167. MBTI and Evangelistic Ministry

Looking into how MBTI intersects with the fivefold ministry from Ephesians four has been a cchallenging, but very enjoyable task. I typically focus my thoughts around the apostolic, but I thought I would venture into the field of evangelistic ministry on this one.

I stumbled across a really cool slide presentation on slideshare about MBTI, but at the end it branched off into how J's and P's go about doing sales, and specifically, how J's and P's interact with each other.

Although I cringe at the thought of equating evangelism with salesmanship, in a sense, evangelists are viral type people who promote (ESFP) champion (ENFP) and actively seek out opportunities (ESTP) to share the the story of the gospel. Its just to say that P's are really good at noticing what is going on around them, and if you are an extrovert, this often includes people (especially if there is some Feeling function mixed in, ESTP's can be quite confrontational in their approach to evangelism.)

So where do J's fit in to evangelism. Well, I am a big believer that we have the capacity to function in all five of the APEST ministries, but with varying degrees of effectiveness. As the text says, we have varying measures of grace given to us by Christ. So while J's are typically not gung-ho about the evangelism piece, they can still operate, mature and excel in being evangelistic if they are allowed to spend some time learning and being trained by another evangelist.

So what can happen when a P ends up trying to evangelize a J person? How does the J person tend to react to an evangelist who is a P??? Also, how would a P person respond to a J's approach to sharing Jesus with them? Well, I ran across this really cool concept in this slideshow from slideshare.com It presents us with a possible matrix of how to understand the interactions between J's and P's in the context of presenting new ideas and eventually asking for a response to pursue and apply those new ideas. They of course were referring to sales people and their tactics, but there is something we can glean from this if we look hard enough. So I extrapolated this matrix to help us arrange our thoughts on a few pitfalls that J and P evangelists should be aware of when working with other J and P persons.

It is obvious from looking at this that even when dealing with some one who shares your own type, whether it is J or P, that there are still relational challenges to navigate. So here are a few tips for the J and P evangelists working with their opposites. .

Advice J Evangelists when working with P's:

Realize that P's tend to want to see things from multiple perspectives before making a decision. This means they may want to have conversations that, to you, seem like repetitive, but in their mind they are highly nuanced and effect the over a picture. If they are Extroverts, the P's will want to process things outloud and explore all the options before arriving at a resting pace. If they are introverts, the P's will be thinking about alot of options, but may not necessarily let you know what angle they are coming from. This means you will have to ask a lot of questions and burrow down into their thought process to find out exactly where they are coming form and what it is that they are actually trying to say. So three things for J's to remember when working with P's are:

1. PRACTICE LISTENING

2. ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS

3. BE PATIENT

Advice for P Evangelists when working with J's:

Don't overload a J with too much information. You want to keep it simple and keep it to the point. You might like rabbit trails, but J's like paved roads with clear signs and up front destinations. Also, just because making decisions spoils the fun for you, does not mean it is a party pooper for them. Since you are good at noticing people and observing what is up with them, do not be afraid to ask direct questions about your previous conversations and how they have processed it, or if they have come to any landing points on those issues. If they are introverts, then as an extrovert, you may naturally annoy them with a lot of talking, so resist the urge to fill in the "down time" in the conversation. Silence and quiet is o.k. If they are extroverts, they will probably not have much patience with unrelated information or beating around the bush. So three things for P's to remember when working with J's are:

1. GET TO THE POINT, DON'T CLUTTER THE TOPIC

2. DO NOT BE LATE OR MISS AN APPOINTMENT TO HANG OUT

3. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR AN UPDATE ABOUT THEIR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

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