Understanding Personality Types in Ministry

The invitation to be on this teaching team is quite a privilege. I'm very grateful to be asked to be a part of this, and I'm also very grateful that you are taking the time to watch this. I personally believe that a greater understanding of this assigned topic is going to be vital for kingdom expansion. My assigned title is "Understanding Personalities in Ministry." That's a challenge. When we start talking about personalities, we're in deep water. And I'm sure that you are like me: that we would just think that the answer is real simple, when it comes to personalities — if everybody would just be like us, then there wouldn't be an issue. But then we understand that it just doesn't work like that. So since it doesn't work like that, then let's dig in.

Personality types. Personality types are a fact of life. Our personality is literally part of our God-wiring. I think our personalities are discovered very early in life. And when we're speaking about personality development in children, there are some that refer to it as the Big Five. They say that we can categorize children in five categories: the conscientious, the agreeable, those open to experience, neuroticism, and they name extrovert — and then I will say slash introvert. So when we look at this, again I say God-wiring is a major issue, and we see it in our personalities. The simple personality equation is: emotion plus attitude plus behavior equals personality. Personalities usually aren't fully developed until adolescence. But this is what we know: we are all not created with the same personality. We know this. And so let's embrace this, and let's say, therefore, it shouldn't be expected.

If you research different personality types, you'll find many opinions. These people have this opinion; this group has this opinion. But it's interesting to me that all the differing opinions agree on one thing, and that is: they're all different. We're all different. Now, if you study this, you're going to see some of the more popular assessments are Meyer-Briggs [track: 'Meyer Briggs'], DISC, Enneagram. And then there's the basic four types. Now, the only reason why I'm using the basic four types is just to give an example, and we have to start somewhere with an example. So if we're going to look at the sanguine, the phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic — just for sake of example, let's break it down like this.

A sanguine personality is going to be lively, and optimistic, and resilient, and carefree. They're going to be adventurous, risky. Very poor at tolerating boredom — they're bad at boredom. They seek variety and entertainment. They're very creative, and they're fantastic entertainers. But then, when we look at the phlegmatic, we see a people person. They usually seek relational harmony and close relationships. Very loyal spouses, loving parents. They preserve relationships with old friends, distant family members, and neighbors. They avoid conflict. They try to mediate between others. They try to restore peace and harmony. And they love helping other people. That's another personality type.

You look at choleric personalities, and that's usually a person that's goal-oriented, very savvy, analytical, logical, extremely practical and straightforward. They dislike small talk. They enjoy deep and meaningful conversation. They'd rather be alone than in the company of shallow and superficial people. They desire to spend time with people who have similar interests.

Then there's the melancholic personality: love traditions — for instance, the tradition of women cooking for men, the tradition of men opening the doors for women. Love family and friends. They just don't look for innovation or adventure. They're very social, and they seek to contribute to the community. They're extremely detailed. They're accurate. They're fantastic managers.

Now, if we take these personality types, and we take them to the Word of God, and we look at some of these people that we preach and teach about, and seek to example our lives after the character they had, we would be able to fit them in different categories. But here is the big issue about this: God has set gifts in the church, and He operates them through different personalities. We're not all the same.

So now let's consider the key issue, as far as I am concerned in this presentation, and that's the word "understanding." This is where it gets real. Understanding is a powerful topic in the Word of God. We see in Proverbs 4:7: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." So we see how understanding really is equal to wisdom, knowledge, and meaning. Wisdom, knowledge, and meaning. From this I gain that true understanding takes intentional effort. Again I say, our lives would be better if everyone would just seek the knowledge of us — how we think, how we act — and they would just adopt our personality. But life just doesn't work like that, and God never intended it to be so. This is the reason why people who expect that are so hard to deal with. This is the reason why we have disunity in family and on ministry teams, in churches, businesses — whatever, in any area of life. When people expect people to be like them, it never works, because God didn't intend it to be that way. So the effective person, the effective team member, the effective leader, intentionally seeks the knowledge that they need to gain the understanding of other personalities. True understanding demands learning and stretching. So the question really is, for you, for me, for anyone who wants to be effective — we could say in life, we could say in business, but we're focusing on the kingdom in this presentation — the question is this: how far will I, how far will you, stretch to truly understand?

