Spiritual Styles Test

spiritual styles Rate each statement on a scale of 1 to 5 1 being the least true about you & 5 being the most true about you.

1. I feel closest to God when I’m in touch 16. I want to experience more praise, 31. I admire people such as St. Francis, St. with the mountains, the forests, the sky, worship, enthusiasm and joy in my Theresa, pilgrims and holy people of all and the sea. church. faiths. 2. I enjoy a holy place filled with ethereal 17. Through thirty minutes of quiet prayer 32. I feel called to stand up for justice, to music, religious images and figures, and inward reflection, I am refreshed by speak out when I see others wronged. and candles. God’s presence. 33. I feel God in me and working through 3. The words tradition, holy books, history 18. If you look at my room, you’ll see that I me when I counsel a person who has and spiritual ritual appeal to me. value books more than music. lost a job or is confronting illness. 4. I would enjoy an overnight retreat at a 19. I would prefer to spend time with God 34. I wish our community felt the freedom to monastery praying and reflecting alone. beside a small brook than in a church lift our hands, clap and give God praise. service. 5. I would like to awaken the church to 35. I would rather be alone with God, address social issues. 20. True spirituality includes sounds, contemplating who He is, than smells, tastes and touch. participate in a formal service 6. I feel closest to God when I care for the poor, the sick, or the imprisoned. 21. I would enjoy reciting a set prayer and 36. Religious teachings are more important readings for daily worship. to me than spiritual experiences. 7. God’s Spirit is exciting, and worshiping God excites me. 22. I feel closest to God when I am alone 37. Taking a trip to places of natural with no distractions. grandeur is something worth saving up 8. Intimacy with me the personal God, money for. known only between us, touches my 23. I become frustrated with members who soul. don’t care and are not active. 38. In the ideal world, all works of art would be used to reflect God’s beauty and 9. I feel close to God when I read God’s 24. The words service and compassion emotions. Word or good books on spiritual topics. appeal to me. 10. I lose touch with God when I spend too 25. I like listening to worship music at 39. Church traditions are important because God works through them to much time indoors. home or in my car—it draws me in and shape and instruct people for good. strengthens me. 11. I love well-crafted sanctuaries where the 40. The words silence and solitude appeal light and colors display God’s glory and 26. God reveals Himself to me as my to me. majesty. Father, my Mother, my friend and my 12. I sense God’s presence through rituals, deepest love. 41. My favorite movies are where evil is confronted and defeated against all such as daily scripture reading or 27. I connect with God best when I discover odds. kneeling in prayer. something new about Him through my 13. A vow of silence or fasting for a short studies. 42. I experience God when nursing someone back to health or helping period would help me discover God’s 28. I connect with God in gardens and someone repair a house. direction for my life. parks, under the moonlight and in the 14. I feel God when I’m confronting evil or changing of the seasons. 43. I love it when group songs suddenly take everyone into a different space. fighting for a just cause. 29. I would enjoy incorporating music, 15. I don’t understand how people can sing drawing, or exercising to improve my 44. The most difficult times in my faith are prayer life. when I can’t feel God’s presence within holy songs while their neighbors lack me. food. 30. We should treasure holy days, holy grounds, offering tables, and traditions. 45. The words logic and truth appeal to me. Survey Tally Chart

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A B C D E F G H I

Spiritual Styles Survey

Answer Sheet A f represents the “naturalist.” Naturalists experience God through is the Caregiver, who experiences God when helping those in nature, the outdoors in the natural world of the sky, mountains need. It is in the act of caring that you experience God’s heart the and valleys, rivers and oceans, flowers and trees, insects and most and come to know God’s love and feel God’s compassion animals. They would rather take a walk in the park than be at a heart. If you are a Caregiver, your compassionate heart bursts basketball game or in a coffee shop. If you are a naturalist, your with concern and energy to heal, uplift and encourage in those in spirituality allows you to feel God through the beauty and order need, representing God’s parental love. When you are not with of the things He created. You find peace and comfort in God’s them, you will be praying for their healing and thinking about creation. It’s the place where your heart opens up to God and what you can do for them. Teachers, doctors, nurses, counselors, you find yourself communicating with God through nature. and all parents fit into this style as they care for students, the infirm and those in need of guidance and nurture. Those with the

