Our congregation has been wrestling with the concept of missionality – that we, as the church, engage with God in God’s mission to redeem and restore our lives and our world. We don’t build God’s Kingdom, but we build for the Kingdom (to borrow from NT Wright). Acts of beauty, social justice, community service, kindness, and evangelism are all missional activities.
Congregants are fairly comfortable with community service and showing kindness to strangers, but, like many Presbyterians, they shy away from words like evangelism. In fact, when we talk about being missional as “going out into the community into which God is sending you” or “making disciples who make disciples” (never using the word evangelism), I hear one of two responses: 1) a deep, paralyzing guilt that I’m not talking to my neighbors, or 2) the reasoning that because I’m an introvert, I can’t be missional.
I have wrestled myself with these emotions and excuses. I am shy and struggle to talk to strangers. Even the act of calling the air conditioning repairman is a test of will for me. When I sit next to passengers on an airplane, I don’t talk with them, because I don’t have a clue what to say to start or keep the conversation going without feeling awkward. I’ve had to force myself to meet my neighbors and still don’t always know what to say when I greet them at the mailbox or while on an evening walk. So, when I read books challenging me to be in relationship with people outside of my church circle and to be unafraid to alert others to God’s Kingdom in my actions AND my words, I feel guilty. I urge my congregation to talk with their neighbors, but I am fearful of doing the same.
This is not to say that all introverts are shy like me. My husband, who is much more outgoing than me and better able to mingle at parties, is an introvert, while I call myself a shy extrovert. Yet, I wonder if all our years of crusades and TV evangelists have unintentionally communicated to us that evangelism is the work of charismatic people, disconnected from relationships with others. Many of the introverts I know are not chatty; they may be slow to warm up. But, they are loyal, caring friends. I tend to listen up when the quiet ones speak in a meeting, because I know what they have to say has been carefully considered before spoken.
To me, there is power in the willingness to take time to establish close friendships and allowing those friendships to demonstrate the Kingdom of God before talking about Jesus being the center of our lives. Evangelism doesn’t have to look a certain way to be evangelism. At it’s heart, it is an invitation to trust God with the pain of the world and participate in God’s work to heal it. People are free to accept or reject the invitation. If they reject the invitation, it doesn’t mean we reject the relationship. Choosing to love another person, no matter what, is a sign of God’s Kingdom. And surely extroverts and introverts alike can love.
The challenge for me, then, is to pay attention to where I’m seeking to make friends. It does take energy and courage for me to get outside the comfort zone of my church circle. But, the longer we live in Houston, the more opportunities for new friendships emerge, whether from a friendly neighbor or from the invitation to join a book club. We don’t have to be a certain way to be missional. We have the opportunity to be ourselves, outgoing or shy, chatty or quiet, as we go with God to engage our communities with love, hope, and faith.
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New Beginnings 
You will find your level, Rachel, and your comfort zone will expand as you do, It may be a little slower going for you because of your reticence, but I feel that God doesn’t want you to be uncomfortable all the time you are not alone. He will provide opportunities in which you will revel. One step at a time………
I know exactly what you are talking about. I am the same way one on one with a stranger, but through the years have overcome some of it. Maybe it just takes experience. Or more correctly stated “it takes experiences” A friend related that he has coached people that are terrified of public speaking. He stated that it is a process that one has to go through. Each experience makes the next experience just a little bit easier. He further re-emphasized that there are no short cuts its just a process that one has to go through.
I do believe introverts can be missional. But I think we, introverts or extroverts, need to be prepared, equipped with knowledge, and trained in it. I offer this example: One morning while getting ready for school (high school) my elderly neighbor came to the door, saying come quick and help me, my husband has collapsed in the chair and not breathing. Unfortunately this was before anything was known about CPR. I am confident that if I had the knowledge of CPR, chest compressions, and resuscitation and trained in it as we all are now I would have saved his life.
What greater thing can one do as a Christian than save a life, an eternal life. As we have been commanded.