When I was growing up, pretty early on in the piece, I realised I wasn’t going to be a carpenter. My dad was a mechanical engineer and he seemed to be able to make things and he was this regular handy man.

Yours truly on the other hand – well to this day – and I’ve just turned 50 – I still can’t nail two pieces of wood together straight. When I hang a picture on a wall – Jacqui and I have a celebration if it hasn’t fallen off within 24 hours.

But there are other people – who are just so practical. And today – we’re going to meet one of them.

In this series of programs with Keith Henry, who’s developed a simple tool to understand our different personality types – it’s called Personality GPS. Last week on the program we met the first five of the personality types and today, Keith and I are going to meet Luke.

And Luke – Luke is a Practical Server. He’s one of the people who comes at the world first and foremost through his mind – as opposed to his emotions or his will.

And that’s great because if it was left up to people like me to build houses – we’d be living under a tree. Nothing would ever get done.
Is that right Keith?

Keith:That’s right Berni.

Berni:Thank you for your gift of encouragement. So Keith, we looked at the soul people and the heart people last week.

Keith:That’s right Berni. Remember on the Personality GPS clock face the first quadrant was from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock and they are the holistic people, the big picture people, the big thinkers. We met an achiever, we met an encourager and we met a teacher last week on the program. Those are the three personality types in that quadrant. And then the heart people, they’re between 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock on the GPS clock.

Berni:They’re the people that come at the world through their emotions.

Keith:They are the emotional people. They happen to be the giver and carer. And today we’re moving around to the mind people from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock. This is where we meet Luke at 7 o’clock.

Berni:Okay. He’s a servant. Now the gift of serving. The personality type of serving is in Romans Chapter 12 and you’ve broken that into two. Correct?

Keith:That’s right. We’ve broken the server in two because one is practical, tactile and can do things the other’s theoretical.

Berni:Okay. You’re practical they tell me.

Luke:I am. I’m quite practical I’m suppose. I do a lot of thinking. Sometimes a bit of over thinking, which can be a bad thing but the positive thing is that you can do things in a way that other people can’t because you can think into situations.

Berni:We’ll get onto that in a moment. Keith, tell us about these practical servers. How do I know if I’m a practical server? I’m not because I can’t nail two bits of wood together. But how do we know if we’re a practical server or if someone we know is one of these personality types here at 7 o’clock on the Personality GPS clock face?

Keith:Right. They are tactile. That doesn’t mean that they can necessarily nail two bits of wood together. But they can actually do things. They can do sound recordings and things like that. But they’re warm and loyal and faithful people. They love to be part of the group because they are your traditional team player. The football team.

When they make decisions though they’re not always sure of their decision making capability because they analyse and reanalyse things. They can think too much about it. But if the part of the group they get the security from that group that they’re doing the right thing.

Berni:These are practical doers.

Keith:Yes. The people who serve often behind the scenes. You don’t see them. The ones that are doing all the hard work.

Berni:I remember in the company I used to own we had one guy called John, and he used to race around, he always made all the IT work and he’s the guy that always fixed things and made things happen. If you wanted something you asked John.

Keith:That’s right, they do it for you and they don’t complain they just love it. They get on and do it.

Berni:Okay. Luke I’m going ask you how you react to that in a moment but first tell us a bit about yourself. What do you do for work?

Luke:A whole range of things I suppose. I work a lot in design and do a lot of creative things but then, on the other hand, there is the practical side. I work at a small company, Cole Presentations, and I’m pretty much the product manager so I’ve got to oversee development of the products and packaging and design. So it’s really thinking how things are going to work over a long period of time and what the outcome’s going to be and how it’s all going tie in together.

Berni:So you are the guy that kind of designs the products that you’re going to take to market.

Luke:Yes.

Berni:Okay. And in the workplace what do people naturally come to you for?

Luke: Part of that is just nutting things out, whether it’s over the website or whether it’s products. It’s always the finer details of accounting or anything else we’re trying to work out. They can’t always get their head around it so it’s easy for me to do.

