Sacred Pathways: Discover Your Soul's Path to God

The writer writes in a very accessible style and it makes sense right away. It is helpful to understand that you have styles and personality traits that lend to a preferred worship style. Help people understand why they like certain types of worship and relate to God better in certain circumstances than in others. I learned a lot.

It is beautiful to have a relationship with God. Each individual on a spiritual journey must decide his/her own path. Whether you worship outside in nature (God's cathedral) or in a formal building like a church, everyone finds their own way.Gary L. Thomas explores the various church settings and I discovered I'm a Sensate Christian. This means my ideal church would be an ornate cathedral with candles in all the windows and incense burning. Preferably this church would be on a beach! Now I wonder if something like this exists.Gary L. Thomas says some profound things about sacrifice and denial of self. He comments on various prayers that bring comfort to people. There is an interesting section on dreams and how you should interpret them.But mainly, by reading this book you will understand the most effective ways to worship for your spiritual personality. You may be a combination of any of the following:NaturalistSensateTraditionalistAsceticActivistCaregiverEnthusiastContemplativeIntellectualYou may find this all very fascinating. I found I enjoyed certain qualities from each spiritual temperament, but definitely leaned more in certain directions. I say, why not be all these temperaments and enjoy the best worship has to offer.The only thing I must say that gave me pause was Gary L. Thomas' insistence that God was not in nature. How do we know that? Is God not omnipresent?Otherwise, I was impressed with Gary L. Thomas' lucid thinking which I found to be very authentic.~The Rebecca Review

Overall, this was a good introductory book to different spiritual “temperaments” or pathways. It doesn’t have as much depth into each as it perhaps could, but if you’re looking for an introduction, this fits the bill well.There are only a few minor issues with this book I think. The main one is that at times there seemed to be a self imposed pressure to keep these pathways distinct from each other and almost force differences between them that aren’t necessarily there. Another issue, is more of a personal pet peeve is that there are a couple of times where he throws in percentages that have no reference point. The point was made with out it, and it just seemed unnecessary. The final one is with the rating system he has to try and help the reader determine what their temperament is. He says 15 and above may be an indication of it applying to you, but with 6 questions each, you can meet that with responses of 2 and 3 on half of the questions. It seems like you should need to answer 3 or above on most of the questions for it to really be an indication that you might have that temperament so maybe a better number to meet or exceed would be 18.

This book absolutely revolutionized my relationship with God. Gary Thomas summarizes nine different "types" of ways that people can connect with God, identifying ideas, strengths, and weaknesses of each one, and a short "quiz" to help you identify your main spiritual temperament.I have had such a difficult time over the past several years connecting with God. I have felt like I was supposed to spend time with Him following one particular formula, and I couldn't help dreading what I felt was my dry and disappointing duty. What a joy to read this book and recognize there are so many other ways I can have a "quiet time!" I identified with several and was presented with so very many ideas to try, it has actually made me excited to spend time with God every day. I feel like I never need to get "bored" with my faith again! I can love the Lord with my heart, my mind, my soul, and my strength, and Gary Thomas helps to understand what each of those can look like. Having been brought up in and exposed to pretty much one Christian tradition, it was so enlightening to see what other Christians throughout the centuries have done to connect with God and express their faith. Plus, this book sticks very close to orthodox Christian doctrine. There was nothing shady in it; where it could have veered into sketchy territory, it was very clear where the balance should be. What a beautiful, freeing book! It has a permanent place on my bookshelf, and I have recommended it to virtually everyone I know.

If you love MBTI, Enneagram, and similar personality typing systems, you'll love this book! It explores how different temperaments of Christians may have different preferences how they feel closest to God and worship Him. Two things I especially loved about this book:1. The author roots everything in scripture. Each sacred pathway is linked back to one or more characters in the bible and how they primarily displayed their worship of God. There are many bible passages included as cross references. His opinions are not shared in isolation from God's Word.2. The author emphasizes more than once the possible pitfalls of each type, and - perhaps more importantly - the fact that the mature Christian will display all 9 types. The action-oriented Activist is not excused from sitting at the feet of Jesus like the Contemplative, and the Caregiver is not meant to go out serving people without spending time studying God's Word like the Intellectual.Overall, a well researched and well written book that I am now using to lead a summer bible study where each week we are worshipping God in one of the 9 Sacred Pathways!

Gary Thomas systematically analyses the ways in which different people approach God, arguing that there is no one way that is superior to others. He categorizes several different 'sacred paths', but goes on to explain that most people approach God using a blend of these. While each path has its advantages, followed on its own in can become an end in its own right, rather than a means, creating a damaging imbalance in approach. He argues that many people are trapped in approaches to God that are not consistent with their 'spiritual personalities'. Reading this book will lead people to reflect their own lives and in some cases give them courage to move on and explore new directions.

If you are struggling to connect with God, this book is really helpful in helping you to work out your own personal way of connect back to the father. Read this myself and then used it within small group. It had transformed a lot of lives.

This book has set me free from being someone else and enables me to communicate with Jesus in a way that suits the way He designed me.

Understanding why we're different from each other and it's OK to be so. I found it personally helpful even though the topics written about were not always dealt with over profoundly. I think I was expecting something a little different from what the title suggests but I would certainly recommend this to anyone who sees themselves as not fitting in well to the standard evangelical mould.

Very revealing, after reading I've learnt a lot of surprises about myself