Correlating gifts and personality has numerous other implications. A few that deserve mentioning are:
1. The MBTI could be the most accurate grace-gifts inventory available.
2. There is a significant amount of research available on personality types which could be applied to gifts in the church. For example: It may not be apparent what sort of things a person with the gift of faith would do well in the church, but there is empirical and observational research on what types of jobs ISTPs enjoy and perform well.
3. Seeing gifts in the MBTI framework can help us see each gift in the context of the other gifts. We can see that the gift of administration (ESTJ) differs from the gift of service (ISTJ) only in extraversion. Seeing a gift in perspective to all the others can greatly sharpen our understanding of that gift.
4. We can also compare opposites. The MBTI framework shows us that faith (ISTP) and encouragement (ENFJ) are opposite gifts--something we would not know without the MBTI perspective. This can help us understand the ministries each gift might do well to avoid, but it should not excuse us from right living. Barnabas, “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36) was also “full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:24).
5. We can speak of secular gifts and identify not only secular prophets, but secular evangelists and secular shepherds, etc.
6. We can better understand why many people identify with more than one gift. Most of the time the gifts will be very close in type such as knowledge (INTP) and teaching (ENTP) or hospitality (ESFJ) and encouragement (ENFJ).
7. The church may recognize that it is behind the secular world in some aspects of understanding and using these gifts. Many businesses all over the country use the understanding of personality types as a tool for better understanding and productivity. These organizations may be identifying the grace gifts and using that knowledge largely according to biblical principles. The book Worktypes[1] by Kummerow, Barger, and Kirby gives the following personality type principles (notice how closely they represent specific bible verses) to help people at work:
a.) “Recognize your natural strengths and find ways to make the maximum use of them” (p.23).
I Peter 4:10: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
b.) “Accept that you do not do everything equally well and identify areas where you have blind spots, make mistakes, or get into difficulty” (p.23).
I Corinthians 12:29: “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?”
c.) “Identify tools and resources, including other people, to help you manage your weaker areas or improve your skills” (p.23).
I Corinthians 12:21: “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet ‘I have no need of you.’”
They also give principles for interacting with others:
1.) “Recognize that others have different perspectives and needs than you do. (It’s a given that we’re not all alike!) They also have the same right to have their approaches counted and used as you have” (p.24).
I Corinthians 7:7: “For I wish that all men were even as myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that” (NKJV).
2.) “Acknowledge that your work will be more effective if it includes others’ perspectives and ideas. They can save you from serious oversights and mistakes, can help you get unstuck, and can help you develop new abilities” (p.24).
I Corinthians 12:17: “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling?”
3.) “Find ways to make constructive use of the differences.”
Ephesians 4:11-13: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ...that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine...but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
References
[1] Jean M. Kummerow, Linda K. Kirby, and Nancy J. Barger, Work Types: Understand Your Work Personality—How It Helps You and Hold You Back, and What You Can Do to Understand It. (New York: Warner Books, 1997).
1. The MBTI could be the most accurate grace-gifts inventory available.
2. There is a significant amount of research available on personality types which could be applied to gifts in the church. For example: It may not be apparent what sort of things a person with the gift of faith would do well in the church, but there is empirical and observational research on what types of jobs ISTPs enjoy and perform well.
3. Seeing gifts in the MBTI framework can help us see each gift in the context of the other gifts. We can see that the gift of administration (ESTJ) differs from the gift of service (ISTJ) only in extraversion. Seeing a gift in perspective to all the others can greatly sharpen our understanding of that gift.
4. We can also compare opposites. The MBTI framework shows us that faith (ISTP) and encouragement (ENFJ) are opposite gifts--something we would not know without the MBTI perspective. This can help us understand the ministries each gift might do well to avoid, but it should not excuse us from right living. Barnabas, “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36) was also “full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:24).
5. We can speak of secular gifts and identify not only secular prophets, but secular evangelists and secular shepherds, etc.
6. We can better understand why many people identify with more than one gift. Most of the time the gifts will be very close in type such as knowledge (INTP) and teaching (ENTP) or hospitality (ESFJ) and encouragement (ENFJ).
7. The church may recognize that it is behind the secular world in some aspects of understanding and using these gifts. Many businesses all over the country use the understanding of personality types as a tool for better understanding and productivity. These organizations may be identifying the grace gifts and using that knowledge largely according to biblical principles. The book Worktypes[1] by Kummerow, Barger, and Kirby gives the following personality type principles (notice how closely they represent specific bible verses) to help people at work:
a.) “Recognize your natural strengths and find ways to make the maximum use of them” (p.23).
I Peter 4:10: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
b.) “Accept that you do not do everything equally well and identify areas where you have blind spots, make mistakes, or get into difficulty” (p.23).
I Corinthians 12:29: “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?”
c.) “Identify tools and resources, including other people, to help you manage your weaker areas or improve your skills” (p.23).
I Corinthians 12:21: “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet ‘I have no need of you.’”
They also give principles for interacting with others:
1.) “Recognize that others have different perspectives and needs than you do. (It’s a given that we’re not all alike!) They also have the same right to have their approaches counted and used as you have” (p.24).
I Corinthians 7:7: “For I wish that all men were even as myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that” (NKJV).
2.) “Acknowledge that your work will be more effective if it includes others’ perspectives and ideas. They can save you from serious oversights and mistakes, can help you get unstuck, and can help you develop new abilities” (p.24).
I Corinthians 12:17: “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling?”
3.) “Find ways to make constructive use of the differences.”
Ephesians 4:11-13: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ...that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine...but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
References
[1] Jean M. Kummerow, Linda K. Kirby, and Nancy J. Barger, Work Types: Understand Your Work Personality—How It Helps You and Hold You Back, and What You Can Do to Understand It. (New York: Warner Books, 1997).
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