Barnabas File

"BANI is not a technical analysis; it’s visceral and experiential. It depicts the nature of the moment... in a way that resonates for people around the world." —  Jamais Cascio Futurist and anthropologist Jamais Cascio argues that the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) mindset from the 1980s has "expired." He writes, “VUCA was about a world that was hard to see. BANI is about a world where the things we  can  see are actively breaking." In this new paradigm, there several shifts: Volatility  has become  Brittleness .     It’s not just moving fast; it’s fragile. (Example: A career path that vanishes due to a single AI update). Uncertainty  has become  Anxiety : It’s not just 'not knowing'; it’s the fear that comes with it. Complexity  has become  Non-Linearity : It’s not just a puzzle; it’s a system where small ripples cause tsunamis. Ambiguity  has become  Incomprehensibility : It’s n...

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...

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 3:12-14, NIV   Change is inevitable.  It is not only to be expected, but to be pursued.  If you are a believer, my hope is that spiritually you are not where you were when you first acknowledged your faith in Christ.  The same is true for any church, family, business, or not-for-profit organization.  If you are now exactly what you were when you first started your journey, you are not effective in your mission.  As our context changes, our beliefs remain stable, but our methodologie...

As I looked over a group I was meeting with this week, I realized that practically everyone there was going through a time of transition—sending children back to school or launching them into world; dealing with birth or death; supporting aging parents or considering one’s own aging; beginning a new position or leaving one;  celebrating good health with new activities or recognizing the limitations of changing health; beginning a relationship or ending one. Change and transition are not the same.  Change is an external event or situation that takes place: a new job, a new life situation, a change in lifestyle.  Change can happen very quickly.  Transition is the inner psychological process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the new situation that the change brings about. Recognizing that we are in transition leverages change for significant growth.  When you touch an artistic mobile, equilibrium is changed. ...

When Rita and I moved to Columbus, Georgia, in 1965, we visited Benning Hills Baptist Church where Sidney Waterhouse was pastor.     The following Sunday I was an usher and within a few weeks we were teaching a Sunday school class.     I certainly would like to think that this is because we were such apparently outstanding leaders (Rita is, I am not).     That was not the case, however. Benning Hills was located just outside the main gate of Fort Benning (now Fort Moore), and the post had recently sent several units to the Republic of Vietnam.     They had lost not only a number of military personnel but families who chose to relocate.   The church was experiencing what I refer to as “churn.”  This is a rather robust word.  As a noun,  It means “ a container in which cream is stirred or shaken to make butter ” (yes, I have seen one).  As a verb, it means “to stir or agitate violently .”  Benning Hi...

You’ve heard the old joke: “How many ­­­­­______ (name your denomination) does it take to change a light bulb?” Answer: “None. ________ don’t believe in change.”  Funny but points out the biggest challenge for the church—being willing to accept not only change but the necessity of transformation in order to be the church that the world needs today.   In a recent presentation, Peter Hawkins highlighted five keys to organizational transformation in the 21 st century.  Think about them and how they apply to the church.   First, Purpose led.  Purpose is clearly stated, and stakeholders are aligned behind it.  What can we uniquely do that the world of today and tomorrow needs?  Are we spending too much time on peripheral ideas and not addressing the major needs of our time?  We can keep rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic or change the course of the ship before it is too late.   Second, Stakeholder-centeric. ...

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that a number of the habits we picked up during the Pandemic appear to have become habitual—online ordering, food deliveries, remote work, and virtual meetings, for example.    The big picture, however, is that the Pandemic accelerated the adoption of new tech by five or ten years and many of the changes appear to be lasting. This is certainly true in our churches.  Congregations that were considering upgrading the broadcast or livestreaming of their services were suddenly forced into doing it.  Most have continued the practice and invested additional resources into equipment, internet access, and personnel to make it happen. Most of us have readily accepted the convenience of virtual committee meetings.  Rather than dressing up, driving twenty minutes or more to the church campus for a meeting, we now connect online for an hour or so and get back to home activities. To assure sustainability, giving proces...

