Barnabas File

In response to my observation on a blog that leadership in the church is an art rather than a science, my friend Stephen Currie made this comment: “I’m beginning to wonder what ‘leading’ even means for Jesus’ followers. Jesus told us that the Gentile leaders rule by lording over their subjects, but for his followers, this should not be. He who leads will be ‘the slave of all’. There are many of us who feel lost in the church if we are not ‘leading’ in some way. So yeah, I think leading-by-serving is an art. The people who have modeled this best for me were not men and women of learning . . . they just did it for the love of serving as Jesus did.” [1] Stephen makes a good point. For one thing, his comments remind us that “leadership” is more than a role or a title. Every group of human beings will have leadership of some type, but it is conferred in many different ways. Leadership may be assumed, usurped, negotiated, or bestowed, but it is there. Leadership in th...

I appreciate the work on movements that my friend StephenCurrie has allowed me to share in recent blogs.  He ends his comments on the nature of “Gospel movements” with these conclusions: “God invites human effort, and God does work through leaders and churches that care about restoration and reform.  But it is God who provides the source of movement energy through the Holy Spirit.  So we must pray fervently.  We must sow the Gospel widely and faithfully without the baggage of nuanced theological dogma or complex church practices that are more cultural than they are biblical.  Then, when the Holy Spirit stirs to generate a Gospel movement, Gospel seeds can germinate seemingly spontaneously in unexpected places.  And we can be in the right place at the right time to be part of something big that only God can do.” I got the question again last week:  “What do you think the future of CBF is?”  We have at least gotten beyond the other ques...

Stephen Currie continues his comments about movements. Movements are spontaneously sparked on the periphery.   Human effort is not a good predictor of where Gospel movements will happen because it is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Movements do not arise out of central planning of church leaders, so we cannot work harder or smarter to generate Gospel movements. Movements are spiritual, and arise when the seeds of the Gospel are widely sown.  This is how the center of New Testament missions shifted from Jerusalem to Antioch.  A few men began preaching the Gospel to Gentiles, and they received it gladly.  For a Jewish sect that was inconsequential in the wider Roman world, we realize that Antioch was very much on the periphery, and far away from the activity and control of church leaders in Jerusalem.  Antioch emerged spontaneously, and that is happening today in places like India and China. Movements must be easily reproducible . Movem...

This is the third in a series of posts on movements written by my friend, Stephen Currie of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Gospel movements are not about reforming complex theological dogma, restoring past traditions and recapturing the past glories.  These movements are happening when the Gospel is simply and faithfully shared and God’s Spirit works to reconcile groups of people to Himself.  The Gospel spreads through oikos  (household, home, or family) groups, just as it did in New Testament days with Cornelius of Caesaria and Lydia of Philippi.    God puts new wine into new wine skins.  When Jesus tells us that new wine must be put in new wine skins, he goes on to say, “ But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” (Luke 5:39 NLT).  The focus of movement energy is not on reform or renewal, but regeneration and rebirth that comes from the life-transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus....

This post continues observations by my friend Stephen Currie on Christian movements. Leaders do play a vital role in catalyzing movements, but movements cannot be dependent on key personalities.  A movement is not about attracting people into crowds, but inviting people to participate in the redemptive work of Jesus.  So God raises up many leaders within a movement and established leaders are intentional about mentoring emerging leaders.  Movements are not dependent on the energies of one person or an inner circle of people.  Naturally, some movement leaders will develop a greater sphere of influence than others.  But leaders cannot control or direct the growth of the movement.  This was true of the Apostle Paul.  He had a long list of individuals he was developing to be next-generation leaders--Titus,  Timothy,  Epaphras,  Onesimus,  Priscilla, Erastus,  Trophimus, Lydia,  Luke, ...

My friend, Stephen Currie, is involved in Partnership Development with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  We had an e-mail conversation a while back about the role of spiritual movements.  Over the next several days, I want to share some of Stephen's observations, then wrap up with some observations about the "movement" emphasis as it applies to the church and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship today.  I think you will find Stephen's comments interesting and a bit controversial.        "Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.     So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’   The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”  John 3:6-8 NLT When I think about the church today and its mission in the world, I can’t help but think that w...