I am a big fan of the Enneagram. It is one of those personality tests, but to me it more than a way to pigeonhole people. I find it to be helpful in understanding people and seeing things from their perspective. It helps me to find a deeper level of understanding of person than simply what we project. I like it because is gives access to desires and fears. It is honest, sometimes too much so. It doesn’t “sugar coat” our personality but gives us new categories for understanding ourselves.

If you have never taken the test, give it a try here. I suggest doing this one with the three paragraphs in each set rather than the one with all the questions. I think it is faster and more accurate.

For the record, I am an 8. (A Social 8 with a 7 wing to be a bit more ennegramish about it.)

In the last few months I have been to a number of church leader events and have been thinking about them in relationship to the Enneagram. I think events take on a temperament just as people do (maybe events receive their temperament from their organizers). I was in so many different feeling events recently that I thought I would try understand them by means of enneagram types. Each type is given a number, 1-9 (ie. I am an 8).

Let’s start this event enneagraming with an event Tony Jones and I created in October – Christianity21. Tony and I are both 8′s and so was our event. The Tag-line was “21 voices, 21 minutes each on Faith in the 21st Century”. The event included many voices, especially from those who had often been left out in other settings. 21 ideas all interacting with each other. Great freedom in the room – permission to get up an wonder around during presentations, live twitter feed running with comments of attendees, massage chairs in the room.

Here is the description of an 8.

We have named personality type Eight The Challenger because, of all the types, Eights enjoy taking on challenges themselves as well as giving others opportunities that challenge them to exceed themselves in some way. Eights are charismatic and have the physical and psychological capacities to persuade others to follow them into all kinds of endeavors—from starting a company, to rebuilding a city, to running a household, to waging war, to making peace.

Eights have enormous willpower and vitality, and they feel most alive when they are exercising these capacities in the world. They use their abundant energy to effect changes in their environment—to “leave their mark” on it—but also to keep the environment, and especially other people, from hurting them and those they care about. At an early age, Eights understand that this requires strength, will, persistence, and endurance—qualities that they develop in themselves and which they look for in others.

Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. Protective, resourceful, straight-talking, and decisive, but can also be ego-centric and domineering. Eights feel they must control their environment, especially people, sometimes becoming confrontational and intimidating. Eights typically have problems with their tempers and with allowing themselves to be vulnerable.At their Best: self- mastering, they use their strength to improve others’ lives, becoming heroic, magnanimous, and inspiring.

• Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others
• Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life
  and destiny)

When Eights are emotionally healthy, however, they have a resourceful, “can-do” attitude as well as a steady inner drive. They take the initiative and make things happen with a great passion for life. They are honorable and authoritative—natural leaders who have a solid, commanding presence. Their groundedness gives them abundant “common sense” as well as the ability to be decisive. Eights are willing to “take the heat,” knowing that any decision cannot please everyone. But as much as possible, they want to look after the interests of the people in their charge without playing favorites. They use their talents and fortitude to construct a better world for everyone in their lives.

Q – I was at an event called Q a few weeks ago. I think Q was the perfect type 5 event. The tag-line for the event was “Ideas that create a better world”.

It was held at a swanky site in Chicago, brought together people from many streams of culture, the organizers made the point a number of times that they don’t agree with everything that is going to be said, but want to hear from people anyway. There were a number of times when statistics of the attendees and of “culture” were shared. The phrase “the world has changed and may not be as accommodating to Christian thinking” was used or implied throughout the event.

Here is the Enneagram description of the 5:

Fives are alert, insightful, and curious. They are able to concentrate and focus on developing complex ideas and skills. Independent, innovative, and inventive, they can also become preoccupied with their thoughts and imaginary constructs. They become detached, yet high-strung and intense. They typically have problems with eccentricity, nihilism, and isolation. At their Best: visionary pioneers, often ahead of their time, and able to see the world in an entirely new way.

• Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable
• Basic Desire: To be capable and competent
• Enneagram Five with a Four-Wing: “The Iconoclast”
• Enneagram Five with a Six-Wing: “The Problem Solver”

Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment.

We have named personality type Five The Investigator because, more than any other type, Fives want to find out why things are the way they are. They want to understand how the world works, whether it is the cosmos, the microscopic world, the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms—or the inner world of their imaginations. They are always searching, asking questions, and delving into things in depth. They do not accept received opinions and doctrines, feeling a strong need to test the truth of most assumptions for themselves.

