Kenneth Prior in his book Perils of Leadership cites Spurgeon as saying: ‘The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy’ and comments that Spurgeon ‘was recognizing that Christian leaders are human and can be afflicted by emotional difficulties, such as depression, as much as anyone else.’ Prior goes on to say “the pressures of ministry, the deep concerns which accompany it and the expectations which others have, may render leaders more subject to such problems than others.’ [p7]
There are common human weaknesses, and pitfalls common to those in Christian leadership. Here is a selection identified by three writers:
| Prior: Perils of Leadership [with biblical examples] |
Exley, Galli & Ortberg: Dangers, Toils and Snares
[re leaders]
|
Adams: The Christian Counselor’s Manual
[common weaknesses] |
|
Immaturity [Joseph]
Inadequacy [Moses]
Sexual temptation [Samson, David, Solomon]
Depression [Elijah]
In the shadow of a mentor [Elisha] Marital stress [Hosea] Impulsiveness [Peter] The love of power and prestige [James and John] Oversensitivity [Timothy]
Criticism - being the target of [Paul]
|
‘professional holiness’ ‘approval addiction’ Ambition Laziness Fear of controversy Anger Despair Seriousness |
Anger Blame shifting Depression Envy, jealousy Fear Guilt Rebellion Self pity Sexual deviation |
The purpose of this study of strengths and weaknesses is not to generate introspection or guilt but to give you a tool by which to have a realistic understanding of your strengths and weaknesses so that you can:
A. UNDERSTANDING STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Moral strengths and weaknesses
A moral strength or weakness is a strength or weakness in an area where God has put a moral boundary – for example, honesty and integrity, sexual purity, contentment, respect for people.
Some people seem to have little or no problem telling the truth. Others do.
Some people seem to have no problem refraining from physical violence. Others do.
Some people seem to have little or no problem with sexual temptations. Others do.
Some people seem to never be tempted to steal. Others are.
Morally, we all have our strong points and our weak points. It is when we acknowledge where our weak points are that we are most likely to overcome them. When we understand, for instance, in what kind of circumstances we are most tempted to tell lies, then we will be more alert and seek the Lord’s help, when we find ourselves in those circumstances.
A word of caution is necessary here: the changing circumstances and situations of life will sometimes reveal a moral weakness where we thought we were morally strong. What happens is that the changed situation has brought with it a range of temptations or pressures in areas where we have never been tested or pushed to the limit before, and we find that what we thought was an area of ‘strength’ crumbles under this new kind of pressure. For example, a person who thought herself very patient, but had always lived with people who were easy to get on with and self-sufficient, may find that she is impatient when placed in a situation where other people are very demanding and dependent.
Personal strengths and weaknesses
Personal strengths and weaknesses come closer to the area of ‘temperament’ or ‘personality’, but do not fully equate with these. Here we are looking at the question: what kind of person are you?
Happy, sad, courageous, timid, helpful, thoughtful, compassionate, optimistic, pessimistic, funny, quiet, serious, studious, active, sporty, creative, academic, musical, relaxed, energetic, morose, grumpy, etc
It also includes what you are good at or not good at, what you can do or can’t do:
Art, business, building, cooking, design, writing, music, talking, helping, computers, nursing, and so on.
Why are we looking at these things? Because knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you to:
Your ability to live for God and serve God will have a lot to do with how you relate to your personal weaknesses.
Relational strengths and weaknesses
Relational strengths and weaknesses refer to how well we cope with or relate to other people. Again this has some relationship with personality and temperament, but is not entirely the same. Questions we are looking at here include:
Spirituality and service is largely to do with people. Relationships cannot be avoided. People are the number two priority on our ‘to do list’ given by God [the first priority is himself]. It was people that Jesus came to seek and to save; it was people for whom he died. Relationships are therefore extremely important for all Christians, and in particular for Christians serving in the church and community.
Ministry strengths and weaknesses
Ministry strengths and weaknesses relate to specific ministry skills. Some of these will parallel strengths and weaknesses in other areas. Some will reflect areas where you have, or do not have, specific natural talents, learned abilities or spiritual gifts. For instance, teaching the scriptures could be a person’s ministry strength, while working with children could be a weak point.
When a person is part of a large church there is not so urgent a need to build up areas of ministry weakness; however, if a person moves to a small church some strengthening of weak areas could be appropriate or even necessary.
Footnote:
While moral strengths and weaknesses are obviously either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, personal, relational and ministry strengths and weaknesses are not necessarily ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. What is good, bad, right or wrong is how we live with them. For instance, a relational strength, such as the ability to talk to others easily, may seem to be a good, positive thing, but it can be bad if we use it wrongly – either to say the wrong thing or to constantly take over conversations. A ministry strength, for example, teaching the Scripture, while good in itself, can have a negative impact if we never take the time out from teaching to build relationships with people.