Berni:So you’re the detail, go to guy if you like.

Luke:Yeah, I try to be, definitely.

Berni:Let me ask you, if you had a couple of hours to yourself, what would you do? You can do anything you want, you have a couple of hours to yourself, what would you do?

Luke:Yes. I like to go for a surf. Having a bit of time out is always good because I’m a thinker. It’s good to get away from that and have some time out to myself.

Berni:Things tick over in your head and you work through things.

Luke: So any quiet thing like golf or surfing where you can be alone and you can think and you’re not overwhelmed by everything else.

Berni:What drives you nuts about other people?

Luke: A big realisation for me, I’ve always found it hard with people that are not doing the things that I see. I’m always thinking and seeing how I can help out and what I can do, but other people, they’re either in a group chatting or they’re doing different things but they’re not taking care of those things that I see. I can’t run around and do everything, so I wonder why isn’t everyone else helping out.

Berni:Why isn’t everyone else like me?

Luke:Exactly.

Berni:Why can’t everyone see the detail like me? Yes. That’s great. Well, I can’t see the detail quite often and you can’t either Keith, can you?

Keith:What detail.

Berni:You guys work together right?

Luke:Yes, we do.

Keith:You know when you asked him ‘what’s hard?’ I was thinking, working with me must be hard.

Berni:What don’t you like doing?

Luke:I don’t like to be overwhelmed by things always coming up. I need to do one thing at a time. So I’ve got to be focusing on one thing, I can’t be spreading myself out trying to do lots of different things. So that’s always hard for me. Just concentrate on one thing.

Berni:Keith, tell why, what makes Luke the classic practical server? You obviously know him. What makes him that classical practical server?

Keith:Because he does analyse and research things, if you want to know how to do something or you want it done right you go to him and he doesn’t complain, he just gets stuck in and does it. No quarrels. They are great supporters. They are there to support you.

Berni:I like this, you like doing one thing at a time. I’m not happy unless I’m doing twenty things at a time. I’m not happy unless there is lots going on. See there’s the differences and we actually need both don’t we.

Keith:We definitely do. God made us that way.

Berni:Amen! Luke thanks so much for joining us today.

Luke:it’s been great Berni.

Berni:And Keith, I’ll be talking again with you tomorrow.

KEITH:Thanks Berni.

If there’s one personality type that can drive me nuts – it’s the theoretician. The academic. The people who analyse their own particular area of expertise to death. And there’s a reason for that.

Because I’m the type of person who just wants to make decisions and get on with it. Let’s just do it – that’s my motto. Problem is that so often, if we just get on and do it – and don’t analyse some of the facts and issues – we can get it horribly wrong.

That’s just one example of why each one of us needs to be surrounded by people who are wired differently from the way that we’ve been wired. And that’s God’s plan –He’s made each one of us different, and none of us can do it all on our own – so we have to rely on one another.

I’m joined again by my good friend Keith Henry on the program today and our special guest Jim – who Keith tells me is a theoretical server. I suppose I’m going to have to try to be nice to this guy.

Keith, if you’ve joined us on any of the programs these last few weeks has done a lot of work on the different personality types that the Apostle Paul sets out in Romans 12:4-8 in the New Testament.

And over the last week and a half or so, we’ve had a different guest each day – one from each of those personality types that Keith has so conveniently laid out on a simple clock face so that we can easily visualise this – that’s the problem with radio – no pictures so we have to visualise this.

Today, we’ve worked our way around to 8 o’clock to the theoretical server.

Berni: So Jim – how do you feel – victim number 8 and I don’t even really like you?! What a great way of kicking off your broadcasting career!

Jim: That’s your problem mate, not mine.

Berni: We’ll talk to you in a moment. Keith – how are you today my friend?

