Barnabas File

Since I have become involved in doing clergy coaching, I have found that there is a great deal of interest in the field and a number of misconceptions about it. Like anything, coaching can become a “fad”” or “passing fancy” if the purpose and process are not clearly understood. In a recent news release, the International Coach Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” My colleague Mark Tidsworth at Pinnacle Leadership Associates refers to coaching as “living into one’s calling.” Each person has their own “growing edge.” Life coaching is a way for a person to identify areas of potential growth, set appropriate goals, and develop action plans for achieving those goals. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, coaching is a distinct service and differs greatly from therapy, consulting, mentoring or training. Each of these serves a purpose, but coaching is a ver...

My colleague Mark Tidsworth recently posted a topic on the Pinnacle Leadership Associates Facebook page that generated a lot of response. The topic was the loneliness experienced by many ministers, especially the senior pastor. Pastors are involved with people on a daily basis but often disconnected. This circumstance is not limited to senior pastors or to single staff minister churches. A friend who has served as a student minister on a church staff for years pointed out to me that he experienced the same type of feelings. He suggested that everyone needs a “chaplain” to serve as a sounding board, someone outside the church hierarchy or chain of command. Although we can encourage and work on the development of healthy staff teams, a minister may feel uncomfortable in talking with a co-worker about personal needs or a problem situation. Close friendships with church members can be problematic. As staff members, we want to be available and responsive to church members, but if relations...

Several Sundays ago, my pastor preached a sermon on the passage in Luke 15 about the loving father. Most of us call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but the primary emphasis is on the action of the father and, by implication, the action of the Heavenly Father. The fresh insight I heard that morning was the fact that the father in the story takes the initiative in reconciliation with both sons. First, when the younger son returned home, the father ran to meet the son without waiting for the son to approach him. Second, when the older brother refuses to come in to the homecoming celebration, the father “went out and pleaded with him.” The loving father is not impassive but active in sharing love and grace with his sons. This text can help us to understand better the nature and mission of God as well as the nature and mission of the church. In the Hebrew Bible, we read that it is God that takes the initiative to redeem humankind. God sends messengers and prophets to inform and entreat ...

My blog entitled “Where Have All the Young Leaders Gone?” seems to have struck a nerve with many young (and some not so young) leaders. In addition to being posted here, the blog was also picked up by ethicsdaily.com and was posted on my Facebook profile. Most of the discussion and response came from the Facebook posting. There were a number of interesting comments, but one response in particular impacted me. It was written by a young woman who graduated from a CBF-related seminary with a passion for issues of peace and justice. I will not reveal her name, but she gave me permission to share her comments with my observations interjected. She begins by saying, “I should say that one should not discount the sense of disillusionment that many young people have with Baptist life--or church life in general. While we're all still committed to faith, a large number of my contemporaries from seminary are no longer working or seeking to work in church life.” I think it is significant that m...

In his new book Why the Mighty Fall (and Why Some Companies Never Give In) , Jim Collins reminds his readers that he that is a “leadership skeptic”; he believes that organizations achieve greatness not because of the efforts of one exceptional individual but because of a strong leadership team. His phrase to describe this is “getting the right people on the bus.” So who are the right people? Here are his ideas and some of my comments. First, the right people fit with the company’s core values. How do you get people to share your core values? You don’t. You hire people who already have a disposition to your core values and retain those persons. This may be why many churches now look inside the congregation for new staff members. They usually know the culture, have embraced it, and can work within it. Second, the right people don’t need to be tightly managed. Every new hire has a “ramp up” period, but when that period goes on too long and the person requires continued close supervisio...

In an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal , religion writer Peter Smith writes that when the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Louisville next week, most convention leaders expect one particular trend to continue—fewer young leaders (under 40) will be present. The attendance of this younger group of leaders has been declining since 1980. This is verified by a report from Lifeway Research that indicates 34 percent of church representatives were younger than 40 at its 1980 annual meeting but only 13 percent in 2007. In the article, pastor Jonathan Merritt of Georgia is reported to have said, "It seems to a number of younger leaders that Southern Baptists have been moving the theological goalposts. It seems every year Southern Baptists are drawing a line in the sand about various secondary and tertiary theological issues that younger pastors don't feel the need to fight over, whether it is the role of women in ministry or the wisdom in alcohol consumption." He furth...

