As we share our faith with everybody, sometimes we must ask ourselves, what kind of people are we trying to reach? Are we trying to reach people based on their ethnic heritage, skin pigmentation or religion? Or are we just trying to reach people? In other words, if our goal is to reach people regardless of their background, what kind of people are we trying to reach?
For starters, most of us could find it easy to reach people who think and/or look just like us, whether intentional or unintentional. Basically, we reach out to people within our immediate sphere of influence…our friends and family. The same goes for many churches as they focus on outreach in our communities. In fact, focusing on the spiritual welfare of our immediate friends and family is an essential and necessary means of reaching others. However, we need to remember the words of Jesus Christ as he instructed his twelve disciples to preach the gospel – “As you go….” (Matthew 10:5-7 NIV) Simply said, as you go through life and interact with people, share your faith with others…not just with your friends and family members, but people you meet during your daily routines.
As we go through our daily routines and interact with people from various backgrounds, what really determines how people respond to our interactions? Sure a person’s ethnic, racial and/or religious background can play a sub factor in how he or she responds to each of us, but the primary factor is his or her personality temperament(s). People generally respond to any given situation based off of one of four personality temperaments or a combination thereof. The four temperaments fall into two main categories – a person’s emotional response (choleric or melancholic) and a person’s participatory response (sanguine or phlegmatic). All of the temperaments have their positive and negative traits, but the one thing they have in common is that most people will maintain the same temperament, or combination thereof, throughout their lifetime. Therefore, instead of trying to change a person’s temperament, which is virtually impossible without destroying a person’s uniqueness, we should be respectful of each person and try to help him or her bring out the positive traits of his or her temperament(s).
The four temperaments are described below, which also include the pros and cons for each respectively:
Choleric – rational based thinking: Bad tempered; extremely irritable
Pros: Great leaders; high standards
Cons: Controlling; condescending to others
Melancholic – emotional-based thinking: Sensitive; gloomy state of mind
Pros: Great musicians and artists; perfectionists
Cons: Manipulative; like everything in a box
Sanguine – impulsive participatory responses: Cheerful; optimistic
Pros: Great salespeople; charismatic personality
Cons: Too pushy; lack of self-discipline
Phlegmatic – reluctant participatory response: Not easily excited to action; sluggish
Pros: Great behind-the-scenes workers; easy to get along with others
Cons: Non-confrontational; reluctance to express new ideas
In summary, as we go through life, not only should we share our faith with our immediate family members and friends, but we need to take time for others who we interact with during our daily routines. One of the key things we need to remember is take our focus off people’s ethnic, racial and/or religious backgrounds and instead treat people with mutual respect, regardless of their backgrounds. Overall, we need to make a difference in people’s lives, without trying to change the things that make them unique in regard to their temperaments. Ultimately, we need to depend on God to make the changes.
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