Barnabas File

Eliot and Emily Roberts are two of my ministry heroes.  When they started Neverfail Community Church on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee about 20 years ago, they realized that the challenges were significant.  This area has one of the highest rates of production and use of methamphetamine in the nation.  At  least 33 percent of those in the area have not achieved a high school diploma or GED. Only a small proportion of families have heads of household with year-round full-time employment.  Early in the life of the church, Eliot told me a key part of their philosophy:  ministry must be done with people rather than to them.  Often, we assume what others need and seek to supply it, then we are disappointed when they do not embrace our generosity.  The rejection is not necessarily due to hostility but because we are not offering what they really need. Before we invest in helping others, we might first ask ...

My wife and I recently attended a concert presented by Jason Petty and his backup musicians at the Arts Center in Cannon County.     Petty is a musician, actor, and storyteller who got his big break portraying singer Hank Williams in a show called “Lonesome Highway.”      He has built on this role to build a career in which he channels the country music icon in various shows,     and he has developed similar tribute programs built around other musical figures. Petty and his ensemble did a great job, but he got to me thinking about his business model. He is an itinerant performer who has found a niche and does this work at a number of different venues in the United States and Canada.  He continues to refine his offerings to reach different audiences with his product.  He is leveraging his talents to do something he enjoys doing. His business model is really an example of the “gig economy.”  The gig economy ...

As part of the requirement for graduation, the five students in Central Seminary’s 2014 Women's Leadership Cohort in Nashville must complete a Capstone project.   Three of the students are nurses, one works in the health care field, and the other is an educator.   Of the five projects, three consider opportunities for the church to minister to older adults.   (The others address mental health education and breast cancer awareness in congregational settings.) Churches often emphasize ministries with youth, young adults, and families as an investment in the future, but older adults contribute to church health and provide significant opportunities for meaningful ministry. One of the students cited a typology of older adults used by Walter Schoedel in an article in the Concordia Journal . He describes three groups of older adults based on their independence, interests, and matches them with ministry opportunities. The Go-Go's are independent, ac...

Every church traditionally has some type of small group experience--Sunday School classes, study groups, mission groups, and others.   Today, small group experiences may be more important than ever.   In a recent article, Thom Rainer identified eight major changes in churches over the last decade. One of these was the vital importance of groups in the church. According to Rainer’s research, ten years ago churches had groups but they were of marginal importance.  Leaders “did not see how groups could enhance the health of the church in discipleship, evangelism, prayer, ministry, and fellowship.” On the other hand, he observes, “Healthy churches today make groups (community groups, home groups, Sunday school, life groups, etc.) a high priority.” We can identify several reasons why this is true. First, most people have a desire to connect.  Although we have become a society immersed in social media, most of us have few deep connecti...

My friend Ka’thy Gore Chappell introduced the term “side hustle” to me.    Entrepreneur Magazine defines it in this way: “A  side hustle  is a way to make some extra cash that allows you flexibility to pursue what you're most interested in. It can also be your true passion – a chance to delve into fashion, travel or whatever it is you care about the most without quitting your day job.” Some ministry colleagues may think I lack faith when I say it, but I suggest that anyone in ministry should identify and pursue a “side hustle.”  Having an alternative way of making money has always been at the core of biprofessional (bivocational) ministry and allows many churches to have a minister who could not afford to pay a full-time pastor. When I returned to college from a summer doing mission work in the Midwest, I thought seriously about becoming a biprofessional pastor or campus minister in an area where Southern Baptists had few if any chur...