Scan barcode
Reviews
Preaching: With all our souls: a study in hermeneutics and psychological type by Leslie J. Francis
waveycowpar's review
4.0
This book sees a problem in the church today, that problem being that most ministers exhibit the same personality traits on the Jungian or Myers-Briggs list of 16 personalities. As most ministers are ISFJ within the traditional denominations and evangelicalism (at least in the UK), and ENTP in Pentecostals, it means that churches draw people of certain personalities (SFJs). On top of this, people of certain personalities interpret and preach the Bible in accordance with that personality. Therefore, people of other personality types would not be getting the Bible in a way that suits them, or keeps them interested, for example, people of a T personality with an F preacher will hear a lot about human emotions and relationships in sermons, but not a lot about analysis of problems, which may interest them more.
To rectify this Francis and Village suggest the SIFT method. This is based on the possible middle four letters in a personality type (SNFT: Sensing, Intuition [here represented as I], Feeling and Thinking). The first two of these are ways in which we perceive the world, while the second two are ways in which we evaluate it (perceiving and judging, or the P or J that can come at the end of a personality type). The P or J let you know which of the SNFT [SIFT] you favour; e.g. I am INFJ, so I favour Intuition over Sensing and Feeling over Thinking. However, I am also J, which means I favour the third letter (Feeling) over the second letter (N). This means sermons I preach might be heavy on F, include some N[I], a little less S and probably no T. SIFT corrects this imbalance.
With the SIFT method you work through each one in you sermon prep and delivery in order to make sure every angle of the text is discussed and every member of the congregation hears some of the sermon in their strongest personality function, but, by including all the others, none of those different from the preacher are deadened over time, but might be developed over time.
To rectify this Francis and Village suggest the SIFT method. This is based on the possible middle four letters in a personality type (SNFT: Sensing, Intuition [here represented as I], Feeling and Thinking). The first two of these are ways in which we perceive the world, while the second two are ways in which we evaluate it (perceiving and judging, or the P or J that can come at the end of a personality type). The P or J let you know which of the SNFT [SIFT] you favour; e.g. I am INFJ, so I favour Intuition over Sensing and Feeling over Thinking. However, I am also J, which means I favour the third letter (Feeling) over the second letter (N). This means sermons I preach might be heavy on F, include some N[I], a little less S and probably no T. SIFT corrects this imbalance.
With the SIFT method you work through each one in you sermon prep and delivery in order to make sure every angle of the text is discussed and every member of the congregation hears some of the sermon in their strongest personality function, but, by including all the others, none of those different from the preacher are deadened over time, but might be developed over time.
More...