Barnabas File

Veteran pastor Joe McKeever recently wrote an article on how to increase pastoral tenure in a congregation.   In the course of his research McKeever interviewed one pastor who had served the same church for 22 years.     Here is one observation he made: “Always work on new initiatives. His 22 years have not been 22 years of doing the same things over and over, but trying many different things.” A pastor (or any leader) can become comfortable and easily get stuck in a rut.  This means that he or she is not flexing ministerial muscles in preparation for the new opportunities and challenges that will rise in every context. Although a pastor should encourage the congregation to be healthy and attempt new initiatives, there are ways that the pastor can be proactive on an individual basis with little or no approval necessary from the congregation. In relation to the pastor’s ministerial role, she or he could do the following: Experiment with an in...

What makes a coach--life coach, leadership coach, etc.--a “Christian” coach?  I have often said that it is not about the questions the coach asks of his or her client, but the worldview that the coach brings to his or her work. As Luther is reported to have said,  “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” On further reflection, I think that there is another dimension that the Christian coach brings to the coaching conversation: the coach’s understanding about how God might be at work in the life of the person who is being coached.  If the Christian coach is to be faithful to his or her calling, the coach realizes that there are three persons involved in the conversation: the client, the coach, and the Spirit of God. I try to remind myself of this is in a couple of ways.  First, before coaching sessions I try to set aside a...

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...

As I listen to conversations about the challenges that established churches are facing, I am reminded of the quote, “We need more churches but not like the ones we have now.”     The point of this statement is that there are people groups who are not going to be reached by the traditional, established churches.  The may be due to the context, the types of ministries offered, or lack of clarity about vision and purpose. Even with many churches in decline and some even closing, I believe that there is a place for the creation of new faith communities. When I worked with a denominational group, we talked about three types of church starts:  upstarts, restarts, and new starts.  None of these is easy. An  “upstart” is a euphemism for a church split.  In the changing denominational landscape of recent years, we have seen a lot of these. I was part of a group that was just days away from launching an upstart.  What stopped ...

I once did a consultation with a church that averaged about thirty people on Sunday morning.     As I reviewed their organizational structure, I noted that they had 45 committee positions and they were all filled.     Of course, several people were on more than one committee!     Considering the challenges they were facing, they were expending a lot of energy on filling committee slots. Many churches struggle with finding not only the right people to fill out the church’s organization chart but enough people who are willing to serve.  I speak to this primarily from the perspective of churches that practice a congregational polity, but I am sure this is true with churches that practice other forms of governance. Why is it so hard to find people to take on roles of leadership today?  Here is my list of reasons, and I am sure that you can add others: People are involved in other things like children’s sports, leisure activi...

During the latter part of the last century, many churches fell in love with church growth methodologies.   The church growth movement adopted the organizational and marketing ideas used by businesses in post-World War II America.     These included designing events based on the demographics of your community, providing comfortable meeting facilities, making certain that everything the church offered was polished, and evaluating customer experience to make church ministries more attractive. There were some positive aspects of this approach, but it fostered a “if we build it, they will come” mentality.     This was an attractional approach.    If this approach could be coupled with a discipleship process that connected people with the church and help them grow in their faith, a strong and vibrant church might develop. Unfortunately, the second part of the attractional concept did not happen in most cases.  As Darrell Guder observes, “Ch...

Sunnie Giles’   The New Science of Radical Innovation   is a remarkable book, but it is not an easy read.     Drawing from the fields of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, quantum mechanics, systems theory, psychology, sociology, and business (among others), Giles provides important insights for successful leadership in a VUCA--volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous--world.    Her breadth of research and knowledge about our present context is a bit overwhelming. The author’s theme is that radical innovation is mandatory for organizations to be effective in the current environment.  Giles identifies six distinct competency groups necessary to implement this type of innovation:  self-management, providing safety, creating differentiation, strengthening connection, facilitating learning, and stimulating radical innovation.  These form a pyramid of tasks, one building upon the other. The bottom two layers are about safe...

Ha ve you seen   The Legend of Bagger Vance ?     The film was released in 2000 and was not a box office success.       I must admit that I had not seen it until recently.     I saw it on a list of films that life coaches should watch, so I found it on Amazon and watched it with my wife a couple of weeks ago. A sports fantasy,  The Legend of Bagger Vance was directed by Robert Redford and starred Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron.  Although it was generally panned by critics, the theme of redemption through finding encouragement, focus, and purpose fits well with the coaching paradigm. The film is told through the eyes of Hardy Greaves .  Played by Jack Lemon as an old man, Greaves’ heart attack on a golf course provides the bookends of the story.  As he lies on the grass, he thinks back to his experiences with Bagger Vance (Smith) and Rannulph Junuh (Damon) when he was a youngster (J. Michae...

Several years ago, I was coaching a lead pastor who had served two other large congregations in associate roles.     He recounted that in one church, his only personal conversation with the pastor was when they did an annual performance review.     In the other situation, the pastor did not even do his performance review and sometimes he did not even speak when they passed in the hall way!  The pastor I was coaching wanted to invest himself in developing his church staff and was seeking guidance as he did do. I conducted a staff development day in another church last week at the invitation of the lead pastor. We spent the morning in a community-building workshop using the Peoplemap Personality Inventory.  In the afternoon, I had individual sessions with each staff member to discuss the inventory results, their current work, and their roles in an upcoming staff realignment.  It was a good time for fellowship, learning, and explorat...

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders,   Jesus came and stood among them and said,   “Peace   be with you!”   After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.   The disciples were overjoyed   when they saw the Lord.   Again Jesus said,   “Peace be with you!   As the Father has sent me,   I am sending you.” --John 20:19-21, NIV Christ is risen, but Jesus’ appearance to his disciples on the Day of Resurrection may have raised more questions for them than providing answers.  John’s Gospel does go on to provide us with reports of “doubting” Thomas, a fishing trip, and the forgiveness of Peter.  Matthew’s account concludes with the moving and memorable Great Commission.  Likewise, Luke’s Gospel depicts the glorious ascension of Christ into heaven. The ending of Mark is a bit bizarre with its commands about...