Barnabas File

In a beautiful and arresting poem, the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”  (3:1, NIV) As we enter into a new year, we naturally reflect on the past, the present, and the future.  In this liminal time, we would do well to consider how we can most effectively use our time in the coming days.  Certainly, as the writer states, there is a time for everything but what is the right time?  We can’t do it all at once and, as good stewards of the time, talents, and skills with which God has blessed us, how do we use those resources effectively? In working with coaching clients, I often find myself engaging with them about the best use of their time.  They are usually gifted and motivated individuals who have much to offer, so there are many demands on their time and energy.  People seek them out to accept new responsibilities on a regular basis. How do they make good choice...

Most of us were introduced to Brian McLaren with his fiction trilogy that began with   A New Kind of Christian  that challenged us to a new vision for the Christian faith. His story of a pastor trying to find his way forward despite burnout and doubt struck a chord with many Christians.    Since then, he has become a prodigious writer with books on spirituality, theology, and social action.   McLaren’s latest offering is in the science fiction genre.   The Last Voyage is the first volume in a new trilogy that explores what it means to be human and what would we choose to bring with us or leave behind, if we were to start all over again.   Drawing on his considerable knowledge of theology, literature, philosophy, and natural science (he is talking turtles again), McLaren addresses the hopes, fears, and barriers of establishing a new human civilization on Mars.  His characters are complex, flawed, and emotional.  The conversation...

One of the biggest challenges of training coaches is helping them get over the idea that they are problem solvers.  Summit Coach Training participants usually come from the people development professions—clergy, counselors, consultants, not-for profit leaders.  The are used to people coming to them seeking answers.  These helpers usually feel compelled to give them answers!   The real goal of coaching is working a client to discover and use their skills and experience to solve their own challenges.  The key to good coaching is not the “what” of problem solving but the “who” of the client as problem solver.   Ultimately, coaching seeks to be a transformative process for the client emphasizing not “what” the client does but “who” the client is.  A good coach walks alongside the client as they discover new ways of thinking and engaging based on how they process and act.  A good coach does this in several ways.   Fir...

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:2, 6, NIV)   Although the end of one year and the beginning of another may be as simple as turning a calendar page, the symbolic move from one calendar year to another has significant impact on all of us.  At this time of the year, we look back to evaluate where we have been, but we also look forward to where we are going.   Looking back   As we look back, we celebrate victories, give thanks for our blessings, and learn from our failures.  I am thankful for the wonderful times with family this year–shared experiences and just doing life together.  I am grateful for my faith community that provides times of fellowsh...

In our coaching classes, we often address personal values.     As a coach works with a client to identify the best way forward for the client, one of the challenges is helping the client discover what is really important for them as individuals.     We are all pulled in different directions—challenges, responsibilities, relationships.     What we should concentrate on and what gives us satisfaction can be frustrating.    Robert Glazer suggests that this comes from “a misalignment between the roles expected of us and our core values.”   In the introduction to The Compass Within: A Little Story About the Values That Guide Us, Glazer writes, “When we succeed in aligning our lives with those values, we feel a sense of peace and enthusiasm, as if we were truly living our ideal lives. In contrast, the discomfort caused by a misalignment of values is deep and painful and rarely fades with time; and if it does fade, it’s usually due to self-abandonme...

I n a leadership narrative style, Jim Ferrell offers us his fresh perspective on leadership.    In You and We: A Relational Rethinking of Work, Life, and Leadership , he writes:   “Management of the individual is dead, or soon will be; management of relation is the new leadership paradigm.”   Ferrell contends that “Relationships are what we build with each other. However, relation, by contrast, is simply a fact of existence. Relation isn’t built; it’s already there—a reality, not a construct. Everything is in relation, including us, so we are in relation whether we want it or not, and whether we have a relationship or not.”   Drawing on the work of philosophers and theologians such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Martin Buber, Carl Jung, and Gabriel Marcel, he calls leaders to a new level of transparency and awareness, leveraging relationship to achieve both personal and organizational success.    His view is very dynamic.  He points out, “We’...

“One man questioned whether I was truly a Christian. Another asked if I was still on ‘the right side.’ All while Dad was in a box a hundred feet away.”   Tim Alberta was standing in his home church at the funeral of his father, the longtime pastor.  In 2020, Alberta had written  American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump .  In that book he reported on the conversion of the Republican Party to the Party of Trump.  Now he was reaping the consequences—comments and criticism from people he had known for years who questioned not only his integrity but his Christian faith.   In  The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism , Alberta shares not only his personal journey but the path that has led many Christians from a simple fundamentalism to an extreme Christian nationalism. Written in between the two Trump terms, Alberta records the extremes to w...