Barnabas File

A t some point, I discovered that you learn more by teaching than by being a student in a course.  For four years, colleague Beth Kennett and I have taught an Introduction to Coaching class as part of Summit Coach Training from Pinnacle.  In teaching, I have rediscovered at least ten concepts that I think every coach should remember.  1.   1.   The client is central.     Coaching is really all about the client. The client sets the agenda, and the coach provides the process.     If you have any concerns about what to ask or how to proceed, ask yourself, “Does this serve the client?” 2.       Coaching is really a partnership.     It is a collaborative activity.     Bob Dale spoke about coach and client as “thought partners.”     It is a partnership that fosters creativity on the part of client and learning on the part of the coach. 3.       You are not a “...

At some point, I discovered that you learn more by teaching than by being a student in a course.  For three years, colleague Beth Kennett and I have taught an Introduction to Coaching class as part of Summit Coach Training from Pinnacle.   In teaching, I have rediscovered at least ten concepts that I think every coach should remember.    The client is central.  Coaching is really all about the client. The client sets the agenda, and the coach provides the process.  If you have any concerns about what to ask or how to proceed, ask yourself, “Does this serve the client?” Coaching is really a partnership.  It is a collaborative activity.  Bob Dale spoke about coach and client as “thought partners.”  It is a partnership that fosters creativity on the part of client and learning on the part of the coach. You are not a “fixer.”  Many of us who are coaches come from backgrounds where we were problem-solve...

As they swam past each other, one fish asked another, “How’s the water?”     The other fish replied, “What’s water?”     The point of the story is that it is easy to forget what surrounds you and fail to examine it because it is what you know.     To an outsider, those same surroundings might seem strange. We are immersed in culture with its artifacts, values, and assumptions.  Unless something happens to challenge those givens, we rarely think about the culture we find ourselves in.   For those of us who work with churches, the term “culture” has at least two meanings.  On one hand, culture is the larger environment in which we live.  For Christians, culture can be both a gift and a challenge.  Our culture--language, political structures, customs, relationships--provide a stage on which we perform our ministry.  Early Christians like Paul discovered how to use the Graeco-Roman culture t...

When I was in Mississippi several years ago, I heard the story of the driver who was pulled over by the Highway Patrol officer going south on Interstate 55 at 80 miles per hour. The officer asked, “Where are you going?” “To Memphis,” the man replied.     “You’re headed south.     This won’t get you to Memphis.”    “I know,” the driver said, “but I’m making such good time.” I was reminded of this story when I read Seth Godin’s post about being on the wrong bus.  Yes, it was not easy to get on the bus, you are comfortable, and it’s getting dark outside, but you are still on the wrong bus.  You have made a mistake and you need to correct it. Godin writes, “ If you really want to get where you set out to go, you're going to have to get off the wrong bus.” The moral of these stories is that if you are heading in the wrong direction--in your professional life or with your church or organization, you need to admit it and change...

In a recent blog , consultant Seth Godin addresses the power of metaphor.   He points out, “The best way to learn a complex idea is to find it living inside something else you already understand.”   In other words, “this” is like “that.” “When you see a story, an example, a wonderment,” says Godin, “take a moment to look for the metaphor inside.”   Jesus turned this around.   In the use of parables, he told a story or provided a metaphor and challenged his hearers to see the truth within. For example, in his teaching on the Kingdom (or Reign) of God in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus compares the Kingdom to such things as a mustard seed, yeast, a hidden treasure, a net, a king, and a landowner.   His hearers are encouraged to use their imaginations to understand something that they had never experienced.   He also attempted to shift their perspective so that they might see signs of the Kingdom breaking into their present reality.  These are metapho...

Seth Godin is a creative thinker; he is “creative” because his ideas are not only unique but useful as well (the true definition of “creative”).  In a recent blog , he points out that businesses do not have a telephone strategy or an email strategy or a web strategy.  They have a people strategy.  He comments, “We still have one and only one thing that matters, and it’s people.”  All of these other things are tools or conduits that connect us to people. My immediate response was to think about how this applies to the church.  We may use different terminology but when we talk about outreach, Christian education, missions, or financial growth, we are talking strategies.  The unfortunate part is that we often neglect to realize that we really need to be talking about people. Our outreach is to people—living, breathing, needy individuals—who may benefit from being part of the body of Christ.  Our Christian education is meant to develop people as bel...

Although the church is not a business, there are valuable resources from the business world that can be very helpful to those who lead churches, judicatories, or faith-based organizations.   I welcome the insights of people like Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, and others who provide information and ideas that give us a new perspective on what we are doing as believers.   Of course, any writer, speaker, or leader—secular or sacred—needs to meet the tests of soundness and integrity but people like these often provide us with “best practices” that challenge us to do more.   They call us to do not just the minimum but to be better. Christians are called to do more than the bare minimum in their lives and kingdom service.  The little book of James is a valuable resource as we consider the criteria by which our lives and ministry should be evaluated.  In James 1:22-25, we find these words: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so de...

Seth Godin does good work.   Not only does he provide alternatives to old ways of doing things, he reminds us not to neglect proven concepts.   In a recent blog post , he wrote about the differences between managers and leaders.   He said: “Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.   Leaders, on the other hand, know where they'd like to go, but understand that they can't get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.   Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.” Godin goes on to point out that we need both managers and leaders, but he shows his bias when he says, “It helps to remember that leaders are scarce and thus more valuable.” Although I understand his sentiment, I have to disagree.   I would say that both are valuable, but only if they understand their respective roles and both accept the responsibilities tha...

In a recent blog, Seth Godin pointed out that “history doesn’t always repeat itself . . . but it usually rhymes.”   Most of us grew up with the world view that history tends to be cyclical—wars, famines, economic disasters—tend to recur on a regular basis.   The players may be different, but the circumstances are pretty much the same.   This worked pretty well for us when we were much more tied to a low tech, agricultural culture.   Godin points out the new reality that the next “big thing” may look very different from the last one, bringing with it a number of unexpected consequences. For example, when we started using pagers, did we really expect that they would be replaced by compact “communicators” that we call cell phones?   Cell phones (and smart phones) have brought a whole different kind of wireless connectedness to our culture—text messages, instant pictures and videos, and delivery of music, movies, and other media—all in the palms of our hands...