Barnabas File

One my grandchildren’s favorite songs from the original High School Musical was “Get’cha Head in the Game.”  I think this is something that every leader should practice.  Leaders too often seem either weighted down by the past or lost in the future.  Either way, they become distracted from what is going around them right now. Knowing the history of a situation, especially in an organization like the church, is not a bad thing.  I am a historian by training, so I love to read about and seek to understand what has happened in the past that impacts the present context.  We can learn from and celebrate many of those things. Living in the past is not wise, however.  The past has good times and bad times, but all we have to work with is the present.  We learn from the past, but we don’t let it restrict us.  We need to concentrate on what God has placed before us right now and act. Likewise, I enjoy speculating about the future and...

  “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord .” —Joshua 24:15, NIV Pinnacle Leadership Associates has a model for coaching called Disciple Development Coaching©.   There are six steps in the process:   Ask, Listen, Explore, Design, Commit, and Support.   There were not always six steps in the process.   When Mark Tidsworth asked me to partner with him on teaching DDC, we simplified the model a bit.   In our discussions, I argued against including the Commit step.   I felt that it was redundant.   When we were doing the training one time, I was supposed to lead the discussion of that step, but I abdicated to Mark at the last minute. As I have continued to train people in the model, however, I have...