Profiling Methodist leadership

This paper explores the similarities and dissimilarities between the psychological type and temperament profiles of Methodist local preachers and Methodist circuit ministers in the British Methodist Church. New data provided by 80 male and 62 female local preachers who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales were compared with the profiles of 693 male and 311 female ministers published in 2010. The most important significant difference between the two groups concerns the higher proportions of the Epimethean Temperament (SJ) among both the male (69% compared with 44%) and female (66% compared with 43%) local preachers. The SJ temperament brings a more conservative and conserving approach to ministry.