses: taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight.  When we embrace the use of the senses — which God created, after all — we open up entirely new avenues of worship.  God created our senses, enjoyment through the senses was his idea.  Sensates experience God in concrete, visible, palpable symbols.  They see God in beauty, are creative and artistic, and enjoy God’s creation.

3.  Traditionalists: Loving God through Ritual and Symbol

Religious practices are the way men and women use the physical world to embody (non-physical) spiritual truths.  There are three elements of the traditionalist pathway: ritual (or liturgical pattern); symbol (or significant image); and sacrifice.  Through ritual and ceremonies traditionalists in turn make order out of chaos.

4.  Ascetics: Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity

The ascetic temperament gravitates toward solitude, austerity, simplicity, and deep commitment.  It’s the “monastic” temperament, so to speak, representing believers who aren’t afraid of discipline, severity, and solitude — indeed, believers who find that these elements awaken their souls to God’s presence.  Ascetics experience God away from worldly distractions and have no need for anything other than God and the Spirit.

5.  Activists: Loving God through Confrontation

Activists love God by standing up for righteousness and justice.  Activists need to find the right balance — indeed, the balance modelled by Christ who regularly interspersed times of spiritual refreshment with intense ministry.  Activism can take the form of Christian activism, social reform, or to confront error and evil.  Writers, preachers, politicians, academics, artists, and homemakers can all be activists, faithful in their own sphere to stand up for the truth.   Activists will never be satisfied playing it safe.  They need to experience the exhilaration of seeing a miraculous God come through in miraculous ways.

6.  Caregivers: Loving God by Loving Others

For caregivers, acts of mercy are a very practical way for them to show their love for God, but also to grow in their love for God.  Caregivers may hear God more clearly when caring for someone than when they sit quietly in prayer.  Caregivers have found that one of the most profound ways they can love God is to love others.  For caregivers, giving care isn’t a chore but a form of worship.

7.  Enthusiasts: Loving God with Mystery and Celebration

Enthusiasts enjoy a celebratory form of worship as well as many of the more supernatural forms of faith.  People with this spiritual temperament like to let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe.  Enthusiasts long to preserve the mystery of faith.  They understand that there are certain things about God and Christianity that we simply can’t fully understand.  They are open to the spiritual world and believe in a God who is powerful and who acts.

8.  Contemplatives: Loving God through Adoration

The contemplative seeks to perform the first work of adoring God.  God is known and described as the heavenly spouse in whom all the contemplative’s delight is met.  While some seek to serve the Lord, others seek to celebrate him, and still others seek to explain him.  The contemplative seeks to gaze lovingly into God’s face and be caught up in the rapture of a lover’s experience.  Contemplatives live for the love of God.  They want nothing more than some privacy and quiet to gaze upon the face of their heavenly lover and give all of themselves to God.

9.  Intellectuals: Loving God with the Mind

Intellectuals feel that to be growing in Christ, they need to have their mind stimulated with Scriptures and other reading materials and intellectual pursuits.  They need to be challenged — if they are not learning new things about God then their relationship with him feels stagnant.  Intellectuals remind us of the high calling of loving God with our mind.

Rev Ian Y Gilmour, Locum Minister
October 2024