NCD Discipleship Resources
Um,... Where To From Here?
I am happy to have read the book. So much of it made sense. (I DO have some questions, though, that I'll save for another post.) I've taken the test and I'm fairly unsure where it leads or how I ought to proceed.
After the statistical "norm"ing, nothing rose much above anything else. At the risk of showing myself drastically under-cultivated in ALL areas, I'm just going to lay out my scores and ask for guidance.
[Profile Values from pg. 70]
Mystical (top) 103
Enthusiastic (wing) 102
Now it's opposite style(s),
Doctrinal 102
Scripture-Driven 102
and Mystical's other wing,
Sacramental 101
My lowest were
Ascetic 97 (which I presume makes sense considering my higher score on Sacramental)
Sharing 95 ("Approach Evangelism," as I call it, is not my calling, though I will talk and pray all night and day with anyone approaching me.
So, no matter how hard I've swung the sledge hammer on the carnival "Strong Man Test," I don't appear to have come close to ringing that bell on the top of any of them -- though I don't feel particularly "weak."
Then having read through Part II, I find myself agreeing with (and identifying with) the general descriptions of each style (at least to the level I agree with the answers I gave on the test), yet I strongly dis-identify with many of the Style-Stances taken by the Mentors that Christian chose to show as representative. Strangely, I have a very keen understanding and appreciation of his Mystical Mentor, Ole, where I imagine others might balk. And here, I too top-out as Mystical (by One point). Still, I don't embrace the New Age (...Been there. Left that....)
I guess, my question is: When having opposites so close in ranking to each other, Where do you suggest I begin? If I'd scored anything in the 110's to 130, the choice might have been simple. I'm not second guessing myself that I should retake the test in an effort to score higher than my honest effort. That would feel false (and likely unfruitful).
I don't mean to be a bother. I'm happy to be a brother.
Blessings,
Marc
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Comments
To share or not to share... that is the question
Submitted by Adam Johnstone on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 11:20am.
Hi Marc
It sounds like you are a relatively (rare) balanced person with scores like that. You are probably comfortable in just about any environment. Therefore, it would be ideal for you to concentrate mostly on the radical aspect of radical balance (e.g. page 16 and 36 in the book). I've worked with some friends over time who have had quite balanced results in one or more of the 3 Color book tests. My suggestion to them is to enjoy themselves by choosing one of the (in the case of this book) Spiritual Styles and then throw themselves into it in a radical way. Even if this begins to create an imbalance, the beauty is that they are likely to be becoming more radical. After a while, they then simply work more on the opposite style to to regain balance, but at a more radical level. So enjoy the variety.
Having said that, let me make a comment about our common lowest style of Sharing. Though the gap between your Mystical and Sharing styles is not large, it is probably worth exploring a little. I am quite hesitant to share with people on the basis that I often have difficulty believing they would be interested in what I have to say or would feel I was imposing (commenting on a web site like this is truly a spiritual discipline for me). However, as I look at the friendships I have with people around me, I ask myself, to what extent has this person invited me to speak into their life by virtue of the closeness of our relationship and how much to I perhaps even have a greater responsibility to do so. It may not be a spoken request to feed into their life, but the nature of the relationship may make it clear that they want me to speak up if I have anything to share.
Let me give an example (that I have permission to share). My wife Melinda has a great love for God's truth and has no difficulty presenting it in an uncompromising way (when she used to be more imbalanced, this would often get her into trouble). For a long time in our married life, there were things that I could see in her life that were, shall we say, a little less than perfect :-) Mostly I would exercise patience and perhaps let circumstances or other people be her teacher. Then (on her verbalised request) I began to share more with her about my observations and, in a sense, where I felt the Gospel message hadn't fully taken root. While she didn't always appreciate my words immediately, it became apparent that some time later she very much appreciated me speaking up. She also wondered at how her life might have been different had I taken the permission to speak (that was always relationally there) much earlier. I have learnt that often my hesitance to share is not really about respect for the other person's free will, but about self(ish) preservation.
This of course does not turn me into a "turn-or-burn" evangelist without perception or compassion. I'm never likely to swing to the other side. However, it is about me becoming more radically balanced in my relationship with God and others.
Blessings
AJ
I understand how you feel here. Sensory was my highest rank, followed by Ascetic and then Mystical and Rational. Go figure. I actually went and heard Christian speak. He separated people out by their dominant type. Sensory had quite a few people and Ascetic had fewer, so he asked me to move to that group. Then I found myself looking across the room, as that part of the exercise -- at the people that I had just been standing with.
I think it is possible to be "non-linear". For me I just started with my weakest and went from there.
Mary