Barnabas File

  An effective coach goes in the direction the client chooses.  The client sets the agenda.  If your client is a person of faith and wants to bring their spiritual development into the conversation, it is wise for the coach to follow their lead.  As a person of faith, spiritual reflection may be the way that the client processes life experiences. We have identified the focal area of coaching as “the client’s whole life.”  Does this not include their spiritual life?   A recent conversation with a pastor who is a coaching client dealt with personal clarity about goals for her ministry.  She identified part of this as a spiritual challenge.  She was already aware of some spiritual disciplines and suggested that one of these might give her additional insight.  One of my favorite International Coaching Federation core competencies is titled “Evoking Awareness.” In this core competency, the coach is encourage...

A friend is currently pursuing a course in Spiritual Direction using the practices of Ignatian Spirituality developed by Ignatius of Loyola.     It occurred to me that it might be appropriate to share with him an icon of the saint. So where did that idea come from?    Baptists have traditionally criticized the use of images as a part of worship linking the practice as idolatry.   Icons have a long history in Christian tradition.  An icon is a religious work of art, usually a painting, often created in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.   Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the production of Christian images dates to the earliest days of Christianity, but most modern art scholars believe the earliest religious icons were created in the third century.     Widespread destruction of images occurred in the Eastern Orthodox Church during the Byzantine iconoclasm (destruction of icons) of 726–842, although this confli...