Barnabas File

We live in an amazing time.     We can share our ideas instantly in various forms with people around the world.   The challenge is being heard among all the different voices trying to do the same.   In Reach, Becky Robinson has provided an accessible, effective way to get our message out.  Whether your content is written, audible, visual, or in-person, Robinson provides a strategy for engaging with your potential audience.  Her approach is not a quick fix but one that requires commitment, discernment, intentionality, and clarity.  To make an impact, one must be willing to invest herself or himself to do the hard work.  The author has learned this from years to promoting her own work and that of other thought leaders.   The key ingredients that Robinson identifies are value, consistency, longevity, and generosity.  She shares practical, effective ideas to implement each aspect of the strategy, but at the heart of this process is a love for people and creating relationships.  The ultima

A Bridge Too Far is an epic 1977 film based on the book by historian Cornelius Ryan.     It depicts the failed Operation Market Garden in World War II.     The operation seemed clear to those on the command level, but Allied troops (Brits, Americans, and Poles) found themselves in a terrible tactical position.     Despite their best efforts, the mission failed.     Operation Market Garden is a good illustration of the difference between strategic planning and tactical planning.  It is a reminder that, as one military leader said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”     Thinking about this from another perspective, pastor Carey Nieuwhof observes , “In non-crisis conditions, your methods may have a 6 month to five-year shelf life.  In a crisis, your methods can expire in minutes or days.”  When aspirations meet reality, everything changes.   Not every mission is like the failed Operation Market Garden.  Good leaders and their followers can turn disaster into defeat if they are wi

I knew I was off to a bad start when I told the church group, “I don’t really believe in strategic planning anymore,” and a member of the group said, “But the pastor said we need a strategic plan for the future.”   Let me explain.  In the past, many organizations (including churches) priding themselves on developing five-to-ten-year strategic plans.  These plans were carefully printed and placed in handsome binders for future reference.  The church invested time and energy in formulating these plans, but they often languished or were forgotten.  Why?   Leadership, usually pastoral leadership, changed and the plan was forgotten. The binder was placed on the shelf and never referenced. Life happened (COVID-19, for example) and the plan was irrelevant.  I suggest that we think about strategy in a different way.  The definition of strategy is “ a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.”  This is the big picture.  In World War II, the strategy of the Allies in E