Speaking of my Birthday it once again falls during Lent, like every other year, which means I am going to be writing a blog on my birthday. Last year I wrote a humorous one about the fact that I could now run for President since it was my 35th birthday. To my knowledge 36 is not much of a milestone, so I'm not quite sure yet what I am going to be writing about then.
Now, going back to the survey I participated in. I was asked several questions and was given the opportunity to give my feedback. After I was done I marveled a little bit at how quickly I came up with the answers and how I also quickly then spoke my answers. This might not be a big thing to many of you, but ask my wife if it's ever difficult to get me to respond in a timely manner.
When I was growing up I was a very talkative kid, this was especially true in settings where it might not have been best to talk. I cannot tell you how often I got my name written on the board for talking in class. This continued to a degree in college, but it more often manifested itself in me being eager to join in to a discussion or to answer a question or to argue for or against something, many times giving the caveat, "I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second..." there were times when I was only speaking my actually thoughts or beliefs where I would still say the aforementioned phrase.
Things started to change my sophomore year when I found myself in a Intro to Philosophy class taught by Dr. Willard Reed.
[And then I went to sleep and much later woke up.]
Dr. Reed stressed thinking before talking and for some reason that stuck so deeply inside of me that that my personality began to change. Need empirical proof? When I came to college I took the Myers-Briggs for the first time in a Christian Ministries class my freshman year, at that point I was an Extrovert by one point. The next time I took the test I was an introvert by 5 points. The next time I was an introvert by 10 points. The last time I took it I was an overwhelming Introvert.
If nothing else, this should be inspiration for the teachers of the world that they can make a difference in the lives of their students.
I started taking pride in being an introvert, often thinking of extroverts as loud mouths who couldn't stop talking, who always had to have their opinions known, who always had to be the center of attention, even when no one else wanted them to be. Whereas, I became the guy that hardly ever talked, but when I did people took notice. During my first ordination meeting my friend Dan said something very similar to the committee, that I am not always the person who jumps into every conversation but that when I do, people listen.
I took that as a point of pride at the time, but I am in ministry so at times it was great to be an introvert and at others it was a burden. For instance, throughout the ordination process I have been bombarded by the concept that people with High D's [another personality profile from a another test] are more suited to lead. Interestingly enough it is always High D personalities that are expounding the view. In addition I have attended a couple church planting seminars and consistently have been told that those same High D's are the ones that should plant churches.
[Among other thoughts in my head is this, maybe all of our church plants are such a cookie-cutter version of each other because the people we choose to lead them are also a cookie-cutter version of each other. But, maybe, that's a whole other blog entry.]
So, back to the survey and my answers. Knowing all of this about myself I started to wonder why I seem to be getting faster at responding. I think it may just have to do with my sermons. As many of you know I stopped working from a manuscript almost 2 years ago, when I moved to an outline form. At the beginning my outlines were fairly detailed, being full pages, sometimes going onto a second page. But as time has moved on my outlines are often very small, sometimes they are three points with no explanation of what the point is.
I say this because I have to think on my feet a lot during my sermons nowadays, because if I don't there is no longer a safety net. And while every so often I go to church thinking that this will be the week where I crash and burn and nothing comes out of my mouth, each week, so far, I have given a fairly intelligent and coherent sermon. And I think that my weekly sermons have been translating into my daily conversations.
I like being an introvert, I like feeling that when I talk people listen. But I also like being able to say what I want when I want how I want. I want to continue to find the middle ground so that I always no when to talk and when not to talk.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
[And then I went to sleep and much later woke up.]
Dr. Reed stressed thinking before talking and for some reason that stuck so deeply inside of me that that my personality began to change. Need empirical proof? When I came to college I took the Myers-Briggs for the first time in a Christian Ministries class my freshman year, at that point I was an Extrovert by one point. The next time I took the test I was an introvert by 5 points. The next time I was an introvert by 10 points. The last time I took it I was an overwhelming Introvert.
If nothing else, this should be inspiration for the teachers of the world that they can make a difference in the lives of their students.
I started taking pride in being an introvert, often thinking of extroverts as loud mouths who couldn't stop talking, who always had to have their opinions known, who always had to be the center of attention, even when no one else wanted them to be. Whereas, I became the guy that hardly ever talked, but when I did people took notice. During my first ordination meeting my friend Dan said something very similar to the committee, that I am not always the person who jumps into every conversation but that when I do, people listen.
I took that as a point of pride at the time, but I am in ministry so at times it was great to be an introvert and at others it was a burden. For instance, throughout the ordination process I have been bombarded by the concept that people with High D's [another personality profile from a another test] are more suited to lead. Interestingly enough it is always High D personalities that are expounding the view. In addition I have attended a couple church planting seminars and consistently have been told that those same High D's are the ones that should plant churches.
[Among other thoughts in my head is this, maybe all of our church plants are such a cookie-cutter version of each other because the people we choose to lead them are also a cookie-cutter version of each other. But, maybe, that's a whole other blog entry.]
So, back to the survey and my answers. Knowing all of this about myself I started to wonder why I seem to be getting faster at responding. I think it may just have to do with my sermons. As many of you know I stopped working from a manuscript almost 2 years ago, when I moved to an outline form. At the beginning my outlines were fairly detailed, being full pages, sometimes going onto a second page. But as time has moved on my outlines are often very small, sometimes they are three points with no explanation of what the point is.
I say this because I have to think on my feet a lot during my sermons nowadays, because if I don't there is no longer a safety net. And while every so often I go to church thinking that this will be the week where I crash and burn and nothing comes out of my mouth, each week, so far, I have given a fairly intelligent and coherent sermon. And I think that my weekly sermons have been translating into my daily conversations.
I like being an introvert, I like feeling that when I talk people listen. But I also like being able to say what I want when I want how I want. I want to continue to find the middle ground so that I always no when to talk and when not to talk.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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