The Enneagram Goes to Church: Wisdom for Leadership, Worship, and Congregational Life
by Todd Wilson
Member Reviews
The author's application of the Enneagram to ministry and every aspect of congregational life.
The author speaks of his history with the Enneagram and tells stories throughout regarding his ministry and work. He provides a basic introduction to and defense of the Enneagram. He considers what church leaders of each type tend to be like; how leaders should approach leading others of various Enneagram types; what leaders need to do to care for themselves; how to work effectively with others of different Enneagram types; and how churches can manifest various Enneagram types.
There are a lot of good ideas here regarding how to apply the Enneagram to the work of ministry and of congregational life. One would want to take an Enneagram test elsewhere, but one can turn to this to see how their particular type will provide benefits and challenges and to increase awareness of those differences among people. It can help a person learn how to play toward one's strengths and reinforce their weaknesses, and how to be sensitive to the differences among others.
The work is definitely written in the standard lay Evangelical style: I, personally, could have done without most of the personal "testimony" of the author's narrative and his flexing based on the work he's done. I found that the whole work lacked appropriate nuance: there's very little mentioned about the phenomenon of wings, and therefore most people are going to find that the descriptions will be slightly off since they're all show more rooted in the pure types without reference to wings (I as a 1w9 am quite different from a pure 1 or a 1w2, even though there are commonalities). It might well be that congregations likely take on a lot of the characteristics of the type of the leadership, but ought to be a place where all types and wings are welcome and influence the whole in turn.
This is definitely an introductory work and should not be taken as the final word on the Enneagram. Extra reading is highly recommended. But it has some value in what it is.
**--galley received as part of early review program show less
The author speaks of his history with the Enneagram and tells stories throughout regarding his ministry and work. He provides a basic introduction to and defense of the Enneagram. He considers what church leaders of each type tend to be like; how leaders should approach leading others of various Enneagram types; what leaders need to do to care for themselves; how to work effectively with others of different Enneagram types; and how churches can manifest various Enneagram types.
There are a lot of good ideas here regarding how to apply the Enneagram to the work of ministry and of congregational life. One would want to take an Enneagram test elsewhere, but one can turn to this to see how their particular type will provide benefits and challenges and to increase awareness of those differences among people. It can help a person learn how to play toward one's strengths and reinforce their weaknesses, and how to be sensitive to the differences among others.
The work is definitely written in the standard lay Evangelical style: I, personally, could have done without most of the personal "testimony" of the author's narrative and his flexing based on the work he's done. I found that the whole work lacked appropriate nuance: there's very little mentioned about the phenomenon of wings, and therefore most people are going to find that the descriptions will be slightly off since they're all show more rooted in the pure types without reference to wings (I as a 1w9 am quite different from a pure 1 or a 1w2, even though there are commonalities). It might well be that congregations likely take on a lot of the characteristics of the type of the leadership, but ought to be a place where all types and wings are welcome and influence the whole in turn.
This is definitely an introductory work and should not be taken as the final word on the Enneagram. Extra reading is highly recommended. But it has some value in what it is.
**--galley received as part of early review program show less
It’s fine.
