Barnabas File

A rule of life provides a framework or pattern for a group of believers to walk alongside and encourage each other to pursue those practices that lead to spiritual health and faithful service.     Here are few things to consider as your faith community works together to articulate a rule of life.   First, the process requires spiritual preparation and discernment.  Believers become more focused and aligned as they spend time in prayer individually and corporately.  One approach would be to ask those who are developing a rule of life to set aside a specific time every day to pray using Romans 12:1-2 as a guide:   I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,   by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual   worship.     Do not be conformed to this world,   but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will o...

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 i...

Life Coaching or Personal Development Coaching can take many forms.     At one point,     I was involved in a conversation with a colleague about coaching seminary students around their financial habits.     One of the things we discussed was whether a person needs to be a financial expert to coach someone about finances.     We agreed that helping a person to break old habits or, perhaps more proactively, develop new habits or behaviors was the key to financial coaching rather than financial expertise.       Developing new habits is not easy. Some suggest that, on the average, it takes more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact . More realistically, how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In a study by researcher Phillippa Lally, a key finding was that it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a ne...

Despite its growing popularity and effectiveness, the purpose and philosophy of coaching—or as it is often called, life coaching--remains a mystery to many.   I have been doing professional life coaching for 15 years and I find that I still have opportunities to introduce and explain the concept to people.  Just about everyone understands athletic coaching either from observing a sports coach in action or serving as a volunteer coach.  Life coaching is a bit different.  Three basic ideas will help you understand how life coaching works.    First, the person being coached is the focus of coaching.  The coach is thoroughly engaged in the coaching conversation, but the conversation is all about the client.  When we engage in a normal conversation with a friend or colleague, we expect that each person will have their fair share of the time—not simply reacting but sharing their own ideas and experiences and carrying their part of th...

Looking for a master class in coaching?  Check out  Breakthrough Coaching: Creating Lightbulb Moments in Your Coaching Conversations  by Marcia Reynolds, a masterful coach.  The book is a fresh look at the basics of coaching written to encourage and challenge the practitioner.   Key topics are: ·        How to Embody a Coaching Mindset ·        Maintaining a Client-Centered Focus ·        What Is Their Desired Outcome Really? ·        Debugging the Operating System ·        Turning Insights into Commitments   An example of her approach is the way that she addresses empathy.     She explains,   “ Empathy doesn’t mean getting caught up in people’s emotions and dramas. There is a difference between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is absorbing another’s emotions.  . ..  Empat...

Holy God, we acknowledge our need for your presence in our lives daily. We share our concerns, place them in your hands, and listen for Your Voice.   For those who have lost loved ones in recent days and still feel an emptiness in their lives. . . Lord, hear our prayer. For the homeless, the jobless, and those who barely survive on the margins of society . . . Lord, hear our prayer. For refugees, immigrants, and those who are misplaced . . . Lord, hear our prayer. For those whose lives are threatened by mindless war and violence each day . . . Lord, hear our prayer. For political, charitable, and ministry leaders who confront the problems of our world. . . Lord, hear our prayer. For the family and friends who love and support us . . . Lord, hear our prayer. For the People of God who are called to be light and salt in this needy world . . . Lord, hear our prayer.   And we thank you, God, for the reminders of your presence in the ordinary things of life.   For the touch of ...

With the cooperation of its member institutions, the Association of Theological Schools does an excellent job of tracking student enrollment.    The latest report provides insight into trends in the field and approaches to ministerial formation.   As of November 20, 2024, nearly all ATS schools have reported enrollment data. This study analyzes 260 schools that reported enrollment in both fall 2023 and to-date fall 2024.    Here are some highlights:   Master of Divinity  enrolment continues its annual decline, reflecting a decrease of 1.5 percent.  Although the basic degree for ordination in most ecclesial traditions, the number of students choosing this path shows a significant shift as a preparation for ministry.   Master of Arts  enrollment has increased by 1.3 percent. This includes some academic degrees (for example, Master of Arts in Theology) and more professionally oriented programs (such as emphases in spiritual formation,...

Milt Hughes passed away on November 5, 2024.     Milt made a significant impact on the lives of college students and collegiate ministers not only in the United States but around the world. After effective service as a campus Baptist Student Director in California, he accepted a position as evangelism consultant for National Student Ministries at the Baptist Sunday School Board.    For many of us, he refined the concept of “evangelism.”   In his Share Seminar material, Milt helped us to understand that effective evangelism is not a “one off” of sharing one’s testimony or the Four Spiritual Laws.  His approach began with the formation of the disciple as one whose walk with Christ empowered that witness.   I was preparing to teach Milt’s material on a campus in Arkansas, when I realized the full implications of John 7:38: “The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” (NASB...

  An effective coach goes in the direction the client chooses.  The client sets the agenda.  If your client is a person of faith and wants to bring their spiritual development into the conversation, it is wise for the coach to follow their lead.  As a person of faith, spiritual reflection may be the way that the client processes life experiences. We have identified the focal area of coaching as “the client’s whole life.”  Does this not include their spiritual life?   A recent conversation with a pastor who is a coaching client dealt with personal clarity about goals for her ministry.  She identified part of this as a spiritual challenge.  She was already aware of some spiritual disciplines and suggested that one of these might give her additional insight.  One of my favorite International Coaching Federation core competencies is titled “Evoking Awareness.” In this core competency, the coach is encourage...

