As a Type 6: The Rebuilder...
As a Creative Enneagram Type 6, The Rebuilder, you are very security conscious, and your gaze seems to be drawn automatically to weaknesses and shortcomings in any system that are imperceptible to others. You can identify ten different ways to improve upon almost anything, and you often do.
You are very responsible and engaged in the world around you, noticing things and improving everything you come in contact with, but you can also find yourself focusing on the negative and wondering why others don’t see the same vulnerabilities you do. If taken too far you can become paranoid and obsessed with safety, never venturing into the deep creative waters that produce the greatest creative treasure.
Your creative gift, when used to maximum capacity, is quite literally, world-changing, since you change and improve things around you all the time, rebuilding the world, one book at a time, one business at a time, one service project at a time.
The Creative Enneagram Type 6, The Rebuilder, has both healthy and unhealthy manifestations.
Healthy
You create improvements that make the things around you better. You prize having things working well and will tweak and adjust until all systems are humming along at optimal efficiency. You image our Creator’s sustaining and restoring power.
Unhealthy
You shy away from taking creative risks. You realize the value in improving upon existing creative works, but you are fearful of iterating into new and fresh directions.
Famous Enneagram Type 6 – Tommy Kyllonen
Tommy Kyllonen’s rebuilding journey started at Crossover Church in 1996. Rebuilding a stagnant church of just forty sporadic attenders was harder than he’d ever thought it would be. He understood now why so many people start fresh and buy or build something new: rebuilding anything takes heart and courage. He was young and enthusiastic, but onlookers and naysayers only saw a recent seminary graduate still in his twenties who seemed more into music than into building a church the “regular way”. But Tommy had a creative vision and calling he just couldn’t shake. As a Christian hip-hop artist with the stage name “Urban D” he was no stranger to free styling and creative improvisation. His calling was to reach the city with the truth of the gospel and though the Word of God was timeless, there had to be a way to adapt to his context—inner-city Tampa—and contextualize the good news of Jesus for new ears to hear.
He started out working with the youth, incorporating his love for music, dance, and high-energy worship. But this was not going to be just a show or concert; this was going to be about discipleship.
“We had classes to help build their talent and their walk with Christ, including break dancing classes, DJ classes, art classes, acting, MC (rapping) classes, and more. All of this was infused with discipleship and life skills.”[1]
Many of the youth he ministered to came from broken homes, and he looked for creative ways to install key male leaders that could connect and relate to those hurting all around him. Rebuilding demanded not just all of his creative energy, but Tommy recounts how it took years of committed time and intentionality. But six years later, Tommy and his wife, Lucy, found that they were reaching hundreds of teens in their weekly Thursday night service. God was doing something through their commitment to rebuilding, but He wasn’t finished yet.
Leaders in the church pushed Tommy to take the senior pastor role, and today, more than twenty years of faithfulness to God’s rebuilding plan has resulted in a congregation numbering over one thousand members.
“Rebuilding will stretch you. It can wreck you or make you stronger. Rebuilding your life, your church, and your world will take you to places you never thought you would go.”[2]
[1] Tommy Kyllonen Rebuild: Reset Your Life. Renew Your Church. Reshape Your World. IVP Books October 2015 p 22
[2] Ibid p 10
Nest Steps: Where to go from here...
Did one of the Creative Types immediately resonate with you? While no one is “just one thing”, many people recognize both the healthy and unhealthy characteristics of their Creative Type quickly. Remember though, your personality type, or your Creative Type, is just one part of the amazingly intricate and uniquely created image bearer that you are. Your spiritual giftings, your life circumstances, your habits, your family, and countless other factors all play a part in shaping you into who you are and who you might someday become.
For all you personality test deniers, don’t overlook the patterns woven into you by your Creator. For all you personality test believers—yes, we see you posting your Type on social media—don’t let your type dictate to you who you are or what you are capable of, because God is changing and maturing each of us to be more like Him. So, let Him!
Just be forewarned, change is a process. Sometimes it’s a long and arduous path to understanding your creative calling, and learning your Creative Type is just the first step.
In the Created for Change community, we embark together on the adventure that is The Creator’s Journey.
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