Figuring each other out

We spent three hours in our staff meeting yesterday figuring each other out. One could argue that we do that every day, but we were led in thinking through our Myers-Briggs types.

Myers-Briggs is what's known as a "type indicator," a way of beginning to ascertain your personality and what makes you tick. Once you begin to figure that out, though, you also have to take into consideration that you deal with other personality types and, well, how in the heck to you deal with all that? That was our task yesterday.

I enjoy these types of exercises and I've had some experience with Myers-Briggs in the past. My indicator is INFJ (Introvert, intuitive, feeling, judging). I won't go into what all these mean (you can do that here), but here's what the little box says about INFJs: "Insightful. Inspiring. Exert influence quietly. Work toward mutual trust. Organize people, processes so all benefit. Articulate team values, vision. Sensitive to group dynamics. Seek meaning, connection in ideas, relationships. Conscientious. Committed. Values driven. Creative." These are all positives, of course, and there are certainly negatives. One of those negatives has to do that that J/judging. Judging doesn't really mean that J's are judgmental, but rather that they tend to like organization, timelines, structure. The opposite of a J is a P (perceiving), who tends to be more easygoing, casual, go-with-the-flow.

One of the biggest learnings for me yesterday was that the "pastors" (myself; Trey, our other lead pastor; and Brittany our associate pastor) are all J's and most of the other staff are P's. Our consultant said that we really need to listen to the P's more because that may fuel creativity and risk-taking. That's hard for J's, who tend to want to control.

But as I was praying this morning, I realized just how controlling I tend to be. It's hard to let go of stuff. But isn't that what faith is all about? Lord, have mercy.