In our Introduction to Coaching Class, a question that is often asked is, “What’s the difference between coaching and spiritual direction?”  We usually respond by referring participants to a chart developed by Mark Tidsworth that is included in our book Disciple Development Coaching (see excerpts below).  We also point out that each process has become a well-developed discipline with clear standards for training and credentialing (for spiritual direction, see Spiritual Directors International or Spiritual Directions.com ; for coaching, see International Coaching Federation ).     Here are some ways we might differentiate coaching from spiritual direction.   Focus Coaching:     Developing people through learning by doing, partnering between self-discovery and sustainable action Spiritual Direction:     Listening for God’s direction, gaining insights into one’s spiritual journey.   Expertise Coaching:     Expertise wit...

The second icon I purchased was St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.    As one might expect, much of the story of Patrick is shrouded in myth. The accepted story is that he was kidnapped from Britain by Irish raiders when he was 16 and taken to Ireland where he was a slave for six years.  He eventually escaped and returned to his family, but he took vows with the Church and returned to his place of enslavement as a missionary.  He is credited with converting the island to the Christian faith.  By the seventh century, he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.   The genius of Patrick seems to have been his ability to contextualize the faith to win converts.  He took advantage of the well-developed stories, customs, and institutions of Ireland to present the Gospel in a powerful way.  So significant was this approach that it gave birth to what we call Celtic Christianity, a movement that differentiated itself from the Roman ...

Barnabas is one of my favorite characters in scripture; he was a person who looked for the best in others and was called “the son of encouragement” by the early apostles.     He embodies what I hope that I have been to others during my ministry. His icon is one of the first I purchased.   Barnabas is known for many things in the New Testament, but perhaps his most significant role was that of mentor to Saul and his first co-worker in missions.   In the Book of Acts, we read the story of a mentor-protégé relationship that prospered for a period but ended with some discord.  We sometimes forget that Barnabas was a mentor for Saul, the persecutor of the Way who would become its most articulate spokesperson.   When Saul first appeared in Jerusalem after his conversion, many of the church leaders feared him, but Barnabas recognized that his experience was authentic and advocated for him.  Later Barnabas found himself working with the new church in...

A friend is currently pursuing a course in Spiritual Direction using the practices of Ignatian Spirituality developed by Ignatius of Loyola.     It occurred to me that it might be appropriate to share with him an icon of the saint. So where did that idea come from?    Baptists have traditionally criticized the use of images as a part of worship linking the practice as idolatry.   Icons have a long history in Christian tradition.  An icon is a religious work of art, usually a painting, often created in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.   Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the production of Christian images dates to the earliest days of Christianity, but most modern art scholars believe the earliest religious icons were created in the third century.     Widespread destruction of images occurred in the Eastern Orthodox Church during the Byzantine iconoclasm (destruction of icons) of 726–842, although this confli...

In  Pastoral Intelligence:  Why Your Emotional Health is the Key to Your Church’s Health , Maurice Graham has shared not only from his lifetime of ministry, but what he has learned from two decades of counseling clergy. Although Graham incorporates the work of emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman, the concept of Pastoral Intelligence adds theological intelligence or one’s relationship with God to the mix.   The first part of the book, Graham describes the Transforming Self Triangle.   He shares not only the results of his research related to clergy experience that inform this model, but examples of how this process has been used in his work with clergy.  He builds this personal development model on the work of the Holy Spirit in the clergy person’s life.  From the theological perspective, he notes, “Ministers have to understand that God is always at work in the background. The invisible God is made visible in Christ as rede...

I know enough about the Internet, websites, and digital media to be dangerous.  I have no idea about how some of these things work, but I find them useful.  One website I use regularly is Wikipedia.  I occasionally see notes there about “insufficient citations”, “major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with the subject,” or “article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.”  I did not have a clue what these notations mean, who provides them, or how corrections are made until I read The Editors .   The Editors by Stephen Harrison (no relation) provides some insight about this type of resource.  With assistance from some within the Wikipedia community, Harrison has written a “reported work of fiction” about Infopendium.org, a global source of information, and its impact on society.   Harrison’s characters help us understand what drives a person to devote a significant portion of ...

In recent years, seminaries have made many changes in their basic degree program, the Master of Divinity.  This degree has traditionally prepared individuals to serve churches and is required for ordination in many denominations.    The number of hours in the program have been reduced, and most schools offer a full degree online. Even so, the enrollment in MDiv programs has declined.    During the same period, Master of Arts programs have grown. Some of these have provided basic theological education for those who will serve churches in specific areas and have designations such as the MA in Christian Ministry, Christian Leadership, and Educational Ministry.  Other programs are more oriented toward research and may be designated as the MA in Theological Studies or Biblical Studies.  Some programs are professional in nature such as the MA in Counseling or Christian Counseling.   Concentrations and options continue to multiple, bu...

Twenty years ago, the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partnered with Central Seminary in Shawnee, KS, to open a satellite center in middle Tennessee.  The seminary also opened two other sites at that time.  Classes took place on Friday evenings and on Saturdays.  Professors came from Kansas to teach, and we also enlisted supplemental faculty from the local area. In the following years, Central added online classes that our students could access. Eventually, the seminary was able to offer a full Master of Divinity degree online.  When COVID struck, this strategy was a godsend! Today most institutions of higher learning including theological schools offer both hybrid programs and online programs. Hybrid programs combine online and in person experiences. Online learning offers flexibility, accessibility, and scalability and in-person learning providing opportunities for hands-on experience, collaboration, and networking. ...