Barnabas File

On a Sunday before Christmas, our pastor was reflecting on the importance of Jesus as Immanuel—“God with us”—for humankind.   By becoming human, God entered into the messiness and beauty of this world.   In his incarnation, Jesus experienced the reality of life.   This means that he went through most of the experiences of the human life cycle just as we do. Jesus experienced childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.   He probably dealt with the death of the one who was his earthly father and cared for his mother as she grew older.   He found both a livelihood and a vocation, and then he embraced another calling at midlife. He was faced with and experienced the reality of death.   In doing all of these things, he affirmed the importance of the stages of the human life cycle, raising them above being mundane, ordinary experiences. By implication, we are encouraged to value these stages of human experience and learn more about them.   Althou...

One of the most significant things I have learned in recent years is a new way of looking at missions.  Some excellent mentors—Eliot Roberts, Pat Anderson, Rob Nash, Mart Gray, Steve Street, Mike Young and others--have shown me that we must respect the humanity of those with whom we minister.  I have too often seen ministry as something that I or my group “do for” someone else without any regard for whether they want “to be done unto.”  They are not recipients by partners. Dave Gibbons follows this perspective in The Monkey and The Fish:  Liquid Leadership for a Third- Culture Church.   If we are to mesh smoothly as ministry partners with others, we must observe certain principles.  Gibbons outlines them in this way. First, we must listen more than we speak.  This is a skill that is often difficult to learn! Second, we must believe that “the locals” know more than we do and learn from them.  They live there; they know the situation ...

Dave Gibbons, pastor of Newsong Church, has mined his own life and experiences in writing The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third Culture Church.     In embracing his Korean and Anglo background, he has learned the value of seeing needs with different eyes—those of the “outsider.” Gibbons writes, “Third culture is the mindset and will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort.”   He expands this definition by explaining that third culture is not simply a strategy but a way that believers are to live—loving God and loving neighbor. In order to do this, we must be like water.   As a liquid, water adapts to fit its environment.   Using the metaphor of water as the Good News for a thirsty world, Gibbons challenges the church “to be open to creatively designing or embracing new forms, languages, customs, and containers to deliver that water.” Doing this will require a radical change in the way mo...

Forty years ago, Alvin and Heidi Toffler wrote  Future Shock, a groundbreaking book about what we could expect in the future.   It was a challenging and, in many ways, accurate forecast.   Some of its projections are still coming to pass. Toffler Associates has released a special report called "40 FOR THE NEXT 40: A Sampling of the Drivers of Change That Will Shape Our World Between Now and 2050." The report identifies future trends in politics, technology, society, economics, and the environment. You can download it here  as a PDF file for free. I picked out several that seem to have specific implications for the church.   First, THE NUMBER AND VARIETY OF NON-STATE ACTORS WILL RISE DRAMATICALLY.   NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will be the fastest growing non-state actors and will be extremely influential in humanitarian and social concerns.   If churches and their mission organizations are to have an impact around the world, the...

Our family usually marks the holiday season by doing something in relation to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.   The property has good memories for us.   We always enjoyed the Opryland Theme Park (not closed) when our children were young.   We attended at least three student mission conferences held at the hotel during the Christmas/New Year’s holidays.   We have eaten Thanksgiving dinner there as a family and toured the Christmas lights and decorations some years.   Rita and I have attended Christmas programs or concerts there. Like many, we were saddened by the closing of the hotel due to the flooding last spring.   We have a close friend who works with guest services at the hotel and she was devastated by the damage.   One Sunday this summer, we talked at church and she was excited about the renovation work and the opportunity to bring back the personnel who had been laid off due to the closing.   Rita and I spent a night a...

“How can we help our church members grow?” is a common question among church leaders.   Undergirding that question may be others such as “How can we reach people for our church?” or “How can we get our members more involved in ministry?” or (if we are honest)     “How can we get our people to support the church financially?” These are all valid questions that express the concern to help believers grow in their spiritual commitment.   Albert L. Winseman, a Methodist minister and an associate with The Gallup Organization , suggests that we take a step back and first ask, “How can we help people to be more engaged in our church?”   In Growing an Engaged Church , Winseman draws on extensive research to show that once a person is engaged in the life of the church, he or she will show growth in life satisfaction, serving, inviting and giving. Winseman observes that conservative churches have done a better job of connecting with people at the emotional level t...