Now, in our life, our understanding was drastically changed back in the year 2000, when Melanie, my wife — she went to Minnesota and was certified in Real Colors. Real Colors is not a personality assessment; it's a communications assessment. And it points out different God-wiring — now, that's not what they called it, but that's what it is. And it helped us to understand how to communicate more effectively with people of different God-wiring — we'll call it personalities. I promise you, outside of the Word of God, that has probably been the greatest source of information that has impacted my life. It just helps us understand how to connect with other personalities. I highly recommend it. You'll find it if you Google Real Colors. But not only do I recommend Real Colors; I recommend doing the hard work to gain true understanding of differing personalities. And it's key, when I say hard work.

Now we move to "in ministry." In ministry — because our focus today is understanding personality types in ministry. Effective ministry is the reason for paying the price to understand different personalities in ministry. Ministry is the focus. It's worth it to do the hard work. There's a reason we need to do the hard work. True ministry, when we talk about it, we need to understand that true ministry starts at home, and then expands from there. However, our model in life and leadership must be Jesus Christ. And Jesus said in Matthew 20:28: "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." So let's bring this into today's interpretation: Jesus said, "I didn't come so you could serve me. I came to serve you, and to give my life doing it." So effective ministry today demands different personalities unifying and serving, for the sake of kingdom expansion. Effective ministry grows the kingdom.

So this is why it is so important to understand: avoiding or tolerating different personalities is not the answer. It's not the answer, that somebody has a different personality and you don't jive with them, so just avoid them. Or, "Okay, you know, we're in the same family. Okay, we're on the same team, so we have to tolerate each other." Kingdom expanders move beyond avoiding and tolerating, and they move to accepting and embracing. I'm not talking about accepting and embracing rude and selfish personalities. I'm speaking of accepting and embracing people who have different personalities that just rub us the wrong way. If we're going to be an effective kingdom expander, we're going to be one that will stretch to accept and embrace other personalities. Now, this happens by intentionally considering the God-wiring in the lives of others. We simply must work together. No single personality is the answer to kingdom expansion. God was into creating, not cloning. This is about God's creation, not God's cloning. And so we see from that, that the out-front personality and the behind-the-scenes personality, they're both vital.

The key to all of this is to match wiring and passion. When we match wiring, personality, and passion, this reduces the need for motivation. When we do this, we set people up to win, and the kingdom to expand, by placing people in ministry by personality. For example: if someone can't look you in the eye and smile, they're not an usher or a greeter. If someone has to have medication to do public speaking, they're not a public speaker — not at this particular point. Then, one area of ministry right now that we must embrace, and we must gain greater understanding, is these technically-minded people who run cameras, and run the sound, and run lights, and they're into computers, and all of these things. Well, a lot of times the people that are wired like that aren't the greatest people persons, but they're vitally needed. And you can believe that there's never been a time in our history that those people are more important than they are right now to the church. They may not be the best team leaders. They may not be the greatest encouragers. That might not be their personality. But they are vitally needed, and their gifting and their personality is needed. So I say: can we please set people up to win? We have to set them up to win.

At the end of the day, our personalities were never intended to supersede scriptural mandate. Simply put, our personalities must be subject to His principles. There are many that I could mention, but for the sake of time, I'll just give two. I'm going to give two scriptural references. And if we would ensure that our personalities were umbrella-ed under these, it would be a life changer for all of us. The first one is Luke 6:31: "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." In other words, it's simple: how do you want other people to speak to you? Speak to them. Really, it starts before that: how do you want other people to think about you? Think about them. How much leeway do you want other people to give you? Give that to them. "As ye would that men would do to you, do ye also to them." It's the golden rule. It's do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Another Scripture reference I think that will help us to make sure that our personalities are umbrella-ed under this great Scripture — and it's two verses, it's Galatians 5:22 and 23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Can you imagine how our lives would change if we would just focus on these two Scripture references? Just these two. Let's make sure that we are treating people, we are giving people the level of leeway that we want, and then we are adopting the fruit of the Spirit. Our ministry involvement, ministry unity, positioned for kingdom expansion — it could change overnight. It could literally change overnight. Individuals can change overnight. Families could change overnight. Church leadership teams. This works. It absolutely works.