Keith: Good thanks Berni

Berni: Okay, Jim’s is at 8 o’clock on the personality GPS clock face with the personality type that you’ve called the Theoretical server in that mind group, 3 to 6 on the clock face – people who think through the detail of things.

Now I want you to tell us – describe to us first up this theoretical server. How do we know if we’re one of those or how do we know if someone we know is a theoretical server?

Keith: You can tell in two particular ways. One is an observer. So if they enter into a room, like it might be a party, they’ll just stand and watch. Like the wise old owl. They’ll just take it all in first of all.

And the second thing, if you go and talk to them you find they have a deep sense of knowledge about specialist subjects but they don’t actually always come out and tell you. They ask you questions. So they are also the ‘questioner’ as well as the observer.

So the communication is often in descriptions but also in questions. They’re the knowledge seekers too. These are the people who will go into a library or a book store

Berni: I hate libraries. Sorry to any librarians out there.

Jim: I have my own library.

Berni: Yeah, you would too. You’ve been sitting there doing a lot of nodding over there as Keith’s been talking. I’m interested, what else Keith?

Keith: Well they love researching. If they have a passion about a subject they’ll Google it, they’ll go in the library, they’ll buy all the books on it. They’ll research and research and research and analyse, as you said. Get all the details to it.

Berni: You see I love Google because it’s my excuse not to have to go into libraries anymore. Jim, how are you?

Jim: I’m fine.

Berni: In a moment I’ll ask you to relate to what Keith’s been talking but first up – tell us a bit about yourself.
What sort of work have you been involved in?

Jim: Well I’ve been involved in ministry. I’ve been a minister at various times of my life but I’ve been involved in universities too and I find that I tend to react against being too involved in an institution.

This has kind of worried me a bit because it means I’ve swung between these two poles of my life, I’ve never really gone along with an institution because I’ve wanted to keep myself apart from it. I’ve got this desire to be separate.

This observation thing, I could go into a room, for instance after Church when everybody’s having a cup of tea after Church and everything, I find that I can very easily just stand on my own and just look at things and be pleasant and my instinct, my natural person would be to just be on my own. I’m a loner.

I’m just happy to be that way but as part of my Christian life and part of my Christian commitment I’ve realised the body life, the Church, means that I learn how to relate and to be decent to people, as it were.

Berni: So what are you drawn to in the ‘doing’ part of your life? What do you love doing?

Jim: Reading books and being on my own. I mean, at home I’ve got my study and I’ve got my odd bought books. One of the big problems in my life has been book buying. My wife has grieved over me on various occasions because of the books that I’ve bought.

Berni: With my wife its shoes right but with you, it’s books.

Jim: But with me its books, that’s right. And I’m learning how to stop that and also to prune these things out of my life because I also realise, from a Christian point of view, you can seed your heart with all kinds of stuff and as a Christian I’ve got to stop that. I’ve got to stop gazing at the environment all the time and focus on what I think God is wanting me to do.

So this knowledge thing can become a trap because you can be so interested. You know I could walk into a book shop and I would systematically work my way around the shop and pick up anything I thought was interesting. And after a while I realised I was just going in ten directions at the same time. I don’t want to do that.

I want a Godliness and being able to focus and get my life going in a direction I think is a Christian responsibility, to come against this attraction to knowledge and being going off in all directions.

So I’ve got my own library, I focus on the interests that I have and I’ve been a Bible teacher too and one of the things that I do is focus on scripture and I want to tease it out. I’m into the Greek and the Hebrew and I have opportunities within the Church to be able to teach that stuff.

Berni: You talked about the body life before and it’s an important thing, for you to serve and interact.

Jim: It is.

Berni: How do you live out your faith to other people? What do you do, given your gifting and who you are, how do you live that faith out to them?

Jim: Well two things. It’s partly within the Church life itself. I’ve run a Bible school within the Church. I also play the keyboard. I preach and I’ve got that kind of profile within the Church, which is a kind of leadership, not a management type leadership but observation type leadership where things are happening and I can come in and say, ‘Is this the right thing we should be doing?’

