Self-Knowledge

About this course

This course focuses on developing self-knowledge as a core component of faithful and sustainable ministry. Through guided reflection and the use of selected personality and leadership assessments, students are invited to explore their unique personhood as members of the body of Christ and as leaders called into commissioned or ordained ministry. The course emphasizes that self-knowledge serves growth, accountability, and humility rather than excuse-making or self-justification.

Assessments used in this course may include, but are not limited to, the Change-Style Indicator, the Enneagram, and CliftonStrengths (developed by Gallup). These tools are employed as lenses for reflection rather than as definitive descriptions of identity or capacity. Students are encouraged to consider how temperament, patterns of response, leadership instincts, and stress behaviors shape their ministry—particularly in times of conflict, transition, and uncertainty.

The course attends explicitly to the concept of the shadow side of leadership, helping students recognize both gifts and vulnerabilities, and to cultivate practices of growth, accountability, and self-regulation in service of the church.