Barnabas File

The life and accomplishments of the saint we call Patrick have certainly been embellished and enhanced by early hagiography and centuries of veneration.  Historians assume that some acts attributed to Patrick were either done by others or are simply good stories that have become part of his legend.  In death, Patrick is undoubtedly a much larger presence that he was in actual life.  This is true with so many religious and historical figures.  They may have been decisive, even heroic, figures but we can no longer separate the person from the legend. Not only is Patrick an iconic figure, he has also become linked with what we know call Celtic Christianity.  Thomas Cahill’s book  How the Irish Saved Civilization  introduced the rich tradition of the Celtic and specifically Irish contributions to a mass audience.  George Hunter drew on similar ideas for  The Celtic Way of Evangelism.   Just as we add much o...

When President Eisenhower left office on January 17, 1961, he warned the nation about the increasing power of “the military-industrial complex.”     This was surprising to many due to his career service in the military culminating with becoming a five-star general.     Some have suggested he did not go far enough and should have used the term “the political-military-industrial complex.”   In a Facebook post this week, a friend identified himself as recovering from the “religious industrial complex.”  I think he could have added “political” that term as well.  Many ministry leaders in the second half of the twentieth century not only grew up in the paradigm, but we helped to perpetuate it.  I know I did.   As a Southern Baptist, I grew up in a church that used denominational literature, supported denominational programs, and followed a denominational (not liturgical) calendar.  The Southern Baptist Convention and its a...

Although I am not certain, I believe it was W. Edwards Deming said, “What gets measured gets done.”     The grammar seems a bit tortured, but the idea is clear—unless you have some measurement for an activity, you probably won’t do it.    This applies not only to jotting down on a calendar or logging in an app how much you exercise, but we what do in ministry as well.   If we are going to take the time to plan and execute a ministry, shouldn’t we take the time to measure its effectiveness?  The problem is that the church is behind on identifying, keeping, and celebrating metrics for effective ministry in the twenty-first century.   The default for most churches is usually “nickels and noses”—what are our offerings and how many are in the pews?  I won’t argue that stewardship and participation are not important, but how do we measure Christian growth and missional engagement among other things?   Let’s acknowledge that this is an iss...

What is the difference between creativity and innovation?     Creativity is the ability to come up with great ideas.     Innovation is making a great idea a reality.     As Joel Barker has said, “ Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”  Once we have developed our “God-sized dreams,”  what do we do with them?   First, this is a collaborative process.  If we have spent time understanding the gifts of our people and the capabilities of potential partners, we are ready to sit down together and come up with implementation plans.  We also find ways to communicate with the entire congregation, to share the vision, and to bring others into the work through their prayers, contributions, and participation.   Second, this is an intentional process.  We decide what we will do, and we mobilize the resources to do it. ...

Most of us have read Margaret Mead's quote , "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can  change the world . Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  Although Mead may have been thinking primarily of a secular context, the idea is certainly central to the work of the Christian church. In the Book of Acts, some Christians were dragged before public officials with the charge,  “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” (Acts 17:6b, MEV)   Once we have clarity as believers, we can make an impact in our community and our world.  This clarity comes only through a time of collective  spiritual discernment with God’s people talking, listening, and praying.  They talk about their experiences, hopes, and fears.  They listen to each other with love and compassion. They pray seeking the leadership of the Holy Spirit.    Our church recently went through a pastoral transitio...

A friend in the real estate business says that there are three primary concerns about buying and selling:     location, location, and location.    Where the property is located, especially in relationship to lifestyle concerns, traffic, schools, and shopping, is vitally important.   The same thing can be said for our churches.  Let’s think about it in this way:  God has placed us in a particular geographic place for a reason.  The reason is to be an expression of God’s kingdom in that particular place.  Of course, the context in which the church ministers may change over time.  Neighbors come and go. The community changes.  Once when we used the terms “urban,” suburban,” “neighborhood,” “county seat,” or “open country,” we had a pretty good idea of the context.  This is no longer true.  A county seat church may find itself in the center of a growing satellite community on the edge of...

Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen None of us really knew what we were getting into when we started watching Marvel’s WandaVision on Disney+.     If you stuck with it through all nine episodes, you have been rewarded with one of the most moving and human stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.       One of the aspects of the MCU that sets its characters apart from other franchises is their humanity.  They may be gifted with superpowers, but they are ultimately human (even the synthetic life forms).  For me, it is not the big action sequences that draw me in and keep me involved but the intimate human moments of love, loss, sacrifice, and remembrance.  The pivotal scenes in the final episode of WandaVision are not the battles but the goodbyes. Someone observed that Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is the most traumatized character in the MCU, but there is plenty of trauma to go around there.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.)...

Have you read the book or seen the movie The Martian ? In the story, crewman Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is unintentionally left behind on the surface of Mars by his crew.     How will he survive?     The first thing he does it to take inventory of what he has available—what he can use, reuse (don’t ask), or repurpose.    With ingenuity and creativity, he uses what he has on hand to survive for 564 days on the surface of the Red Planet.   During the pandemic, we have found ourselves in Watney’s situation and considered what God has placed in our hands that we can use not only to continue but further the mission that God has given to us as churches.  In the midst of change and challenge, what are the resources we have available to us?  Many churches have been asking this question all along and have made some great discoveries.  What do we have to work with?   Of course, we have people.  Some of these are mobiliz...