The Enneagram Goes to Church: Wisdom for Leadership, Worship, and Congregational Life

178 Pages·2021·3.985 MB·English

by  Todd A. Wilson

InterVarsity Press
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©2021 by Todd A. Wilson
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Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
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While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to
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Cover design and image composite: David Fassett
Images: Enneagram icon: © grafikazpazurem / iStock / Getty Images Plus
card stock background: © Zakharova_Natalia / iStock / Getty Images Plus
ISBN 978-0-8308-4683-2 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4682-5 (print)
To Beth Jones, who
introduced us to the Enneagram;
to Suzanne Stabile, who taught us the Enneagram;
and to Gerald Hiestand, Jonathan Cummings,
and Zach Wagner, who explored
the Enneagram with us.

CONTENTS
Introduction: Pastoring Is About People 1
1 All Truth Is God’s Truth: Transposing the Enneagram
into a Christian Key 11
2 Three Ways of Navigating Life: Thinking, Feeling, and Doing 28
3 Shepherding the Sheep: Nine Ways of Being a Pastor 48
4 Leadership: The Art of Awareness 66
5 Preaching: Truth Through Personality 79
6 Worship: Whenever Nine Are Gathered in My Name 99
7 Congregational Care: Lending Yourself to the Way of Others 112
8 Teamwork: It’s Always Personal(ity) 128
9 Churches: They’re Like Families 145
Conclusion: You Cannot Give What You Do Not Have 155
Acknowledgments 161
Notes 163
Praise for The Enneagram Goes to Church 167
About the Author 169
More Titles from InterVarsity Press 170

INTRODUCTION
Pastoring Is About People
R
ecently, my wife, katie, and I were on a walk and enjoying one of
our usual chats about how we were doing. How is our marriage?
How are the kids? How is our home life? What goals do we have for the
next six months? What have we been learning lately about God, the
Bible, the world, or ourselves?
Somewhere along the way—I can’t remember what we were
discussing—a thought darted into my mind. Where it came from, I
didn’t know. What I did know was that it was important. Which is why,
instead of letting it slip by, I decided to verbalize it.
“Katie,” I said, somewhat hesitantly. “You know what?”
“What, babe?”
“If I would have known the Enneagram, I would have been a much
better pastor.”
Just like that, out it came, like a confession long overdue. I was re-
lieved as soon as the words departed my mouth. Clearly, it emerged
from somewhere out of the depths.
“That makes a ton of sense,” Katie responded gently, aware she was
handling something delicate, like a child with a chrysalis in her open
palms. She, too, recognized that what I had just uttered was less of a
declaration and more of a confession.
2 THE ENNEAGRAM GOES TO CHURCH
Right there, on the walk from Humphrey Avenue to Ridgeland Boul-
evard, on Pleasant Street in Oak Park, Illinois, I was owning a humbling
truth about myself and my ministry.
By then I had been a pastor for fifteen years, the last ten as the senior
pastor of Calvary Memorial Church, a large, diverse congregation in the
near western suburbs of Chicago. During my decade-long tenure, the
church had experienced its ups and downs, both exhilarating and
painful. But at that time, things were going well. I was content, and the
congregation was flourishing.
Which is why when I said to Katie what I said about the Enneagram,
it wasn’t flowing from a sense of failure or regret but a place of longing
and missed opportunity. I said it not as a person guilty of pastoral mal-
practice but as someone who had grown more mature over the years—
thanks, in large part, to the wisdom of the Enneagram.
I well remember when I was first introduced to the Enneagram.
Several years ago, we were vacationing with my extended family on
Lake Wawasee in northern Indiana. That summer Katie and I spent
countless hours teaching the kids to ski, catch frogs in a net, and fish
with a cane pole and bobber.
My sister-in-law, Beth, was also there. But she spent her afternoons
reclined in a comfy lounge chair, devouring her already well-worn copy
of Don Riso and Russ Hudson’s classic Personality Types: Using the En-
neagram for Self-Discovery.
It must have been her third or fourth reading. The book was in tatters.
Now, whenever I see someone enthusiastically poring over a book
like it’s a newborn baby, it piques my interest. I can’t help it. I’m an in-
veterate booklover myself, and when I see someone greatly enjoying a
book, I have to inquire.
“Hey Beth, what’s that?” I asked—somewhat nervously, I must
confess, because I had noticed a creepy, pentagram-like figure on
the book’s cover, which made me wonder, Surely my sister-in-law isn’t
into Satanism!