This posting is something of a milestone for Barnabas File.  This is my 400th post!  For a number of years, I used the title "Barnabas File" on articles I wrote for the newsletters of various organizations I served.  The title, of course, honors one of the "nobodies of the New Testament" (as one writer called him) whose love, integrity, encouragement, and innovation are characteristics that I would hope to reflect in my own life.  When I decided to launch a blog  in June 2006, it seemed appropriate to continue to use that title. The subtitle I chose still seems to apply:  "Comments of a  progressive Baptist Christian about things that matter to him."   I have written about everything from my personal response to the death of Titans quarterback Steve McNair to my commitment to women pursuing their calling in ministry.  Although this blog has served as something of a personal journal for me, I have tried to avoid making it a place for me ...

One morning recently I was scanning the obituaries in the local paper (a daily ritual) when I noted the comment in one posting:   “He lived his life with no regrets.”   I also noted this man had also requested no memorial service. I did not know this individual, but I started wondering, “What does it mean to live one’s life with no regrets?”   I cannot identify with the statement.   Perhaps I am either too introspective or too guilt-ridden, but I can think of a number of things that I regret in the sense that I wish that I had handled them differently. There are people that I knew in high school and college to whom I could have paid more attention.   As a young person, I was too concerned about me (I guess it goes with the territory) and less concerned about how my remarks and attitudes might affect others.   There were times that I treated others in inappropriate and disrespectful ways.   I should have known better, but I didn’t or chose no...

Because of the responsibility entrusted to them, top military leaders tend to be controversial figures.  In fact, Agostino von Hassell and Ed Breslin begin their overview of the life of General George S. Patton, Jr., with a critique of the Academy Award-winning 1970 film that bears the general’s name. They seem to think that their subject was frequently depicted unfairly in this production.  This book attempts to correct those misconceptions.  Von Hassell and Breslin’s brief biography of one of the greatest general officers of World War Two is readable and comprehensive without drowning the reader in detail.  One will come away with a much better understanding of a gifted and flawed leader. Von Hassell and Breslin provide a good account of the legacy inherited by George Patton, one that was both a blessing and a burden. Although Patton was often a thorn in his side, Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower valued Patton and acknowledged that he was “born to be a so...

Organizations often state, “Our people are our most important asset.”  If this is true, the corollary should be “People skills are essential in our daily work.”  People skills are the way that individuals relate to their supervisors, those they supervise, clients, and other team members.   At Peoplemap training recently, Mike Lillibridge pointed out that the longer a person stays with an organization, the more important their people skills become.  An entry level employee is usually hired for his or her technical skills not their people skills.  After some time with the organization, three years or more, employees are evaluated almost equally on their technical skills and their people skills.  When the person becomes a “valued” employee, their technical skills may be only 30 percent of their “value” and their highly developed people skills represent 70 percent of their value.  When a person becomes a leader, manager, or supervisor, their “advanced” ...

The Christian faith has been marked by conflicts between reform movements and the establishment from the very beginning (consider Paul and the Judaizers).    Without a doubt, the Spirit of God tends to move in unusual and often chaotic ways.     For the most part, reform movements through the centuries have started outside of the established church.   These include the monastic orders, Protestantism, mission societies, and even theological education. They don’t stay outside the church for very long, however.   The church always attempts to institutionalize these movements and bring them under the wing of the establishment.   The church needs the enthusiasm and fresh insights of these movements to provide both vitality and new direction.   Of course, when this happens, the reform movements tend to become organized, controlled, and domesticated. The trend continues today and has actually accelerated due to the social and technological res...

I have known very few real change agents in my life. Sam Davidson is one of them. Sam is a writer, entrepreneur, and dreamer who believes that the world needs more passionate people. So he is one!  He also mobilizes others to be passionate about things that matter (or should matter) to each and every one of us. Sam sees the infinite possibilities in each situation and does not hesitate to become an advocate for them. Because of that, he often makes me uncomfortable (but that’s a good thing). In addition to being a very practical theologian, Sam is the co-founder of Cool People Care and Proof Branding . He has a new book entitled 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need . I recommend it to you and provide an excerpt here. One Thing Your Life Doesn't Need: Complaints Without Action Sometimes, there’s no better stress or tension reliever than letting off some steam by complaining. Yell, stomp your feet, or throw something (as long as it’s not at someone’s head). Just don’t let co...

