Exploring organized and visionary approaches to designing an Advent Fun Day in an educational setting

Abstract

This study draws on one of the four components of psychological type theory (the distinction between judging and perceiving attitudes toward the outside world) to examine the implications of these two contrasting psychological perspectives for shaping approaches to Christian ministry within an educational setting. Qualitative data were generated by two samples of clergy, and who completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (N = 15, 22). On each occasion three education groups were structured, distinguishing between high-scoring perceiving types, high-scoring judging types, and low-scoring perceiving and low-scoring judging types working together. The three groups were all asked to address the same task: to imagine, design and plan an Advent Fun Day for the parish and benefice. The data illustrated the distinction between the approaches modelled by the judging types and by the perceiving types. The implications of these findings are discussed for designing educational programmes to help clergy appreciate the connection between psychological type preferences and ministry styles.