Barnabas File

Students enroll in seminary for many reasons.   One that I hear from time to time is, “I want to make a difference in the world.”   This does not always mean working in a church or doing traditional ministry.   Central Seminary, the institution with which I am associated, recognizes a responsibility to form Christian ministers who can serve in both traditional and non-traditional settings. I am part of a seminary team that is learning more about human-centered design (or design thinking) as a problem-solving or creative process.  As one of our exercises, we are addressing the question, “How might we enable more seminary students to become social entrepreneurs?” As part of our research we are interviewing past and present seminary students as well as people who might be described as social entrepreneurs.  In an interview this week, one of our current students expressed appreciation for being exposed to social entrepreneurs who exhibit ...

We love to embrace the idea of the “overnight success”:  a person comes out of nowhere and is embraced as a breakthrough actor, creative genius, or the person of the hour.  The truth, however, is that the overnight success has usually been practicing his or her craft for years before attaining a place of honor and recognition. Mahershala Ali A good example is actor Mahershala Ali, the winner as Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Academy Awards.  Ali became an overnight success after a decade and a half of practicing his craft in film and television roles.  He had a supporting role in Crossing Jordan and then a lead role in the sci-fi series The 4400 .  He is probably familiar to most people for his role as Remy Denton in the Netflix series House of Cards and as a military leader in two of The Hunger Games films.  He was in two major films this year-- Hidden Figures and Moonlight --both nominated for best picture.  He won the Oscar for hi...

Whether we want to admit it or not, our actions and decisions each day are as programmed as if we were computers.  The word “routine” applies not just to humans but to computers as well. I n computer programming, “routine” and “subroutine” are terms that describe any sequence of code that is intended to be called up and used repeatedly during the execution of a program. They are shortcuts to speed things up. We function smoothly most days because we have developed certain habits related to hygiene, eating, dress, relationship, and exercise that are second nature.  In the same way, we use paradigms to process what we experience even if those paradigms are fictional.  For example, we talk about the sun rising in morning and setting at night when we are the ones moving.  We have adopted patterns for processing information that usually give us reliable results and makes sense of our environment.  As with most things, a strength ca...

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was born out of conflict and hope.  The conflict was over historic Baptist doctrines but also established Baptist institutions.  The hope was a desire to save the best of the old but to find a new way to express it.   The motives for starting something new were complex.  About five years ago, I talked with a young pastor who was being considered as pastor of a church in our state.  I explained that although the church was progressive—women deacons, ordained women as ministers, a commitment to diversity, etc.—there were still many who clung to the identification of being Southern Baptist even though most of their mission dollars were going to CBF.  I suggested that he needed to be ready to answer questions about his own denominational commitment.  I should not have been surprised when he said, “I was 10 years old when I came to Christ in a CBF church.  I came to maturity in that church and attended a...

Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is celebrating its 25 th anniversary this year.   I had the opportunity to serve as the coordinator of TCBF for slightly over 10 years.   So far, that is a record but one that I hope the current coordinator, Rick Bennett, will surpass. Both the state and national incarnations of CBF continue to evolve.  When CBF was born, Dr. Bill Leonard made a comment, “This is a difficult time in American life to be part of a denomination or to start a new one.”  CBF has skirted around the use of the “D” word in recent years.  Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter has used the term "denomi-network" to describe CBF.  The terms “network,” “partnership,” and “fellowship” continue to be the preferred descriptors.  Most participants in CBF life seem to prefer a bit of ambiguity in describing the group and their relationship to it.  This allows for churches to continue to have multiple affiliations while still p...