Barnabas File

In a recent e-mail message, consultant Tom Ehrich commented, “ As we move forward in the Internet age and learn to use the tools at our disposal, I think we are coming to a richer meaning of ‘incarnate’ and what it means to be a faith ‘community.’"   With text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, and social networking, we can establish contact and share information very quickly with other people.   Of course, there is a great deal of discussion about the depth and quality of such relationships. Ehrich acknowledges that nothing will ever take the place of the profound interaction of human beings face to face, but we are learning to trust and learn from these “instant contacts.”   They allow us to share new insights, understanding, and information directly with those about whom we care.   We can grieve, rejoice, support, and pray for others more intelligently.   I have had a positive experience with Facebook.   The social network has helped me to mai...

In The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, authors Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky, make this observation: "There is a myth that drives many change initiatives into the ground: that the organization needs to change because it is broken. The reality is that any social system (including an organization or a country or a family) is the way it is because the people in that system (at least those individuals and factions with the most leverage) want it that way. In that sense, on the whole, on balance, the system is working fine, even though it may appear to be "dysfunctional" in some respects to some members and outside observers, and even though it faces danger just over the horizon. As our colleague Jeff Lawrence poignantly says, 'There is no such thing as a dysfunctional organization, because every organization is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets.' " This goes a long way to help me understand why change i...

In a recent address in Minnesota , Bradley Longfield, dean of the   University of Dubuque (Iowa) Theological Seminary , said the church needs “to find new and creative ways to train leadership.”   Of course, the church expects seminaries to provide this leadership, Longfield observed, and the seminaries have often been slow to respond. Longfield pointed out, “The future seems to be breaking in much more quickly than most of us would like.”  Just as the church was slow to embrace the use of radio and television to further its mission, so the church and its institutions have been slow to embrace the Internet and digital technology for ministry.  They have been committed to an older way to delivering ministry and ambivalent about trying new approaches. The reluctance to change on the part of seminaries should not be a surprise to anyone.  Churches have long looked to theological institutions to teach not only the faith but to be gatekeepers for those quali...

Futurist Cassidy Dale is leading an online class for the Wayne E. Oates Institute on “How Theological Worldviews Shape Our Ministry.” One of the resources for the class is an e-book written by Dale entitled “The Knight and the Gardener:  Worldviews Make Worlds.”   In this book, he points to two extremes on a spectrum.   At one end are the Knights who are always looking for a battle.   They are ready to go off on a crusade and see every issue in black and white.   They are defenders of the cause.   At the other end are the Gardeners who are always looking for something to fix or nurture.   They put all their time into bringing divergent constituencies together to accomplish some goal.   Gardeners want to creative lasting alternatives. At different points in a person’s life, he or she may be either a Knight or a Gardener, but each person tends to favor one style (or worldview) over another.      Abraham Lincoln might be seen a...

On a recent Saturday, I conducted a morning retreat to launch a peer coach training group in our church.   In the presentation, we discussed the value of growth-centered relationships.   Peer coaching attempts to foster relationships that will lead to personal and spiritual growth.     I was reminded that relationships that produce individual growth are actually rooted in two things—encouragement and accountability.   They are two sides of a coin. Several years ago, I was involved in a performance review with my supervisor.   As we talked, I recounted some things that I had tried in the past year that has seemed promising but had failed to produce the desired results.   I suppose I was feeling a bit guilty about the lack of success these efforts produced.   My supervisor responded with a comment to this effect:   “Don’t worry about it.   Keep trying new things.   It’s the only way you will learn what works.”   Although h...

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He spoke this past Friday at Middle Tennessee State University here in Murfreesboro.   His topic was “Misquoting Jesus:   Scribes Who Changed the Bible and Readers Who May Never Know.”   He has written over 24 books including Misquoting Jesus , Jesus Interrupted , and Lost Christianities.  Ehrman is an accomplished academic, an engaging speaker, and a Biblical scholar, but he is not a Christian.   The last statement is not based on my assessment but his own declaration.   He is an agnostic; not a combative agnostic but a professing one nonetheless. To his credit, Ehrman did not bring up his religious inclination (or lack thereof) in his presentation.   This surfaced in the question and answer period afterward, and he was specifically asked to recount his journey to this position.   He explained briefly th...

