Personalities and The Way We “Do Church”

I met with one of the other pastors at our church today to talk a little bit about my last post.  Rereading it, I can see how it might have touched a nerve.  In no way was I suggesting that where I currently serve is one of these churches that is completely out of touch with where God has called His people to be.  Rather, I think it is in the fact that any community must be made up of individuals with different personalities who view ministry completely from a different angle.  It is in the blending of these different personalities that we can become more (ie. synergy) like Christ.  That balance, when unkempt tends to push out those who fit different personality types rather than actually utilizing that different view for the overall health of a particular community.

I recently took a Jung Typology Test to just see exactly what might be causing this strange aversion to very corporate structures in ministry and why I feel why I do about church at this juncture in life.

Where I am.

Right now, there’s a lot of things going on.  My wife and I are expecting our first child (just found out today that it’s a boy).  We are still trying to pay off debt on a meager salary (it’s getting more lean by the day it seems) and dealing with trying to move in the next couple of weeks.  I have been feeling more of a call back to Youth ministry (my degree is in Biblical Theology with an emphasis in Youth Ministry).  I have also began writing a lot more… which is why decloned has been taking more of a turn to the spiritual lately.

on the Jung test I came out as a:

• 22% slightly expressed introvert
• 62% distinctively expressed intuitive personality
• 38% moderately expressed feeling personality
• 11% slightly expressed judging personality

where that places me on a career indicator is with the following: Literature/Writer, Humanities, Web Design, Philosophy, Archaeology, Religious Education, Psychology, & Counseling (not in any particular order).

I would say that this closely resembles where I am and careers that would fit me, but what does it mean for my ministry and my roles moving forward? Maybe we should answer another question first.

Why is Personality Important?

My simple answer to this is that God also has a personality.  This means He also has a set of values, morals, and a definitive sense of self.  The difference is when it comes to these things, all else is defined by Him.  Our particular sense of self is derived from who God has created us to be which includes our personality.  When it comes to community, as Christians we should come to a closer semblance the personality of God.  That same synergy of personalities amplifies who we are as a body.  If we can at least recognize other persons as part of the body of Christ albeit different having a different personalities from ourselves, the challenge then becomes to allow those expressions to thrive alongside of us, independent as they are, yet part of a collective personality.  This is why there is no particular personality applied to virtues.

To only surround yourself with like personalities as a community is quite simply contrary to the very nature of God.  We must also reckon with something we see in Genesis chapter 2 where we see God take a divine pause and state in the midst of a bunch of “it is good” statements a “it is not good… for man to be alone.”

Why?  Because community is also a part of who God is.  In the community we call “church” different aspects of personality also are part of who God is.

We must be careful here to leave out the part of the body that is needed to give us balance to who we are.  I think this is a fitting clip.  We are all a part of the body of Christ as believers.  This is the community I was referring to in the last post.