What I'm reading

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a leadership seminar at Christ Church led by Laurie Beth Jones, author of the nine books, including "Jesus CEO" and "The Four Elements of Success".   


Laurie introduced the course and the 4 Elements through this short news clip:    http://www.lauriebethjones.com/find/pep.html

Knowing how much I enjoy personality/strengths assessments, I knew I was in store for an interesting seminar with the other 50 or so members/staff of CUMC.

Using the 4 elements of earth, water, wind, and fire that God used in creation, these also can be used in describing 4 different personality types.  We begin by thinking of adjectives that describe each of these elements, to name just a few...
Earth: solid, predictable, consistent, grounded, measured
Water: reflective, flowing, supportive, flexible, cleansing, cooling
Wind: change-oriented, energetic, spontaneous, inspiring, creative
Fire: hot, passionate, focused, consuming, hungry

We quickly identified which type seemed closest to us and we split up into these 4 groups for further discussion.  She talked about how Jesus referred to Himself as "living water", and the scriptures describe Holy Spirit as being "wind" or "fire".  Adam literally means "made from clay"(earth).

Also, we profiled characters in the Bible...David = Fire/Wind (bold as king and full of expression as writer of psalms)  Solomon = Earth/Water (attention to detail in building the temple/a peacemaker full of wisdom in writing of the Proverbs)  And, another illustration -- the God of the Old Testament as Fire/Earth and the Jesus of the New Testament as Wind/Water.

I have yet to take the PEP assessment but I'm certain I'm an Earth person, and I look forward to reading this book and receiving the profile of my assessment soon.  I'll return to share my thoughts on this.