Barnabas File

Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said:  "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”  This approach to preparation was popularized by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.   Even so, the practice of continuing personal and professional development is not a high priority for many leaders—especially clergy.  They are too busy chopping down the tree to take time to sharpen the axe. Since I became a certified professional life coach, I have entered into a world of required professional development that I have only observed from the outside in the past.  My friends who are public school educators, counselors, marriage therapists, and medical professional are required to take a certain number of hours of continuing education each year in order to maintain their license or certification.  Some denominational judicatories require such education for their clergy, but this is the ex...

A friend told me recently that he and his wife have chosen to participate in a bank account deduction giving option that their church offered.  The offering is deducted from their bank account on a regular basis and placed in the church account, all done electronically.  Not writing checks or having to remember to take them to church to put in the offering plate seemed like a good idea.  He realizes now that there are drawbacks. One concern is that his children no longer see him putting anything into the offering plate, so they are probably wondering, “Why don’t Mom and Dad support the church any more?” Of course, other members may be thinking the same thing!  What kind of example is he setting? As important to my friend is that he feels that he is missing out on an act of worship.  Offering something back to God in a tactile way can be a very satisfying act of worship. I understand how my friend feels.  I have often said that offering is an ...

“ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” -- Philippians 4:9, (NIV) When I first considered this verse, my initial response was that Paul was being pretty egotistical:  “Look at me!  Do what I do!”  I have come to realize that Paul was justified in exhorting his readers to follow his example.  He was writing to people who had probably seen only one practicing Christian believer and that was Paul himself. If we are going to grow spiritually, we need models and guides who will assist us along the way.  When we seek such help, we are looking for spiritual direction. Spiritual direction has a long history in the Christian church.  For centuries, men and women have sought out mature Christians who could help them to grow in Christ.  In such a relationship, the one giving spiritual direction is providing both information and accountability. ...

The assassination of John F. Kennedy was the defining moment of my generation. When he was killed in Dallas, I was 20 years old and a junior in college.   During a time of stress in our nation—the Cold War and civil rights, among other things—Kennedy embodied hope and a promise for a better future.   In hindsight, we now know about his flaws including his reluctance to act on crucial issues, his physical illnesses,  and his personal indiscretions. In 1963, however, Kennedy seemed to embody all that was good about America. I have been reading a book entitled What If?   in which leading military historians imagine what might have been if certain military conquests had ended differently.   It is tempting to play the “what if” game with the assassination of John Kennedy. If Kennedy had lived, would we have entered in the quagmire of Vietnam that resulted in the deaths of 60,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands who lived in Southeast Asia?  Many y...

The management narrative was probably invented by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson over 20 years ago with The One Minute Manager.  The format uses a story to communicate information about management and leadership.  The protagonist goes on a quest to discover how to become a better leader, manager, parent, or person, meeting various people along the way who give information and insight.  The best writer in this genre is Patrick Lencioni; his characters have depth his situations are realistic.  Mark Miller has used this format in four books now.  He is not as good a writer as Lencioni, but his style does not get in the way of presenting some significant and helpful leadership principles. In The Heart of Leadership , Miller brings back young Blake Brown and seasoned leader Debbie Brewster.  Blake is stuck in his company, unable to get to the next level.  Through mentoring and directing Blake to other leaders, Debbie helps him to see that leade...

Although I am not a counselor, I spend a lot of time with counselors, pastoral counselors and therapists and count a number of them as friends.  I have taken a number of counseling and psychology courses as an undergraduate, seminarian, and graduate student.  I have also served on the board of a pastoral counseling center and regularly attend the continuing education events the center offers.  I have even done a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education.  One of the things I have learned in all this is that I do not have the gifts to do long term counseling.   I have great appreciation for those who do and support their work every chance I have to do so, but it is not my calling. Most of the counselors I know are Christians, but they do not necessarily market themselves as “Christian counselors.” Even so, they bring a theological perspective and world view to their practices that are informed by their faith. First, they have encountered a God of gr...

In a recent blog , Shane Raynor addressed millennial myths and the real reasons that people leave the church.  He argues that millennials are not a homogeneous group, and their decisions to disengage from the church vary greatly.  Some are reasons that lead people of all ages to leave the church.  He suggests five reasons that millennials leave.  I don’t agree with all of them, but he does suggest one with which I resonate—“They don’t feel challenged”—but I see it in a slightly different way. Raynor says, “Some of us have tried so hard to meet people where they are that we’ve made church too accessible.  Most people want to grow spiritually, and it’s hard to do that in churches that spend an inordinate amount of time catering to the spiritual lowest common denominator. . . .People who don’t feel they have opportunities to move forward spiritually may leave church simply because they’re bored.” I would suggest that challenge comes in many forms.  ...

