Barnabas File

One of the most discouraging things that a pastor or staff minister can hear is this:   “I just don’t belong here. I can’t find a place to plug in at this church.”   This may be the last conversation that the minister will have with this person, and it may be said as the person walks out the door of the church on Sunday morning. The person’s perception may be true.  Because of the direction that a particular congregation has chosen to pursue, the gifts and talents of this individual may fall outside the opportunities for service and fellowship offered there.  However, it is more likely that the failure to connect has more to do with the way that a church empowers its members than with the lack of opportunities available. A model for equipping and empowering believers is found in Ephesians 4:11-13: “ So Christ himself gave   the apostles,   the prophets,   the evangelists,   the pastors and teachers,   to equip his people for w...

Step into any Christian bookstore or search for “Bible” online and you will find not only a number of translations but many editions of the Bible targeted to specific consumers—The Soldier’s Bible, The Godly Woman’s Bible, The Bible for Teenagers, and on and on.   Of course, many of us no longer use a print version of the scriptures; instead, we have downloaded a version to our computer, smart phone, or tablet. Perhaps more than ever before the Bible is readily accessible to the multitudes.  The key question, of course, is who is reading it? As we read the gospels, we quickly become aware that Jesus was well-versed in the only scripture available to him—the Hebrew Bible.  If we are followers of Christ, certainly we are called to immerse ourselves in the Bible as well.  In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul writes: “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us t...

Dr. Henry Cloud, a well-known clinical psychologist and leadership consultant, always gives practical, applicable guidance based both on experience and research.  He continues to provide this type of information in Boundaries for Leaders:  Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge. Written for organizational leaders, Cloud challenges leaders to be “ridiculously in charge” by setting boundaries “that determine whether the vision and the people thrive or fail.” He defines a boundary as “a structure that determines what will exist and what will not.” A leader must step up and take complete responsibility about what will and what will not be allowed in an organization.  He writes, “[A]s a leader, you always get what you create and what you allow.” Cloud’s seven leadership boundaries are:  help people’s brains work better; build the emotional climate that fuels performance, facilitate connections that boost people’s functioning; facilitate thin...

Many ask the question, “Where will we find leaders for the future?” but as important is the question, “How will we develop those leaders?”   Of course, this is only partially the responsibility of those in leadership roles today.   The work of leadership development is largely accomplished by the individual as he or she accepts responsibility, engages in ministry, and learns from the experience.   We can provide encouragement and resources.   That’s where Andy Stanley’s book, Next Generation Leader , comes in. Stanley identifies five characteristics that mark the woman or man who will shape the future:  courage, clarity, competence, coachability, competence, and character.  Courage helps a person to harness his or her fears.  Clarity empowers one to leverage uncertainty in a situation.  Competence comes from discovering and playing to one’s strengths.  Coachability allows one to engage a leadership coach and learn from that relationshi...

Some church leaders disagree with the idea that we now live in a post-denominational world.   If they are arguing that issues of doctrine and polity are still important to many Christians, I can understand their position a bit.   There are still congregations that are clearly part of “faith tribes”—Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc.—that cling to a specific commitment to one another as part of a denomination of Christians. On the other hand, I have to disagree if they are asserting that those denominational ties fulfill all of the same purposes they once did or provide the same benefits as in the past. Denominational judicatories don’t provide the services they did in the 20 th century; in fact, every denomination has cut personnel and field services in the past two decades.  Judicatories still attempt to provide support for local congregations but the breadth and quantity of those services have declined. One reason for this ch...

McConnell and Herron (CBF photo) I have stopped counting how many Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly meetings I have attended.   I always come away having enjoyed the fellowship with friends, former students, and colleagues; however, I sometimes have left asking myself, “What did we really accomplish here?”   Not this year. The meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, affirmed that CBF is making progress in many ways.   I was particularly impressed by three things this year—the affirmation of women in ministry, the presence of young adults, and the balanced leadership between laity and clergy. First, the overwhelming attendance at the Baptist Women in Ministry meeting at First Baptist Church, Greensboro, on Wednesday night was a testimony to the leadership of executive coordinator Pam Durso and the persistence of the “founding mothers” of the organization.  BWIM has continued to champion the role of women in all ministry roles.  We now se...

The whole idea of the missional church—being the people of a sending God—is a popular concept among many believers today, but how is it actually being practiced? I recently received a newsletter from friends who live in an Asian country.  This family has immersed themselves in the local culture in order to share their Christian faith.  They embody a missional approach to Christian witness.  Although I cannot give specifics of where they serve, I would like to paraphrase some of the initiatives they have pursued in this setting. First, they call out indigenous leadership.  Those who have been raised in the culture are the most effective missionaries in that culture.  Recently, my friends have partnered with a seminary in the country to provide internships for students.  They are mentoring these young people to become Christian witnesses and leaders. Second, they recognize that “foreigners” (such as themselves) can be catalysts, but they should...

If you are a believer, you have probably had a family member or friend approach you and say, “Please pray for me.”   What is your response when someone asks this?   Why you?   What exactly do they expect you to pray for?   What is your approach to prayer or your practice of prayer? Prayer is at the center of the Christian life.  As good Jews, it was certainly on the mind of Jesus’ disciples.  Luke 11: 1 says, “ One day Jesus was praying   in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord,   teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ (NIV) Jesus responded in this way:   “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?   Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be t...

