My DISCernment Profile

Do you know your personality type? If you're like me, you've taken SEVERAL personality inventories over the years. My Myers-Briggs is an ENTJ. The Kiersey Sorter declared me to have a "Rational Temperament" and, more specifically, a "Field Marshall." Today, I took a new test, the Personal DISCernment Inventory, also known as the DISC Profile System.

My predominant behavioral style is a D, which stands for Dominant. At this point in life, that's no news flash to me and probably not to anyone who knows me. My secondary is Influential, but it's not a close race between the two.

I think D is the official personality of the Barbarian. Active and self-oriented, we are self starters who get going when things get tough. We thrive on competition and pressure. We're clutch, or at least try to be. Never content with the status quo, we will work hard for change, question authority, and work fast.

We're also dangerous people when everything is going well. We're outgoing and likable, but don't always know how to best care for others or when the right time is to back off. Just ask my wife.

At this season in my life, this personality has served me well. I do a great impersonation of a bull in a china shop when the church becomes complacent and needs a shake-up. At a district breakfast with other pastors and the superintendent this week, we had conversation about change in churches and my own innate ability to be a "button pusher." I think I may have earned a nickname with my boss.

My challenge as a Dominant is going to be in not pushing so hard or changing things so fast that I alienate others and when things get rolling and the church is growing and meeting challenges, I've got to learn to live within that and become more of an influencer than a driver.

Another thing I found interesting in this inventory was that it described D's as prone to frequent job changes, especially early in a career, until they find the challenge that they seek. I have never thought of that, but it makes sense. I tend to be a restless person and when I get to October of next year, I will set a new record for the longest I've served a single church (2 1/2 years). I'm one of the pastors that actually embrace and almost enjoy itineracy - that group is certainly a minority.