Barnabas File

In a recent blog , pastor Carey Nieuwhof cited this quote from Douglas Adams book  The Salmon of Doubt: “1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” Some adult development researchers state that we tend to define “the world as we know it” based on what we experienced between the ages of 13 and 15.  This is when we are becoming proto-adults and everything that happens in our lives makes an indelible impression on us.  There is certainly some truth to this, but we must remember that we are free to accept these concepts or reject them.  They are informative but they are not deterministic.  If I was raised with a...

What are signs of hope in congregational life today?     Eddie Hammett, president of Transforming Solutions, LLC , was asked this question in an interview in the March/April issue of Nurturing Faith Journal.    Always looking for positive comments about the future, I found Hammett’s responses to be informative. First, “the perseverance of the few leaders who are open to the Spirit’s leading, innovative thinking and risk-taking leadership strategies.”  My only disagreement with Hammett is that I think there are more than a few congregational and denominational leaders who realize that the old approaches no longer work. Some have realized this too late, I am afraid, but others have caught the wind of the Spirit and are ready to engage in something new. Second, Hammett cites Christian coaching that offers hope to “individuals, teams, churches, and denominations that face steep learning curves” and “overwhelming challenges” but seek something that is...