Barnabas File

In recent years, I have developed great admiration for megachurch pastor Andy Stanley as I have heard him speak and read some of his writing.  He is an effective preacher, a practical leader, a transparent believer and a lifelong learner.  We might disagree on some fine points of theology, but I have learned a lot from him. Stanley is much more open to women in leadership than most people realize.   It will come as a surprise to many that women serve in practically every role at North Point Church.  He also acknowledges that women serve as pastors (although not at North Point), and he includes them in his comments in this book. Therefore, I have found myself recommending his new book Deep and Wide to a number of people.  The subtitle of this new book is “creating churches unchurched people love to attend.”  It is that and more—personal testimony, preaching insights, practical guidelines about discipleship, and a kick in the pants to do somethi...

A couple of weeks ago, we received a mailer from a new church start in our community.  Actually, the pastor has been working on this for about four years, but evidently they are moving toward more visibility in the community, thus the mailing. When I went to the church’s web site, I found this paragraph: “We are the first Theologically SBC church in Rutherford County, TN to start with out [sic] “Baptist” in the name and take an interdenominational approach to people.  Every church has core theology that ties them to a denomination.  This directs all the teaching and doctrine of a church, but we refuse to focus on the dogmas [sic] of a denomination!  Jesus is so much bigger than a denomination.” So what’s this all about?  After reading this, I have to ask questions like, “Is this a Baptist congregation or not?” “Did you feel that you had to put this on your web site because you are receiving funds from the state Baptist convention to get started?”...

On any given Sunday, there are more people outside the walls of the churches that within and few of these will be in Christian worship at any other time during the week.   Some leaders see starting new churches—new communities of faith or worshipping units--as one way to address this situation.   Church consultant Eddie Hammett pointed out in a recent Facebook posting that although he is an advocate of starting new churches, he is “ increasingly concerned about the amount of money denominations are putting into the effort that is not bearing fruitful results in reaching a new generation.”  He goes on to ask what are other options that might be pursued that are “a better stewardship of our time, energy and money.” North Carolina pastor Jack Glasgow responded with this comment (shared with his permission): “ I believe our efforts will not be fruitful focused on clergy to be church starters. We need to focus on a core group of laypersons who want to create, or h...

Several years ago, a friend shared an interesting story with me about a community development organization in his area, an area with a great deal of poverty and unemployment, but also an area where many people of means choose as a place to retire.   The newcomers saw the needs in the community and organized a program to meet them, but in setting up their board they did not invite any long term local residents as directors.   They feared that these indigenous people really did not know what was needed to respond to local needs.   Of course, my friend noted, who knew the issues better than those who were forced to live with them each day of their lives? In missions and ministry, Christians have often adopted a paternalistic mindset characterized by a belief that those of us who are the “professionals” and have been doing this longer know what the uninitiated or immature believers need.   Fortunately, many mission and ministry strategists are starting to see the ...

Planting a new   church   is not for the faint of heart!  You need all the friends you can get.  I am currently working with two friends to develop a teleconference peer group for church planters.  When I made contact with one potential participant, he expressed some concern that his church was different and he might not necessarily fit with the group. As I have continued to encourage this church planter to join our group, I have realized that every church start, like every church, is unique with its own story and special challenges. No two church plants or churches are exactly alike!     Even so, there are some things that all church planters do have in common. First, each church planter has to not only champion but nurture the vision for the new church.   Whether the desire is to reach a particular geographic area, a specific demographic group, or propagate a particular ministry, someone (hopefully the planter) initially discovered an...

If you bought a book entitled Church Planting is for Wimps , what do you think the subject would be?   Well, this book is not about church planting, and I should have been more careful in my selection.   Mike McKinley’s book is a memoir of his work to revitalize Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia, over the last four years, so it is not about church planting. This is interesting for a couple of reasons.   For one, McKinley seems to want to have it both ways.   He seems to think that church revitalization is really harder than church planting (thus the title) but he keeps saying that the lessons he learned in church revitalization can be informative for a church planter.   Second, one of the endorsements on the back specifically endorses this as a book for church planters, church planting teams, or churches that want to sponsor a church plant.   I wonder if the endorser read the book or was misled by the title as I was. McKinley does provi...