Barnabas File

Seth Godin is a creative thinker; he is “creative” because his ideas are not only unique but useful as well (the true definition of “creative”).  In a recent blog , he points out that businesses do not have a telephone strategy or an email strategy or a web strategy.  They have a people strategy.  He comments, “We still have one and only one thing that matters, and it’s people.”  All of these other things are tools or conduits that connect us to people. My immediate response was to think about how this applies to the church.  We may use different terminology but when we talk about outreach, Christian education, missions, or financial growth, we are talking strategies.  The unfortunate part is that we often neglect to realize that we really need to be talking about people. Our outreach is to people—living, breathing, needy individuals—who may benefit from being part of the body of Christ.  Our Christian education is meant to develop people as bel...

Consistency is not expected and rarely honored in politics, but I have to admire the ethical consistency of Mike Flood, the Republican speaker of the Nebraska legislature.  Flood has been criticized by his fellow Republican, Governor Dave Heineman, for supporting a plan to offer state medical assistance to pregnant women who are in the United States illegally. Gov. Heineman, a strong opponent of abortion, says this action is tantamount to supporting illegal immigration.  Flood counters that “you have a baby’s life and health in the balance.” He thinks this is important.  Of course, Heineman understands this, but he believes that churches and private charities rather than the state should take care of pregnant women who have entered the country illegally.  He cares but not too much! But I digress.  I want to honor Mike Flood and his supporters in the legislature for understanding two things:  first, if you are against abortion, you should be in f...

If you follow this blog, you know that I am high on Bob Dale’s book, Growing Agile Leaders:  Coaching Leaders to Move with Sure-Footedness in a Seismic World , available in both hard copy and Kindle formats.  This is a book about coaching.  Dale looks to Co-Active Coaching for this definition:  “Coaching is a growth-oriented, strategic relationship.  Coaching links two peers, equals who are in distinct roles, to collaborate as thought partners and to find the way forward for the person being coached.”  This book is written for the two participants in a coaching conversation—leaders who are ready to address their situation in order to move ahead and coaches who work with them. The underlying theme of the book is that we live in an increasingly unstable world.  In order to find our way in such a world, we must develop new skills and ways of thinking.  Dale has a high regard and respect for leaders, but he also realizes that a leader needs ...

Seven people have served as coordinator of the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in its 20 year history—Lloyd Householder, Bill Junker, Monty Jordan, Lila Boyd, Don Dixon, Terry Maples, and myself. Three of these friends have gone on to be with the Lord during the past year—Lloyd, Bill, and Monty. Last night at the 20 th anniversary meeting of the Tennessee CBF General Assembly, I had the opportunity to lead the congregation in a time of remembrance for these three leaders. I was privileged to know all of these men and call them friends before they became part of the CBF movement.  I first met Bill Junker when I was a college student.  We later became colleagues in collegiate ministries, and he asked me to write my first published work for The Student magazine.  Lloyd Householder, an innovative and creative communicator for Baptist causes, was also a committed denominational statesman who tackled big projects like Mission 70, a young adult conference that...

How do you explain taxes to a three-year-old?  I was leaving the house one day last week to pick up the completed tax return from our preparer.  Cooper, our grandson, asked where I was going.  When I told him, I could tell that the idea ‘taxes” was not on his radar.  I started to tell him that taxes help pay for the fire fighters and police officers (but they are only indirectly funded by Federal tax money).  I did tell him that the money we paid to the government helps build our roads.  I suppose I could have told him that the money helped to pay for our military but really did not want to go down that road too far.  As I thought about this later, I could have explained that our taxes (at least for now) help people who are sick and do not have food. This whole train of thought led me to think about the things that our tax money pays for that were provided in other ways in the past.  When people were less mobile, more connected to their nei...

In Growing Agile Leaders (available both in print and on Kindle ), author Bob Dale shows his awareness of where we have come from and where we are going in the study and practice of leadership.  I was particularly interested in his thoughts about what’s ahead of us and the challenges that leaders face. “What gives you hope for the future of leadership?” Leaders are always more pivotal when times and situations are changing rapidly.  When the world is cruising merrily along on autopilot, managers do well.  But, when new worlds are emerging moment by moment, leaders make the difference.   Leaders are the faces of hope and future amid instability. One of my favorite leadership stories is about Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914 exploratory expedition to the South Pole.  Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, became blocked and then frozen into the polar ice.  Over ten months, the ship was slowly crushed and finally sank.  Survival became ...