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is attempting to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for public employees in his state.   Republican legislators in my state of Tennessee want to take this right away from teachers.   Florida is considering similar legislation.   Across the country, elected officials are attempting to roll back the rights earned by American workers through blood, sweat, and tears. I will admit up front that I am prejudiced.   I grew up in a home where my father was a member of a union.   More than once, the union went on strike to gain better wages and benefits.   Those were not happy days!   My wife and daughter have been members of teachers organizations (often referred to as “unions”) that negotiate with local school boards and state legislators for improved wages, better working conditions, and employment protection.   The closest I have come to being a “union” member was when I helped to organize and promot...

I was involved in a conversation recently with the leader of the sales team of a company.   As we talked about his experience with outside trainers and consultants, he said something to this effect:   “Too often these folks come in with their product and want you to buy it whether it fits your organization or not.”    In other words, they start with their needs rather than the client’s needs. What’s wrong with this strategy? First, this approach does not take into account the uniqueness of the client.   Whether it is a consultant working with an organization or a life coach working with an individual, the service provider must start by getting to know the person or organization with whom they will be working.   This requires more listening that talking.   Only then will the resource person knows the special needs and capabilities of the one being service.   In Getting Naked , Patrick Lencioni models a consulting approach where the consultan...

When I was a young seminary student just out of the military, I was befriended by my next door neighbor in seminary housing.   He was in his early fifties with grown children.   After serving as a lay leader in churches for a number of years, he had been ordained to the ministry, called to a small church in east Texas, and packed up his wife and moved to Fort Worth to attend seminary.   His experience and common sense enriched my life as I embarked on ministry as a life’s work. I thought of my friend when Steve Guinn at Central Baptist Theological Seminary recently shared an article entitled “Holy Enrollers: Why Boomers are Going to Divinity School.”   The author cites a report from the Association of Theological Schools that the number of students age 50 or older had grown from 12 percent in 1995 to 20 percent in 2009 (the last year for which data is available).   This certainly confirms the experience I have had with students both at the Central center ...

Although this sounds like the name of a Doctor Who episode, I am really thinking about the Internet’s voracious appetite for content.   With every organization seeking an online identity, web sites have proliferated at a rapid rate.   The challenge is to find material for those web sites. One of the reasons that AOL spent $315 million for The Huffington Post this week was to acquire the content.   “ The deal will allow AOL to greatly expand its news gathering and original content creation and attempt to reverse a decade-long decline,” according to AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong. I have been providing web content for almost five years through The Barnabas File . No one has offered to buy my content but I have been fortunate to have my material picked up by ethicsdaily.com , Central Baptist Theological Seminary , Christian Coaches Network , and Baptist Women in Ministry .   Central has recently upgraded their web site and added a place for blog contribut...

If you bought a book entitled Church Planting is for Wimps , what do you think the subject would be?   Well, this book is not about church planting, and I should have been more careful in my selection.   Mike McKinley’s book is a memoir of his work to revitalize Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia, over the last four years, so it is not about church planting. This is interesting for a couple of reasons.   For one, McKinley seems to want to have it both ways.   He seems to think that church revitalization is really harder than church planting (thus the title) but he keeps saying that the lessons he learned in church revitalization can be informative for a church planter.   Second, one of the endorsements on the back specifically endorses this as a book for church planters, church planting teams, or churches that want to sponsor a church plant.   I wonder if the endorser read the book or was misled by the title as I was. McKinley does provi...

As Steve Jobs has stepped aside at Apple due to health issues, a number of folks have weighed in on the topic of succession planning for CEOs, especially those who are the entrepreneurs who founded their companies or have been the driving force to take their organizations to new levels.  The truth is that most leaders don’t want to think about this.  For some it may be the feeling that they are indispensable. Sometimes their shareholders embrace this idea as well.  For others, to consider stepping down would a concession to their own mortality.  They just don’t want to let go. Churches rarely do a good job in succession planning.  When long-time pastors leave, they are usually followed by a person (although competent) who doesn’t last long.  He or she is, in reality, the interim before another long-term pastor comes on board.  This happens in medium or large size churches and does not even consider the challenge that a Willow Creek or Saddleback w...