But personally, I preach sermons that ask questions. For instance I’ve preached a sermon recently and the question was ‘so what makes heaven, heaven?’

So I, just as Keith was saying there earlier, one of the ways in which you can express knowledge is to question and I can do that and because I’ve got this kind of loner independence, an emotional independence, I can do that observational thing and hopefully, now that I’m seeded with the Word of God, be able to bring Christian comment.

Berni: Yeah. We’re almost out of time. Just quickly, what’s the one thing you don’t like to do?

Jim: The one thing I don’t like to do, I don’t like just plain entertainment or plain fun. People just like, fun, I can use, at home I can use the word ‘fun’ in a negative way, where they’re using it in a positive way. You’re just having fun, what are you doing? What’s the point of what you’re doing? So one of the things I don’t like doing is the unreflective life.

Berni: That’s a word from the wise owl. Thank you so much for joining us.

Jim: That’s okay.

Berni: Thanks Keith, I’ll catch you tomorrow.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

We live in a world where frankly, anything goes. If it feels good, do it. That’s the motto, isn’t it. But you don’t have to look too far to see that it doesn’t work so well.

25,000 kids are dying of starvation every day. Billions living in poverty. Somewhere between 40 and 50 wars going on at any one time. And even closer to home, the excesses of the anything goes model are having a devastating effect on people young and old.
Our creativity in hurting one another is absolutely astounding.

And that’s why in this world we need a voice of reason. We need those people who somehow have this knack of telling right from wrong and the drive to speak that message out – no matter how unpopular that might be. Traditionally, those people have been called prophets.

Now we’re joined again, today, on the program today by my friend Keith Henry, to talk about these different personality types we find in Romans chapter 12. And today, he’s invited Jean onto the program. And Jean, Keith tells me – is one of these people who is wired to be a prophet.

Now Keith this word prophet is not one that’s so much in general usage today, and amongst Christians it has a very specific meaning. But we’re talking about it more from the perspective of it being one of the 9 personality types. Is that right?

Keith: That’s right, Berni. We’ve been talking over the last couple of weeks about the different personality types and they’re all set out in Romans Chapter 12. And one of these personality types is the prophet. Now a prophet is someone who knows right from wrong and speaks right from wrong. They are very black and white.

Berni:I guess that’s not always easy – people don’t always want to hear the difference between right and wrong; black and white. People don’t always want to hear what Gods perspective in a particular situation.

Keith:No, sometimes they want to be in the shades of grey area.

Berni:Yes, I guess that makes it appropriate that the prophet personality type is located in the quadrant of the Personality GPS System you’ve developed, to do with the will. These are people who are strong willed.

Keith:They are. Very strong willed.

Berni:Okay. Refresh me on that. The Personality GPS is just a simple tool to help each one of us get a handle on our own personality type based on Romans Chapter 12. And what you’ve done is taken the 9 different personality types. Now there are 7 in Romans Chapter 12 and a couple of those you’ve expanded into two – that gives us the 9. And you’ve laid them out across a simple clock face from 1 o’clock to 11 o’clock but they’re grouped, right?

Keith:That’s right Berni. Each of us tends to approach life through a different aspect of who we are. Some people are holistic, these are the big picture people. They like to have big ideas. And they are located on the clock face between 12 and 3 o’clock.

Now between 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock on the clock face are the feeling people. These are the emotional people, they really come to life from the heart. Between 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock are the servers, these are the thinking people. And finally the 9 o’clock to 12 o’clock, these are the strong willed people.

Berni:And this is where we find Jean, at 10 o’clock, right, as the prophet.

Keith:We do.

Berni:Okay, Jean’s at 10 o’clock on the personality GPS clock face with a personality type that you’ve called the prophet in that will group, the strong people. I want you to tell us. Describe to us the prophet. How do we know if we’re one of those? How do we know if someone else we know is one of those? What are we looking for to say, this person has this personality type – the prophet?

