Barnabas File

Several years ago, the New Yorker magazine featured a cartoon with several people sitting around a board table with the chairperson standing and holding a telephone.     The caption read, “Miss Jones, will you please send someone in here who knows right from wrong?”     Sometimes a fresh perspective if needed when it comes to ethical conduct. When we are young, it seems so simple doesn’t it?  We know the right thing to do, even if we don’t actually follow through.  As we grow older, situations seem to become more complex and lines appear to become fuzzy.  We often settle for the acceptable rather than the best in our ethical decisions. Every three years, I am required by the International Coach Federation to renew my coaching credential.  One requirement is a course on Ethics.  This deals not only with appropriate relationships with clients, disclosure of session content, and contractual obligations, but a...

Coaching in various forms is increasing, so it is getting more attention.  This means that change is at hand.  In a recent blog,  Edmée Schalkx   addressed “Trends in Coaching 2017-2022 ” and specifically noted what this means for users and coaches. As one who believes both in the effectiveness of coaching and its usefulness in religious settings, I suggest what these changes in coaching means for those of us who work with churches. First, faith communities will recognize that they need trained coaches. Churches, judicatories, and other faith-based institutions will discover that coaching promotes retention, provides focus, and maximizes use of resources.  With less to work with, coaching will increase the impact of the work of faith-based organizations in all areas of ministry. Second, seminaries will give more attention to teaching coaching skills and integrating coaching into the curriculum. Seminaries and church related col...

I talked recently with a judicatory leader who is launching an initiative to develop pastors as social entrepreneurs.   This type of minister would fill a pastoral role in a congregation but also initiate another ministry to serve the community that would be supported either through fees or grants or some combination of the two.  This would really be a bi-vocational or dual call for these ministers. Not everyone can assume such a role.  In How to Change the World , David Bornstein identifies six qualities of successful social entrepreneurs.  How might these apply to pastoral entrepreneurs? Willingness to Self-Correct.     A successful entrepreneur not only expects failure but is committed to learn from it.     Rarely in the church do we provide this level of grace.     Many of us confuse ourselves with God.     God is perfect, but we are not.     When we take a risk or try something new, ...

“What does it mean to be a flourishing human?”     This was the question that theologian Miroslav Volf used to introduce his lecture at First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, yesterday afternoon.     He continued this theme with a number of other questions and some challenging observations.    Although he gave us much to think about, Volf’s key questions for me were, “What does it mean to succeed as a human?” and “Can one fail as a human being?”  He gave the example of Albert Speer, an architect who invested his skills in Nazi Germany and became part of Hitler’s inner circle.  After the war, Speer attempted to paint himself as apolitical. As Volf observed, he wanted to be a good architect and to do so, he could be the best in his vocation only if he worked with the Nazis.  There were no moral implications, only a desire to succeed.  Did he fail as a human being in doing so? My take-away from...

Usually when the topic of faith-based coaching comes up, the immediate response is, “Oh, you mean Christian coaching.”     In recent days, I have started to ask myself, “Is this what it really means for me?”     To put this in perspective, let me first share three observations. First, I am a person of faith.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  Even though I am probably better at it on some days that others, the relationship is there and the strength of it is more dependent on God’s grace than my faithfulness.  Second, I am a Christian who is also a coach (life coach or leadership coach) and that means I want to be a good coach.  Martin Luther 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.”  If we do our work well, that in itself is a witness to what is of value to us. Whether I am coac...

This is the birthday of American theologian H. Richard Niebuhr, author of   Christ and Culture , one of my favorite books.     I came across this quote from Niebuhr that is particularly helpful for 21 st  century believers: “The great Christian revolutions came not by the discovery of something that was not known before.  They happened when someone takes radically something that was always there.” Our Christian tradition is so much richer than most of us realize.  Faithful men and women through the centuries have found innovative ways to communicate the Gospel by discovering and acting upon truths that were already present. Some of this creativity is certainly the result of the work of the Holy Spirit but it also comes when faithful believers come together to address a common task. Receptive activists have rediscovered the truths that were always there.  Walter  Rauschenbusch didn’t discover social justice at t...