Celebrating the Different Ways We Reflect God's Glory

Welcome!

Personality can be viewed as a set of priorities that characterize a person--a Personal Priority System. At this website you can use a 27-item Personality Indicator to help you discover your Personal Priority System. You will also find tools to help you interpret the results and apply them to your life.

Gary and Phyllis Waldecker have developed a Christ-centered approach to personality based on their reading of Carl Jung,* the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator** and the Bible. Here you will find the basics of their uniquely Christ-centered approach. The Indicator on this site is their own creation and reflects their approach to personality, which is a modification of the MBTI.

The Priority System Approach to Personality

The Waldeckers’ approach to the study of personality has the following characteristics:

1. Non-threatening

Their purpose is not to show people whether they have a “good” or “bad” personality. They are not looking for personality disorders. If you take their Indicator, there is no way you can have bad or negative results.

2. Affirming

Their purpose is to affirm everyone in their God-given personality priorities. They believe that every personality type reflects, emphasizes, and is especially good at different aspects of God’s glory. Their approach is to understand and celebrate those differences.

3. A Framework that doesn’t box you in

They do not confine you to a box. They affirm that everyone has all the personality characteristics they talk about. Having a personality “type” means that you are especially good at certain characteristics that reflect God’s glory. It’s a gift you have. As a result, you tend to give priority to what you are good at, and this is helpful for the body of Christ.

4. Christ-centered

Because of the fall most people tend to think that their personality priorities are either the “normal” ones or are somehow the “best.” On the other hand, there are some people who feel their personality priorities are somehow inferior to those of others. This tendency to view one’s personality type as either better or worse than those of others—a failure to appreciate the differences God has given us—minimizes the synergy that God intended. The Priority System approach is to show how Christ can bring us together to create this synergy.

How a Greater Understanding of Personality Can be Helpful

The Waldeckers have used the study of personality to help in the following kinds of situations:

1. Whenever people work together regularly as a team, it is important to tackle the issue of maximizing the giftedness of each member to create synergy. Personality is an important part of that giftedness. For example, the Waldeckers have helped missionary teams understand why it is so difficult to execute a team plan. Although everyone agrees on a plan, no one is aware of that fact that people with different personality priorities tend to interpret the plan in slightly different ways. Eventually teams often give up on the plan because they can’t understand why other people aren’t doing what was agreed upon. Gary and Phyllis have seen the effectiveness of teams greatly diminished by their not understanding and appreciating the diversity of personality priorities among them. They have also seen team effectiveness increase through the appreciation of these differences.

2. A greater understanding of personality can help married couples create greater synergy. Simply learning to put up with each other is no substitute for the synergy that can be created through greater appreciation.

3. A greater understanding of personality can help you treat your children in a way that affirms their unique personality giftedness as you bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. As we point our children to Christ, we want to make sure they aren’t interpreting our direction through the filter of our personality. In other words, children sometimes feel they are being squeezed into the personality type of their parents and not allowed to be themselves under Christ.

4. They have used the appreciation of personality priorities for career counseling, helping people who have a hard time figuring out how they “fit in,” helping students figure out how they best study, and helping people understand and use styles of leadership that fit their personality.

5. Understanding personality can also help people see how they fit—or have a hard time fitting—into a larger culture. This could be a national culture as well as an organizational culture or a family culture.

About the Waldeckers

Gary and Phyllis have both been certified to administer the MBTI and have been studying personality and developing and using their approach to it since 1995. They have extensive experience helping individuals, couples and ministry teams understand the implications of Personal (and Collective) Priority Systems both in the U.S. and in Latin America. They have 35 years of experience working as missionaries in Latin America. Gary is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He has a doctorate in Urban Missiology from Westminster Theological Seminary, and a doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University. Phyllis has a B.S. in Nursing and is a Registered Nurse. They have four children.



If you have any questions, please send an email to Gary Waldecker: gtw@paradigms.net



*Psychological Types (1971) Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, originallly published in 1923. Although I disagree with Jung on many points, even people who deny the Lord are made in his image and sometimes--by God's common grace--come up with useful insights. I believe I have avoided Jung's unbiblical errors while taking advantage of his insights.

**The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is also called the MBTI. Both of these are registered trademarks of Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., Palo Alto, California.

To Use the Indicator


Click on the Indicator link at the left. The Indicator page will appear. There are 27 statements. For each one indicate to what extent it is true for you. All of the statements are intended to be positive, reflecting differing gifts. The indicator does not measure any kind of deficiency or problem. You can choose the Not Sure option if you simply can't decide. When you are finished, click on the See Results button at the bottom. This will take you to the results page. A copy of your results will be sent to Gary and Phyllis Waldecker. They will not share your results with anyone without your permission.


Interpreting the Results

The Difficulty of Examining One’s Personality

Our personality is so much a part of us that it is often difficult to stand back and take an objective look at it. It seems so normal to us that we tend to see people with other personality preferences as abnormal. We might not fully appreciate them, or we might not fully appreciate ourselves, wishing we were like someone else. It is difficult to see one’s personality as just one legitimate set of priorities. This is why it is so important to get the perspective of other people on your personality. We suggest not only taking our indicator yourself, but also having someone close to you fill it out for you as well.

A Matter of Priorities

Everyone has all of the personality characteristics included in our indicator. So don’t feel that you are “limited” to the four letters that appear on your results page. The indicator is designed to reveal what you are especially good at, and what you often tend to do first. All characteristics are good, but sometimes they may be overused.

The Tentative Nature of the Results

Please don’t take these results as a definitive, scientific statement on your personality type. Because our personality is so much a part of us, it often takes a long time to become significantly aware of it. Also, the results of our indicator may be skewed by a number of factors, including the following:

  1. Your parents (or someone else close to you) saw your personality preferences as abnormal and either on purpose or unwittingly pressured you to conform to theirs or not to appreciate yours.
  2. Your personality preferences are not in line with what your culture prefers, thus pressuring you to conform.
  3. Your job requires you to emphasize aspects of your personality that are not your strongest.
Getting Started

To understand the meaning of these results, we suggest the following:

  1. Look at the scores for the four groups of personality traits: E-I, S-N, T-F, and K-P-J. The scores can range from 0 to 15. A higher score indicates a greater amount of clarity on your part (or on the part of the person responding) that you prefer a given personality characteristic. The letter with the highest score within each group becomes part of your personality profile.
  2. Compare your results with those of the person who responded for you. Try to clarify your true preferences by conversing with this person about the differences.
  3. Read your personality type in the book LifeTypes by Sandra Hirsh and Jean Kummerow. The “K” characteristic will not be found in the current literature. If your results include “K,”, read the “P” version. In our opinion, the MBTI included the “K” attributes with the “P” attributes.
  4. Read online descriptions. For example: www.typelogic.com
  5. Read our online explanations on this website.