Keith:Well, they’re strong will is to do with what’s right and what’s wrong. They have a strong will to do what’s right so integrity is very important to them. They’re concerned about maintaining correct standards. They have high standards. Being responsible and not letting people down.

Berni:Okay Jean in a moment I’m going to ask how you relate to what Keith’s been saying. But first up, tell us a bit about yourself. What sort of work are you involved in? What do you love doing?

Jean:Well, at the moment my husband and I are in a ministry so I’ve been called to a healing and deliverance ministry. I’m in a season in my life when I am very, I’m in a peaceful, quiet time.

Berni:Look at your life as a whole, what have you been involved in over your life?

Jean:So many things. I’ve kind of been a Jack of all trades. I pray a lot with people. I reach out to people and like to really help people and basically I’ve got a listening ear.

Berni:When you help people, when you pray with them and you help them, what drives you? What motivates you to do that?

Jean:So they can have victory in their life and they can overcome and they can look at things from a different perspective.

Berni:As a Christian, how have you worked out your faith. I mean, in a church context or in a ministry context, what are you doing right now?

Jean:Well, we run a ministry, my husband and I, and we’ve run workshops where people come along to these workshops through word of mouth. And we take people through a process from the Biblical perspective.

Berni: And it’s what, Involves healing?

Jean:It involves healing and deliverance.

Berni:Alright. If you had two hours to yourself and you could do anything that you wanted to do, what would you do?

Jean:I love flowers. I love to walk in nurseries and just to look into the beauty of God’s creation.

Berni:If you look at how you operate, how you function. What are the things that make you different in your personality type compared to the other people around you that you know? What makes you feel different?

Jean:I think it’s a hard calling really, because you don’t have an option. Everything is so black and white, everything is wrong or right. You just want people to do the right thing and to try and do the right thing yourself and live up to that calling that’s been placed on your life. And being a human is a very hard thing to be.

Berni:When you live out, I guess your calling, of seeing things as right and wrong and speaking those into peoples lives, how do they react?

Jean:Sometimes they will receive it, but sometimes they don’t want to receive what you have to say and they probably think, ‘Who’s she, speaking into my life like that?’ But then again I’ve had feedback where people have said, ‘You know, when I’ve pondered on what you’ve said and thought and prayed about it, it’s actually been true.’ And it’s witnessed into my spirit.

Berni:What drives you nuts about other people?

Jean:They don’t get on with things, and don’t make a decision.

Berni:She comes from the will doesn’t she?
Keith, tell me, what makes Jean the classic personality type, the prophet? What is it that makes her that?

Keith:The black and whiteness, being correct, they have to suffer the world of not being correct and people not being on time, people not doing what they say they’ll do. These are all things that hurt the heart of the prophet.

Berni:So why do we need these people.

Keith:We need them because they’re like a conscience to us. It’s a word in season, ‘You’re on the wrong track, this is the right track, get back onto it’. And we need that because, especially the encouragers with the big picture people, we can be scattered, off everywhere, so we need the ‘Jean’s’ of the world, the prophets, to bring us back on track.

Berni: That’s great. Keith, Jean, thanks for joining us today.

Keith:It’s a pleasure.

Jean:Thank you.

These days, people don’t much like being told what to do. Whether it’s the teenager who roles their eyes at their parents, or the employee who deliberately undermines their manager.

There’s something about where we’re headed as a society where the notion of there being a leader who barks out orders is increasingly abhorrent.

But deep down we all know that we need leadership. Run everything by committee and you’ll never get anything done.

So we need leaders and in our two week series on the program we’ve been interviewing each one of the 9 personality types we’ve left the leader till last. In a moment, I’ll introduce you to Tony.

But over these last couple of weeks Keith Henry, the man who developed the wonderful tool called Personality GPS has been with us on the program.

Keith did something special – he went to the Bible, God’s Word and discovered that God deliberately made each one of us different – Romans Chapter 12 and he analysed and studied those differences to develop this tool he’s called The Personality GPS. Kind of put each of the 9 personality types on a simple clock face to make it easy for people like me to understand.

