All posts by Kent

Preaching and Teaching: Thoughts of an Extroverted Thinker

Anthropology, Personal, Thoughts, , , , , ,

Following up on this post on the how personality affects our view of the purpose of conversation, I thought I should add some thoughts on less obviously collaborative speech acts, such as teaching and preaching.

That is, preaching is typically a one to many act, with only one way interaction between the speaker and hearers (in my subculture, anyway). Teaching can be through lecture, in which case it is at least very similar, or other pedagogies can be used, from slightly collaborative methods like lecture and small group work combined, to something which is mostly collaborative, where students present their work, and the teacher gives some feedback.

So how does this impact people who think of logic, reason, and the implication of facts extrovertedly? That is, I’ve come to realize that I like to learn in a negotiated social environment, rather than one where I’m simply given facts to be able to repeat later. If I need to just pick up facts, I can typically do that on the internet much faster. I noticed that I think a preacher or teacher can say nine things in a row, each of which are undisputed and obvious, but then if the next thing is questionable, it can throw off my train of thought. Especially if that becomes a point that the teacher or preacher builds other argumentation blocks on. I would MUCH rather stop the process, haggle out that one issue, then continue.

I hope I don’t mean any disrespect in saying the above; I think this is just how my mind works. Before coming to terms with my ADHD, I spent hours in lectures and sermons trying to stay awake. I tried caffeine, which worked to some extent. I tried sitting in the front row, which didn’t. the one thing that worked (I noted over time) was that I could stay awake when my brain was active. If a lecture or sermon was a series of basically straightforward and easy to digest ideas, I would get bored and eventually check out. Similarly, if ideas are presented that make me want to debate/discuss before moving on (and there is no such opportunity), then my brain would also check out, unable to follow the train of logic after the disputable point.

I’m sure I might be an extreme case here; maybe past abuse (or ADHD, or whatever) makes me more intolerant of disputed points in a lecture, but I think the basic orientation comes from extroverted thinking. I want to discuss/debate logic, reasoning, and the relationship between facts. I want to discover the truth together with others, with iron sharpening iron, rather than wholesale swallowing the fruit of others’ work.

Having said this, good preaching is not just a download of information. I think it should include new information, or at least old information with new implications or application. But the application is critical, or else it just isn’t really preaching. Preaching should use the mind to move the heart, overflowing in new life, repentance, and a greater love for God in Christ. So maybe extroverted feeling is as important as thinking for preaching, since the goal is to call people to a better/higher set of values, feelings, and even emotions —leading, of course, to life change.

So I think this is my issue with a large majority of preachers: whether by nature or not, they approach the process of preaching as extroverted feelers and introverted thinkers, the half of the dichotomy I presented in this post, that doesn’t include me. So I want to negotiate rational truth, and let that flow into emotional/life change, whereas I think most people are using a non-negotiated (introverted) rational truth to negotiate emotion, value, and feeling change.

But I don’t think this makes half of us stuck, or obligated to go to another church. Anna and I have been wrestling with the corners of personality theory where things don’t seem to work out as expected, such as how the DISC (or LiFo, or Treasure Tree) model interacts with MBTI. Or, in this case, how personal, emotional, and spiritual growth interacts with personality.

I think it’s obvious that maturity doesn’t look the same on each person. But can we draw generalizations about how maturity looks in MBTI? On thing I though interesting was that they say the first cognitive function is the first one you use, both in every day, and in life —like maybe in your first five to ten years. Then you develop your second cognitive function, which balances it. Then some time around 40 or 50 you develop your third cognitive function. Well, it seems like this might work in many cases, but I wonder how well time and maturity correlate across people. And how well cognitive maturity (growing in diversity of cognitive functions) correlates with spiritual, emotional, or other personal maturity.

So it could be that one way to think about maturity is how well you are able to think using cognitive functions which are not your most natural/basic. For instance, in the conversation dichotomy I posted earlier, the more you say “this one is sane, that one is crazy”, the less mature you may be. The more you say “this one is me, but I could see someone thinking like that, too” the more mature, culiminating in the most mature position being something like “This one is me, but can do the other when I need to.”

