Barnabas File

We lead busy lives.   Often the important loses out to the urgent.     Important things are those that reflect our personal, emotional, professional, and spiritual values.     They are our “north star” to guide our lives.    The urgent is often what happens when we don’t attend to the important. When someone says to me, “I don’t feel that I am growing as a Christian. My life seems to be going nowhere.”  My response is, “Are you practicing the things that are important to you, the things that give your life meaning and purpose?  How’s your prayer life?  Your devotional reading?  Your fellowship with other believers?”  Often, my friend is neglecting those basic practices of life and the results are clear. This has been a challenge for believers since the time of Christ.  How does one stay focused on and practice those things that produce personal and spiritual growth? One approach...

Accountability is a difficult concept for many to accept.   The willingness to give to another the ability to call us to account is never easy.   But accountability is not limited to giving another individual the ability to keep us on task.   Accountability can be provided by a supportive group or even to ourselves.   Accountability and the motivation to achieve a goal go hand in hand. In a recent blog , David Maxfield points out the sources of influence that drive individuals to do the things they do.   Based on ideas in Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, these are:     Personal Motivation, Personal Ability, Social Motivation, Social Ability, Structural Motivation, and Structural Ability.   Each influencer points out appropriate means of accountability—both individual and corporately. First, Personal Motivation— Are you ready to do this?   How does this task or goal tie into your long-term vision for yourself? ...

Sociologist Brene Brown once said, “What we know matters, but who we are matters more."  This applies to our understanding of Christian discipleship.  As Christians, we often struggle with the balance between orthodoxy (right knowledge or doctrine) and orthopraxy (right practice or action). This is the challenge that James presents when he writes, “ But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” (James 2:18, NIV) Both right belief and right action are necessary in the life of a follower of Christ, but can one get in the way of the other? Historically, Baptists have been very good at communicating information about the Bible and the faith.  They delight in asking questions of scripture that exegete the text in an attempt to understand the who, what, how, and why of the passage.  We are less open to letting the text speak to us.   For example...

With 22 films over an eleven-year period, the Marvel Cinematic Universe closes out this chapter with Avengers:   Endgame , an exciting and emotional epic.   If you have not seen the film, no spoilers here! All good stories involve conflict, and there is plenty of that in the Marvel films, but the ultimate conflict is between two of the key superheroes--Iron Man (Tony Stark) played by Robert Downey, Jr., and Captain America (Steve Rogers) played by Chris Evans. Together, they embody the dichotomy that is America (and perhaps western civilization). Tony is an unrepentant capitalist--brash, rude, results-oriented, and short-tempered--but with an evolving social conscience.  Steve is a patriot in the best sense of the word--courteous, humble, committed, and brave--but a man out of his own time.  Steve represents the morality and values that we want to be known for as a people.  Tony represents the drive, vitality, and innovation that has d...

As a task-oriented person, I like to make lists.     Even more, I like checking off things on the list that I have completed. In fact, when I do something that is not on the list, I sometimes add it to the list so that I can mark it completed. Lists are most effective when we prioritize the items on the list.  Most of us have more things on our “to-do” list than we have time to do.  This means that we must make choices. There are a number of ways make choices.  Recently I came across the Eisenhower decision matrix.   This comes from a quote attributed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower:  "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." Eisenhower did not claim this insight as his own but attributed it to an (unnamed) "former college president." The four quadrants of the Eisenhower matrix are  urgent and important, important, urgent, an...

Preachers will tell you that the worship experience, especially the sermon, is at the center of Christian discipleship.   Christian educators will argue that worship may get people in the door, but the small group experience of Sunday school or Bible study is where they connect and grow as disciples.     Both have valid points. Worship and Christian formation are the two sides of the coin of Christian discipleship.  If the church is serious about the transformation of believers into disciples, both are necessary. If worship is adoration of God, then it is an essential part of one’s growth as a disciple.  Although worship in recent years has tended toward an entertainment model with the participants as the audience, we need to remember that the audience for worship is God.  Soren Kierkegaard wrote, “ Worship isn't God's show. God is the audience. God's watching. The congregation, they are the actors in this drama. Worship is their s...

In some recent coach training events, the participants have pushed me on the difference between coaching and consulting. Are the lines of demarcation as hard as I seem to make them?     In Disciple Development Coaching , Mark Tidsworth and I define the foci of these two people development practices in this way: Consulting deals with “problem solving, action plans, specific problems.” Coaching is “developing people through learning by doing, partnering between self-discovery and sustainable action.” Consultants are generally seen as persons with expertise in a particular area of content whereas coaches are process experts who work in many different contexts.  A coach does not have to know about education to coach an educator or be an expert in the law to coach a lawyer. Coaches are hired to promote clarity rather than inform their clients.  Consultants are generally seen as resource people and teachers. Even with these definitions, I cont...

We live in interesting times when we split hairs over what is legal and what is moral.     One Presidential advisor responded to a question from an interviewer in this way: “Oh, now you want to discuss what is moral?  That’s a different matter entirely.” No matter what role we find ourselves in, we have a responsibility not only to obey the law but to be honest. My friend Jerry Gaither has passed but he provided some good advice about ethical decision making.  Jerry was a county superintendent of schools in Tennessee during a highly politicized and divisive period.  He shared with me what he called “an administrator’s ethics test.” Here are some key items in the list that Jerry wrote almost thirty years ago. Can I look in the mirror and feel good about myself? Will it make me proud? Will it stand the light of day--tomorrow as well as today? Would I feel good if my family knew about it? And, the supreme test--Could I kneel besi...

The first real “job” for which I was paid was as a math tutor.  Considering that I failed Calculus in college, this is rather ironic. I was a junior in high school and my math teacher recommended me as a tutor for an eighth grader.  The parents paid me ten dollars a session. As I began working with this young man, I realized pretty quickly that he already knew what he was supposed to do.  He understood the calculations and was probably a better math student than I was! The key was focus.  He needed someone who would just sit with him, respond to his work, and provide encouragement.  I did not need to be an expert; I just needed to be there. I find myself in the same situation very often as a leadership coach.  As I talk with a client, I discover that not only does the person have the best knowledge of the situation we are discussing, but he or she has some ideas about how to address it in a positive way....

I attended an all-male military school for 12 years.     This was not a residential school; we all lived at our homes in the community.   When I told people I went to a military school, one frequent response was, “Oh, have you been in trouble?”    No, I entered the school in first grade not because I was an incorrigible offender but because my parents wanted me to have a good education and were willing to sacrifice for me to go to a private school. Fast forward to the present day.  As I work with churches and other organizations, I sometimes hear this statement: “This person has a problem. They probably need a coach.”  I am not sure of the source of this perspective, but it misses the real reason that a person should have a coach. The present coaching movement was birthed through businesses where rising executives were (and are) provided coaches so that they could build on their strengths.  They were already doing well an...

Parker Palmer is one of my favorite authors.   This quote from Palmer recently came to my attention: "The good news is that God loves us, and we’re all created in God’s image. And if you really believe that today, then that means staying grounded in that good news, being open to the world, taking creative risks and investing yourself and your resources." As I read this passage, I became aware that this provides a good theological basis for coaching. First, we are all created  in God’s image .  As I am involved in coaching my clients, I am aware they are individuals created in the image of God.  They are special and unique.  No matter where they are in their spiritual walk, they are important to God and to me. Second, my approach to coaching is  grounded in the good news .  For me that means everyone has the potential to be “transformed by the renewing of [the] mind” (Romans 12:2) and seeing life through the perspe...