By Dwell Pastor Bret McCallum
Dwell is offering a new resource on its website that can help you better understand yourself and others.
The study of the temperaments used to be standard learning in discipleship 20 years ago. People would study good material & take a temperament test to understand more about their wiring, strengths & weaknesses. Since then, actual study & learning on this topic has largely fallen by the wayside but the concept has loosely hung on. It's common to hear someone say "you're so outgoing, you're such a sanguine!" or "I get really melancholy sometimes."
Numerous other temperament tests have been perpetuated, some of them good, some of them not so good. Some false religions such as Scientology or other new age religions have developed strange personality tests or profiles, complicating the picture.
Some people have misused the temperaments to make rash judgments about others or to feel that they themselves will always be a certain way, not seeking to grow or change. When the study of the 4 temperaments began in ancient times, there were certain superstitious explanations given which has led some people to believe that the study of temperaments is useless.
Not only that, but we haven't had a good temperament test on our website in recent memory.
However that has now changed! John Ross & I worked with the Dwell website team (with excellent designing help from Vince Mitchell) to come up with a completely revamped temperament page, complete with a test as well as some great resources on the topic. Recently I have studied this with some of my disciples & it has been very interesting & sharpening.
The resources listed on the site will explain some of the common errors in studying this topic, will provide a history of how this developed & most importantly, provide some relevant scripture. This is a valuable tool that can greatly aid your discernment & understanding of others. It can give you a greater vision for people you are working with as well as for yourself. Areas that can be worked on as well as areas of strength.
Finally, taking the temperament test & reading on the topic is fun! People are very interested in this topic & I bet you will find that this leads to a lot of great conversations. I want to highly encourage you to study this topic once again with your disciples.