The end result being, that just because I want conversations to be about negotiating facts and their meanings, doesn’t leave me off the hook for relating to people in conversation, too. Teachers who dump information on their students without any indication of care, concern, or relationship (even where lectures are appropriate), are not well respected generally. In the same way, if a preacher doesn’t want to negotiate the logical points he’s trying to use to move the church (emotionally, personally, and spiritually), then I can be OK with that. His goal there isn’t to teach new doctrines (typically), but rather to make people fall in love with Jesus again.

The Point of Conversation, by Personality

Family, Personal, Thoughts, , , , , , ,

Anna and I have been messing around with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventories (a short, free online survey to find your type can be found here). I’ve been surprised not only to find this a point of bonding between us, but also that the theoretical basis and applications are much more complex than I’d thought. I’ve done this personality inventory many times over the last several decades, but it is only this year that I’m learning how cognitive functions fit, both in terms of understanding the relationships between different types, and in terms of understanding (and thus predicting) behavior.

Anyway, this morning I was thinking through some interactions, and thought of a new way of splitting up the personalities. I thought it was helpful, so I decided to share. It has to do with the relationship between extroversion and introversion in cognitive functions, so I’ll back up a bit to that.

< If the following intro/background drags, skip to “SKIP TO HERE” >

First of all, most people think of extroverts as people who talk a lot, and introverts as shy. But the description used by phsychologists has more to do with which kind of interaction costs you less energy: inside of you, or outside of you? That is, if you spend time relating to others, are you more likely tired afterwards (introvert) or energized (extrovert)? Alternatively, if you spend time alone, are you more likely tired afterwards (extrovert) or energized (introvert)?

The third letter in an MBTI personality code is T or F, for thinking or feeling. But it isn’t about whether you think or feel more, but whether you make decisions more on the basis of logic, reason, and facts (thinking), or whether you make decisions more on the basis of feelings, values, and emotions (feeling). To put it another way, would you rather be morally right, or logically right?

Each of these codes has an introverted cognitive function, and an extroverted one. That is, if your first decision-making function is thinking, that may be either introverted thinking, or extroverted thinking. The logic, reason, and facts you use in your decision-making may come from within you, or from outside of you. Similarly, someone with a feeling type may make decisions on the basis of the their own feelings, values, and emotions (introverted feeling), or else those of others (extroverted feeling). Note that this is different from the above description, where a person is generally introverted or extroverted —here it is the decision-making function that is introverted or extroverted.

One implication that has become clear as I think about these things is that extroverted functions are great at interacting with other people; introverted functions are not. So changing the feelings of an extroverted feeler or the reasoning of an extroverted thinker is way easier than for their introverted counterparts. In fact, introverted cognitive functions seem to like being taken at face value, rather than being able to negotiate with others, or even defend or explain themselves. So while an extroverted feeler may enjoy very much coming to terms with others’ feelings and values (resulting in emotional/interpersonal harmony), an introverted feeler will seem more along the lines of “I know what I feel, and I shouldn’t have to explain or change it for you.” Similarly, an extroverted thinker may be good at negotiating logical constructs or the consequence of certain facts with others, whereas an introverted thinker will seem to be logically consistent with regards to their own internal logic, rather than doing much harmonizing with the logic found in those around them.

One more piece to know is that if someone has a top decision-making function aimed in one direction, their next decision-making cognitive function is of the opposite value, and aimed in the other direction. So as an ISTJ, my first decision-making function is extroverted thinking, and my next one is introverted feeling. For my ISFJ son, his first decision-making function is extroverted feeling, and his next one is introverted thinking. The consequence of this is that, for each personality type, one is either better at negotiating feelings (and values and emotions), or negotiating thinking (and logic and facts). The other will likely something they don’t want or like to defend or explain, as it is much more intensely personal.

< SKIP TO HERE >

So, the observation I made is that, regardless of whether you are an introvert or extrovert generally, and regardless of whether you are more of a thinker or feeler, each of us will be better at negotiating with either the feelings, values, and emotions of others, or else the logic, reason, and facts of others. Furthermore, the other set will be guarded carefully away from others, not willingly defended nor explained, nor readily negotiated or modified in the public sphere.

Because of this, I recognized that there are two widely distinct answers to the question “What is the point of conversation?” That is, either you think the point of conversation (generally speaking, of course) is to negotiate/discuss facts, reason, and logic, or else it is to negotiate feelings, values, and emotions.

