Barnabas File

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13, NIV)   If you serve in ministry long enough, you will eventually find yourself moved into administrative oversight. For many lead pastors, this transition comes as an unexpected tension. You were trained to preach, care for souls, and guide a congregation spiritually; now, you find yourself managing staff, directing ministry teams, allocating budgets, and overseeing staff performance.   Managing is not an inferior calling. Faithful stewardship requires directing resources to meet kingdom needs and advance ministry goals. Yet the most challenging element of pastoral administration is not mana...

I love this book.     And it is not just because I am an introvert.     I love it because Jennifer Marcou does not attempt to change introverts into extroverts. She recognizes the inherent strengths and abilities of being an introvert and provides guidance for leveraging those attributes into successful leadership.      In Leading with Quiet Confidence:  A Practical Guide to Success for Introverts , Marcou states that “Introverts can be leaders by changing their behaviors, not who they are.”  One doesn’t have to give up the gift of being an introvert to become a good leader. Becoming a leader is not just about our capabilities, it is about how people perceive our capabilities.   There are four parts to the book:   Awareness:  What do I need to know to be successful as an introvert? Confidence: How to build and exude confidence. Behaviors:  Practical guide to being successful as a leader. Impact: ...

Do you know the story of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order?      A nobleman, he spent his early life as a soldier.    He was severely wounded in battle. While recovering from surgery, he underwent a spiritual conversion and discerned a call to the religious life. After times of pilgrimage and spiritual discernment, he founded the Jesuits as a religious order to create schools, colleges, and seminaries across Europe.   As a former soldier, Ignatius paid particular attention to the spiritual formation of his recruits and recorded his method in the  Spiritual Exercises  (1548). In time, the method has become known as  Ignatian spirituality .    “In God’s economy, nothing is wasted” is a statement   popularized largely through Alcoholics Anonymous (often attributed to co-founder Bill W.) to express how personal struggles, failures, and hardships can still serve a purpose in growth and recovery.  ...

Someone posed a question to me recently that really caught my attention: “What do we gain from procrastination?”     Why is it that certain things or projects tend to slip on our calendars or get buried deeper in a pile of things to do later?    One of the topics that Jobert E. Abueva addresses in The Janus Plan:  A No-Resolutions Path to Begin Your Year with Intention is the practice of procrastination or avoidance.  Here are some of the reasons he suggests.   Fear of failure.   Often, we have anxiety about addressing something because we fear that we will fail.  Perhaps it is because we have failed in the past?  To be honest, if you have not failed, you probably have not tried something that really challenged you!   Perfectionism.   Not quite like fear of failure, but an internal drive to be perfect.  Seth Godin uses the term “time to ship.”  At some point you need to produce...

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 29:1:    “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)   But it is helpful to understand the original context that is offered by the preceding verse:    This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. (NIV)   That’s next exactly good news, is it?  Here’s the context.  This is a letter from the prophet to Israelites who had been deported from their homes to exile in Babylon.  When he wrote, Jerusalem and the Temple had not yet been destroyed, but the Babylonians had already attacked the city twice and taken the letter’s recipients as captives.   And the prophet’s message is, “God has not forgotten you, but it will be sevent...

The Janus Plan:     A No-Resolutions Path to Begin Your Year with Intention challenges you not only to read but to engage with the author’s thoughtful and thorough approach to planning.    Jobert E. Abueva draws on his considerable personal experience of marketing, philanthropy, and global engagement to share with the reader an approach that is both reflective and action oriented.   Using the image of the Roman god Janus who had two faces—one to look back and one to look ahead—the author points out that “endings deserve reflection” and “beginnings deserve reverence.”  He perceives planning and goal setting as acts of personal reflection, assessment, purpose, and expectation. His six-step process includes:   Ponder the Past. Frame the Future. Nudge the Now. Clean and Clear. Revel in Ritual. Revisit and Reignite.    One aspect of the book that I found particularly significant was his emphasis on mindfulness and mediation as a preparation ...