I was literally going to write a blog today on how I won’t use the Enneagram anymore and apologize for those I taught it to in 2016 & 2017 and then Alisa sent out this video today!
I didn’t even know she was releasing this. Alisa has helped me so much in understanding Progressive Christianity. I had no idea the two were related.
Here is another video from authors of “Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret” and you can read an article here.
I heard of the Enneagram test in 2015 but didn’t want to take it.
June of 2016, I was encouraged to take it. I remember my resistance to it. I remember asking the Lord about personality and He encouraged me to read Mark 10.
From Mark 10, I wrote in my journal on 6/23/2016:
-You taught people boldly from God’s word
-You defied what society thought of you
-Go sell everything you and give to the poor
-Leave and receive 100 fold
-Son of Man came not to be served but to serve
-You went against the grain
I asked the Lord, “Is this my personality?” I heard “Your life is hidden in Me. So you are bold. You do not submit to societal norms. You will obey Me at whatever costs including your role now. You learned the multiplication of leaving. You prepare because you hear My voice. You’ve been born again to serve.”
It was like Jesus was showing me “Teresa, if you want a number, you’re a Mark 10.”
If you aren’t familiar with the Enneagram it is kinda like a personality test that gives your personality a number from 1-9.
Like a frog in slowly heating water, I just accepted the Enneagram.
Not only do you accept what you started squinty eyed at….
you teach it.
I taught it to my first 2 squads and I apologize for that today. I never needed to teach you a number, especially when most haven’t even read the whole Bible yet or even understood their identity in Christ.
I want to stick to only teaching you who Jesus says you are.
I don’t want you to see your “false self” and to find your “true self” in a number.
I want your mind renewed by the word of God and what He says of you. Not sure I know the Bible ever says to “find your true self” maybe Richard Rohr says that….but our Jesus says He wants you to DIE TO YO SELF.
When my friends had talked to me about their concern with the Enneagram…I thought about it like meat sacrificed to idols….like I know it’s not an idol, so I can eat it….I saw it more like a personality test.
But like this video says, it becomes the pattern we use for why we do what we do and we attach ourselves to that. It makes a feeling of security.
This same idea is in astrology. “Oh it’s because I’m a Capricorn.” Instead, using the Enneagram we say “Oh, it’s because I am a 3….and I bet they are a 5.” Like a fake safety net. It doesn’t make it true because we think it works.
I remember stressing once with “Am I a one or a three?” because one of my friends thought I was a one and I remember retaking the test and reading more about it trying to figure out who I was. Can anyone please sound the alarm? How weird is that?
At that point the water was boiling and Froggie TT was still in the water.
I have stopped teaching on the Enneagram for two years now, but officially don’t want to use the numbers anymore in my thinking. Like “Oh, I bet she’s a five.” My mind needs to be renewed in this area.
I won’t call myself a 3 anymore or think your actions are your 7-ness.
It’s clear, we as Christians, don’t really read the Bible statistically speaking….so more than ever we need to read about who HE IS and really get our focus off ourself. You know like “Lose your life and find it.”
I think all the self-focus is so counter-Christianity, it’s sickening.
Instead, the Biblical focus on self looks like:
I have been crucified with Christ….it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me….I am taking up my cross daily….whoever finds His life loses it….seek the Lord and you will find Him….that’s the focus.
Jesus, help us see how Progressive Christianity/New Age has crept into the church.
Help us not only renounce but tear down the false altars….i.e. throw away our books, stop practicing and purify ourselves.
Before I moved to my new place a week ago, I threw away my Enneagram book.