We have probably heard a story something like this.     A loud crash is heard in an adjoining room.     Mom or Dad rushes in and finds a child in collapsed chair.     The child’s response: “It was already broken when I sat down on it.” Although the chair was probably not already broken when the child sat down, it certainly was not in shape to handle the weight of the child or perhaps some healthy childlike activity! This is a good illustration of what has happened to many congregations during the volatile events of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The church may have looked good on the outside and was functioning adequately, but the pressures of change brought on by these times exposed latent inadequacies.  In the fall, Pam Durso,   president of Central Seminary, and Carol McEntyre, pastor of First Baptist Church in Columbia, MO, conducted  a survey of  Baptist pastors  who had left their congregations between July 1, 2020, and Oct...

A friend in the real estate business says that there are three primary concerns about buying and selling:     location, location, and location.    Where the property is located, especially in relationship to lifestyle concerns, traffic, schools, and shopping, is vitally important.   The same thing can be said for our churches.  Let’s think about it in this way:  God has placed us in a particular geographic place for a reason.  The reason is to be an expression of God’s kingdom in that particular place.  Of course, the context in which the church ministers may change over time.  Neighbors come and go. The community changes.  Once when we used the terms “urban,” suburban,” “neighborhood,” “county seat,” or “open country,” we had a pretty good idea of the context.  This is no longer true.  A county seat church may find itself in the center of a growing satellite community on the edge of...

“ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”--1 Corinthians 12:27, NIV   For the past ten months, local congregations have wrestled with the question, “What does it mean to be the church--the body of Christ--when we cannot physically gather?“  It is first of all a theological question since the church often sees itself as the continuing incarnation of Jesus Christ in the world and gathering is a visible expression of that belief. Second, it is a sacramental issue based on your particular tribe’s understanding of the nature of communion, baptism, weddings, funerals, and other rituals of the church as communal events.  Third, it is an emotional issue exacerbated by isolation, stress, and loss.  Fourth, unfortunately, this has become a political issue that some have appropriated to sow division and discord.  Fifth, it is a very practical issue that affects ministry, stewardship, and institutional survival.   ...

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Change is the only constant in life.     One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.” Few of us like change or, perhaps it is more accurate to say, “We don’t like being changed.”     I certainly don’t relish change, but I have found it to be a great motivator even if it is sometimes difficult to accept and endure.     First, change is painful.  It forces us to change our patterns of doing things, often getting outside of our comfort zone. Some of this is psychological--going against our personality type--but it can be emotional as well.  Losing a loved one or a job causes real pain.  Missing an opportunity hurts.  Seeing the failure of something in which you have invested time and energy is hard to take.   Second, change is normal.  The world is not static.  People are certainly not predictable.   As so...

When I was studying missional theology several years ago, I was introduced to the term “discontinuous change.”  In an article in 1993, William Pullen described it in this way: “ Discontinuous change  occurs in response to an abrupt event in the environment - a strategic shock - for which there is no organizational precedent.  Discontinuous  means the event is not continuous with the past or current direction of the organization.”    The COVID-19 pandemic certainly illustrates such a paradigm shifting event, but many of the changes engendered by this event were already on the horizon.  Especially for the church, the pandemic is simply accelerating what was going to happen anyway.  We have jumped forward in time and been forced to deal with conditions that were already emerging,   This reality came up in a conversation with a pastor recently.  In his situation, he has seen that worship is no longer the “front door” to ...

In a recent blog , pastor Carey Nieuwhof cited this quote from Douglas Adams book  The Salmon of Doubt: “1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” Some adult development researchers state that we tend to define “the world as we know it” based on what we experienced between the ages of 13 and 15.  This is when we are becoming proto-adults and everything that happens in our lives makes an indelible impression on us.  There is certainly some truth to this, but we must remember that we are free to accept these concepts or reject them.  They are informative but they are not deterministic.  If I was raised with a...

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...