This was affirmed in the very next conversation. I explained the above insight to my daughter (also an extroverted thinker), who rejoined with a modification of my wording, which I accepted. At which point, I realized we had just done this, and said so. We basically did this:

Me: “Here’s some data.”

Her: “Here’s an improvement on that data.”

Me: “Thanks. Here’s an insight on what we just did.”

Her: “Yes, I agree; that insight is correct.”

A couple hours later, my (extroverted feeling) son walked by a friend, dropped a peppermint patty in front of him, and said “This is candy.” At which point my daughter and I made a face at each other, until I recognized that we just witnessed an example on the other side. That is, while I might say “no duh, that’s candy; do you really think he doesn’t know that?”, because I think of conversation as for sharing/negotiating information, logic, etc. But that wasn’t the point at all for him. The purpose of his words was to negotiate and maintain relationship, not to share information.

One of the blessings for me in thinking about personality is to better value the diversity of ways people think and act, without needing to rely on morality/ethics to explain observed differences (e.g., “these are different because this one is good/better and that one is bad/worse”). For instance, when an extroverted feeler comes to talk with me, there may be nothing informational to say, but rather a desire to negotiate and maintain the relationship (or feelings, or values), my instinct is to say one or both of the following:

  1. This is a waste of time; if you have something to say, please say it.
  2. My feelings and values are my own; I shouldn’t have to share, explain or negotiate them with you, unless I want to.

You can easily imagine, I hope, how damaging actually saying either of these would be, in most relationships.

An extroverted feeler, on the other hand, may see me coming to lay my facts and reasoning before them, and think

  1. This is a waste of time; if I don’t know that you care about me personally, why should I care what you think?
  2. My logic and reasoning are my own; I shouldn’t have to share, explain or negotiate them with you, unless I want to.

So whichever perspective you’re coming from, I should think it would be helpful to get where the other side is coming from, because our instinctive, first response can be pretty damaging, if we give it free rein —especially if we explain the difference to ourselves as a moral or ethical one (with ourselves being the good/better, of course!). On the other hand, if we are able to say “Wow, this is certainly not what I’m looking for in conversation, but I get that maybe it is what the other person wants, and that can be OK”, then I think we have a lot more hope of getting along.

Tired

Family, Personal, Travels, , ,
Me and a Knock-off Squishmallow Lion at ALDI

We’ve been back in the states over six months now, so this update is long overdue; sorry.

A couple months after our return, and we were having trouble thinking through how to communicate, and someone saw us in church and said Wow, you look tired. This turned out to be a great summary of where we’re at. It wasn’t until we left Cameroon that I realized just how stressful and wearying it had been. Since then, we’ve had one emergency after another; I feel like I’ve been mostly putting out fires. I won’t bore you with the (very boring) details here, but feel free to ask if you like.

Transition has been hard this time around. How are you all handling inflation? Without even considering the obvious financial implications, the emotional implications of paying 150% of what we expect we should for just about everything, has been hard. And anyone who has bought a car in the last couple years knows that particular corner of insanity. Anyway, these are things you all may have been getting used to over time (at least to some extent), but it’s been hard for us trying to catch up with the changes of the last few years.

Kim mentioned in an earlier blog post that we are in Tolkein’s Houses of Healing. I was thinking about that, and the fact that Éowyn stayed in the houses some time after Aragorn healed her, saying “Shadow lies on me still.” Still, I look for the turning point, “these two of his charges prospered and grew daily in strength.” So for the moment, it isn’t clear where we’re headed.

But we have seen several encouraging signs.

Anna is doing much better, attending classes at school all day every day, and doing very well in most of them. And wrestling with teenage girl things, like how to bring Jesus to the lunch table, and how to deal with her friends’ various sexualities. It isn’t all easy, but way, way better than where she was at a year ago.

Joel is now in his second term at Le Tourneau, and doing well. He has had his share of bumps along the way, but he’s enjoying what he’s learning, and we’re able to help him with some things he finds more challenging, which gives us hope.

James looks to be on track to graduate in May! The last year we’ve been spending a LOT of time and energy working with him, trying to help him get through problems academic, personal and spiritual. I trust that we will look back on this period of investment, and praise God for his work through us and the many others supporting James.

