When I have completed Myers Briggs Type Indicator™ personality assessment questionnaires in the past, my balance between any two of the indicators has varied from time to time. All of this has depended on the time in my life at which I was completing the questionnaire and whether or not the assessment program had a spirituality, vocational, or other basis.
Despite these variations, however, I generally “test” out as being fairly strong on the Introversion end of the Introversion to Extroversion scale and very strong on the Judging end of the Judging and Perceptive scale. In my past professions I simply needed to make decisions, meet deadlines, and move on. This trait has been quite helpful in my current vocation and particularly today as I find myself putting together a sermon or a service booklet for a particular Sunday or Holy Day.
I also have tended to be more highly Sensory, versus iNtuitive on the S/N scale. Thinking or Feeling? A borderline case for me, although I generally score slightly closer to Thinking rather than Feeling. My previous professions as a tax lawyer and a legal editor caused me to be more of a Thinker than I am or need to be today, when Feeling certainly seems to play more into the work of a ministry developer.
I ponder all of this as I think about how my personality type seems to interplay with my current calling to ministry development. As a ministry developer, I need to be a good listener and withhold judgment as I take in the relevant information. Yet, I must make quick decisions in times of urgency or when I have limited time with the persons with whom or for whom a decision is needed.
Perhaps it is my introverted, sensory nature of sitting quietly, observing the group dynamics, and analyzing what I was hearing before speaking--and thus being “the invisible person”--that prepared me well for sitting, taking in information, thinking on it, and then considering solutions. My petite stature, the stereotypical view of women, and my ability to sit quietly (as introverts are more prone to do) seems to fit well with this calling. (As anyone who is good at being “invisible” will tell you, remaining quiet is the key to information gathering. Speaking reminds others of your presence and thus you lose the benefit of invisibility.) I guess the one “growing edge,” as they say, with my MBTI fitting with the nature of this work is that I need to withhold the Judging aspect so that I withhold judgment as I take in the information. Did I read that gesture of body language correctly? Did I detect something in the tone of voice that indicates an issue? Or, am I overanalyzing it all? Is the person just having a bad day and so the extraneous information is luring me away from the “correct” path of thinking?
With a supportive supervisor and colleagues, I am honing that urge to come to judgment based on limited information. I regularly use them for reality checks and to bounce off ideas. I also benefit from their wisdom that is less clouded by the trees that might be obscuring my view. All of this is to say that all of this is an evolving process and that perhaps with my MBTI being as it is, my allocation between the various types will slide a bit here and there as I discover and hone the traits best suited to do this work—God’s work.
Theresa
