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Church success and pastoral personality traits

The major reason so many churches are plateaued or in decline is that they’ve either lost their vision or adopted the wrong vision; the key to re-envisioning churches that are able to plant healthy, robust churches is visionary leadership, especially on the part of the senior pastor, according to Aubrey Malphurs and Gordon Penfold in their book Re:Vision: The Key to Transforming Your Church. The problem is that church re-envisioning is a fairly new solution and most know very little about it.

The book is based on survey research which compares the DiSC and Myers-Briggs personality profiles of pastors of churches which have experienced at least a particular level of numerical attendance growth over a particular period of time with the profiles of pastors whose churches have not experienced the same level of numerical growth. Pastors of churches which have experienced the qualifying level of growth are assumed to be re-envisioning pastors. Based on the survey results, the authors draw particular conclusions as to desired personality traits for re-envisioning pastors.

The results actually showed that re-envisioning pastors had a range of different personality types. There were some predominant types, but correlation does not equal causation, and the survey methodology does not appear to have ruled out some form of selection bias. More importantly, I suspect that the authors have over-estimated the relationship between numerical growth and the personality characteristics of a church’s senior pastor. I suspect that effective church leadership is done by teams, not individuals, so the success of a church is more dependent on the team the senior pastor leads rather than on particular personality traits of the senior pastor.

In my view, personality tests are helpful for the purpose of understanding your default behaviours and weaknesses, but they are unhelpful if used as the sole means of determining whether you “have what it takes” to lead a church. No one person “has what it takes” to lead a church in his or her own strength. The best leaders are those who understand their weaknesses and make sure that other members of their team can cover for them.

Notwithstanding my issues with the survey’s methodology, the book does in my opinion point the reader in the right direction. It is critical for church leaders to create and cast a compelling vision which clarifies the direction of the church, motivates the people, creates energy and sustains ministry. It is also critical to create a culture which is aligned with the vision.