We’ve had some financial difficulties this year, between a few people stopping giving, general inflation, and the craziness of the used car market. But we were given a 2006 Ford Explorer, which has treated us very well since, and for which we thank God daily. Several people have filled in some of the gaps with substantial one time gifts, for which we are also very grateful.

Thanks to each of you that are still reading this; I know I can be longwinded. I’ll close by asking for your prayers for the rest of this transition. For our complete healing. For wise decisions about future work, given our various family issues. That our lives would contribute strategically to the whole church glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

Transition, again/still

Church, Family, Holidays, Missiology, Thoughts, Travels, , , ,
Joel applying for his first job, on an ipad, during a sunbreak

We’re behind on getting news out, but we’re starting a furlough/home assignment year. Part of the news issue is that we’re much in need of rest. So if you haven’t heard from us, please don’t take it personally; most haven’t.

So we’re trying to get some rest, but can’t seem to stop moving around. We’re currently in Orlando, FL for meetings, and heading for a couple days at the beach. The current schedule has us starting to set up our furlough house in August (thanks for those already working in this!!). 😂

Joel stayed behind in Washington, starting work at a Christian camp today until he starts at LeTourneau University. It was surreal going through the application form with him, filling out form after form, most of which I’d seen before but only in paper, the whole process on an iPad… So we hung out outside the main office while he filled it out, and got to participate in a sunbreak. 😉 After growing up in the tropics, he has only seen jokes about sunbreaks…

Applying for jobs has changed. Lots has changed in the US since we spent more than a couple weeks here. We’re planning on occupying our house in Fort Worth to minimize transition stress, but things won’t be the same. We’ve heard of lots of changes in the church and wider culture since we left in 2019 (remember, before COVID?). Yes. We left BEFORE COVID. It will be interesting re-adapting to what’s going on now. If you see us acting weird, please be gracious with us as we figure this out.

I’m other news, I ran into a couple from Togo yesterday, and had fun chatting with them (in French) with no problem. 😉

Celebrating Our First Rule of Tone Writing

Cameroon Culture, Linguistics, Missiology, Travels, ,

We took this photo at the end of the day today, to celebrate our first tone rule, resulting in our first rule about how to write tone in this language!

It took us awhile to get there together, but I think it was worth it. We found eight different tone melodies in nouns of form CVCVC (where C is a consonant and V is a vowel). In isolation, each of the melodies falls in the second syllable. The same thing happens when you put a high tone or a low tone before the word.

But when you put either a high or low tone after the word, none of them fall anymore. This happens if you’re adding one or two syllables.

The short version is that the last syllable of the phrase falls. So it looks like the words have a falling tone in isolation, but that’s just because they end the phrase. The same thing with the possessive pronouns (high and low after the noun); they fall because they end the phrase, not (necessarily) because something in those words makes them fall.

So people will certainly be tempted to write this fall, as it is easy to hear. But as it is clearly attached to the phrase (rather than any of these words), it shouldn’t need to be written, except perhaps with a period.

For this interested in what “phrase” means here, so am I.😅 This may be an utterance, a phonological phrase, or a syntactic unit. We’ll need to investigate some longer utterances to find out.

Using the Scriptures in a Digital Age

Cameroon Culture, Church, Linguistics, Missiology,

As we think about Bible translation, and how to facilitate the impact of the scriptures in the worldwide church, it’s interesting to consider the impact of recent technology. Many Americans show up to church on Sunday morning without a printed Bible (I have observed). Whatever you think of that, it constitutes a change of culture and practice, which is driven (at least) my the fact that you can store a whole, searchable Bible in no more space or weight than you already carry with your phone.

How does this impact the worldwide church? Others noted at least a decade ago that in Africa, cellular technology leapfrogged over land line telephones. That is, while I grew up learning to use a phone that was permanently attached to a wall in our house, many Africans (that I know) have cell phones, never having seen a land line telephone. I have seen cell towers in the rainforest in DR Congo, where no one would ever consider laying down wires for telephones.

In a similar way, I know people here with access to the scriptures on an Android app (as in the above picture, from church this morning), but this week I saw my first print new testament in this language –in my third workshop with this group! They are working on the old testament, having had the new testament since 1988 (if I have my facts correct; this at least sounds right).

