Okay, so save your response if you are about to educate me on your belly button :) You should know by now that topics here on my blog go much deeper than that…ha, ha :D
I recently tweeted about needing some coffee after a short night of sleep, and ended up engaging in a dialog with @djchuang that caused me to ponder something bigger than the words in my tweetdeck:
daveingland coffee…nap…coffee…nap…coffee…nap…think i’ll try coffee first, but feeling like a nap is inevitable. so glad it’s the weekend :)
@djchuang actually, i went to the 24hr safeway and picked up some tully’s coffee and brewed it home, made breakfast for my wife and i too :)
@daveingland i know i could brew at home & even taste better, but somethin still draws me to buy a cup of store-brewed coffee, what is that?
@djchuang when you go out to buy the cup of coffee, do you stay and enjoy the experience or take it to go? i’m guessing you stay there…
@djchuang i think you are a social creature and crave the experience even more than the caffeine…correct?
@daveingland yeah, I think you’re right, i do crave social settings a lot more than the average joe coffee drinker :)
[For those of you not using twitter yet, when you see "@daveingland" that is DJ sending a comment directed to me, and when you see "@djchuang" that is me sending a comment to DJ.]
So, this brings me to the point where I think about myself in contrast to DJ Chuang. He is an outtie, but I am definitely an innie. DJ is a social person and has been referred to as the greatest networking person in social media today. He likes to connect with others and share his wisdom and experiences as well as learn from too. Put him in an office cubicle for 45 hours per week and never let him leave his 5′ X 5′ space and he’d probably go crazy (of course, he always has his laptop and iphone to get by). As for me, I am the opposite. I have become very accustomed to working independently in a home office 7 days a week. I’ve done it for the past 8 years. I withdraw to the comfort of my space and enjoy the peace of being alone and working independently. I am definitely an innie.
The interesting thing about all of this is two fold: 1) How can I survive as a pastor of a church plant if I don’t crave being in front of others and enjoy being social? 2) Why do most pastors I meet tell me that they are naturally introverted and don’t like being in front of people either?
Being an introvert in ministry seems contradictory. However, it’s a contradiction that God seems to equip people with so that he can be used as a strength for pastors to connect with people more. I think it helps in that if pastors don’t crave the attention, then it will be a big help when they feel under-appreciated. It will keep them from being tempted to do things socially that probably aren’t in their best interest. It calls upon them to seek God to help them reach others, always knowing that it is God in them rather than them alone that may bring others to know the eternal love of Christ.
I don’t go to Starbucks regularly. Truth be known, they kind of intimidate me. I feel as if every time I am there people look at me and try to figure out who I am and what I am doing there, as if I just don’t fit in. I’m a fish out of water. I need to get to a place where I can connect with people and share the gospel with them through the lens of my experience and relevance. It’s not that I’m anti-social. I’m just more reserved. I need to become more of an outtie.
Social media is great and I have certainly used it to connect with others quite a bit in 2008. Now I need to take it to the streets and start sharing my passion for the local church and my love for God with those that do not know Christ or dislike the idea of church. Being called to do things that go against my natural tendencies is a very challenging place for me to be. Just like having my greatest fear of public speaking be overcome in 3 years of preaching (which seemed impossible during those early, knee-knocking, voice-crackling sermons), I need to seek and trust God to overcome this next obstacle to making myself available in more public spaces. I’ve never had a problem with connecting with others as most of my career has been in sales/marketing and leading teams of people as a manager in the corporate world. So, I know I’ll be the person God needs me to be…I’m just moving a little slowly at the moment.
Are you an innie or an outtie? Is God calling you to be an outtie instead of innie? Maybe he is calling you to be more of an innie than an outtie?
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Good reflections on our twitter conversation, and how God makes each of us with certain preferences, and what God calls us to be. I think it is more helpful, to me anyways, that God created us to be the way we are, and we can be okay with that, AND God calls us to do things that will bless others. In other words, it’s to behave in a way that shows love and kindness to others, i.e. in a social setting, and not to change the essence of who you are.
DJ, thanks for your wisdom and insight on this. I completely agree with you. The original post was not about changing the essence of who I am or who anyone else is, but I do believe that we can find ourselves doing things selfishly, like staying in and avoiding others, when God may have ordained a time & place for us to meet someone and share his gospel message with them. If we are not out with the tax collectors and prostitutes or worldly people, we deprive them of hearing something–because of our fears or laziness– that could save their lives. So, I’m just challenging myself to be more of a social person and seek God’s strength within me to share his love and light to more people than I do now.