"Wired: Personality & the Pastor" (sneak peak)

The past little while, I've been working at turning my research into personality and ministry into a book. It's been VERY slow progress and still very much in draft form but to motivate me to keep going (and hopefully interest you) I thought I'd share a sneak peak of the introduction.

Enjoy!!

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When Personality meets Ministry

I’ve always been conscious of my personality (ironically, my personality probably predisposes me to this).

On the Myers-Briggs scale I’m an INFJ.

This means I don’t enjoy parties. I trust my gut when making decisions.

I get teary when pets die. I panic at surprises. And spend far too much time reflecting on why I’m like this.

These quirks were obvious to me from a young age. I can still picture three-year old me hiding behind my mum at playgroup, too shy to join the other kids. In high school, I’d take the long route around our family farm to avoid dead animals along the road.  As a university student, I remember fleeing from a surprise party, overwhelmed at the unexpected turn of events.

What took me far longer to understand, was how deeply these traits impacted my ministry. For years, I assumed there was a correct “mould” for ministry workers and that mine wasn’t it.  Rather than embracing how God had wired me, for years I simply disguised my differences, imitated others and felt inadequate for seemingly not fitting the “ministry mould.”

The Turning Point

The turning point was a collision of three significant events.

The first was a new job.

After four years serving on a university ministry team, I stepped into the role of team leader. This wouldn’t have been so daunting, but for the fact my old boss stayed on the team. We had (and still have) great rapport and respect for one another. But when you find yourself learning to do a new job with the person who used to do it, watching on, it’s hard not to feel unsure of yourself.

I never quite felt comfortable in my own skin. I caught myself constantly asking: “what would my he do?” I felt obliged to run meetings his way, use words he’d say, pursue strategies he’d approve of. It didn’t really feel like it was me who was leading but rather someone else dressed in my clothes.

The second event was turmoil within the leadership of my local church.

Over a period of six months, every member of the church’s ministry staff resigned to take up positions elsewhere. Our once thriving church was left hurting, under resourced and looking for answers. From the outside it was hard to know exactly what had gone on, but whatever the precise details, many of the issues seemed to stem more from differences in personality than anything else.

While these first two things were going on, a friend suggested we meet up to read the Scriptures together. He’s a few years older than me, and I jumped at the chance to learn from his wisdom and have someone to debrief with. In my tradition we normally pick a book of the Bible and read a chapter each time we meet. He suggested we do something different: “why don’t we track through some of the biblical characters and see what we can learn from them?”

At first I was suspicious - this didn't seem like serious Bible study! But I went along with it, and in time I saw it was exactly the word I needed. With each person, we met someone wholeheartedly committed to living for Jesus, yet doing so in their own way.

Barnabas – the big hearted Son of encouragement – who invested deeply in others.

Timothy – Paul’s loyal and trustworthy lieutenant.

Apollos – the passionate, entrepreneurial preacher.

Studying them this way put embodied flesh on theological bones. Suddenly statements like “fearfully and wonderfully made” and ‘one body, many parts’ were not just theological abstractions but practiced realities.

As I’ve shared my experience with others, I’ve found that my story frequently resonates. The details are different, but as I speak with people about personality in ministry, they express the same struggles and feelings of inadequacy that I have had.

My hope for this book

My hope for this book is to help overcome the disconnect many Christians feel between how God has made us and how we assume we are supposed to do ministry. While there is only one God and only one gospel, there is more than one faithful approach Christian service. God has uniquely made and wired each of us to serve him in distinct ways. My prayer is that this book helps believers recognise and embrace this.

The risk of this book

That said, a book like this is not without dangers. In an individualistic culture obsessed with personal expression, this could easily become self-indulgent - a Christianised version of “you do you,” where the goal of ministry is simply to discover and express yourself.  But we follow a Lord who calls us to deny ourselves. And so the challenge of this book is this: as we embrace our personalities, we do so not for our own sake, but for the good of others and the glory of Christ.

The way forward

The book is divided into eight chapters, each addressing a particular issue related to personality and ministry.

• Chapters 1-2 lay the groundwork, defining personality and establishing a biblical framework for understanding it.

• Chapter 3 tackles the vexed question of how character and personality relate.

• Chapters 4-7 address four specific issues in ministry: fit, chemistry, conflict and preaching.

• Chapter 8 draws all these threads together, showing how our personalities in ministry are ultimately governed by Christ's sacrificial love in the gospel.