Barnabas File

For years, organizations have focused on VUCA, a term introduced by the U.S. Army War College in the late 1980s to describe the world after the Cold War.   VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. It is a framework used to describe the rapid, unpredictable, and turbulent nature of modern business, military, and strategic environments, focusing on how organizations navigate challenging and constantly changing conditions.  Early on, it was often cited a framework for interpreting the COVIC-19 epidemic.    Jamais Cascio , an American futurist and anthropologist, proposes it is time for a new term—BANI—Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, Incomprehensible.   He first introduced the acronym in a 2018 article titled  "Facing the Age of Chaos,"  though it gained traction during the pandemic to describe an increasingly unstable world that had moved beyond the older "VUCA" model.   Cascio designed the framework to capture...

  Here’s a new word to add to your vocabulary:  permacrisis.  It refers to “an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events.”  The Collins Dictionary added it to their files in 2022 and declared it the word of the year. The word represents the compounding crises we have seen in recent years including inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, the pandemic, disastrous climate change, the war in Ukraine, and ongoing racial tensions.   Permacrisis may well take the place of the VUCA acronym—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—to describe our present-day situation. Although it has been used in economic, social, and political contexts, the word might appropriately be applied to where we find the church in North America today.  It appears that several crises are coming to a head for our churches.  All denominations report that their congregants are aging, resulting in...

Whatever your career--service, industry, farming, education, church--you are being challenged in this VUCA--volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous--moment. You have to reimagine the way you do business; that is, the way you operate.     THNK recently posted a blog suggesting how we can take advantage of this opportunity, and we can apply their insights to the church. First, take advantage of this time to do things differently.  As we think about the church, clergy and lay leaders have stepped and tried many new things during this time of pandemic, but a key learning is that the church is the people and not the building.  When worship and other gatherings cannot meet in a specific physical location, leaders have found different ways to connect people.  Perhaps we have learned some lessons here that we want to continue. For example, livestreaming services have offered the opportunity for those who are not able to attend physical worship to ...

In this VUCA--volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous--moment, we are rediscovering that what we crave most is relationship, and we are discovering new ways to relate to family, friends, co-workers, and fellow disciples.       THNK recently posted a blog suggesting how we can take advantage of this opportunity, and we can apply their insights to the church. First, lead with humanity and empathy. The key word I am hearing both from business and spiritual leaders is connection.  In this time of shelter-in-place and social distancing even the introverts among us desire human contact.  Even those who have families with whom to interact are feeling vulnerable.  Church leaders have created or rediscovered many ways to keep in touch with their flocks--not just Zoom and Facetime but cards, letters, and telephone calls--and remind each person that they are loved and valued.  No matter their age, status, or level of church involvement...

The current pandemic is only one example of the VUCA--volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous--world in which we live.     We have experienced other wrenching moments in our lives, but this one has come with rapidity, power, and breadth that hits us like a bucket of cold water.     These are the moments that challenge, stretch, and remold us.     Even the church and its leaders can learn from this experience and find ways to strengthen its mission during this turbulent time. THNK recently posted a blog suggesting how organizations can take advantage of this crucible moment.  This is an opportunity for personal growth, reforging relationships, and reimagining our work.  In this blog, I will address the first topic as it applies to the church. You would think that personal growth--both personal and communal-- would always be at the top of the agenda for Christian leaders, but this emphasis often losses out to more mundane conce...

“Change is the only constant.” --Heraclitus In  The New Leadership Literacies , author Bob Johansen is realistic about what it means to be a leader in a VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.  Despite the challenges of leadership in this era, he is surprisingly optimistic that leaders can and will learn how to engage these dynamic forces and provide the guidance that organizations need to move forward. Johansen writes, “As I’ve worked with the VUCA world concept in a variety of organizations since 9/11, I’ve come to understand that it does have a hopeful side: volatility yields to vision; uncertainty to understanding; complexity to clarity; and ambiguity to agility. Vision, understanding, clarity, and agility are foundational to the new leadership literacies that I am proposing in this book. What does it mean for a leader, especially in a faith-based organization, to transform each of these challenges into an opportunity for eng...

“It is better to try something and fail rather than try nothing and succeed.” --Anonymous As we minister in a VUCA world  of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, we have to be willing to take chances.  In these times, the way forward is not always clear, and our skills may be lacking, but we will learn more from action than inaction.  What guides this type of risk-taking? First, we have to be ready to respond to the unexpected.  During these days of the Coronavirus crisis, many church leaders are trying things that they have never done before, especially in relation to digital communication and online engagement.  Churches that never considered offering their worship services online are putting Sunday worship on the internet and offering daily devotions on video.  Bible study classes, youth gathering, children’s events, and committee meetings are being conducted by teleconference.  Some of these a...

“ Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” -- 1 Corinthians 14:8  (NIV) As we minister in a VUCA world  of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, clear and effective communication is more important than ever.  Good communication requires more than physical presence.  We can stand face to face with another person and fail to receive or understand what he or she is saying!  This clarity of message becomes even more important when we are communicating at a distance using teleconference, videoconference, and social media.  All of these are effective tools, but their use does not assure effective communication. As clergy leaders use media to communicate in  in creative and effective ways, what are some things we should keep in mind? First, what are you trying to communicate?  Clarity of communication requires that you know and understand what you want to...

“If you think that not gathering in a church building is going to kill the church, you just don’t understand the revolution Jesus started.” -- Dan White, Jr. In a previous blog post, I referred to the VUCA world  of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.    The term certainly describes the context in which we find ourselves--the onset of the coronavirus, political division, and economic challenges. Churches are certainly not immune to these influences, but I have found that clergy leaders are not just reacting but responding in creative and effective ways to this new environment. One thing that church leaders are discovering is that, despite what is going on around them, they must hold on to mission.  As Stephen Covey said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Although we cannot do ministry as we are accustomed to doing, we are still God’s people carrying out the  missio Dei  (mission of God). ...

When I was involved in collegiate ministry, one of the growing challenges was ministry with commuter students, especially those attending community colleges.     They were clearly different from the residential students with whom we usually engaged.     Commuter students lived at home, came to campus to take classes, then jumped back into the car to go home or to a part-time job.     Their lives were more connected to the cities and towns where they grew up than to the college campus.     One person wrote about this as “Ministry on an Escalator” with the students being the ones moving rapidly from one place to another. Often I think of that terminology when I see an escalator, but I now see churches on that apparatus rather than individual college students.  An escalator moves the passenger from one place to another without any effort on the part of the individual.  Things are changing around the person but he or she i...

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...