Have you had the experience of driving down the Interstate and suddenly looking around and asking yourself, “How did I get here? How did I miss (name the exit)? Where am I?” Sometimes we become so absorbed in listening to the radio, thinking, or talking to someone that we loose track of where we are. Many church leaders realize that they find themselves in a similar situation. One day they look around at the church they are leading and say, “How did I get here? Where am I?” The situation in which they find themselves is very different from the one in which they were involved in earlier years . . . and it is the same congregation! What happened? One thing that has happened is that congregants have changed and have very different expectations of their church, its leaders, and their own participation in the church. The people that we are attempting to “lead” have changed the rules of the game. Sometimes the pastor and staff are the last to know! Let me suggest some ways that church member...

Like most folks, I find summer a good time to catch up on my reading. My summer reading list comes from personal interest, suggestions of friends, and professional needs. Some fit in more than one of these categories. I am reading two books that I plan to use for my seminary course in “Formation for Christian Ministry” this fall. One is What to Expect in Seminary: Theological Education as Spiritual Formation by Virginia Cetuk. This book has been around for awhile, but the author articulates well the commitment of most theological educators today to see seminary education not as a strictly academic enterprise but an opportunity for the student’s personal spiritual formation. Malcolm Goldsmith’s Knowing Me, Knowing God uses the Myers-Briggs categories to help persons understand how their personal type influences the way that relate both to God and to other people. Two of the books deal with the globalization of the church and the opportunity we have to see the Gospel through the eyes o...

Columnist and blogger Jeannie Babb Taylor recently wrote a piece which begins with the question, “Why are Southern Baptists suddenly reluctant to use their own name?” Taylor’s column/blog is a thoughtful critique of “bait and switch” churches that appear non-denominational then turn out to have a denominational connection that some prospective members might find distasteful. This has been the subject of much discussion over the past decade or so, but the trend continues. One church in our area which has been a “First Baptist Church” for years has adopted an attractive name that lacks any denominational connotation while affirming among the fellowship that they are still Southern Baptist to the core. (The practice is not limited to Baptists, by the way.) I must admit some sympathy for these churches. Why advertise that you are something that turns people away? At the same time, they must struggle with having to downplay their denominational identity. Of course, the term “Baptist” appli...

In response to my recent observation on leadership in the church being an art rather than a science, my friend Stephen Currie made this comment: I'm beginning to wonder what "leading" even means for Jesus followers. Jesus told us that the Gentile leaders rule by lording over their subjects, but for his followers, this should not be. He who leads will be "the slave of all". There are many of us who feel lost in the church if we are not "leading" in some way. So yeah, I think leading-by-serving is an art. The people who have modeled this best for me were not men and women of learning . . . they just did it for the love of serving as Jesus did. Stephen makes a good point. For one thing, his comments remind us that “leadership” is more than a role or a title. Every group of human beings will have leadership of some type, but it is conferred in many different ways. Leadership may be assumed, usurped, negotiated, or bestowed, but it is there. Leadership in t...

Being a coach is not a matter of age or expertise. The basic skill needed to be a good coach is relationship. A trusting relationship is essential for the coaching conversation, and the relative age of the participants is not important. The second skill, the ability to ask good questions, is one that any person can learn. I thought recently of a conversation I had some 30 years ago with a student while I was a campus minister. Del was a sharp pre-med student. He was on our Baptist Student Union council and came in weekly for a planning time with the campus minister (me). We had developed a good rapport, but I thought I was still in control of the conversation. Then one day, Del asked me, “How’s your spiritual life?” I was a little surprised initially. After all, I was the older (by at least 15 years) and wiser (I thought!) leader. But I stopped for a minute, reflected, and realized it was not a bad question. This initiated a good dialogue about my own Christian walk. Del’s q...

This past week, I posted on my Facebook Profile that I have been thinking that leading a church is an art not a science. I received a number of interesting comments as a result. One was from my friend Jack Mercer in Virginia who reminded me that “organizational leadership of any sort is an art. Max Depree's observation that leadership was much like improvisational jazz always resonated with me . . . the best pastors still lead as artists not mechanics.” Thinking of church leadership as an art certainly fits well with other activities in the Body of Christ. Worship is largely characterized by the expression of our faith through music. From the simple hymns of the early church to Gregorian chants to Handel’s oratorios to campground songs to contemporary praise music, the church has used the art of vocal, choral, and instrumental music to express our love for God and challenge us to serve our neighbor. Our preaching is an artistic form as well. The act of preaching involves the use o...