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Sacred Pathways: Nine Ways to Connect with God
This updated edition includes new material on how to integrate and complement the Enneagram with the sacred pathways, as well as references to a new video-teaching resource for groups, the Sacred Pathways Video Study. Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren't necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God.
- GenresFaith
1 pages, Audio CD
Published September 8, 2020
About the author
Gary Thomas
184 books18 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 28, 2026
"There is great freedom in how we can meet with and enjoy God. This is by his design and according to his good pleasure" (28).
"God, who gave us our minds, doesn't despise us for using them, but he does get angry when we neglect them" (166).
"The church is richer when worship is experienced through all nine pathways rather than fighting over whether the intellectual is a more 'biblical' pathway than, say, the sensate" (250).
This book is a super-interesting integration of personality preferences and worship. It proposes that we can connect with God in far more ways than sitting in a big room on a Sunday morning. I read this in the mindset of a church leader, and the nine pathways reminded me of learning styles. Teachers are more effective when they integrate a variety of learning styles into a lesson, and the same is true in worship. I would love to see pastors and worship leaders consider these nine options when planning services . . . and by "services" I mean the Sunday morning event but also service in the community. These built-in preferences can also help us understand why certain people are drawn to certain faith traditions, such as a more liturgical and traditional style or a more charismatic experience. (Neither is more godly.)
This book is easy to read and well organized. Thomas shares personal stories and keeps the conversation moving. He also takes time to address potential hazards for each pathway. My only critique is that it's a bit uneven. He is more enthusiastic about the "pathways" that he finds more meaningful, but this doesn't deter from the helpfulness of the book.
"God, who gave us our minds, doesn't despise us for using them, but he does get angry when we neglect them" (166).
"The church is richer when worship is experienced through all nine pathways rather than fighting over whether the intellectual is a more 'biblical' pathway than, say, the sensate" (250).
This book is a super-interesting integration of personality preferences and worship. It proposes that we can connect with God in far more ways than sitting in a big room on a Sunday morning. I read this in the mindset of a church leader, and the nine pathways reminded me of learning styles. Teachers are more effective when they integrate a variety of learning styles into a lesson, and the same is true in worship. I would love to see pastors and worship leaders consider these nine options when planning services . . . and by "services" I mean the Sunday morning event but also service in the community. These built-in preferences can also help us understand why certain people are drawn to certain faith traditions, such as a more liturgical and traditional style or a more charismatic experience. (Neither is more godly.)
This book is easy to read and well organized. Thomas shares personal stories and keeps the conversation moving. He also takes time to address potential hazards for each pathway. My only critique is that it's a bit uneven. He is more enthusiastic about the "pathways" that he finds more meaningful, but this doesn't deter from the helpfulness of the book.
December 26, 2025
Very practical teaching for any Christian. Other than the chapter about the enneagram at the end, it was an excellent and applicable read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews