Nov 28 2006

Notes and integrated thoughts on Mark Warren’s Pizza Theology talk–"Making Major Life Decisions"

Published by Jeff Widman at 2:03 am under Uncategorized

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NOTE: Mark Warren, of Callingcoach.com, is a longtime family friend of mine. He runs his own private consulting practice on career counseling, and has trained/counseled more than 10,000 people so far. He came and spoke to the CCF community for three hours.

These are my notes, pretty much as I typed it during the talk. I need to take some time to reflect and respond to these thoughts, but this is mostly what he discussed. If you think I missed anything, feel free to let me know.

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Great definition of being productive: Getting done what I said I’d do, when I said I’d do it.

People who are excelling in their gifts are attractive to others. Part of growing up is naturally excelling more and more in your gifts. The things that you do in your journey that don’t fit your gifts are just as important as the experiences that fit the gifts. One of the major dangers of life, is we begin to expect God to talk to us just like he talks to others. Humans are wired to forget. Humans are gifted at forgetting.

Thoughts on presentation: Saying “Aha!” to maximize interaction. Spent quite a bit of time introducing himself. Also quite a bit of time introducing his style of talking by berating the audience just slightly with a five part question series the audience normally gets wrong. The medium is the message; extremely animated in presentation. His presentation is very human, not precise clipped business speech. His “aha” method and constantly mentioning interaction is good. Never looks at his notes; designed powerpoint so both a reminder and not just reading the notes. Cues instead. He calls himself “Marky” which relaxes people and loses the image of a know-it-all standing up front. A balance of inductive and deductive teaching. He paints pictures for the imagination. He uses fill in the blank statements to emphasize visual learning as well. And uses hands/processing/reading to engage kinesthetic side. He sets us up for post pizza with a teaser. Good at technical details, plus natural comic.

Brain Statistic: Humans speak at a rate of ~150 wpm. Humans think at roughly ~450 wpm. Humans have a distraction/boredom factor of ~300 wpm. Likelihood of retaining what you learn goes up 90% if you process by orally or written form. My emphasis on journaling should increase by this, as well as discussing with other people what I’ve been learning lately.

W(iring) personality, how you’re made

P(rinciples) underlying principles (What goes around, comes around, do unto, others as you would have them do untuo you, seek first to understand, then to be understood, you reap what you sow, you must get stuff out of your head to effectively manage what you want to get done.)

M(ethods) you and I impose methods all the time on each other, thinking that they’re principles. This should serve as both a caution and way to free yourself.

God doesn’t wait for the brightest and the best to do his calling. Though he does use Paul to do some amazing things. But Paul came from one extreme to go to the other. Sin multiplies itself.

You have a unique personal design and calling… your spiritual DNA. We are wird to ponder and decide; DNA doesn’t decide, though it may affect.

Psalm 139:13-16.

Ephesians 2:8-10–verses 8 & 9 setup verse 10: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. This is a result of being saved by grace, through faith.

John 3:27: A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.

Can you choose your calling? No, in principle, though perhaps in method. Can you choose to follow your calling? No. Can you try and create a sense of calling? Yes.

God has made me uniquely. He chose my parents; I didn’t choose them. How can doing God’s will come out of God’s will?

Justice: Getting what you deserve… Mercy: Not getting what you deserve…. Grace: getting what you don’t deserve.

We have no sense of majesty, nor of the holiness of God. We no longer have any sense of royalty in American culture.

No matter what your family life is, your Core person doesn’t change. Family background/personal history will affect you though.

This Core person is made up of “intelligence/learning style/personality type/temperament/natural talents/aptitudes/spiritual gifts/pathways/passions/themes.”

  • We see the Kingdom of God dimly. Learn to see in 3-D.
  • We relate to a God who is invisible. Remember Helen Keller.
  • We are all spiritually disabled.

If I left tonight, and the only thing I remembered was: I’m spiritually disabled… then that’s worth it. Satan’s goal is to keep us from finding our calling. Keep us distracted, isolated, and confused. Three enemies: sin nature, Satan, and the world.

Like a deaf, dumb, and blind Helen Keller, I struggle to understand a world that I can only see dimly.

The nature of lying is self-deceptive. Liars believe themselves partially.

I must rely on God, but he won’t send me where he hasn’t prepared me. I may put myself there.

As I see people doing stuff they’re skilled at, I should ask them, “Do you enjoy what you do?” Don’t assume this! Rob Takemura said the same thing; he was good at mentoring people, but campus ministry was only one outlet; he didn’t enjoy it as much. Now, working as a manager at a local business, a major part of his job is mentoring and training people.

Work/Volunteer experience–> skills. I am skilled at things I may not enjoy.

Naming moment: Power person names us as good/bad at something. We serve the God of names, and the naming God. God wants to give us our true names. He named people throughout the Bible. Satan is on a mission to give us false names for ourselves, for others, and for God(!).

Values/Beliefs: Not born with. A bunch come from home, but not all. Beliefs does not equal values. Values are what’s important to me. Beliefs are what I tihnk about something. These operate at all different levels.

IQ estimated for someone to name all the species: 2000+…

Interest Themes (If I’m these, then I should have them in my life somehow):

  • Realistic–physically active, hands on, mechanical, or kinesthetic
  • Investigative–natural brain for curiosity, math/science often very appealing
  • Artistic–creating or enjoying creative expression. Enjoying does not imply talented.
  • Social–I’ve got to help someone. I’ve got to mentor, pastor, preach, whatever to aid people.
  • Enterprising–energized by being in the marketplace. Builders.
  • Conventional–order, structure, detail,

Strong’s Interest Inventory deals with this. These become solidified between ages 18 and 22.

If you enjoy and are energized by a particular theme, but you’re not good at it, what can you do? Find a way to be around it.

What if I have an interest area, but I don’t want to do anything with it? You don’t have to do anything with it. What about if you love lots of different stuff? Try and explore. Find a combo.

 

Passions: Mark used to think of it as God pull me into what you want me to do.

God can lead you in your passion by discontent. Sometimes you see a need, and want someone to do something, and God says, “How about you?” Discontent is the heart to meet a need. God grows and morphs our passions. God gives project passions sometimes. God uses community to keep us from becoming self-centered.

Passion vs. Feelings: Passion can be highly emotional. Don’t evaluate spirituality through emotions.

Passion vs. Staying comfortable:

Spiritual gifts: Sometimes we don’t like where our gifts put us; sometimes this is improper discernment, sometimes we just have to tough it out (Jonah). Try assessments. Then go serve. Find out.

Personality types: Same personality types often have different gifts, and natural talents.

A good assessment of Talents: IDAK Career match. At least ten hours to complete.

Tremendous potential. Discipline/Character necessary to reach it.

Sin corrupts us, and will do this for the rest of our lives. Post salvation, need radiation to keep your sin in remission. Confess to God, and to others.

Core: strengths. Chores: Things I don’t like to do. Get A’s in Core stuff, but don’t push super hard to get A’s in chores. Don’t get F’s in Chores, either. Integrity is necessary. Effective and efficient stewardship is also necessary.

If I can get 60% of my life within Core stuff, then 40% of chore can be swallowed. 80% would be awesome, but not always realistic. Much more is impossible.

All this stuff requires a lot of humility. Don’t morph yourself into what you’re not, even though the world, family, church, and personal ego ask for.

Romans 12. The best description in the entire Bible of knowing God’s will: service, prayer and the Holy Spirit, Bible, circumstances, personal wiring, community of friends.

Bounce ideas off of people. Doesn’t always mean your immediate family. Look to good advice networks.

Need to stretch and expand. This will allow us to rely on God, and then learn more about giftings that we may not realize. But recognize that these areas may be things that don’t energize us.

Fear of failure stops people from trying stuff out so much. Sometimes, perfection comes from a desire to do well. Sometimes from a fear of failure. Sometimes faster to just throw it together and slowly patch it up.

Most people look to circumstances for direction. This is just one piece of the puzzle. Gideon’s story of fleece is over-emphasized.

Questions:

  • How discern between methods and principles?
    • Think through end goal. Methods are structure to promote and play off of principles.
  • E-mail/ask Mark how grown the most? How learn so much about the Bible?
  • How get good at speaking?
  • How manage to manage details and get stuff done rather than get stuck over-analyzing?

 

Action steps:

  • Get mp3’s of this
  • Take Strong’s & MBTI @ WWU
  • Read:
    • Lifekeys
    • Seven habits of highly effective people
  • Jeff: enjoy natural beauty outdoors, with endurance/pushing physically. I need some sort of outdoor interaction, often alone or with one or two others. Adventure isn’t easy. I want to help people. I create structure, but can’t maintain it.
  • Ask Havenmates about themes–explore more online

 

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