So are people printing Bibles? And are they buying and selling them? Why would they, when installing an app on the phone they already have costs so much less in money, volume and weight? I’m not saying this is the best for the long term health of the church, but it is certainly a reality that we must consider –people may be leapfrogging over the printed scriptures, to access them digitally without ever having used them in print.

The pic above is obscure, because it was taken inside the church. For those interested in seeing more of my friend Paul, here’s another picture taken outside:

If you’re wondering why I’m working in a language that already has a new testament, this is one of a number of languages which was found to have problems with the writing system. Tone studies have come a long way since this work was done (50+yrs ago), as have writing system development studies.

So people are hoping we can come up with a way to write tone which will work better for these guys and enable more fluent reading, giving more powerful and effective scriptures.

Which brings us back full circle: how can you think of making changes to the writing system after printing your scriptures? That would be very cost prohibitive –in print. But electronically, you just put in the changes and update the app, and move on…

I personally think there should always be a place for written, printed scriptures, if only to archive them in a format that doesn’t die with electricity –or time. But for many use cases, Android makes a lot of sense, at least in the eyes of many here. So I think it’s wise to consider how to make the most of it.

POSTLOG: after reading the above, Paul informed me that his phone battery died just after I took the above picture –a risk not present in printed Bibles.

The Relativity of plumbing

Cameroon Culture, Family, Travels, ,

This is a post for my engineer friends. I took a shower this morning for the first time in days, because couldn’t figure this thing out.

This is my second stay in this compound; before I stayed in a flat that had a nice hot water system, I think from a tank on the roof, which was basically just heated by the sun. So my expectations (from here and elsewhere) led me to think that the left knob was hot.

This was further reinforced by the fact that it has special plumbing, going straight up. The right knob connects to the toilet and sink, and to another spiget off to the left –classic cold water plumbing.

Turning on the left knob, you get low pressure –still not uncommon for local hot water. But turning in the right at the same time (to mix hot and cold), the pressure guess funky, weird noises clank, and very soon there are sounds of spraying outside, like there’s a leak somewhere. Turn off the right knob, and it stops –so I did.

But the left knob by itself is just enough pressure to be disappointed, not really to shower. So I gave up, and got to work on other things, like analysing tone.

Later I noticed that there was no plumbing to a tank on the roof, as I had expected, so the left knob was coming from the attic, not a solar tank on the roof. If that was the case, then the hose spilling water in the ground should be the overflow for that tank.

So…. <drumroll\> if the right knob was causing overflow of the attic tank, then it should be that the left knob wasn’t hot, but rather attic water, and the right knob was city water.

This kind of system is important where water is scarce, and where city water cuts off a lot. That is, use the right (city water) knob most of the time, and when it doen’t work, turn it off and use the left (attic water) knob. Then when city water comes back on, open both knobs and fill the tank in the attic (just until you hear the overflow spilling out the window).

So once I figured out that normal usage was just using the right knob, I got decent pressure. Heat would have been nice, but it’s hot enough here that cold water wasn’t really a problem. And it was nice to finally figure out how to shower. 🤪

Missionary Construction

Anthropology, Commentary, Computing, Family, Linguistics, , ,

I’m not sure if missionary construction is more or less well known than missionary linguistics, but they are likely both a bit of a mashup for most people. I took this picture on my way home last week (stuck in holiday traffic, plenty of time to get the shot…) as one of a series of vehicular graveyards I’ve seen across the decades almost everywhere I go in Africa. Typically, it makes me think of how things fall apart here, and how little people probably expected this outcome to whatever they started out doing.

But today I’m reading one of my favorite missionary biographies, “To the Golden Shore”, by Courtney Anderson, on Adoniram Judson. I identify with him in a number of ways. The call to pioneer. Depression. Fruit and very painful circumstances almost constantly mixed. Bible translation.

