Here's the word from on high (Stephen Martin with Greg nearby) as of today and as I understood it[1]: A given person/hero generally uses only one form of worship (essentially one worldview). That worship can be applied to entities that are normally worshipped in other ways.
So your example theist could sacrifice to (theistically worship) a spirit. This is described in the Misapplied Worship section of Advanced Magic (HW:RiG p. 248), but the example text is incorrect in that it uses a shaman to sacrifice to Lord of Snows. Instead, the head of the cult should be a theist. Theists sacrifice, shamans don't. (This is known, but not yet updated on the website, errata.)
Combined worship breaks this rule for now, but so does the whole Urox/Storm Bull thing. I suspect that Uz and Aldryami will be exceptions as well.
If I had a player who wanted their character to change from a theist to an animist, I would strip all theist abilities from the character and have them start from the beginning trying to become an animist. Yes this is harsh, but I could see it happening. I don't see why a theist would become a non-shaman animist anyway. Shamans can still give fetishes to theists if there is a good enough reason and that's basically all a tribesman gets unless he wants to integrate spirits himself with Spirit Combat.
On the other hand, a theist could become a Holy Person, Sacred Chief, Family Head. Just charge them extra HP for mistakenly sacrificing to the spirit ally, [spirit] ancestors, etc.
[1] In other words, no guarantees, but it works for me.
Thanks,
Andy
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