The point of all that is so that we can understand how we’re made differently, so that we can live together in community and serve one another and know how to love one another.

And today – we’ve left the best till last. We’re going to meet a man who’s been created by God to be a leader.

Now, I’m showing my biases a bit here Keith – because he and I are the same personality type, right?

Keith:That’s right. You’ll get on very well.

Berni:I’ve got to declare this conflict of interest. How are you my friend?

Keith:Good thanks, Berni.

Berni:And welcome to the program, Tony.

Tony:Thanks Berni.

Berni:Great to have you with us. I’ll come back to you in a moment, but first Keith I want you to tell us about this personality type – the Leader.

Okay, Tony’s at 11 o’clock on the personality GPS clock face with the personality type that you’ve called the ‘leader’ in that ‘will’ group, from 9 to 12 on the clock face – people who come at the world through their will. They’re the strong people.

I want you to tell us – describe to us first up the leader. How do we know if we’re one of those? How do we know if someone else is a leader?

Keith:The leader likes to be the boss. They have to lead.

Berni: Right, out of here Tony.

Keith:While others put off making decisions, they just make a decision and get on with it. Their motto could be ‘Just do it now!’. So they don’t put off making decision. It doesn’t mean that all the decisions are right. Remember Berni, you said to me that if I get 70% of the decisions right you are happy.

Berni:I remember one back in 1978 I think.

Keith:And they’re highly energetic. Boy, these people can do anything. They don’t avoid confrontations. A challenge is alright for them because it gets them going, it gets their energy levels up.

They’re not threatened by anything. They’ll take it on at the front and they won’t go out and pick a fight, Berni I’m sure you don’t, but they’ll not run from the fight.

So many leaders take on challenges in sports such as mountain climbing, parachuting, abseiling, body contact, boxing, football, take on all these things so they are energetic, confrontational people.

Berni:Okay, give me just a few characteristics. If I look at someone, what are the things that they do that tell me that they’re a leader?

Keith:They’re direct and to the point. They don’t muck around with what they say. They usually have an opinion about something.

They’re protective of others. Because they’re the strong so they like to look after others. They’re strong and dominant people. And interesting too, I don’t know if you’ve been there, but they love to overeat.

Berni:Yeah, I know that feeling. You know that feeling Tony?

Tony:Only at breakfast this morning.

Berni:Now let me tell you Tony, I’ll ask you for your reaction to what Keith’s been saying in a moment. But first tell us about yourself. What do you do for a living?

Tony:Well I have a Business Coaching business, so what that means is that I talk to small business owners on how to grow their business in team, and marketing and sales.

Interestingly I also am a general manager of a Financial Services business so that is financial planning, accounting, lawyers, business coaches across eight offices and 50 people.

Berni:So just a quiet life really.

Tony:Just a quiet life. That’s just Monday to Friday.

Berni:And what are you drawn to in the doing part of your life? What do you love doing?

Tony:I love accomplishment. I will do anything where I can get a result. I basically measure the success of a day as to how much I could not have done but what I achieved in terms of results. So I stand back and say ‘that was a great day as far as I’ve achieved all these things’.

Berni:You’re a Christian. How do you express your faith to other people? What do you do to live out your faith?

Tony:In our church context I’m a lay pastor, I’m on the executive of Real Men which is a men’s ministry within our movement. So I run connect groups and network groups and I do that really after hours. So I really love taking people to new places. I love facilitating, getting results through guy’s getting saved and built up.

Berni:This guy’s straight out of central casting, right, for being a leader.

Keith:Definitely. And he does a lot more too. He has a family.

Tony:We have a family. God’s got a great sense of humour. I live with four women, my wife and three daughters. Whereas I’m sort of alpha man, action man. They’re really into fashion and shopping and all the great girls stuff so that’s been great to round me out a little bit, but challenging at the same time.

