Personality

Wednesday Night - October 20, 2010

Mr. James steps in to teach us how our responsibilities relate to the heart from 1 Samuel 16:7. Each one of you has a personality. We relate to others in the world depending on our personality. What does God look at? He looks at our heart...we look at others and judge them by their outward appearances.

4 Scales in Describing Personalities:

1. How we relate to others:

• Introverted: people who enjoy being with others but need a break from them.
• Extraverted: people that can be isolated from people but needs to be with others to recharge.

2. How we construct our lives:

• Controlled: people who want to meet deadlines and like check-lists or to make plans.
• Spontaneous: people who go with the flow to see what happens next.

3. How we take in information:

• Intuitive: people who understands complex stuff. (Engineer - want to see how they can make something better)
• Sensing: people who want to know the facts and are interested in what is instead of what might be.

4. How we make decisions:

• Thinking: people who make decisions based on thinking through and focused mainly on facts.
• Feeling: people who make decisions based on feelings and focused more on the affects of people than facts.

How Ministry can be Affected by our Personalities:

1. Some people are impulsive like Peter. (John 13:8-9)
2. Some people doubt things and are negative like Thomas. (John 11:16)
3. Some people allow others to speak for them like James and John. (Matthew 20:20-21)
4. Some people want to help people and others focus on the ministry. (Acts 15:37-38)
5. Some people worry about doing everything the right way. (Luke 10:39-42)

Key Building Principles for People with Different Personalities:

1. Learn to accept one another. (Romans 14:1-3)
2. Learn to listen to one another. (James 1:19-20)
3. Learn to have faith in one another. (Romans 1:12)
4. Learn to consider others interest. (Philippians 2:1-4)