Personality Type and Religious Leadership

I have been familiar with personality typing before, but this is the first book that I have read that puts it into the perspective of a religious worker. I gained more insight into what type of leader I am in the church, and what type of leader my pastor is, and that helps us both to work together better for the good of the church. I have suggested it to a sister church worker who is experiencing some difficulties in relationships with her staff members at her church. I would recommend this highly to anyone in any church, regardless of denomination, as a good way to understand all who are on your staff.

I ordered and read this book for a course at Western Seminary (Portland, OR) and found it very helpful. It takes the Meyers-Briggs personality inventory and correlates the personality types to successful patterns of vocational Christian ministry. Not only that, but the book then discusses the strengths and limitation of certain personality types to various challenges within ministry. The book, controversially for some people, correlates spirituality and temptation to sin with various personality types. In all, a helpful insight that gets closer to objective predictors of ministry accomplishment than the pastoral ministry has had available before.

It is becoming increasingly common in many professions for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to be used to help people better understand themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and their abilities to deal with each other in community. The MBTI breaks into four essential pairings:Introvert - Extrovert (I/E)Sensing - Intuitive (S/N)Thinking - Feeling (T/F)Judging - Perceiving (J/P)People take a psychological inventory test (a series of questions answered yes/no) that are then calculated to place people along four continuums, the four listed above. Thus, every person gets a four letter code (mine is INTJ). The different combinations lead to different general trends of action and preference for people -- some professions fit more naturally with others.This book by Otto Kroeger (an ENFJ) and Roy Oswald (an INFP) tailors the discussion of the Myers-Brigg indicators to clergy. One important point emphasised is that there is no ideal type, and no type is necessarily better or worse for clergy (or, indeed, for most other professions), as people remain individuals with ability of growth and action. Clergy can be introverts or extroverts, thinkers or feelers, etc. The real strength of the Myers-Briggs test and the interpretations given through Kroeger and Oswald's text is that it helps clergy to identify areas of potential difficulty and conflict. For example, if a particular clergy person is aware of a tendency toward introversion, she or he can make intentional efforts at being more interactive with people; conversely, if a person tends toward extroversion, she or he might need to be aware to not dominate conversations and situations and include others in the processes. Self-awareness is a necessarily tool for the clergy (and a valuable tool for persons in any profession).Kroeger and Oswald give information on overall statistics (how many of given types, in clergy samples as well as the general population), and then apply the different temperaments to clerical roles and practices such as pastoral care, leadership, prayer, and spirituality. It pays to become aware not only of one's own temperament type, but also that of others, so that one can more effectively deal with congregation members and colleagues. Just as there is no ideal type, there is no 'pure' type either. Extremely rare is the person who is a pure introvert or pure extrovert, for example; most people will fall between the extremes, and thus be able to tap into, in many regards, the strengths of other types, and recognise their weaknesses too. This is a good text for understanding personality types. This book does not have a test included -- the MBTI is not a self-scoring test one can purchase, so readers would be advised to find a place to take the test prior to reading this text. This is an accessible book, and the test indicators are accessible tools. Oswald and Kroeger state in the introduction that tests that require a Ph.D. for interpretation ultimately aren't

This book is an excellent resource for helping those entering or presently involved in ministry or Christian service to learn their natural ministry abilities. Based on the Myers-Briggs Temperment Inventory, the strengths and weaknesses of all the personality type indicators are detailed and discussed with candor, compassion and objectivity. Understanding the natural strengths and weaknesses one possesses will help greatly in doing ministry. It will also aid in identifying an area where one may be experiencing a call or strong interest. This book is an effective tool to aid in the sorting and experimenting process. While the authors are experienced professionals in the use of the MBTI within the business community, their knowledge of human personality in ministry and spiritual leadership is well researched and integrated in this book.