Barnabas File

One of the best reads I have come across recently isn't available in the bookstore or on Amazon.com (at least not yet). It is Missional Mapmaking by Alan Roxburgh and may be accessed at http://www.allelon.org . Most of us are familiar with the idea of paradigms. I was first introduced to the concept several years ago by a friend who had read Joel Barker's book with that title. Barker built on the work of philosophers of science such as Thomas Kuhn (see The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ) in challenging leaders to reconsider the lens (or mental models) they used in viewing the context in which they worked. Roxburgh takes the idea further by explaining how the mental maps we have inherited from the modern experiment have been applied (inappropriately he argues) to the church. The rational approach of modernism is characterized by the idea that everything--the universe, government, industry, denominational hierarchies--can and should operate like well-oiled machines. ...

I recently announced my intention to leave the position of coordinator with Tennessee CBF at the end of the year. I have avoided the term "retirement" because I still have some things I hope to accomplish! There are still some things that I want to do. I am not leaving because I am unhappy, but while I am still happy! When I shared this decision with one friend, he commented, "I am going to keep on for a few more years or until I cannot get up in the morning and go to the office because I have lost the 'fire'." I think that is a good observation. When we are no longer excited about what we are doing or think there is something more productive we could do, it is time to move on. I have enjoyed my work with TCBF, but I have been thinking about those people who really don't enjoy what they do. What makes a job enjoyable? Author Patrick Lencioni comes at this from a different angle--What makes a job miserable? In his Three Signs of a Miserable Job, ...

Episcopalian "worker-priest" Tom Ehrich is a great writer and observer of life. I look forward to his daily "On a Journey" devotional at http://www.onajourney.org . In a recent posting, he made the following observations about "table fellowship": I think we have made way too much of Sunday liturgy. Our people are hungry for engagement, friendship, personal faith encounters, story-telling, community - not for routinized, ritualized recitations of well-vetted words and stylized actions. We have asked Sunday worship to do too much of our work. It would be as if Jesus experienced John's baptism and then stayed in the River Jordan and said, "Let's all be baptized today, and again next Sunday, and again the Sunday after that." As you know, Jesus did exactly the opposite. He left the Jordan. He went off on an ever-changing ministry of teaching, healing and forming circles of friends. He allowed people to touch his life and to reshape his sens...

Evaluation and response continues on the recent Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta. It is being compared to early meetings, but there are some who say that there is nothing in recent history to which we can compare it. I agree with the latter stance. I think we can make a pretty case that this was a truly postmodern meeting. What do I mean by this? First, the NBCC was unlike most denominational meetings conducted in the modern era. It was not a linear activity. Those earlier meetings emphasized outcomes which were already clearly stated (or assumed) before the meeting even began. With this kind of thinking, participants would come away with a commitment to a particular program or activity (such as “Bold Mission Thrust—remember that?). There was a specific purpose to be achieved by the closing service. The emphasis at NBCC was more on process than outcome. Everyone keeps asking, “What next?” More important that the next step is that the first step was taken. Se...

The first Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant is now history. A diverse group of Baptists gathered at the Georgia World Congress Center for three days of preaching, singing, talking, eating, hugging and celebrating (and maybe a little politicking, too). This event would not have been possible without the leadership of the most well-known Baptist layman in the world, President Jimmy Carter. Carter used all of his skills of persuasion to mobilize over 30 Baptist groups (denominations, schools, and organizations) to conduct this historic meeting. He, Dr. Bill Underwood, and Dr. Jimmy Allen were able to marshal the personnel and financial resources to call a significant number of God’s people together for an historic event. So what’s next? I believe that the New Baptist Covenant faces at least five major challenges. First, very quickly the leadership of this nascent movement must be passed on to a new generation (or generations). President Jimmy Carter and Jimmy Allen are persona...