Mark Wingfield, associate pastor at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, recently posted a blog challenging the assumption that a doctorate degree is always a good thing for pastors to have.   Wingfield presents a good case that not every ministry situation requires someone with a doctorate (Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Ministry, Doctor of Education, etc.) and that some churches may just be on an ego trip when they seek a minister with a doctorate. If a church just wants someone with some initials after their name or a title, they can give the candidate a few dollars and point him or her to the internet. We all know that getting a certificate that says one is a “doctor” is different from earning a recognized doctorate degree in a field.  Pastor search committees really need to be asking potential pastors, “Are you a life long learner?” Churches need ministers who are continuing to grow personally, professionally, and spiritually. A minister of the gospel faces ne...

Over the last four years, I have had the opportunity to engage in coaching conversations with some committed and gifted people.  Walking alongside such person as they explore new directions for their lives and ministries is very rewarding.  They are very “coachable.”  But is everyone “coachable”?  The question has been asked in different forms, but the core intent of the inquiry is, “When is a person coachable or ready to be coached?”  In truth, some people are not ready to be coached; that is, they are not ready to commit to a coaching conversation for their own personal or professional growth.  Perhaps the person is dealing with baggage from the past or a poor self-image.  Maybe they have not taken the time to reflect on the idea that they have the ability to do more with their lives.  It may be that the “coachable moment” has not come in their lives. How can you tell if a person is ready to be coached?  Look for these things...

A memorial service for Dr. Katharine Bryan was held in Knoxville on November 6.   Katharine was a colleague while we both served the Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention but she was also a valued mentor and friend to me. Katharine served as a mission educator for a number of years including 12 years as executive director of the Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union.  After “retiring” from her work with the state convention, she served as director of adult education at Carson-Newman University and then as interim director of North Carolina.  Katharine was a visionary mission leader, an insightful educator, and a committed church leader, but I remember her most as a mentor. Katharine exhibited the best qualities of a mentor. She was willing to make herself available .  I enjoyed a number of lunches with Katharine as well as “drop in” visits at her office.  Although she was always busy, she was ready to make the time to talk about personal ...

Time to face reality—strategic planning is dead. It has been for a long time, but few have been willing to acknowledge its demise. Things change too fast to develop a three, four, or five year plan of action. The environment, the markets, personal interests, and technology make it impossible to set specific goals for an unknown and unknowable future. I work with a consulting group that provides planning services for churches and not-for-profit organizations. When I first became part of the group, I was reluctant to call what I offered “strategic planning” because I realized the futility of promising anyone that you could help them come up with a hard and fast route to their desired future. We do a visioning process with our clients. You may say, “That’s still planning,” but it is more of a way of thinking that takes into account the realities of a changing world.  We need to be open to respond to opportunities that come our way unexpectedly.  We also must be ready t...

After the gift of the Holy Spirit, the primary resource that God has provided for the development of the church are the women and men who make up the people of God.   Each believer is a unique individual who has been called and gifted by God.   The challenge is to help each person discover how God has “wired them up” to serve. The writer of First Timothy provides this challenge: "Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.” (1 Timothy 4:14-15 , NIV) The role of ordained and lay leaders is to call out, encourage, and empower all believers to be part of the mission Dei (the mission of God).  This is disciple development and it can be done in many ways.  The church has used various processes for growing disciples through its long history, but I suggest three that are particula...

Last year I was part of a discussion around the book Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and Pastoral Imagination  prepared by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.   This in-depth study addressed the formation of clergy from the standpoint of the Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant (including Evangelical) traditions.   The book raises some challenging questions, but since it was written in 2006 based on field research in the years before, its picture of theological education is already dated in many ways. One of the issues addressed which is still relevant and has become even more critical in recent years is diversity. The authors comment, “The increasing diversity of students in programs of clergy education has significantly challenged the ethos and mission of seminary education during the past forty years.” (p. 54) This diversity includes the greater involvement of women (both as students and faculty), historically marginalized (ethnically...

