| Back Pastoral Leadership and Administration: Personality Term Paper Alvin Shaul Leadership/Administration I, Kipp September 8, 2005 Leadership styles inevitably differ based on ones personality type. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was made possible through the work of Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. Together they mapped out Carl Jung�s writings to form this psychological inventory. The four areas of diversity in personality type include: Extroverted or Introverted, Sensing or iNtuition, Thinking or Feeling, Judging or Perceiving. Every person should fit into one half of these types more so than the remaining half. I am an Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. PART I: My Personality Type (ISTJ) I am an inspector. I have a keen sense of right and wrong. I have a particular devotion to duty. I am quite punctual. I am all of these things, but it was the writing of Joe Butt, editor of www.typelogic.com who first spelled these attributes out to me. Those are his words; now let me expand on them. I do indeed like to make sure things are legit before I invest myself in them. If I am weary toward something, I probably will not be persuaded away from that feeling. As an inspector, I like making sure things are as they should be. Of course, I am a very fact based person. Thus, the concept of right and wrong is also near and dear to me. If something is morally, situationally, or strategically wrong, I will not be apt to participate. I don�t like to try immense amounts of new things all the time either, so even some things that I may agree are right, though I condone them, I will forcefully refuse to participate as well. At the same time, when I am participating in an activity or service that I have been involved in for some time, I feel a definite duty to that activity or group. To leave them would be irresponsible and wrong. I have seen my punctuality decrease following my marriage nearly six months ago, but I still despise being tardy and am embarrassed to walk into classes or activities late. Butt goes on to state the tendencies of ISTJs to give the impression of being aloof and even somewhat cold. All my life people have thought there was something wrong with me. From the beginning of second grade, I have my teachers asking my parents if there was indeed something actually wrong, because I never smiled and rarely spoke. I�ve never been a social guru and always preferred being by myself. I like social events with which I�m interested, but such events will emotionally drain me. When I am dragged into social events that I don�t wish to attend, I am drained all the more as well as extremely frustrated. I have always been reserved and find it difficult to voice my opinions and or concerns in public forums. Ignorance and insolence were some of my biggest pet peeves in high school. The asking of dense questions gets me twirling inside. Even with such feeling occurring within me, they will not be vocalized unless the subject is brought up by someone else. I am a very determined person. I have also been told all of my life that I work too hard and put too much upon myself, but up through my senior year in college, I have thus far been able to handle everything. Twenty-two credit hours in one semester, though a stretch, will not catch me off guard. I will let nothing stand between me and success. As such, I am also quite competitive. As Vince Lombardi once said, �Winning isn�t everything, it�s the only thing!� Though I wouldn�t put such the stress on winning as Lombardi did, I hate to lose probably just as much. I am a rather traditional conservative. I have a hard time letting go of time-honored traditions, whether within my family heritage or church history. I am not unwilling to change, but I must see the sense in it. I must inspect the change and know that it is the right move to make. Oswald and Kroeger break up the four grouping in their discussion. As an introvert, I tend to view extroverts as shallow, while I myself restrain all conversation until it is thoroughly thought out. In general, introverts are interested in internal reactions, they are fatigued by large numbers of people, and are energized by study. They are intense and passionate and guard their emotions. They have only a few intense relationships and are somewhat reserved. Most of all, they consider deeply the action and the consequences of the action before doing it (O.K. 21). These are the norms, and nearly all of them speak directly to me. When I took the MBIT I scored a perfect 28-0 on the introverted versus extroverted portion. Though I try to act extroverted at times, that is only because of the stigma (true as it may be) that has been placed on me throughout my entire life. As a �sensor� and not an �intuitive� I am very much focused on the facts. I want specific, concrete, practical solutions to problems. I use my senses of taste, touch, sight, smell and sound to judge the situations around me. I am an accurate observer of detail and quite meticulous (O.K. 18-19). As a �thinker� I find myself impersonal and analytical. I am skeptical of things until they can be proven true. More than anything else for me is the fact that I live by logistics. If something isn�t logical to me, it becomes almost impossible for me to make sense of the other side (O.K. 20). Finally, as a �judging� person I am extremely self-disciplined and exacting. I attempt to plan ahead for most things and need closure from stressful situations (O.K. 18). PART II: How My Philosophy of Ministry is Affected By My Personality As much as I am all of these things as described above, I have a hard to fitting my personality into my philosophy of ministry. Most of what we are taught here at NNU regarding ministry is taught with a slant to extroversion. I�m not the people-person that I know I need to be and I�m not as exciting as I want to be. I want to be an energetic outgoing preacher that reaches his people with enthusiasm. I know that I am capable of being enthusiastic and enjoying large group activities, but I have to change my mindset in order to achieve that. My other downfall at this point is that I have very little first-hand experience in what is to be my life occupation. I�ve done very little work in the church and never as an employee. My philosophy of ministry is centered completely around the people. Though my personality seems to point more toward areas of administration, I have acknowledged that the people are the church. When I become involved in a church, I must immediately become involved with the people and not worry about the logistics of getting things settled. This is not to say that those type of things are not important, but their must be a balance between the two. For me, reaching the people in relationship is at least seventy percent priority to thirty percent priority for logistics. For me to be a good pastor, my people need to know that I am both a friend and spiritual guide to them. My present personality, as I have said, doesn�t fit too well into this model. However, I do believe that my will power is stronger than my tendencies. I believe, thus, that I can change where I need to change if I am to succeed in the ministry