B. RECOGNIZING YOUR OWN STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
In consultation with your Christian peers and older Christians, and perhaps your Pastor or Mentor complete the strengths and weaknesses analysis in Study Four Worksheet now. .
When you have completed this analysis there are some questions and issues you and those involved in the analysis might discuss:
C. THE CONCEPT OF ‘TEMPERAMENTS’
Meanings given to the word:
Concise Oxford: ‘Individual character of one’s physical constitution permanently affecting the manner of acting, feeling, and thinking.’
American Heritage Dictionary: ‘1. The manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting characteristic of a specific person: a nervous temperament. 2. The distinguishing mental and physical characteristics of a human according to medieval physiology, resulting from dominance of one of the four humours’.
Roget’s Thesaurus: ‘A person's customary manner of emotional response.’
Biology-online.org: (Science: physiology) ‘The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine temperament, etc, implying a predominance of one of these fluids and a corresponding influence on the temperament.’
Tim LaHaye: ‘Temperament is the combination of inborn traits that subconsciously affects man’s behaviour. These traits are arranged genetically on the basis of nationality, race, sex and other hereditary factors. These traits are passed on by the genes.’ [p5,6 Spirit Filled Temperaments]
In the 1960s Tim La Haye, drawing heavily on the work of Christian psychologist Dr Henry Brandt, and on ‘Temperament and the Christian Faith’ written by conservative Norwegian theologian, Dr Ole Hallesby, popularized the concept of personality/temperament types in the English speaking Christian world. Over the decades since then there have been conflicting responses to this concept, and particularly to the appropriateness of Christians accepting this concept.
The four temperament types traditionally proposed are:
Melancholic
Sanguine
Phlegmatic
Choleric
Those who promote this four-type temperament identification indicate that it is usual for each individual to be a combination of at least two types.
The psychological type indicator developed by Myers-Briggs identifies 16 different types. This indicator is currently preferred over the four type system in both secular and Christian organizations today.
Practical problems associated with temperament typing
There are significant life problems arising from an inappropriate response to temperament analysis:
The subjective nature of type testing
A second area of difficulty focuses on the subjective and relativistic nature of personality typing. This lack of objectivity and authority is almost unavoidable because:
All of this cautions us to hold lightly to test results
Is there any valid use of the concept of temperament types?
People are different in these non-physical areas, just as they are different in the physical area. Awareness of these differences helps us to:
D. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEMPERAMENTS
D.1 The four basic types [according to LaHaye]
| Strengths | Weaknesses | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| SANGUINE | CHOLERIC | ||
| Cheerful Optimistic Enthusiastic Friendly Loves people Compassionate Lives in the present Dynamic personality Shares joys and sorrows of others |
Restless, Impractical Disorganized, Undisciplined Seldom lives up to potential Weak willed Runs from one thing to another Does not know own limitations Not dependable No resolution or loyalty Egotistical, domineering Emotionally unstable Easily discouraged Anger |
Self-disciplined Self-confident Good planner Strong will power Single minded Practical Organized Makes quick decisions Strong leadership skills Good judge of people Optimistic Adventurous Goal - oriented |
Hard Lacks compassion Too thick skinned Hot-tempered Violent anger Vengeful Cruel – runs over feelings of others Impetuous Proud Self-sufficient Domineering Hard to please |
| MELANCHOLIC | PHLEGMATIC | ||
| Sensitive Excels in fine arts Emotionally responsive Creative thinking Perfectionistic Analytical Faithful Dependable Self-sacrificing Knows his/her limitations Reserved |
Introspective Perfectionistic Self-centred Morbidity Easily offended/insulted Suspicious Pessimistic Indecisive, fearful High expectations Critical Moody/depressed/despair Escape from the present Vengeful |
Witty, dry humour Easy going Good listener Objective Dependable Cheerful Good natured Faithful/loyal Practical Efficient, neat Works well under pressure High standards of efficiency and accuracy |
Slow, lazy Unmotivated Tease Gets others stirred up or angry Selfish Self-protecting Stubborn Resistive to suggestions Stingy Indecisive Half-hearted Won’t get involved Vacillating |
D.2 Myers-Briggs typing
Many people prefer Myers-Briggs typing.
Myers-Briggs identifies:
Two primary directions of energy: extrovert and introvert.
Two ways of processing information: sensing [what you know] or intuition
Two ways of making decisions: thinking or feeling
Two ways of organizing life: judging [weighing things up] or perception.
It is not possible to reproduce more detailed information about Myers-Briggs testing, because of Copyright issues. You can read brief descriptions here http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html.
There is a simple, free version of the Myer-Briggs test on the above web page.
For a more detailed free on-line test go here http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp .
Warnings:
[1] Keep in mind the warnings and limitations identified in Section C above.
[2] The two web pages referred to above may contain material, including advertising material, that is contrary to your Christian principles. Just focus on the test and ignore other things!