The correlation of Myers-Briggs personality temperament and long ministry tenure among English ministers in Chinese American churches

摘要

In light of the relatively short pastoral ministry tenures of English speaking pastors in Chinese churches in North America, the need arises to study the factors that lead to longevity in these pastoral offices. The purpose of this project is to determine a correlation between long ministry tenure for an English minister at a Chinese church and their Myers-Briggs personality temperament.;The research instrument used to investigate this relationship was an original Internet-based survey for English ministers at Chinese American churches. The survey invited participants to report the length of their tenure at their current church, the length of their tenure in pastoral ministry overall, and their four-letter Myers-Briggs (Keirsey) temperament. If participants were unfamiliar with their temperament, they were invited to take an online questionnaire that simulated the results of the Myers-Briggs inventory.;The results of the study were surprising as they showed that there is no statistically significant correlation between Myers-Briggs temperament and a long pastoral tenure for English ministers at Chinese American churches.