Barnabas File

The process for supplying ministerial leaders used to go something like this.   Churches nurtured young people who “responded to the call to ministry.”   After the candidates completed college, the church sent them on to the denominational seminary which not only taught denominational doctrine but were funded by the denomination to do so.   When the student graduated, he (and sometimes she) began candidating through the denomination’s accepted process and found an initial place of service.    This may be a simplified explanation that did not always work as smoothly as stated, but this was the general idea.   The current situation is much more complicated.   Potential seminarians respond to the call later in life—either after an educational hiatus following college or after starting a career and family.      Some don’t have any college education at all.   Denominations are no longer funding theological education as the...

“If you have tried to do something and failed, you are vastly better off than if you had tried to do nothing and succeeded.”—Richard Martin Stern As any reader of this blog knows, I believe in setting goals.   Even if not fully achieved, goals provide us with a direction for our daily, weekly, monthly and annual activities.   They are benchmarks that measure change.   Achieving a goal provides a sense of accomplishment.   Setting goals also helps us to determine our priorities.   The question for today is, “Do your goals reflect what you most value in life?” Coaching clients have told me that one of the most effective exercises I ask them to do is reflect on and identify their core values.   When things become difficulty in a coaching conversation, going back to one’s stated values provides both motivation and clarity. For example, if a client has said that family is a core value but he keeps adding on responsibilities that take him away ...

For Christian parents, taking your children to church requires a special commitment.   Although there are more options for church attendance than just Sunday morning and dress expectations have been minimized, the very act of taking (not sending) your children to worship and (hopefully) Bible study is a witness to your own faith and a desire to instill that faith in them.   You are witnessing to the fact that there is something more to life. I thought about this when I recently heard a rebroadcast of an On Point presentation   on NPR hosted by Tom Ashbrook.   He was interviewing Phil Zuckerman, professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College on his book Living the Secular Life:   New Answers to Old Questions.    Based on research of sociological trends, Zuckerman explained that people still want community but they want it without supernatural and mythological trappings.   His personal analysis is that religion does more harm ...

Have you ever sat down with an old friend who you have not seen in years and immediately reconnected?   That describes my experience with Star Wars:   The Force Awakens.    I had three expectations going in: Someone will die. Given the involvement of J. J. Abrams, there will be strong female characters. A lot of things will blow up All  expectations were fulfilled. First, someone significant dies.   If you look back over all of the Star Wars films, both the first trilogy (episodes four, five, and six) and the prequels (episodes one, two and three), a significant character (not necessarily a major character) dies in each for dramatic effect.    I saw the movie with three of my grandchildren.   Before we went into the movie, both my sixteen year old grandson (who has seen all of the movies) and I guessed who it would be.   We were right.   And it was very dramatic and the treacherous act will be a major factor ...

Christians in the United States sometimes talk in rather exaggerated terms of being “persecuted.”   What would life be like for us if we actually lived in a totalitarian state without basic civil rights?   The Man in the High Castle , an alternative history series on Amazon, gives us some ideas. The series is loosely based Philip K. Dick's classic award-winning novel.   In adapting the story for television, creator Frank Spotniz has taken great liberties with the original source.   Spotniz, who was associated with The X Files , freely exercises some of the political and social satire of the former series in showing a United States of America in 1960 where the Allies lost World War Two.    In this version of history, the United States has been divided into three parts: the Japanese Pacific States in the west, the Greater Nazi Reich in the east and the Rocky Mountain States (or the Neutral Zone ) in the middle.   Hitler is still alive,...