Last time I mentioned that some of the seminarians I knew were getting into ministry to fulfill their own narcissism. These guys (and I use that term in the northern, gender neutral sense) were all about the show. They wanted the spotlight to always be on them. They wanted to be important. If we’re honest with ourselves, we all deal with this to some degree. Maybe we want to be important to a smaller group of people, like our kids or our spouse, but we all have a desire to be popular, well-liked and “the star”. This desire in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but if we let it control us, then we’re in danger of getting way outside of God’s desires.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been implementing a new volunteer process. Our goal is to make it easy for everyone to find the place God has called them to serve at LifePoint, and in the universal body of Christ. At the heart of this process is a breakdown of different personality types. These are the: “Mastermind”, “Trailblazer”, “Ninja”, “Social Genius”, and “Guardian”. I’m only going to talk about one of these in detail, so if you want to learn more visit www.lifepointchurch.tv/findyourfit/. There’s also a quiz that will help you figure out what personality categories you best fit into. If you’re wondering where this is headed, just stick with me, it’ll make sense. I promise. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the Ninja…

The personality of a Ninja can be described as “someone who wants to see results”. In fact, a Ninja cares so much about results that they don’t care who gets credit for their ideas or work (within reason). Put another way: you may never see a Ninja, but every completed project is the equivalent of “I wuz here”. Ninja’s are also extremely detail oriented.

If God has called you to be a “behind the scenes” pastor, then you have to be at least part Ninja. Ninja’s don’t mind the fact that they aren’t the center of attention. That doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy attention, just that we can get by a lot longer than other personalities without it. The very title of “Pastor” without being a “Primary Communicator” indicates more time spent making things work than in front of people. And us “behind the scenes” pastors are ok with that.

Just for the fun of it, here are the results of my quiz, enjoy:

Please note, all percentages are rounded, and may not add up to exactly 100%

Congratulations, You’re A Ninja

You notice when even the littlest things are not as they should be. If there’s a task to be done, you make sure that it’s done right.

40%

33%

13%

13%

0%

P.S. If you are a senior pastor, be sure to let your “behind the scenes” people know how much you appreciate them. While we can survive without mass amounts of attention, we still like being noticed for our work :P