But personality must not be used as an excuse for behavior that causes disunity. Now, this is where it gets a little strong. I'm going to drop the plow just a little deeper here. It's absolutely crazy how blatant non-biblical action is excused, because they may say, or somebody may say about them: "That's just the way they are. That's just the way they've always been. That's who they are. This is because of the way they were raised. This is because — if you knew their dad, or if you knew their mother, or this." No, that's not going to age well at all. Because when we think about standing before King Jesus and trying that one — "Well, you know, Jesus, the reason why I was so— the reason why I was just— the reason why I was that is because, you know, Jesus, surely You understand that." No. When we think about personalities — all the different kinds of personalities — every personality has within it the ability to go out of bounds. They can all go out of bounds. And the only way that we're going to keep our personalities from going out of bounds is to be more focused on what He is than what we are. And our different personalities must reflect His Spirit. So again I say, His Spirit — these verses, they must be the umbrella, and we bring everything that we are underneath that umbrella. Our God-wired personalities never excuse anti-God action. Cannot be. It absolutely cannot be. You can believe that God didn't wire us in a manner that we absolutely operate in opposition to who He is and what His plan is. It just doesn't work like that.

And so the big question is: do we want to understand personalities, or will we allow ourselves to do the work — to stretch, to accept, to understand? When we do that, then we are putting not only ourselves in position, but we are putting others in position, to be everything that they can be for God's kingdom.

And so I ask the question, when you look at yourself in the mirror, when you think about who you are: Are you lively? There's a place for you in the kingdom, bringing that personality in. We need it. Are you optimistic? God knows we need you, especially in the day that we're living in right now. We can use some optimism, without a doubt. Are you resilient? You can take a hit and just keep moving. Thank God. Are you carefree? Well, there's a place for that, too. Are you adventurous? Needed. Absolutely needed. And what we're looking at right now, and what we're up against as a church in this day and time — we need it. Are you risky? A lot of the things that we need to be, to take the step into some of the dimensions that the King has for us right now in the kingdom — we need some risky people who can help with that. Are you creative? We need you. You have a place. Are you a people person? Much needed. We need people persons. There's a lot of people that need to be cared for and loved and encouraged and reached out to. Are you loyal? Much needed. Loving? We need loads of that. Are you a restorer of peace and harmony? Do you have that kind of personality? People that understand how to bring peace and restore peace. The Bible challenges us to be peacemakers, not peacekeepers. There's a big difference. It's a major difference. We need you, peacemakers. How about you goal-oriented people? God knows we need goal-oriented people. We have so much revelation in the apostolic church right now, but we need some people who can take that revelation and align it into some goals, to bring that power together. Are you logical? We need you. Are you practical? We need you. I've often said that it takes boldness to be practical, because practical doesn't sound spiritual. Are you practical? Do you see things in a practical manner? We need that. How about you straightforward people? We need straightforwardness — within reason, now; that's definitely one that can jump out of bounds very easily. How about traditional? "Well, I'm just traditional." The kingdom needs traditional people. It needs social people. It needs detailed people. I could go on and on. We could talk about this personality trait, that personality trait.

But here's what we have to understand today: we need to understand different personality types in ministry. Understand — being intentional about understanding different — not going to line up like us — personality types in ministry. All for ministry. So I say to everyone who's taken time to listen today: there is a place for your personality in the ministry of the kingdom. Would you please position yourself, bring your personality to the table, get it under the umbrella of scriptural mandates, and let's do something great in the kingdom of God.