b is the Sensor, the person who feels God in the beauty she or Compassionate Heart style are good listeners, with sensitivity to he feels around them. The Sensor experiences their Heavenly others’ needs before their own. Parent through the senses. If you are a Sensor, you may feel God

g deeply in the incense and candles of an ornate cathedral or quiet is the Enthusiast, who experiences God in expressive and active grotto, or in a masterpiece painting depicting a scene from the devotion. If you are an Enthusiast, you like to worship God with Bible. Sometimes music will touch you to the core of your soul bodily enthusiasm. When worship music touches your soul, you and confront you with the blinding truth that “there is a God.” You naturally and unselfconsciously express it physically and tears relish the beautiful works of art, of architecture, of design that well up in your eyes. You probably love to hang out with others were created by God’s creative sons and daughters. who find their Heavenly Parent in gatherings of celebration, song, preaching and sharing. You like to sing out to God and the larger

c is the Traditionalist, who experiences God in tradition. The the crowd, the more you feel God’s presence and power. Traditionalist finds God in the venerable, generations-old core

h of beliefs, rituals and symbols. You are attracted to the sacred is the Contemplative. You experience God with spiritual antennae and the experience of the holy found in ritual. You may be a new that discern the eternity of God. You are a person of reflection and believer who is tapping with joy and exaltation into an ancient deep consideration in you love of our Heavenly Parent. As you way that is not your own. In either case, you take comfort in adore the glory of the Creator, you will sometimes write moving rituals, in the age-old patterns of birth, life, death and new life that poetry, passionate literature, or heartfelt songs or produce works reside within God’s eternity. of art. If you are a Contemplative, you thrive in the mystical relationship with God and express your communion with the

d is the Ascetic, experiencing God in simplicity. He or she longs Creator by fashioning your thoughts into form, as objects of truth to deepen their relationship with God one-on-one, alone in their revealing God. It could be art or music. Contemplatives often Heavenly Parent’s presence, which they access by spiritual become writers of scripture or spiritual literature. This is different disciplines, especially of self-renunciation. If you enjoy and from an ascetic, who needs solitude and who is more focused on need solitude to connect to God, and tend to appreciate self- practicing the spiritual disciplines of their faith. The Contemplative discipline, spiritual practices, self-sacrifice and endurance, this forms new expressions of faith through processing their insights could be you. You seek the inner life through meditation, fasting, and using their creativity to express them. aloneness, and quiet time. You consider many material things

i and excesses to be distractions from the highest quest, which is is the Intellectual, who experiences God when he or she gains to know God. You also are deeply committed to discovering your knowledge and understanding. The Intellectual discovers the own true identity, your original “I.” Monks, hermits and yogis have spirit of God in theology, science and history. If you are an a natural inclination toward this style. Intellectual, you tend to be intellectual and value research and analysis in your search for our Heavenly Parent. You appreciate

e represents the “activist.” The conscience is where the Activist proofs, thoroughness, criticism and clarifications. You probably first feels the tug of God. She or he feels close to their Heavenly have some concern about believers having a reasonable and Parent when they are confronting evil and injustice. They are sensible understanding of God’s reality. Your spirit thrives on moved by a sense of God’s aching heart over the suffering of the the deep and rich details of what scripture, theology, history and people of this world, the abuse of power and oppression of the science have to say about God. poor. If you are an Activist, you feel God when your conscience is burning and calling you to a struggle for a cause. You may be shy, but God compels you to express your passionate beliefs about how to rectify wrongs.