TrustGzus
Puritan Board Freshman
So I imagine most have heard of and have a little familiarity with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system of understanding personalities.
I am an ISTJ. I've been called the poster child of ISTJ.
I would love to be more evangelistic. I love reading various books on methods of evangelism. I have and enjoyed very much Kennedy's Evangelism Explosion and Comfort's/Cameron's The Way of the Master and other materials.
While I love those materials and they make much sense to me, I'm awful at evangelism. It's only slightly more natural to me than if I were to give birth to a baby. It's very forced and unnatural to me. I've been a Christian for 29 years.
Yesterday I came up with the idea of Googling "ISTJs and evangelism methods" to see if I could find any tips. I didn't find any tips. The idea of personality types and contributions to church life is explored a bit in a Google search but not excessively.
While I didn't find tips, everything I found said that ISTJs and evangelism don't go together more-or-less. We are often leaders. We teach Sunday school. We make things work at church. One sight said my type has little patience for high theology and other impractical philosophical discussions. I love theology and philosophy so I'm not sure if that person is simply mistaken or if I misunderstood the individual or if I'm just odd for an ISTJ in that way.
We are also often described as good at spiritual disciplines. It's said we memorize Scripture easily. I found this interesting because when I got saved at 15 and bought my first Bible, the guy that sold it to me gave me a read through the Bible plan that gets through the NT twice per year and the OT once per year. I've done that ever since. It's a cake walk for me. I'm always encouraging others to read through the Bible. I've taken audio Bibles and divided all the daily readings from that plan up. They range from 8 to 23 minutes per day depending on the chapters, averaging out to 13 minutes per day. My thought has been "who doesn't have 13 minutes?" Yet, I've found so few stick to this and don't struggle with it. I never considered the personality God gave me as being a factor that makes it easy for me. I think it was good for me to think about that because it can make me see now why perhaps it's easy for me and not for others.
What I don't want to do is use my personality type as an excuse. Yet at the same time, perhaps I do need to accept the fact that because of the way God made me, evangelism just may not be normal for me. When I have an opportunity where it flows naturally - go for it! If not, don't get hung up on it.
Part of the desire is having walked with God for all these years, I've seen so many fall away. I'm very burdened by that. I hate seeing those who once professed to walk with Jesus being atheists now - particularly when their arguments are really bad (which is all of them as far as I've seen).
Anyway, anyone ever thought about anything like this? It makes me look at my brothers and sisters a little differently. Gives me a new way to ponder the body and its members.
Anybody have any suggestions for evangelism for an ISTJ?
I am an ISTJ. I've been called the poster child of ISTJ.
I would love to be more evangelistic. I love reading various books on methods of evangelism. I have and enjoyed very much Kennedy's Evangelism Explosion and Comfort's/Cameron's The Way of the Master and other materials.
While I love those materials and they make much sense to me, I'm awful at evangelism. It's only slightly more natural to me than if I were to give birth to a baby. It's very forced and unnatural to me. I've been a Christian for 29 years.
Yesterday I came up with the idea of Googling "ISTJs and evangelism methods" to see if I could find any tips. I didn't find any tips. The idea of personality types and contributions to church life is explored a bit in a Google search but not excessively.
While I didn't find tips, everything I found said that ISTJs and evangelism don't go together more-or-less. We are often leaders. We teach Sunday school. We make things work at church. One sight said my type has little patience for high theology and other impractical philosophical discussions. I love theology and philosophy so I'm not sure if that person is simply mistaken or if I misunderstood the individual or if I'm just odd for an ISTJ in that way.
We are also often described as good at spiritual disciplines. It's said we memorize Scripture easily. I found this interesting because when I got saved at 15 and bought my first Bible, the guy that sold it to me gave me a read through the Bible plan that gets through the NT twice per year and the OT once per year. I've done that ever since. It's a cake walk for me. I'm always encouraging others to read through the Bible. I've taken audio Bibles and divided all the daily readings from that plan up. They range from 8 to 23 minutes per day depending on the chapters, averaging out to 13 minutes per day. My thought has been "who doesn't have 13 minutes?" Yet, I've found so few stick to this and don't struggle with it. I never considered the personality God gave me as being a factor that makes it easy for me. I think it was good for me to think about that because it can make me see now why perhaps it's easy for me and not for others.
What I don't want to do is use my personality type as an excuse. Yet at the same time, perhaps I do need to accept the fact that because of the way God made me, evangelism just may not be normal for me. When I have an opportunity where it flows naturally - go for it! If not, don't get hung up on it.
Part of the desire is having walked with God for all these years, I've seen so many fall away. I'm very burdened by that. I hate seeing those who once professed to walk with Jesus being atheists now - particularly when their arguments are really bad (which is all of them as far as I've seen).
Anyway, anyone ever thought about anything like this? It makes me look at my brothers and sisters a little differently. Gives me a new way to ponder the body and its members.
Anybody have any suggestions for evangelism for an ISTJ?