Expanded INFP Profile
INFP stands for introverted intuitive feeling perceiving. In the Competence position of the Work mode the INFP has the transactional role of Composer and the ministry role of Apologist.
COMPOSER
The Composer role harmonizes the combinations. This could be words in a poem or couples at a dinner party. This role is alert to issues of human sensitivity, and issues of spirituality. They often gravitate to the professions of counseling and psychology as well as the arts.
APOLOGIST
Composers are looking for the harmony in combinations. The ministry role of Apologist is one that attempts to help the culture outside of Christianity find a point of contact with the faith. The apologist is a defender of the faith. His or her focus is on helping the outsider understand and even come to accept the faith, as both reasonable and good. C.S. Lewis used his composing role to write in two styles. He wrote objective logical arguments and wonderful fictional fantasies. Each presents Christianity as reasonable, good, and true understandings of life. The fantasies are especially useful as a non threatening way to present Christianity to unbelievers. Hence, they are good apologies.
One example of an INFP ministry might be that of a Christian Clown, a Fool for Christ. This INFP composes skits and presentations, which focus upon the meaning of the Christian life.
The complimentary part of the Work mode is known as Talent. For the INFP, thisTtalent is expressed in the transactional role of Critic and the ministry role of Worship Planner/Evaluator.
CRITIC
This role involves very astute, critical listening, with exacting interpretation, that notes the differences in meanings in words like: lied, falsified, distorted, misinterpreted, and misunderstood. The exacting nature is typical of detailed transaction. This transaction is vital to many professionals, including speech therapists, voice coaches, theater critics, political analysts, interviewers, copy editors and opera singers.
WORSHIP PLANNER/EVALUATOR
There is a more obvious connection to this ministry role than some of the others. Worship is in many ways a divine drama. The choice of words is important. How and when, they are spoken is important. The nuances of their theological implications are important. The mood they create or destroy are important. It is important to have a ministry role to help make these decisions.
Imagine our INFP clown preparing a special worship service. The Critic transactional role will be put to good use evaluating every movement of the clowns behavior, every nuance of music and costume until just the right presentation has been composed.
The Perseverance part of the Play mode of the INFP is Theoretician with its corresponding ministry role of Theologian.
THEORETICIAN
The Theoretician finds the pattern in strategies. This might be in theoretical physics or on the battle field. Theoreticians can be mathematicians or philosophers. They organize ideas. They rely on thinking to expand principles into logical consequences.
THEOLOGIAN
The Theologian finds the patterns in the Bible and applies them to life. The theologian looks at the Bible and says, “I discern that God has done this and that in the history of the Israelites and therefore, the resulting pattern shows us that God is loving and desires to have a covenental relationship with us today.”
Imagine again, our INFP Fool for Christ. The Play mode will serve to help him present a message that is biblically sound and theologically correct. For example, the Theologian will be concerned to portray confession or repentance. The Critic/Worship Planner will examine every second of the presentation to be sure each word, each note of music, each facial expression conveys the right theological concept.
The Relax portion of the Play mode for the INFP has the transactional role of Conceptualizer. Its corresponding ministry role is Promoter of Discipleship.
CONCEPTUALIZER
Conceptualizing involves visual information processing. This role finds structure in logic. Professions, such as architecture and systems design, use the conceptualizer role.
PROMOTER OF DISCIPLESHIP
A discipline is a structured approach to living. The Conceptualizer may want to innovate new systems, but he or she would like others to follow them. They have drive toward constant improvement of everything. These are the ‘better idea’ people of the topological world. Everything – words, plans, designs, ideas, even people- has room for improvement. The Promoter of Discipleship is interested in making better Christians.
Let us turn again to our Christian clown. Perhaps, he gets the greatest satisfaction from seeing how all his efforts move towards helping members of the congregation get the message. Perhaps, he even trains other clowns in hopes that, in the process they will not only learn a performing art, but have their lives transformed, as they become better followers of Jesus Christ. There is of course a certain discipline that goes into the whole process of being a clown. There are practices and rehearsals. There are hours of learning how to put on makeup. All of these activities might become metaphors for the INFP theologian.
The Toil portion Challenge mode of the INFP has the transactional role of Classifier. Its corresponding ministry role is that of Evangelist.
CLASSIFIER
The Classifier is one who makes choices between dichotomous situations of control. In a literal sense this is concerned with control of the body. Thus some classifiers are athletes. Lowen gives the example of a baseball player, who must decide if a pitch is in the strike zone and how to control his body to hit the ball. However, another prime example of a classifier is the politician. The politician is constantly choosing what action to take. Shall I vote yes or no? Shall I accept this invitation or go to that banquet? Shall I endorse this candidate or denounce that project? Shall I shake hands or smile for the photo opportunity? Administrators are also Classifiers. They must make decisions of control all the time.