Berni:Okay, let’s take a look at how you operate, how you function. What do you see as being the things that make you different from the other people that you’re around? How do you feel different?

Tony:Ah. That’s a great question. In some ways in relating ways like in relationships I feel I have to really concentrate hard so that I don’t have dislocated relationships.

Other people would find that would be easy to them, where as I need to put structure and I need to think about that. I need to be careful that I don’t squash people in terms of getting the achievement done. So I’ve got to be really careful.

Now that I’m a little bit older I know how to control that a bit more. When I was younger, the number of people that went away from me crying because they were just too slow or not in the process of getting it done was not a happy thing.

Berni:I really relate to that. I’ve made grown men cry at 30 paces. It’s just part of it because you’ve got that strength.

Tony:You can really easily overpower people. When people come up against you they really would feel as though they’re not in a position to fight back in a way which I would want them to fight back.

Berni:Okay, Keith, classic leader, right?

Keith:Yes. Very much so.

Berni:It’s fascinating. It’s like I’m sitting here looking in a mirror. Listening to you talk is just really scary actually to realise that there are these personality types.

Sometimes we think we’re on our own in the things with which we are feeling and struggling, but actually when sit down and you look at Romans Chapter 12 where Paul sits down and identifies all those different motivational giftings or whatever you want to call them, is really scary. There’s a lot of sane people around the place.

Tony:There are. And I think one of the really releasing things that I’ve found is that in God I’ve got amazing potential and He has made me uniquely the way I am. I need to go with my strengths but on the other side I need to put structure and rules and regulations around my challenges so that I’m not too much of a loose cannon.

Berni:That’s cool. Tony thanks for joining us. Keith, I’ll catch you again tomorrow.

Keith:Thanks Berni. Thanks Tony.

Tony:Thank you.

Well what an amazing ride we’ve had over the last three weeks with Keith. He’s taken a lot of time to spend with us to explain to you and me the wonder and the glory of Gods creation in making each one of us so amazingly different.

It’s been twenty years or so that Keith’s been studying the different personality types that Gods put into humanity. And over that time he’s developed this very simple tool for understanding those personality types.

For too long, I think, Christians have kind of suspiciously viewed this whole psychological discipline of understanding personality types. Sometimes, almost as though there’s something wrong with us understanding how differently Gods made each one of us. And for too long we’ve left it to the world to develop an understanding of personality types but there’s always been something missing in those worldly personality type systems.

There’s always been an absence of an ability to transform our lives because that only happens, I mean really happens, when we accept Jesus Christ as not only our saviour, not only the one who died to pay for our sins so that we could have eternal life. But also our Lord. The one who, above anyone or anything else, is the Lord of our lives.

That’s when our lives are transformed and understanding who we are, how Gods made each one of us so differently, whilst it’s important in living out our new lives, it is only a tool. Let’s put that into perspective today. It’s not about putting ourselves in the centre of the universe again. It’s not about elevating ourselves and thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought, is it Keith?

Keith: Definitely not Berni. That’s where this simple tool that we’ve developed based on the personality types in Romans 12 is different. It’s based on the Kingdom model, not on the world’s model of success.

Berni: Keith the passage that we’ve come back to again and again over the last few weeks is this passage in Romans chapter 12. And for one last time I’d love to revisit it because today, on the program, after meeting all these different personality types over these last three weeks.

Today I’d love to pull it all together. I kind of want to ask, well okay, so we’ve developed an understanding of all these different personality types that Gods created but so what? What does it all mean? Where does it lead us?

Keith: Well that’s exactly where we should be going Berni, because the whole point of this simple personality GPS tool that we’ve developed, isn’t just that we should just know who we are but that we should know where we fit. How we fit in with other people. So that we can live our lives to the full. That’s the point Berni. But I’m wondering whether, before we go there, could you take us back again to the passage in Romans 12?