Like you, I sometimes don’t know when to say “No.”  As a result my calendar for September has been pretty packed.  All of the scheduled activities have been good things, but they have required a lot of my time and attention. The thing that has suffered most is my regular posting of blogs. There some things that can be done in small blocks of time that become available in one’s daily schedule.  For me, blogging is not one of those.  Whether it appears so or not, blogging is a creative exercise for me and I like the time I spend writing to be as open-ended and unstructured as possible.  I have lacked some of those big blocks of time recently, so my blogging this month has been erratic. I have learned several things from this “dry spell.” First, I not only enjoy writing but it is almost a spiritual discipline like contemplative prayer.  To practice both one must be intentional, open, and unhurried.  Both provide a sense of refreshment and b...

Until recent years, Dwight D. Eisenhower was not held in high regard as a President of the United States.   Sandwiched between the colorful Harry S. Truman and the charismatic John F. Kennedy, “Ike” was often dismissed as an affable grandfather who spent more time playing golf than governing.   In "Ike's Bluff" , historian  Evan Thomas pursues the revisionist view of the Eisenhower administration disclosing that a lot more was going on under the surface than the public realized. Those who did not live during the fifties cannot really grasp the fear and paranoia that were part of that era.  While the economy was booming as WWII veterans established their families, found good jobs, and bought homes in suburbia, the world lived under the threat of nuclear warfare and possible annihilation.  Americans feared the Soviets and demagogues (such as Joseph McCarthy) fed this fear with the idea that there were Communists in every government agency.  At the same...

When I was a college student, I heard someone say, “The church is always one generation away from extinction.”  As I remember this was intended to encourage us to be evangelistic in sharing our faith.  The idea is that God has no grandchildren, only children who have personally chosen to follow God.  If new children or believers are not birthed in each generation, then there will not be a “people of God.” The challenge came to mind as I have read (and contributed to) some recent blogs related to reaching millennials for the church.  These discussions cover the spectrum: how do we engage young adults in the church, what is negotiable and what is not in the tenets of our faith, what type of worship attracts millennials, and does a church’s stance on social issues impact the involvement of this coveted group? Although most see this discussion in a positive light, I have heard some comments that run along this theme:  “Why should we adapt in order to reac...

This past week, our local newspaper posted a question on Facebook related to defunding Obamacare.  On Saturday, they printed some of the responses.  This one (unedited) got my attention: “I don’t use any government ‘services’ anyway.  I found this wonderful thing I call self-responsibility.  I highly suggest it.” How remarkable!  Here is a person who does not drive on streets and highways paid for by tax dollars, will let his house burn to the ground rather than call the government-run fire department, and would not call the tax-paid police force if he were the victim of crime.  Probably did not attend the “government schools,” either.   Must be a very lonely and difficult life. Sarcasm aside, the reality is that surviving in any society without both helping others and depending upon others would be very difficult if not impossible.  By living in a nation state, we enter into a social contract with our fellow citizens and share...

Jeff Slingo , an editor at large for The Chronicle of Higher Education, recently posted a blog about what he learned from a ten day transcontinental train ride with 24 millennial entrepreneurs.   In the post, Slingo pushes back against the stereotype of millennials as “ lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents. ” Slingo lists some of the things he learned in dialogue with these young adults.  What he discovered has implications for the church, not only in engaging young adults but in embracing a way of doing ministry that will renew the life of the church. First, we should “think and make connections across silos rather than within them.”  Young adults have been brought up in educational and recreational venues where they have interacted with people of many races, cultures, and backgrounds.  They don’t function well in “silos” cut off from the insights and experiences of others.  To reach young adults and to enrich our own ...

Along with over 78,000 others, I participated in The Global Leadership Summit of the Willow Creek Association on August 8-9.  I was at one of the 269 Host Sites around the U.S. and Canada.  A version of the Summit is now made available now in 100 countries during the months following the event through a combination of video and live presentations. I always feel that I have to provide a disclaimer to get my friends who are uncomfortable with megachurches to read a blog involving Willow Creek, so let me say that I attend the Summit for three reasons: First, Willow Creek Community Church, the “mother church” of the Willow Creek Association, does “big church” well, and they are transparent when they falter.  The same spirit infuses the Summit. Second, the worship is always different from what I usually experience and that is not bad.  I need to be “stretched” a bit. Third, the Summit organizers enlist some of the most creative and challenging leaders...