Life coaching has become very popular as a personal development process in the last two decades, but coaching is still an unregulated profession.   Anyone can print up business cards proclaiming that he or she is a life coach without any specific training, certification, or licensure. When Mark Tidsworth asked me to join Pinnacle Leadership Associates as a coach four years ago, he did so based on my background and experience in working with young adults, church leaders, and campus ministers over three decades of ministry.  During that time, I called out, encouraged, and empowered men and women to follow God’s leadership in their lives.  As I think back, I was practicing coaching with all of these individuals without any particular training in the process. As I started my work with Pinnacle, I was smart enough to realize that there was a lot about coaching that I did not know.  I set a goal to receive the basic coaching certification—Associate Certified Coa...

“You’re not my boss!”  In recent years, this has been a favorite response from children who don’t want to do what they have been directed to do.  This is a cry for freedom from unwanted or unpleasant direction.  Of course, this response fails to recognize that the person giving the direction probably is that child’s “boss”—a parent or teacher, for example. As an adult, I have never seen “boss” as a negative term.  I have sometimes used it as an expression of respect and even affection.  Sometimes it is nice to know who is in charge and who will take ultimate responsibility for a decision, thus giving some structure and order in often chaotic circumstances. Most often, the word “boss” is defined as one who exercises control over workers whether they are skilled or unskilled.  When I looked at one online source, both “boss” and “leader” were defined as “a person who leads, guides, or inspires others.” I will grant that some people are habituall...

The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, has reported last year’s numbers gathered by Lifeway Christian Resources and leadership is not happy. According to the report, “ the nearly 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention . . . lost more than 105,000 members and 188,000 Sunday worshipers. . . .This marks its sixth straight year of membership decline. ” Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t always  tell the truth.  The good news is that there are probably thousands of individuals who attend Southern Baptist churches each week who are not members, don’t think membership is important, and may never become members of a church although they will be regular attendees.  For a younger generation of believers, membership is not important (despite what the American Express commercial says).  They find the church they like, the one where their friends go, or where they experience spiritual growth and ...

Given that lay people often fail to understand what the clergy do during the week—“Preacher, it must be nice to work just one day a week”-- we can understand why clergy do not have an appreciation for what their parishioners face during the days when they are not at the church building.   Most clergy have held only temporary or part-time non-church jobs (although this is changing as median age adults are responding to the call to ministry).   Few clergy today visit their members at their place of employment; in fact, often the laity don’t even work in the same community where they reside and attend church.   Even if the pastor was employed in business before responding to the call to ministry, he or she may not be familiar with the stresses that are peculiar to the settings where their members work in 2013. This can be addressed in many ways in the church, but the process of making the connection can begin in the seminaries, schools of theology, and divinity schoo...

Leslie Newbigin, Christian missiologist, was ahead of the curve when he wrote in 1986 about the need for “a theology that has been wrought out at the coal face, at the place where faith wrestles at personal cost with the hard issues of public life.”  In this section of Foolishness to the Greeks , Newbigin calls for the church to encourage and equip the laity who are on mission in the world seven days a week—in the office, the coal mine, the classroom, the shop. In a recent article entitled “The Other 100,000 Hours,” Chris R. Armstrong argues that the church has not only failed to tackle this opportunity but has often “marginalized itself from the world of work.”  Armstrong believes that pastors rarely address the world that parishioners encounter when they go to work and often either misunderstand or are ignorant of the workplace.  Clergy leaders are much more concerned about what happens within the walls of the church than in the workplaces outside the church. ...

As we nurture our children, we gradually give them new opportunities for responsibility and independence.  We encourage them to dress themselves and pick out their own clothes.  We provide food options (all healthy, of course) that they can choose.  We provide books and games that will stretch them mentally.  We start acting “as if” they were older and encourage them to move to the next level. A church that desires to grow must start acting in the same way.  I often say to pastors, “If your church wants to move to the next level, you must start acting as if you were already at that level.”  This means providing adequate staffing, sufficient worship opportunities, differentiated educational groupings, and challenging ministries.  For example, if your church wants to have a quality children’s program that will attract and retain children, you need to develop one.  Perhaps you only have two or three children attending now, but you can start st...

I first saw an episode of Star Trek:  The Original Series in reruns of the first season.  The program launched while I was in Vietnam, so I was surprised when I returned to the States and discovered it.  My family and I watched that series in reruns for years.   I have also followed the four subsequent TV series and the ten movies that featured the original cast and the cast of Star Trek:  The Next Generation .  Not all of these incarnations of the franchise have been satisfying experiences, but I have tried to follow the various twists and turns of the Star Trek universe. This brings me to the current version of Star Trek which was introduced with by J. J. Abrams with Star Trek (2009) and continues with the current movie Star Trek: Into Darkness.   (Spoilers ahead.) Abrams has reenvisioned Star Trek by taking us into an alternate time line from all of the other movies and television shows.  This is Star Trek for the big screen (a...

Telling the emperor he has no clothes can be tricky.  You remember the fairy tale about this. As I remember, the naïve young boy came out of the encounter unscathed, but the emperor was totally embarrassed.  When I was in Vietnam, I was an inexperienced, freshly minted second lieutenant in a logistics company. On one of my early assignments, I was detached to work with a unit on the coast.  Landing craft would come up from Cam Ranh Bay loaded with 5000 gallon tank trailers full of gasoline.  When they arrived on the beach, the contents of the tankers would be pumped into other tankers that then took the product to the troops.  Pumping the gasoline from one trailer to another was time consuming.  I was observing the operation (that’s what officers do) with the lieutenant colonel in charge and made the comment, “Sir, wouldn’t it be easier just to exchange tankers?  We pull the loaded tankers off with the tractors, put the empty ones on the LST, an...