Barnabas File

NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz When I visited the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, a couple of years ago, I noticed a tote bag in the gift shop with these words: “Failure is not an option.”   Although the quote is attributed to Gene Kranz, the NASA flight director of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, he never said it.    Actor Ed Harris, who portrayed Kranz in the Apollo 13 film, does use the line and Kranz himself adopted it as the title for his autobiography. The phrase itself is a great motivator but in reality we must admit that failure is always an option in any endeavor that involves risk or creativity.  Failure is part of life. Someone said, “The saddest thing in the world is not to fail but not to have tried.”  If we risk greatly, there is always the chance that we will fail . . . and that’s all right.  It is in failing that we learn and grow. The failure of the Apollo 13 space craft created the opportunit...

My friend is chair of the Deacon body in her Baptist church in a neighboring state.  She shared with me the struggle they were experiencing over clarifying the role of deacons in the church.  Is it one of administration and authority or service and spiritual guidance?  I recommended that she obtain a copy of Exemplars:  Deacons as Servants and Spiritual Leaders .   I think she will find it a valuable resource for illumination and discussion. Although described in the introductory chapter as a “workbook,” I would call this book a resource for personal and group development.  The content is rich in information and each chapter includes questions for individual reflection and group conversation. The book is built upon three pillars.  First, who do deacons need to be?  Deacons—like all believers--are unique creations of God, recipients of God’s grace, and spiritually gifted servants.  These...

Add caption “Empowerment” has become something of a catch phrase not only in businesses and other secular organizations, but in the church as well. We talk about being “empowering leaders” who call forth the best in others.   We want people to “feel empowered” to exercise their gifts.     We hope those with whom we work will “become empowered” as the result of our leadership. Recently, I came across this quote from Robert E. Quinn in Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within that changed my paradigm completely. "We do not, however, empower people. Empowerment cannot be delegated. We can only develop an appropriate empowering environment where people will have to take the initiative to empower themselves." This caught my attention.  Empowerment is not something I do to someone else.  Just as I cannot motivate another person to do something, I cannot empower that person to release his or her gifts.  I cannot force them to...

What does VUCA stand for?   This is an acronym introduced by the U. S. Army War College in the early 1990s to describe the world we entered when the Cold War ended--volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.     The term has come to be used to describe the contemporary context in which we live and work.     For example, see Sunnie Giles, The New Science of Radical Innovation   or Bob Johansen,   The New Leadership Literacie s , for strategies to lead and innovate in this environment. Businesses are not the only enterprises affected by this way of perceiving our world.  Theological education, if it is to be effective in the 21 st century, must take volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity into account for this is the world in which ministry takes place. In an  uncertain  world, the most important resources a seminary provides are information and formation.  Theological schools are the custodians of i...

In a blog several years ago, church consultant George Bullard asked the question, “ Why is the Congregational Life Cycle Still So Popular and Requested?”  This model related to the life of a church was developed by Bullard, Bob Dale, and others in the 1970s and 1980s to describe the develop of a congregation and possibilities of redevelopment.  The idea was first introduced in secular models of organizational development.  You can see the model here. Bullard points out that he still has requests to present  on the model in seminars and conferences as well as permission to reproduce it. I remember seeing the model in Bob Dale’s book To Dream Again and hearing Bullard talk about it in the 1980s. The primary reason that I think the model resonates with so many church leaders is that it assumes that the church, any church, is a living organism.  It is born, it matures, it contributes, and it ages.  The big difference between th...

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”—Maimonides What is your paradigm for learning?  I grew up on a content-oriented approach to learning where one is expected to master a body of knowledge.  Too often this meant information flowing from the mouth of the instructor to the ears of the student to the notebook page without any meaningful involvement with the content on the student’s part.  Education was something we “did to people.”  We educated them. Too often, those of us who are in the people helping professions—teaching, mentoring, coaching, consulting, counseling—think of ourselves only as content providers.  We deliver the goods and someone else uses them.  This assures the provider of ongoing employment without making any appreciable change in the life of the recipient who becomes simply a consumer. This may be good for the provider but a poor t...

I recently posted an article related to a resolution opposing social justice that a messenger planned to present at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.     I was surprised at the responses.     One person said that when he thought of social justice, “Communism” or “socialism” came to mind.     Another considered social justice a modern construct that had nothing to do with the Bible.     Someone else said, “Social justice is just about civil rights.” The church of the 2lst century is challenged to reclaim the term and make it part of its DNA. In fact, I believe that if the church fails to deal with social justice concerns such as sexuality, economic deprivation, care for the infirm, hospitality for the stranger, and creation care, it is not pursuing the mission of God. A quick search of the word “justice” on Bible Gateway identifies 130 citations including both the teachings of Old Testament prophets and those of Je...