EVANGELIST
The ministry role of Evangelist corresponds with Classifier. In many respects, a good Evangelist is a good politician. Shall I cross over to Macedonia or stay in Judea? Shall I speak in Madison Square Garden or Central Park? Shall I talk about your life or speak of Biblical characters? The Evangelist has a good track record for getting the right answers to these control questions.
Let us return to our INFP Clown. The actual clown stunts or dancing will be tiresome for the INFP. It is a role they can do, but with awareness of the effort. Likewise, finding just the right opportunity to share the Gospel in an effective way will seem difficult. The INFP will feel called to this activity, but it will be a challenge.
The transactional role of Initiator and its corresponding ministry role of Ministry Leader in the Community lie in the Serendipity portion of the INFP Challenge mode.
INITIATOR
The initiator is an entrepreneur and an opportunist. Lowen uses the sentence “Signal the Match.” to describe this role. The initiator is watching for a match. Lowen’s prime example is a salesperson. What is it about the customer that matches the product. When the salesman gets the answer, he or she signals the match and says, “This is just the one for you!”
MINISTRY LEADER IN THE COMMUNITY
Often it takes an entrepreneur to be a Leader of M inistry in the Community. Not everyone is ready to trust across denominational or other faith lines. The Ministry Leader in the Community is able to find the match between the needs of the community and the desires of the people to help. He or she then raises the flag and presto, others say “This is the project we have been seeking!”
See how this might affect our INFP clown. Perhaps, having composed a Clown Worship Service, our introverted INFP finds that he has several invitations to repeat the performance. Plus a host of persons, who want to be clowns too, come begging for instruction. This unsought project may be seen as a serendipitous God-event. It may lead our INFP into a position of Ministry Leader in the Community, initiating a series of clown worship services across the state.
The Creativity mode of the INFP contains the transactional role of Operator in the Lock position. Its corresponding ministry role is Be Jesus as the Church.
OPERATOR
Like the role of Molder, the Operator is foremost a hands-on activity. The operator might operate a word processor, a scalpel, or a socket wrench. Also like Molder the Operator can operate people, institutions, or ideas, as well as things. He or she might be a store manager or a policeman, as well as secretary or surgeon. The Operator can read the environment and then act upon it. The environment might be a gang fight or car engine.
BE JESUS AS THE CHURCH
In this ministry mode, the environment is the church and its surroundings. Here the Operator’s tool is not a scalpel or a wrench, it is the church! This type asks how can I use the church building to minister to the kids down the block? How can we use the youth group to minister to nursing home across the street? How can the church be Jesus? The contrast between this and making the church be Jesus is, one is focused on changing the church to make it more like Jesus. The other is focused on using the church, as it is, to be Jesus now!
It may be that our INFP clown will feel most lost when trying to learn some clown trick, like juggling. They might be most frustrated in trying to get the local congregation to understand that this activity is not irreverent. It is in fact, a most fervent presentation of the church becoming a fool for Christ, even as Christ was a fool to let Himself be crucified.
The way out for the INFP, as for all types, may be found in the most unconscious and therefore, most open to God, transactional and ministry roles, which lie in the Key position of the Creativity mode. For the INFP, these are Implementor and Peace and Justice Worker.
IMPLEMENTOR
An Implementor is someone who sorts out the routines of life. Lowen tells us that he almost called this transaction engineer. The engineer uses the routines he or she knows regarding speed, stress, temperature, etc. to create a machine or build a rocket. As with other roles, we have discussed the Implementor can also be focused upon more abstract things. The Implementor makes a good administrator, who can mesh all the routines of an organization into a smoothly running whole.
PEACE AND JUSTICE WORKER
There is a distinction between this ministry role and Social Justice Program Developer. The Developer is more likely to create a new program, whereas the Peace and Justice Worker will execute an existing program. The Program Developer using his or her organizing skills might bring several churches and or organizations together to fight discrimination in the city. However, once a plan is in place the extroverted implementor is better able to work the pieces of the system to get results.
Perhaps with the help of the Holy Spirit, our INFP clown might find an appropriate cause as a focus for his special worship service. This would in no way be a side track for his main issue. It would rather serve this type’s hidden agenda. The INFP apologist is, underneath it all, defending the faith so that true disciples might Be Jesus as the Church and bring Peace and Justice to all!
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
The INFP should look for assistance in the following gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of pastor, prophesy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and emotional healing will be active in the Work mode. However, these may be viewed or experienced more as natural talents than spiritual gifts. An attitude of humility and gratitude can enhance their spiritual effectiveness. This will be true in the Play mode, but to a slightly lesser degree. Here the INFP might anticipate an experience of the gifts of discernment, wisdom, faith, knowledge. In the more unconscious Challenge mode, the INFP may find the Lord moving in his or her life through the spiritual gifts of helps, mercy, evangelism and physical healing. Lastly in the Creativity mode, and perhaps most importantly, the INFP may experience administraiton and service. These will likely be viewed as the most Godly of the gifts. Because of their unconscious nature, the INFP will have to exercise greater will to accept them.
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