The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Conference

I think I need to give a little context for the sketchnotes below.They’re from “The Road Back to You,” a conference on the Enneagram led by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile. Ian has been on my radar for a while, since he preached at Rolling Hills Community Church back in 2012. I read his memoir (Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me) last year and was moved by his story of spiritual transformation. I highly recommend it, especially for fathers.

I was pretty skeptical of the Enneagram when I first learned about it, but knowing that Ian Cron had something to say about it led me to learn more. I started listening to Ian and Suzanne’s podcast, talked about the Enneagram with friends, and picked up their book, also called The Road Back to You. As I explored the Enneagram, I learned so much about myself and about my relationships. By the time their conference rolled around this spring, I just had to go. And I’m glad I did. Even having listened to the podcast and read most of the book, I learned a lot this weekend.

What is the Enneagram? It’s an ancient of bit of wisdom that’s been expanded and adapted and taught for hundreds (thousands?) of years. It’s a way of understanding personalities, those things we construct around our true selves as a way of dealing with the world. There are nine personality types in the Enneagram, numbered 1 through 9. Each type has a name (9s are peacemakers, 5s are observers, 4s are romantics, and so on), although none of the personality types can be easily reduced to a name or a stereotype. I’m a 1 (the perfectionist), and I’m pretty complicated. Whatever your number, you are, too.

There’s a lot of richness to the Enneagram, and a lot of tools for understanding oneself and for spiritual growth. Hopefully my notes below will give you a sense of that. If you’d like to learn more, I recommend Ian and Suzanne’s podcast or their book, The Road Back to You.