Although a grandchild will sometimes say, “I’m bored,” I rarely hear that from any of the adults in my life. Most of us have more on our plates than we can handle. What makes it challenging is that most of it is “good” stuff. Certainly, we all have those tasks that don’t particularly energize us—taking out the trash, washing clothes, vacuuming, paying bills, maintaining our yards—but most of us have more perfectly good things on our “to do” lists than we have time to complete. When one of my coaching clients talks about finding time to complete “important but not urgent” tasks, I immediately identify with him or her. These are the things that we need to do. They will ensure our personal, spiritual, social, professional and economic security, but they are often pushed to the background due to what one writer called “the tyranny of the urgent.” The urgent things are, by definition, not important but they must be done here and now. Like bad currency drives out the good, so urgent thi...

Evidently in honor of Thanksgiving and anticipated family dinners, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition has been doing a series on why siblings differ from each other. In a story entitled “Siblings Share Genes, But Rarely Personalities ,” researcher Robert Plomlin says, "Children in the same family are more similar than children taken at random from the population but not much more." The story goes on to report that, in terms of personality, we are similar to our siblings only about 20 percent of the time. Three theories were presented for this, but one was particularly interesting to me. This is called “environment” but it is actually based on the idea of “non-shared environment.” This theory argues that although it may appear from the outside that siblings are growing up in the same family, in very important ways they really aren't. They are not experiencing the same thing. "Children grow up in different families because most siblings differ in age, and s...

In leadership development, I have often used non-verbal exercises with groups to solicit insights about how we relate to one another. For one exercise, I would ask the group to stand in a circle and lock arms. Then I would ask each person to pick a place in the room that he or she wanted to go to and to move the group to that point. Of course, this involved a lot of pulling and pushing. The smaller members of the group were pulled in different directions by competing larger members. Usually, the pulling and tugging resulted in the circle being broken and one section of the group pulling away from the others. In debriefing, I often asked, “How would this have been different if you could have talked with each other?” After discussion, someone would comment, “Well, we could have negotiated, set priorities, and taken the group to everyone’s spot eventually.” Conversation can help to surface and deal with individual needs and priorities. Of course, this assumes that those involved in ...

The coffee shops of America may be the new Antiochs and Mars Hills of the church. While waiting for a friend at a coffee shop/café this week, I was close enough to the next table to overhear the conversation taking place between three men. It was clear that one was a pastor and that they were discussing the launch of a new church in an adjoining community. Their discussion was intense and purposeful. I could pick up their enthusiasm just through the tone of their voices. I was reminded that just a couple of weeks before, I had observed another man at the same table as he seemed to be interviewing candidates for a ministry position. As I thought about these conversations, I realized that over the last few months, I had seen several small groups involved in Bible study, others in intense dialogue over clearly Christian books, and a couple of people (evidently pastors) working sermons with their laptops. This café is a virtual incubator for church planting and Christian formation. In...

Last week I participated in the Leadership Coaching Project Retreat led by Mark Tidsworth, the president of Pinnacle Leadership Associates. We met in a beautiful setting—Lutheridge Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina—with some great people. Including the Pinnacle team, we had leaders from Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Lutheran churches. As I facilitated a small group of leaders and listened to the presentations that Mark did, I was reminded that each of us has great resources for growth and ministry. Every believer is wonderfully gifted by God. Retreats like this help us to discover more about ourselves but, in reality, most of us already know much more than we are doing! Coaching is one way to make better use of our gifts and natural talents and to focus those for life balance and more effective service. What are some of the things that keep us from effectively using what has been given to us? You can come up with your own list, but here is mine. First, I...

  Leadership continues to be a hot topic in business, government, academia, the non-profit sector, and the church. Most people realize that the leadership that got us into the situations we find ourselves in today won’t get us out of those situations, so we are constantly seeking new ways to conceptualize the role of leaders who can.   One of the most popular leadership models in recent years is The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership ® developed out of extensive research by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. They first presented their findings in The Leadership Challenge (2002). This spawned additional resources and over 200 doctoral dissertations and academic research projects.   The original book is very thorough and sometimes quite dense, so I was pleased to find that Kouzes and Posner had edited Christian Reflections on the Leadership Challenge . The theme of the book is how Christian leaders can apply the editors’ model “to the work of mobilizing ot...

