Barnabas File

The 20 th century industrial model thrived on a tight command and control model.   It increased production, but it often fostered an “us” versus “them” approach--industry versus labor union, employer versus employee, “boss” versus workers.     In his New Leadership Paradigm , Steve Piersanti picks up on this in calling for a shift from the old paradigm of control to one of collaboration.  The control approach depended on coercion, dominance, and secrecy to “keep people in line.”  The new paradigm calls for collaboration.  Piersanti describes collaboration in this way: “Leadership is exercised through invitation, request, dialogue, persuasion, respect, openness, kindness, integrity, and partnership, without compulsion.” This is the way that the church was intended to function.  In Romans 12:4-8, the apostle Paul writes, For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same fu...

We love to embrace the idea of the “overnight success”:  a person comes out of nowhere and is embraced as a breakthrough actor, creative genius, or the person of the hour.  The truth, however, is that the overnight success has usually been practicing his or her craft for years before attaining a place of honor and recognition. Mahershala Ali A good example is actor Mahershala Ali, the winner as Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Academy Awards.  Ali became an overnight success after a decade and a half of practicing his craft in film and television roles.  He had a supporting role in Crossing Jordan and then a lead role in the sci-fi series The 4400 .  He is probably familiar to most people for his role as Remy Denton in the Netflix series House of Cards and as a military leader in two of The Hunger Games films.  He was in two major films this year-- Hidden Figures and Moonlight --both nominated for best picture.  He won the Oscar for hi...