Barnabas File

Life Coach  was a new term for me when Mark Tidsworth approached me about becoming one almost 8 years ago. Although Mark assured me that I already had the gifts to do this because it was what I had been doing in my ministry for years, I made the commitment to receive formal training and seek a certified coaching credential. I eventually completed the necessary training, the hours of being coached by a mentor, and the required number of coaching hours—both paid and pro bono—and ended up with two coaching credentials.  Part of the requirement to maintain one of those credentials is continuing education hours and on-going mentor coaching.  In other words, I am committed to being a professional in my field of coaching. Coaching is an unregulated industry at present.  Anyone can set up a website and print up cards claiming to be a coach.  This may change due to abuse on the part of some who have abused this freedom.  A recent lawsuit  i n Col...

Our family became  members of First Baptist Church, Jefferson City, Tennessee, while I served as campus minister at Carson-Newman College.  The church is located adjacent to the campus and is an integral part of campus life. The first Sunday we were there, we noticed something interesting.  Women were taking up the offering.  We soon discovered that these women were deacons and that the church had been ordaining women as deacons for several years.  This made a very positive impact on our eight-year-old daughter, Stephanie.  When we left Jefferson City and joined another church in middle Tennessee, she began asking, “Why doesn’t this church have women as deacons?”  This is how revolutions start! Given this history, I was surprised to hear that the local Baptist association in Jefferson County took action this past  fall to remove First Baptist Church from its membership citing the fact that the church  ordained women as deacons and min...