Dr. Tillman and Jim Whitaker As we observed Baptist Heritage Sunday in our church today, I heard a term used by both our pastor, Mike Smith, and our guest, Bill Tillman, that I rarely heard as a young person growing up in a Southern Baptist church. The term is “Baptist Christian.” The addition of that adjective gives a perspective that I did not have in my formative years. For most of my life, the use of the terms “Baptist” or “Southern Baptist” was sufficient to describe both my orientation and my tribe. We really weren’t that concerned about other Christians and tended to go it alone. We were even unsure about the National Baptists and the American Baptists, much less the independents. We really did not need anyone else to do God’s work. We were the God’s “last and only hope” (to use Bill Leonard’s term). Bold Mission Thrust, the effort to share the gospel with every person on earth, was first and foremost a Southern Baptist effort. But things changed. We took our eyes off t...

Recent news reports tell us that Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in California has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The church leaders disclosed that the church is close to $50 million in debt. Some have seen this as the harbinger of the death of the megachurch. Of course, the reality is not that simple. The Crystal Cathedral is probably unique among others in that category because it has practiced a rather traditional approach to worship albeit on a grand scale. The church has also been embroiled in a leadership transition crisis. The problems at this one megachurch do not mean that this expression of the church is dying out. In fact, Scott Thumma, an authority on megachurches, says mammoth churches aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. In the CNN blog that reports the Crystal Cathedral’s bankruptcy, Thumma states that most megachurches are holding their own financially amid this "great recession." He defines a megachurch as a congregation with 2,000 members and a...

Several decades ago, author and humorist Grady Nutt wrote a book entitled God Don’t Make No Junk . As I remember, the premise of the book was that God has created each of us as unique beings endowed with certain innate abilities, strengths, and gifts. No one gets all the good stuff, but that’s not a problem. We should celebrate what God has done in us and use it wisely. I think of Grady Nutt when I read Albert Winseman’s Growing an Engaged Church . Winseman is part of the Gallup Organization, a group that has done a great deal of research on helping people identify their strengths rather than their weaknesses (see, for example, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, Now, Discover Your Strengths and Tom Rath, Strengths Based Leadership and Strengths Finder 2.0 ). In Growing an Engaged Church, Winseman applies this approach to the local congregation. He writes, “The notion of focusing on discovery and maximizing natural talents tends to go against the conventional wisdom.” He points...

In a recent article at EthicsDaily.com , John Hewett, the first moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, shared hindsight on the position he and other moderate Baptists took at the beginning of the CBF “movement.” He realizes now that his vision and that of his contemporaries was limited by “the narrow constraints of our tradition” and preserving that tradition. “How I wish now I had sent us forth in May 1991 with the call to be free and faithful Christians,” he writes, rather than free and faithful Baptists. As CBF approaches its twentieth anniversary and thinks about its future, Hewett provides this challenge: “Now CBF has an opportunity to catch a fresh vision of what God is actually doing in God's world . . . . I am cheering them on, albeit from the sidelines, praying that the original dream of a brave and progressive Christianity in the Baptist tradition might come to pass, to the praise of God's glory, for Christ's sake, and our sakes.” If CBF atte...

I have been spending an unusual amount of time recently with a female Episcopal priest. Of course, she spends a lot of time with the local police chief. There is no problem, however, since both are fictional and the leading characters in a series of mystery novels by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Clare Fergusson is the thirty-something priest of St. Alban’s church in Millers Kill, New York, a small town nestled in the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York. A Virginian by birth and former Army helicopter pilot, Clare is in her first charge out of seminary. Chief Russ Van Alstyne is 15 years older. A Vietnam vet and former military policeman, Van Alstyne has returned to this home town upon retirement to head up the local police department, accompanied by the wife who helped pull him out of alcoholism. As one might imagine, events conspire to bring Clare and Russ together on several levels. Neither our protagonists nor the people of Millers Kill are saints; they are people who wrestle w...

Few books can be considered truly seminal works in their field. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission by David J. Bosch is one of them. Although Bosch, head of the department of missiology at the University of South Africa, died in an automobile accident in 1992, his work stands as a classic in its field. In a recent issue of Christianity Century, one theologian selected it as one the five books of the last 25 years that he describes as “essential.” As we worked through part of Bosch’s book in our Christian Witness class this past Saturday, I was once again impressed by the scope of his work. Professor Bosch drew on history, theology, sociology, and economics to paint a picture of a gospel that has been continually in dialogue with the culture in which it finds itself. He saw the gospel as dynamic rather than static in relation to its culture. The thesis of Bosch in this book is that “what has unfolded in theological and missionary circles during the last d...