Knowledge, understanding, and insight are thus highly valued by Fives, because their identity is built around “having ideas” and being someone who has something unusual and insightful to say. For this reason, Fives are not interested in exploring what is already familiar and well-established; rather, their attention is drawn to the unusual, the overlooked, the secret, the occult, the bizarre, the fantastic, the “unthinkable.” Investigating “unknown territory”—knowing something that others do not know, or creating something that no one has ever experienced—allows Fives to have a niche for themselves that no one else occupies. They believe that developing this niche is the best way that they can attain independence and confidence.

A Sustainable Faith – The week before attending Q I was part of an event in St. Petersburg, Florida. This years event included Shane Claiborne and had a Shane-vibe. The tag-line was “Justice in the Real World – How to be sustainably committed to justice over the long haul and not become overwhelmed or disenchanted”.

I think this a perfect Enneagram 9 event:

Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting. They typically have problems with inertia and stubbornness. At their Best: indomitable and all-embracing, they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts.

• Basic Fear: Of loss and separation
• Basic Desire: To have inner stability “peace of mind”
• Enneagram Nine with an Eight-Wing: “The Referee”
• Enneagram Nine with a One-Wing: “The Dreamer”

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

We have called personality type Nine The Peacemaker because no type is more devoted to the quest for internal and external peace for themselves and others. They are typically “spiritual seekers” who have a great yearning for connection with the cosmos, as well as with other people. They work to maintain their peace of mind just as they work to establish peace and harmony in their world. The issues encountered in the Nine are fundamental to all psychological and spiritual work—being awake versus falling asleep to our true nature; presence versus entrancement, openness versus blockage, tension versus relaxation, peace versus pain, union versus separation.

Ironically, for a type so oriented to the spiritual world, Nine is the center of the Instinctive Center, and is the type that is potentially most grounded in the physical world and in their own bodies.

TransFORM – The most recent event I was part of was gathering of community creators, church planters and missional community formers in Washington DC. The tag-line for Transform was “Forming Missional Communities”

There were many great folks at the event but I think Pete Rollins is a single good example of the vibe. And, he was the one presenting when I walked in the room.  I think TransFORM had the 4 Type going. (It is important to note here that of all the types, 4′s are the least interested in being given a type. So, if you are a 4 I know this is all just too much pigeon-holing)

Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity. At their Best: inspired and highly creative, they are able to renew themselves and transform their experiences.

• Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance
• Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an
  identity)
• Enneagram Four with a Three-Wing: “The Aristocrat”
• Enneagram Four with a Five-Wing: “The Bohemian”

Key Motivations: Want to express themselves and their individuality, to create and surround themselves with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect their self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a “rescuer.”

We have named this type The Individualist because Fours maintain their identity by seeing themselves as fundamentally different from others. Fours feel that they are unlike other human beings, and consequently, that no one can understand them or love them adequately. They often see themselves as uniquely talented, possessing special, one-of-a-kind gifts, but also as uniquely disadvantaged or flawed. More than any other type, Fours are acutely aware of and focused on their personal differences and deficiencies.

Nevertheless, Fours often report that they feel they are missing something in themselves, although they may have difficulty identifying exactly what that “something” is. Is it will power? Social ease? Self-confidence? Emotional tranquility?—all of which they see in others, seemingly in abundance. Given time and sufficient perspective, Fours generally recognize that they are unsure about aspects of their self-image—their personality or ego-structure itself. They feel that they lack a clear and stable identity, particularly a social persona that they feel comfortable with.

Healthy Fours are honest with themselves: they own all of their feelings and can look at their motives, contradictions, and emotional conflicts without denying or whitewashing them.

Let me say it again, I really do appreciate all the types, in people and in events. I am not trying to reduce anyone or event to a simple type. Rather, I do find these types so helpful in explaining part of the reason why events, movements, denominations and even people look and feel distinct. And why it is that some events connect with me, and you, better than others.

So, to all who are making events, keep it going and know there is nothing wrong with making an event in your own image.

And, if anyone wants to throw an 8 party, I know a couple of guys looking for some freedom.

Tagged as: a Sustainable Faith, Christianity21, Q, TransForm