Slide 1:Spirituality and Temperament By Dr. David C. Ward A Transforming Seminar


Where We Are Headed :Where We Are Headed Define key ideas Spirituality Spiritual formation Temperament Do “Uniquely You” Learn DISC Profile Identify your pattern Discover tendencies Integrate Spirituality Temperament/Character Typical virtues/vices Transformed temperaments Learn Spiritual Disciplines Nature & role in growth Temperament differences Tailor a personal approach Ready to learn a new language?


Slide 3:The Fruitful Life of Abiding God’s grace is already provided and is ever flowing… why don’t we experience it more? Graphic by Martin Hironaga


Slide 4:Our Shepherd Knows His Sheep His sheep know his voice He can speak in their language! They are different


Slide 5:How Do We Grow Spiritually? Rooted “In Christ” Filled with the Spirit Grow in Faith using means of grace


Slide 6:Means of Grace and Growth The Christian life is from beginning to end a work of divine grace. Actual progress in that life, however, comes through diligent exercise of the means of grace. Acts are utterly basic, small acts, which over time form Christian character. —Simon Chan, Spiritual Theology


Sources Shaping Spirituality :Sources Shaping Spirituality Design Develop-ment Decision GOD “HEART” ©2002 David C. Ward Nature Nurture Now (Choices)


Slide 8:Knowing Ourselves: Identity Temperament is part of our God-given design


Temperament does not predestine one man to sanctity and another to reprobation. All temperaments can serve as the material for ruin or for salvation. We must learn to see that our temperament is a gift of God, a talent with which we must trade until He comes. It does not matter how poor or how difficult a temperament we may be endowed with. If we make good of what we have, if we make it serve our good desires, we can do better than another who merely serves his temperament instead of making it serve him. Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude :Temperament does not predestine one man to sanctity and another to reprobation. All temperaments can serve as the material for ruin or for salvation. We must learn to see that our temperament is a gift of God, a talent with which we must trade until He comes. It does not matter how poor or how difficult a temperament we may be endowed with. If we make good of what we have, if we make it serve our good desires, we can do better than another who merely serves his temperament instead of making it serve him. Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude Spiritual Investing with Temperament Talents


Slide 10:Learn about Your Temperament Do “Uniquely You” Learn DISC Profile Identify your pattern Discover tendencies


Slide 11:Knowing Design: Temperament Observed first by Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, he used the old Greek titles: Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, and Melancholy. Dr. Tim LaHaye and Florence Litthouer have popularized these titles, but it was William Marston who in 1928 introduced the four initials D for Dominance, I for Influence, S for Submissive, and C for Compliant.


Slide 12:Knowing Design: Temperament Dr. Mels Carbonell was the first to combine Spiritual Gifts with the 4 DISC Personality Types through his Uniquely You Combination Spiritual Gifts and Personalities Profile. Many ministries and organizations now use personality profiles to improve team building, new member assimilation, leadership, conflict resolution, relationships, teens, parenting styles, communication styles, and ministry involvement. We will apply Uniquely You to spiritual formation disciplines


Slide 13:Knowing Design: Temperament D I C S Task People Reserved Outgoing


Slide 14:Balancing Discipline & Dependence “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; ... for it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to work according to His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:12-13


Slide 15:The Benefit of Spiritual Discipline “...discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for this life and also for the life to come. ... For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God... . Paul, I Timothy 4:7-8, 10


Slide 16:“When we despair of gaining inner transformation through human powers of will and determination, we are open to a wonderful new realization: inner righteousness is gift from God to be graciously received. The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours…” —Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline Transformation Is By Grace !


Slide 17:“...(Yet) if all human strivings end in moral bankruptcy, and if righteousness is a gracious gift from God, then is it not logical to conclude that we must wait for God to come and transform us? Strangely enough, the answer is no…” —Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline Do We “Let Go & Let God”?


Slide 18:“God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving His grace. The Disciplines allow us to pace ourselves before God so that He can transform us. We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only places us where the change can occur. This is the path of disciplined grace.” —Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline Off the Horns of the Dilemma:


Slide 19:Two Types of Spiritual Disciplines Classical Disciplines are historically recognized Christian practices (personal & corporate)— such as prayer, Bible study, worship, rituals, fellowship, etc.— which deepen our personal relationship with God, enrich our life with others, and nurture us toward wholeness and holiness in Christ.


Slide 20:Two Types of Spiritual Disciplines Personal Disciplines are individualized practices— addressing one’s unique “unlikenesses” to Christ— by which we offer our brokenness and bondage to God for healing and liberation (like fasting, or like abstaining from a destructive habit). Such disciplines weaken what hinders growth.