Barnabas File

“Are we there yet?”  If you have traveled with small children, adolescents, or some adults, you have heard this question.  Most of us are anxious to get to the end of the journey.  The driver seeks to relieve anxiety by pointing out the mile markers or looking at the GPS to give an indication of progress toward the final goal. When we begin moving toward the vision of what we believe God wants our congregation to do, we identify ministry initiatives and set goals to achieve under each initiative.  Perhaps even more important, however, are indicators that we are making progress.  These are milestones, indicators along the way that we are doing what we have set out to do. In most churches, the milestones of success have been articulated in terms of nickels (amount of offering) and noses (how many people show up on Sunday).  These are not always the best measures of success.  These measures are limited in showing how we are going about life t...

When you plan a vacation, your tendency is to start thinking about what it will be like.   You think about the places you will visit, the food you will eat, the experiences you will have with family and friends.   Although reality may differ from what you imagine, your vision of the vacation gives you purpose and enthusiasm as you plan. Churches need a vision to have direction and purpose.  The terms “mission’ and “vision” are often used interchangeably, but I differentiate between the two.  Mission is the reason for your existence as a congregation.  If you embrace a missional theology, your mission is the missio Dei, the mission of God in this world.  God is a sending God who sends God’s people into the world to do God’s work.  On the other hand, vision is what you hope to become.  Throughout their struggles, the priests and prophets held out several visions to the Hebrew people--to dwell in the Promised land, to be res...

I have only watched one episode of the new version of the MacGyver TV series, but the idea seems to be the same:  a really creative guy encounters a problem, looks around to see what resources are available, and then comes up with a solution. We can learn from this approach.  When we consider a new challenge, we often think in terms of what we lack rather than what we already have.  As a church considers what God has called it to do, another basic step is to consider what has God already gifted us with. In Farming Church , my colleague Mark Tidsworth writes: “One, God has already given us many gifts for mission-congruent ministry. So, we believe God is active in everything we do as a congregation. Therefore, we do what we are able to do, giving God the glory for the gifts and capacity which allows us to do so. Two, God often provides what we need when we step into the void, when we attempt greater things for God.” (p. 54) As you stop and...

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;   on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. ”   (Matthew 13:44-46, NRSV) We invest ourselves in what is important to us.  This is true of individuals and of churches.  We may develop ambitious vision, mission, and goal statements, but we know what is really important to us when we look at where church members invest their time, what the staff gives priority, and how we use our financial and physical resources. For example, if we say we value serving the community and deny the use of our building to a ministry directed to the homeless, we are lying to ourselves.  If we say we value children and don’t volunteer to work with them or allocate resources to improve the...