Sensate!

Several RevGals posted this on their blogs, so I decided to try it. I think it's amazingly accurate, though (of course) I wanted to explain and expand upon most of my answers. I've reordered the quiz result they gave me from highest to lowest.

From South Albany [Oregon] Community Church--
Sacred Pathways Worship Style Assessment.

They informed me, "Based on your responses to the Sacred Pathways Assessment, your temperament favors a Sensate approach to worship." With "Ascetic" as my lowest score, it looks as if I don't qualify for life as a medieval saint!

Sensate 25 Loving God with the Senses
Sensate Christians want to be lost in the awe, beauty, and splendor of God. They are drawn particularly to the liturgical, the majestic, the grand. They want to be filled with sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm them. The five senses are God's most effective inroad to their hearts.

Traditionalist 24 Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol
Traditionalists are fed by what are often termed the historic dimensions of faith: rituals, symbols, sacraments, and sacrifice. They tend to have a disciplined life of faith and have a need for ritual and structure.

Activist 23 Loving God Through Confrontation
These Christians define worship as standing against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They are energized more by interaction with others, even in conflict, than by being alone or in small groups. Activists are spiritually nourished through the battle.

Enthusiast 23 Loving God with Mystery & Celebration
Excitement and mystery in worship is the spiritual lifeblood of enthusiasts. They are inspired by joyful celebration; cheerleaders for God and the Christian life. They don't want to just know concepts, but to experience them, to feel them, and to be moved by them. They like to let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe.

Intellectual 23 Loving God with the Mind
These Christians live in the world of concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about Him.

Contemplative 20 Loving God through Adoration
These Christians seek to love God with the purest, deepest, and brightest love imaginable. 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.

Caregiver 18 Loving God by Loving Others
Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Caring for others recharges a caregiver's batteries.

Naturalist 16 Loving God Out of Doors
The naturalist seeks to leave the formal architecture and the padded pews to enter an entirely new "cathedral", a place that God himself has built: the out-of-doors.

Ascetic 13 Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity
Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer. Let there be nothing to distract them--no pictures, no loud music--and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity.


Summary of spiritual temperaments borrowed from the book, Sacred Pathways by Gary L. Thomas © © Copyright Zondervan Publishing, 2002