Berni: Yeah, my thoughts exactly Keith. Let’s have a listen. It comes from the Message translation, Romans chapter 12, verses 2 to 8.

“Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you. Develops well formed maturity in you. It’s important that you do not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us. Not by what we are and what we do for Him.”

“In this way we’re like the various parts of the human body. Each part gets it’s meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as part of His body. But as a chopped off finger or a cut off toe we wouldn’t amount to much would we?”

“So since we find ourselves fashioned into all this excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christs body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with one another or trying to be something we aren’t.”

“Now if you preach just preach Gods message, nothing else. If you help, just help, don’t take over. If you teach, stick to your teaching. If you give encouraging guidance be careful that you don’t get bossy. If you’re put in charge don’t manipulate. If you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond. If you work with the disadvantaged don’t let yourself get irritated or depressed with them, keep the smile on your face.”

“Love from the centre of who you are, don’t fake it.”

Berni: Keith, tell me something. Stand back from all the detail, all the understanding of these different personality types that you’ve studied and developed into this Personality GPS tool to help us. Stand back from all that, when you read Romans chapter 12 again here, what does it all mean to you or what’s the whole point?

Keith: Well this passage Berni talks about several things. One thing is we can find our meaning of who we are. This is amazing. They lay it out there, the encourager, the prophet, the teacher and those. So we can find out which one of those types we are.

And secondly we then can find out how we function. Because if we are, say like you’re a leader Berni, well how do you function? Now that I’m a leader, what do I do? What does a leader do? So the Bible, again, can tell us how we function.

And it also says that we have to function as part of the body and this is important because as a cut off finger, what are we? We’re just somebody alone in the world trying to do our own thing, I did it my way.

Well it doesn’t work, it won’t be fulfilled. We have to do it Gods way. So the joy is being part of the body and seeing all the personality types work together for good.

Berni: Yeah, that’s great. I mean, can I tell you? The thing that struck me most in meeting all these different personality types on the program over these last couple of weeks.

And by the way, not all stations around the world that take this program may have played all those interviews or maybe you’ve missed some which is easy to do over a few weeks. Not to worry, they’re available on our website. So if you missed any one way or another, I’ll tell you about that at the end of the program.

But the thing that struck me was the richness and the diversity, incredible stuff.

The one who most blew me away was Jim, the theoretical server. This is the personality type that most often frustrates me. Because, you see, I just want to get on and do things. I want to get things done. And they, they want to analyse things to death.

Jim, as we interviewed him and I sat there and I listened to him, I was just overcome by this wonderful sense of Gods glory in this man who’d been created so uniquely and wonderfully in Gods own image but not like me.

Keith: Berni I think you’ve just stumbled on the heart of what we’re about. In understanding the different personality types, too often we expect everybody be just like you and me.

Berni: Aren’t they?

Keith: No they’re not and thank heavens they’re not. Because God made us all differently and some of us can get angry and frustrated and withdraw from people and we miss out on the glory of who they are, made in Gods image and the wonder of experiencing their gifts and their abilities and all that they are and all that they can do. Things that we could never do and never be.

Berni: Yeah and here’s the conclusion that I’ve come to. Until I lay down all those arrogant expectations of them, expecting them to be a cut off finger like me. Until I get with Gods plan that we’re part of a body gloriously different, I’m missing out on them.

The arrogance and the comparison that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 12 has to go otherwise I miss out, otherwise I can never live my life to the full because my meaning and my function, and that’s where the satisfaction and fulfilment come from right? You can only find those in being part of the body, not as a cut off finger or toe.

Keith: I know we’re running out of time Berni but I think a great place to finish up with is Jesus own words where He said in John 12:24.

“Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Berni: Yeah. It’s the dying to self and selfishness and arrogance that turns us from being a single grain to bearing much fruit. It’s like you and me Keith. Apart we could never have done these programs but together we’ve had a ball haven’t we?

Keith: We have.

Berni: Mate, thank you so much for joining me.

Keith: Thank you Berni.