Since seminary days, I have been a student of church architecture.     I love to walk through worship spaces, take pictures, and learn their history.     The structures that we Christians build make theological statements, whether the buildings are gothic cathedrals, simple country churches, art nouveau temples, or modern places of gathering.     Auxiliary buildings such as Christian education space, fellowship halls, and gymnasiums express our approach to church life and ministry. The challenge we face comes when the way we do church changes.  Believe it or not, it is easier to change the way that a church worships than it is to alter how it uses its buildings.  And, as anyone who has ever attempted it knows, changing worship styles has divided more churches that have doctrinal issues. Church buildings become memorials to life experiences.  We become emotionally attached to buildings because that is where sacred mom...

Dr. Terrell Carter invited me to be a guest on his weekly radio program which is broadcast in St. Louis.     We recorded the program last Friday and it was scheduled to be broadcast on Saturday.     This is not something I usually do, but I enjoyed the dialogue that emerged between the two of us. As Terrell asked me about some of the challenges that face the 21 st century church, I said, “One of the biggest challenges that we face is accepting people where they are rather than where we would like for them to be.”  I don’t think that I had actually used that terminology previously.  Whether we intend it or not, we think in terms of the “ideal new member” for our congregation, expecting the person to come up to certain standards.  Unconsciously we are thinking, “This way we avoid the hard work of acceptance.” Of course, we should ask ourselves, “When I first became part of a faith community, was I such a great ‘catch’?” The...

(This guest post is provided by Cheri Torres, co-author of  Conversations Worth Having: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Fuel Productive and Meaningful Engagement .) We’ve all been there. Someone comes at us full of anger, looking for someone to blame, and spewing ultimatums. If we’re not aware, before we know it we’re in an argument, defending, counter-attacking, and escalating the situation. In these situations, our nervous systems see saber tooth tigers. The brain leaps to protect us, sending oxygen and nutrients to help us fight, flee, or freeze. The higher-order thinking needed in these situations doesn’t stand a chance. When our brain is hijacked like this, it takes us to a place of distrust, and any hope of a conversation worth having is severely diminished. Problems can best be solved with the help of critical thinking and creativity. This means moving out of fear and distrust and into a place of trust and cooperation. Anyone can do that. Whoever does it...

Last week I was on campus at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas.     Two Doctor of Ministry cohorts were there to attend the residency seminars that are part of their semester studies.     Dr. John Park, director of the program, was teaching “Embracing Design Thinking” to the 2017 cohort which started January 2017.     Dr. Terrell Carter and I taught “Understanding Yourself and Others” to the cohort that began in January of this year. Although the groups had some interaction during breaks, over meals and in chapel worship, their primary interaction took place within their own cohorts.  Each cohort has developed a high level of trust, even the group that just began in January.   Studies have shown that ministers thrive in intentional communities of practice or peer learning groups.  Many denominations such the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship encourage and facilitate the development of these ongoi...

The final step in the CHANGE process for a church is encouragement.   Accountability structures provide encouragement as we pursue a goal and they keep us on track.     In individual coaching, the coach is NOT the accountability structure.     The client designs his or her own accountability structures or identifies those already in place—family, friends, coworkers—who can come alongside and help. As we work with a church to change, we can call upon structures already in place or create some to help move toward the goal.   Some accountability structures already exist.  These may be staff meetings, leadership teams (elders, session, etc.), or church business meetings.  These provide times to not only report what is being achieved but to celebrate as well.   For example, when a goal is developed, steps to achieve that goal are outlined.  We might see these not only as steps in a process but milestone...

GPS is a wonderful invention.     All one has to do is either type in (or speak) a destination and step by step directions are provided to get there.     I must say, however, that I often pull up an overview map that shows me the “big picture” of how I will get there as well as some perspective on the arrival point.     I like clarity about where I am going to end up. Author Lewis Carroll wrote,  “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  Before you depart on a journey, it is a good idea to know where you are going.  As a church makes decisions about the change it wishes to initiate, there should be clarity about the desired future before planning on how to get there.  This is the desired goal the church is working toward—more engaged worshippers, expanded ministry to the community, or a great commitment on the part of participants to Christian formation, for example. There will alway...

When did the need for structure first begin to limit your creativity?  I think it began for me in kindergarten when the teacher insisted that I had to color within the lines.  I don’t remember if I asked “Why?” or not, but I do know that there was no option.  Of course, my teacher wife and daughter would assure me that this has something to do with developing small motor skills, but I still wonder about the practice and what’s so important about “coloring within the lines.” The same is true in the church.  Early on, each of us was ingrained with the idea of “this is the way we do church.”  Imagine my surprise as a teenager when I discovered that other people (including other Baptists) did church in different ways.  I did not find this threatening but rather exciting!   Those of us who work in the church today must address the fact that we have been trained to avoid creativity and temper our curiosity.  We have been e...