Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Small Group Models based on personality

Skimmed through Reg Johnson's Your Personality and the Spiritual Life. I found it of some value, although it didn't totally hit the spot for me. Johnson orients the book around the Myers-Briggs personality types, which I have found very helpful as a help to analyze interpersonal relationships. My understanding is very amateurish, but even a basic sense of differences in personality can improve interrelationships by vast amounts (marital, church, business...).

The most helpful part of the book to me was on pages 150-51. Here Johnson suggests how a person might modify small discipleship groups to fit particular personalities:

"Sensing" types
(individuals who are primarily oriented around the concrete and details rather than the abstract or big picture; nurse types, engineer types, etc...)
  • He suggests a "covenant-discipleship" small group that focuses on accountability and concrete goals and accomplishments
"Thinking" types
(individuals who are primarily oriented around the logical course of action rather than how people are going to react or experience; accountants, administrators, executive pastors)
  • He suggests a Bible study oriented around Bible study skills, background, content, comprehension, etc.
"Feeling" types
(individuals who are primarily oriented around the feelings of others rather than the logical course of action; counselors, encouragers)
  • He suggests a "Prayer and Share" group where the members share their experiences and bring their lives and those of others to God.
"Intuitive" types
(individuals who are primarily oriented around the big picture and the theoretical rather than the concrete or the details)
  • He suggests a "Great Christian Books" group, reading through classics. I must confess that as a person whose only really imbalanced characteristic in Myers Briggs is the N that this type of small group holds no interest to me.

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