Barnabas File

We just returned from a Thanksgiving visit to our son and his family in the San Francisco area. Every time we visit I am struck by the multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nature of the population there. I realize, of course, that the same thing is happening on an accelerating scale across the country. When I go to a program at my grandchildren’s elementary school in Tennessee, the principal struggles to pronounce names that are Asian, Hispanic, and Indian. Churches in my little part of the world are only beginning to address this cultural diversity. Most of the time, the strategy is to create churches that are targeted to a specific racial, ethnic, or language group and translate the North American understanding of the gospel for that group. This ignores the fact that some things do not translate well! Often this strategy does not take into account the vast differences within a particular language group. The strategy also does not consider that we could learn something from dial...

I often get invitations on Facebook to join advocacy groups such as “Keep Christ in Christmas.” This year I have seriously considered setting up on that advocates “Let’s Not Start the Christmas Season until the Day after Thanksgiving.” There are some, including folks in my own family, who start putting up decorations the second week in November. Some have even already bought all of their presents! (Yes, it is hard to live with people like that.) I am sure that their efforts are driven by a love for the season (as well as personal industriousness), but I cannot say the same for the stores that start pushing Christmas decorations and gifts on Labor Day. I cannot believe that their enthusiasm is driven by good feelings about the “reason for the season.” There are two primary reasons that I will hold off on my decorations, Christmas music, and holiday observance until after Thanksgiving. First, I love Thanksgiving. I know that some consider this holiday a capitulation to “civil religion,” ...

You’ve heard the story of the blind men who encountered an elephant. Each touched only one part and then generalized about the nature of the beast based on this partial knowledge. They variously described it as a wall, snake, spear, tree, fan or rope, depending upon where they touched. Each developed his own metaphor based on the partial knowledge they had of the subject. Metaphors are powerful tools. In fact, researcher Andrew Ortony once commented, “Metaphors are necessary, not just nice.” Rightly used, metaphors are powerful tools for learning and change. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, a metaphor can shift the way that a person perceives reality. We can see the power (and limitation) of metaphor when we select words to describe the church. Many churches describe themselves as “family.” This works most of the time, but some people have had very negative family experiences—broken relationships, abuse, isolation—that color how they see family. The idea of the church as an...

I can remember the day well. It was May 1970. The mover had packed up all of our worldly goods for the move from Fort Worth, Texas, to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I climbed into the station wagon (loaded down with clothes and other things we would need immediately). Rita (great with child) and our daughter, Sherry, stayed behind with friends. They would fly to Nashville later after I got the house set up with help from my parents. I made a loop around the campus and said farewell to Seminary Hill, not expecting to return anytime soon! I had earned my degree, been called to my first place of ministry, and could leave all that behind. After only a few months, I realized that my education was not over. I soon began to encounter situations in teaching, counseling, and administration that I had not anticipated. Seminary helped me to develop many skills I put into use immediately—planning, preaching, and research. At the same time, I quickly discovered that I needed help to be a more effective ...

You may be interested in this video by Joshua Cooper Ramo introducing his book

I just completed reading Joshua Cooper Ramo’s The Age of the Unthinkable. Ramo is the managing director of Kissinger Associates, a former editor of Time Magazine, and a China analyst. Ramo’s thesis is that we live in a “revolutionary age,” defined by problems (such as terrorism, financial crisis, global warming and the AIDS pandemic) whose complexity, unpredictability and interconnectedness increasingly defy our efforts at control. Taking a page from writers like Thomas Friedman and Malcolm Gladwell, he uses historical, contemporary, and personal vignettes to both illustrate the situation and to support his approach to dealing with the situation. So why does a person who is interested in “building up the Body of Christ” in the 21st century read a secular book like this? I picked up this book because it was recommended by Alan Roxburgh, one of the most creative thinkers I have encountered on the missional church and missional leadership. Roxburgh introduced me to the concept of “discont...