The Hunger Games is based on the first in a series of young adult books by Suzanne Collins.  I have not read this series and must admit that I was a bit turned off by a storyline that features teenagers slaughtering one another.  My grandson has read the books, however, so I accepted the invitation to see the movie with him and his mother. The young actors (and the older ones as well) portray interesting characters and many deal with moral dilemmas that I have never encountered.  As you probably know, the story is set in the future after some social upheaval has changed the political landscape of North America.  The key characters are Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) who represent their district in a nationally televised contest pitting 24 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 in a fight to the death where there can be only one victor.  Although most of these “tributes” are chosen by lottery, Katniss has voluntarily taken the p...

Bob Dale has invested a great deal of his life in mentoring and coaching young leaders, realizing the importance of keeping  motivated and competent future leaders engaged.   In Growing Agile Leaders (available on Kindle  as well as hard copy) , Bob recognizes that the needs of leaders differ at various stages of their lives and the life stage of the leader offers some unique benefits as well.   This led me to ask a question specifically related to young leaders. What do young leaders bring to the table that increases their ability to be agile leaders? Young leaders have huge potential as agile leaders.  I’ve had a great laboratory for shaping future leaders.  I was a seminary professor for a dozen years and then led Virginia Baptists’ Young Leaders Program for twenty-one years.  I’ve invested a lot of time and imagination in the next generation of leaders.  I believe younger leaders have several advantages that aren’t native to old...

  “Be still, and know that I am God.”—Psalm 46:10a By nature, my spirituality and the spiritual disciplines that I practice have been oriented toward a rational approach.  For years, I have kept prayer lists, read sections of the Bible more or less daily (and even read through the Bible on several occasions), memorized scripture, and emphasized the practical implications of the Christian life.  While involved in a Companions in Christ study several years ago, I was introduced to the categories developed by Urban T. Holmes to describe the different ways in which Christians exercise their spirituality.  He suggested two scales to describe spiritual experience—the mystery/revelation scale and the mind/heart scale.  Corinne Ware develops this further in her book, Discover Your Spiritual Type .  Her four types are revelation/mind, revelation/heart, mystery/heart, and mystery/mind. Without a great deal of reflection, it was clear to me that I oper...

One of the issues that Bob Dale addresses in GrowingAgile Leaders is the challenge of dealing with transitions in one’s life and leadership.  This is even more challenging when we realize that the environment in which we lead has shifted and will continue to change in new and unexpected ways. In light of this, I asked Bob this question:  “How has the practice of leadership (in churches, corporations, etc.) changed in your lifetime?” Our practice of leadership has changed a lot in a short time!  Put on your agile leader glasses, and take a scenic tour with me.  Leadership, as a formal field of study, only goes back a century or so.  Our early practices came mostly from military and business worlds.   Leader approaches began with the “Great Man” theory----in difficult eras, a great man heroically stepped forward to save the day.  In the mid-twentieth century, scientific studies made some interesting discoveries on how youth gangs selecte...

John’s Gospel (12:1-8) tells us that six days before the Passover, Jesus returned to Bethany where his friend Lazarus lived along with his sisters Mary and Martha.   A party was given in his honor, probably on Saturday night after the conclusion of the Sabbath.   Although many have assumed that this happened at the home of Lazarus, some have suggested that it actually was held at the home of Simon, a man from Bethany who had been cured of leprosy by Jesus.   Lazarus is still an honored guest, while Martha helps with the serving and Mary, who ignored the taboos of her society, sat at Jesus’ feet to learn as a disciple would. Mary does not let things end there.  Not only does she sit at Jesus’ feet as a disciple, but she violates the norms of the day by anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and wiping his feet with her hair. The ointment was very expensive.  Its cost represents about a year’s wages.  One commentator suggests that this might ...

I have always admired lifelong learners.  These are people who are anxious to learn a better way to do something, practice it, and share that learning.  Bob Dale is one of those people. Bob has been a hero of mine for a number of years.  As a church leader, professor, denominational executive, and coach, he has shown what it means to be a lifelong learner.  He has also been willing to share what he has learned with others. The latest example of this is Growing Agile Leaders:  Coaching Leaders to Move with Sure-Footedness in a Seismic World , a book that provides insights for leaders who hunger for leadership agility and for those who are “thought partners” or coaches for these motivated leaders. I asked Bob if he would respond to some questions suggested by the book, and he was gracious enough to do so and allow me to present these to a larger audience.  Here is my first question and Bob’s answer. When did you discover that you had to become ...