Rick Warren on Day 31 of The Purpose Driven Life introduces the P of SHAPE: Personality, by saying that each of us has a unique set of DNA. There has never been anybody like us. God loves variety. And so, the quote from 139:13 (The Message): “You shaped me first inside, then out; You formed me in my mother’s womb.”
Myers Briggs Type Indicator
Rick talks about introverts and extroverts, thinkers and feelers. These categories come from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers during World War II, following the theories of Carl Jung as laid out in his work Psychological Types.
The Introvert/Extrovert category looks at how a person orients and receives his/her energy. The Sensing/Intuition category indicates how person perceives or receives data. The Thinking/Feeling category relates to how a person judges or makes rational decisions. The Judging/Perceiving category reveals a preference for linear approaches or subjective options. This last category would link in with Rick’s reference to routine and variety.
Temperaments
Rick Warren says that there is no right or wrong temperament for ministry. He refers to Peter as being ‘sanguine’, Paul as ‘choleric’ and Jeremiah as ‘melancholy’. These references are straight from the work of Tim and Beverley LaHaye who popularised the theory of the four temperaments among Evangelicals in the 1960s and on.
Theories relating to the four temperaments have their origins in Greece around 400 BC. It was thought that the bodily fluids yellow bile (choler), black bile (melancholic), phlegm and blood were linked with health and temperament. the take their names from the body fluids.
Tim La Haye designed the LaHaye Temperament Analysis, a tool for self analysis and improvement. Tim has written a number of books on the subject, including Transforming Your Temperament, Spirit-Controlled Temperament, and Understanding the Male Temperament.
Rick refers to the huge number of books and resources that can help people engage in a healthy approach to personality. David Keirsey, for example, has written a large number of resources relating to personality types, character and temperament.
DiSC Profile
A resource often used by churches in Queensland is the DiSC Profile. DiSC Profile was developed by William Moulton Marston using four dimensions of Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. DiSC tests and assessments are used in hiring and recruiting, diversity training, time management, team building and personal growth. The Biblical Profile is designed especially for Christian settings.
Sold Out to Paganism?
Looking around the internet I’ve found a few writers who have seized on this part of the Purpose Driven Life as evidence that Rick Warren has sold out to paganism. In some quarters there is a deep suspicion of anything that’s come out of ancient Greece or modern psychology. Jung, because of his interest in the occult, has been written off by some Christian writers. Clearly it is important not to become obsessed or stereotyped by the personality typologies of anyone, Christian or not.
The Point
What’s important here is that people don’t try and copy somebody else’s personal approach to ministry or mission. People who work behind the scenes are not likely to thrive in settings preferred by people who like to work ‘up front’. Rick encourages Christians to ‘work with the grain’ rather than against it. We have the freedom to express our gifts in different ways.