to which I feel I am called. Part of the confusion right now might be that that ministry has not been clearly defined as of yet. I know that God wants me to preach, but I also feel a call toward the mission fields. So, at present, I am preparing for both. More specifically my ministry will be one largely made up of small groups. I advocate strongly for the presence of small groups within the Church. It is here that people form relationships with one another. God�s greatest commands were to love Him and others. What greater place is there than Church to do both? People become exposed and vulnerable to others who are close to them. These relationships inevitably strengthen the spiritual lives of everyone in the group. I see my personality working wonders in such a ministry because, as an introvert, I like small gatherings. PART III: The Force of My Personality and Character on My Leadership Potential One of the most encouraging things stated by Oswald and Kroeger is that introverts have an easier time developing sermons that extroverts. This of course is because we enjoy study and deep thought. I particularly enjoy exegeting the original texts. One of the keys to delivering a powerful sermon (for an introvert) to have the quiet, alone time during preparation. This is very attractive to me. O. and K. accurately state that my sermons will be more down to earth and practical than those of an intuitive person. Indeed, when I can relate a spiritual idea to myself, I can see it being easier for me to convey that idea to my congregation in a sermon (O.K. 45). I like the analysis of sermons from a thinking person made by O. and K. They say that �a good sermon explores a theological concept with precision and clarity. These clergy know how to say what they want to say. The message may hurt or offend people, but it will be clear�(47). Though my passion is to develop relationship with my people, I will not do that at the expense of the clear and true message of the Scriptures. I don�t care much for the diagnosis that my sermons will probably be predictable because I have a �judging� personality. For the most experienced and intelligible in my congregation, predictability is almost unavoidable, but for the younger, less experienced people, I would hope that I can lead them through the sermon, keeping their interest completely through. I found it encouraging that O. and K. name the personality type ESTJ as being the �best� for parish leadership. Though I�m not an extrovert, they also state that those who have any of the E, S, T, or J are at an advantage. Since I have the last three, I think I�m okay. Good advice given specifically for ISTJs was to make sure that my parish leaders know where I stand on administration issues and what I am feeling. I know it is easy for me to shut up and not even realize I�m shutting myself away from those around me. About midway through Oswald and Kroeger�s book, they delve into a deep study of each of the personality types in relation to being a pastor. For me, they label the SJ (Sensing/Judging) parish leaders as �The Conserving, Serving Pastor.� When the two attributes of sensing and Judging come together, the other two (introverted/thinking) become minute. Accurately stated, I want to belong and serve and nurture others. As for my style of ministry, O. and K. label me as a strong traditionalist and fundamentalist. Although I do respect tradition a great deal, with what I have learned so far here at N.N.U., fundamentalism is not something that is very attractive to me. The old theologies of the Church have changed and I am being taught the �new ones.� I will be very upfront and down-to-earth in my instructions for Christian living. I am very loyal to my denomination, although I acknowledge that more than a Nazarene, I am a follower of Christ. In general, according O. and K., SJ clergy are great about bringing about necessary change in the church. Encouraging to my hopes of developing relationships with my people, they state that SJ clergy have a natural hunger for membership and belonging, thus excelling at building community. They work to foster loyalty and belonging (O.K. 76). SJ clergy also brings extraordinary skills to the table when discussing administrative functions. It is in developing people skills that SJs can lack, which can hurt them in administrative meetings (O.K. 77). Both of these statements are encouraging to me. They also state that as SJs we should be expected to excel in pastoral ministry, especially emphasizing the well-being of the seniors and children. Encouraging to my marriage is the statement that SJs have the lowest rate of divorce. As a pastoral counselor, I should be a realist, emphasizing common-sense in problem solving. They state that worship in the church with a SJ pastor will be formal and dignified. As a musician who has experienced a wide range of contemporary worship services, the last thing I want every Sunday is a formal and dignified worship. The Bible tells us to be undignified before God, laying our whole selves before him with all vulnerability. Oswald and Kroeger also point out some of the weaknesses of SJ clergy. He speaks of pessimism and simply acknowledging that not everything is going to go right. Though this may be true, that attitude can have a negative impact on the pastor�s staff and even congregation. Burnout is another concern. Because we (as SJs) are so focused on getting everything done right, without error, we often times boggle ourselves down and after a while will suffer from burnout. This presents numerous problems for the church, including the lack of a stable pastor. SJs may also demand constantly that rules and regulations be followed to the �T�. Although this may be a good thing some of the time, presenting a demanding, obtrusive attitude to your people will only turn them away from you. They also speak concerning cultural separations. That is, homosexuality, divorce, non-conformists etc., with whom the SJ cannot relate and has a hard time ministering to. Also, I can easily see myself being irritated by pastoral staff not following basic procedures and/or deadlines, as O. and K. suggest (81). Part IV: Compare/Contrast With a Person of Opposite Personality Type I met with Jake and Becca and we discussed the differences between our personalities. Right away it was somewhat obvious that there was some tension between us because they seemed ready to �dive in� to conversation while I was sitting there just looking at them, waiting, I suppose. My guess is that they were going through the transition of switching from being �intellectual, serious, all business for a while� into a �wildchild� as Butt states it. I noticed right away that much of our conversation was story-oriented. In general, ENFPs are friendly people and very enjoyable. They can be soft-hearted and very emotional. [I would write more, but I�m out of time.] Bibliography: Butt, Joe. Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging. http://www.typelogic.com 9/6/05 Butt, Joe. Extroverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving. http://www.typelogic.com 9/6/05 Oswald, Roy M. and Otto Kroeger. Personality Type and Religious Leadership. The Alban Institute. 1988. |