It was this last that struck me today. This was the passage, presumably from one of his letters:

I sometimes feel alarmed [he reported] like a person who sees a mighty engine beginning to move, over which he knows he has no control. Our house is frequently crowded with company; but I am obliged to leave them to Moung En, one of the best of assistants, in order to get time for the translation. Is this right? Happy is the missionary who goes to a country where the Bible is translated to his hand. (pp398-9)

Perhaps the most important sentence in this section is “Is this right?” How can a missionary set aside talking to potential converts, to work on a book maybe no one will ever read? This must strike the conscience, and it must be dealt with.

The correct answer, I think, has to do with the relationships between longer term and shorter term strategic priorities. What can I do today that will make tomorrow better in some way? To just push off people is unconscionable, but so is continuing to labor day to day with no effort to get the scriptures to those who are (or even may be) converted.  So Adoniram made the tough (and I think open to criticism) choice of delegating daily evangelism for the sake of the future growth and health of the church.

For me, there are two problems with this. First of all, I’m working another step removed. I’m not working so that a single people group will have the scriptures some day. I’m working on systems, and training and raising up workers, so that all of central Africa will have scriptures that speak with power. So it’s an even longer term investment than daily translation for a single people group.

But the other problem is the message of the vehicular graveyards. Who ever built (or bought, shipped, maintained, etc) a car so it would decorate some corner of the forest as it decomposed? I even saw a rusting carcass of a printing press once. Certainly that was bought and shipped there with the idea that it would help the missionary enterprise, not that it would just take oxygen out of the air.

So what will become of my work? I know nothing lasts in this world, but as I consider longer term strategic priorities, I must consider the possibility that I shoot so far out, that nothing comes of it before it starts decomposing. My time in DRCongo felt a bit like this; I planned for ten years, and prepared and built tools with that horizon in mind, but they weren’t used very much when we left only four years later.

So I try to constantly mix planning horizons. I feel the pull Adoniram described, to work for future missionaries, so I must set aside time for that. Added to this is the repeated realization that I know no one with the vision or capability to do what I’m doing now (not bragging, just reality; this is a niche work).

But Kim and I also sing in the church choir most weeks, and I lead several of the men of the church in Bible study most Saturdays. These are each a different horizon (making worship happen this week and growing up future leaders), but they both address the question of the people right here in front of me.

Then there’s the team that’s actively translating the scriptures, without understanding the tone writing system developed for them some fifty years ago. Has the language’s tone system changed? Probably. Has tone and writing system theory changed in that time? Definitely. Can I help them get back on track? I hope so.

Then there are A→Z+T users, present and future. I’ve been doing a lot of prep work for a tone workshop in the spring, which involves getting people up to speed with A→Z+T and evaluating their trained for the workshop. During this time, I’ve gotten to interact (face to face, by email, and through zoom) with people at different levels of competence and preparation, so I’ve gotten a broader vision for what A→Z+T’s user base will most likely look like.

Sometimes the user question is addressing specific issues, other times it’s fixing things in a more principled way, to avoid future issues. But I’m also working on a workshop presentation and book chapter to help potential users get a vision for what is now possible.

So it feels like running a sprint, a 5k, and a marathon, all at the same time (not that I’ve ever run a marathon, but I imagine…)

But it gives me courage that I’m not the first one to confront these questions, even if some of the details are new. Adoniram didn’t have Python, Autosegmental theory, or object oriented programming (though he did have snakes, elephants and tigers), but he did know the difficult task of prioritizing the needs in front of him today, and what most be done (today) to prepare for tomorrow.

And when I think of Adoniram’s first ten years of missionary service, including a death prison, the loss of his first wife and several children, along with any hope that his translation work would be preserved through the Anglo-Burman war, I’m encouraged to know that God did preserve that translation work, though a series of improbable coincidences. And he ultimately built his church in Myanmar on it, with generations of Christians using that translation to great effect.

So apparently (he comes to realize, again) God does know what he’s doing, even if His planning horizons are even longer and more complex than we can imagine. So please join me in prayer, that the One worshipped by the magi would lend me some of His wisdom in these days, as I sort through what to do when, and prioritize appropriately long term strategies that will produce fruit that will last.

Merry Christmas!

Family,

Our choir, Sunday morning after Christmas. This group has been a blessing to us in the ups and downs of the last couple years.

Totally coincidence that our robes match the children’s Christmas program poster (which Kim made…😅) Smiles are courtesy of Anna, whose drama made us laugh. 🙃

Merry Christmas everyone!