Author: sethbarnes

Why Reflection is Essential For Health

Written by sethbarnes on December 30, 2023. Posted in Debriefing. 3 Comments on Why Reflection is Essential For Health

Reflection is a rear-view mirror helping us look at our lives to see if we’ve been living healthily and to make adjustments. Too many of us live without it. Are you one? My...

How to Debrief Your Last Year – a Free eBook

Written by sethbarnes on December 28, 2023. Posted in Debriefing. 51 Comments on How to Debrief Your Last Year – a Free eBook

2023 was such a full year – so much to debrief! I lost my best friend from college to brain cancer, but gained a granddaughter. We moved from our home of 30 years. I watched...

What Do You Do With Your Broken Dreams?

Written by sethbarnes on December 21, 2023. Posted in Dreaming. 13 Comments on What Do You Do With Your Broken Dreams?

I have struggled with my dreams. Which should I hold onto even though they seem impossible? Which to let go? It can be easy to lose hope. Our dreams can become dusty old things,...

How Fathers Can Learn To Play With Their Kids

Written by sethbarnes on December 17, 2023. Posted in Parenting. 7 Comments on How Fathers Can Learn To Play With Their Kids

Kids need fathers who play. Playing is good for their souls. Playing bonds dads with their kids. My theory is that the lack of active play during Covid was a contributor to the...

Dysfunction at AIM and What I learned

Written by sethbarnes on December 13, 2023. Posted in Leadership. 14 Comments on Dysfunction at AIM and What I learned

I have made mistakes over the years. I would do things differently if I could! Especially if people have been hurt – those are the worst. If you’re one, please let me...

The Power of Vulnerability

Written by sethbarnes on December 7, 2023. Posted in Vulnerability and me. No Comments on The Power of Vulnerability

For much of my life I have fought against the very thing that God wanted from me. He wanted me to recognize that, in the context of the universe, I am incredibly small and frail....

Pets Help Us to Grieve

Written by sethbarnes on October 27, 2023. Posted in Comfort and Pain. 8 Comments on Pets Help Us to Grieve

Our pets give us the chance to practice losing. As our kids grew, hamster burials gave way to dog funerals in our home. The funerals didn’t get any easier, but the practice was good....

How do I raise kids who thrive?

Written by sethbarnes on September 15, 2023. Posted in Parenting. 6 Comments on How do I raise kids who thrive?

Jeff Goins wrote an essay this week on the compulsive busyness of parents. Often, as parents, we find ourselves overwhelmed – living lives that are jam-packed. Between our...

A Story of Escaping from the Maui Fire

Written by sethbarnes on August 17, 2023. Posted in Refugees & Crisis. No Comments on A Story of Escaping from the Maui Fire

When Bully and Ashley Kotter closed on their Hawaiian plantation-style home in early August, they never dreamed that seven days later, it would burn down in the worst fire in modern...

The Life of Dave Wroughton – My College Buddy

Written by sethbarnes on August 9, 2023. Posted in My Life. 8 Comments on The Life of Dave Wroughton – My College Buddy

My best friend from college, David Wroughton, died yesterday. I loved Dave and wanted to share his story as I knew it. I arrived at Wheaton College in the fall of 1976 looking for...

Families Having the Best Year of Their Lives

Written by sethbarnes on June 27, 2023. Posted in Journeys, Fathering & Men's issues, Intergenerational connection. 2 Comments on Families Having the Best Year of Their Lives

When Bill and Katie Swan left on the World Race in 2010, it changed their lives. They had been married three years, had a heart for missions, and wanted to get experience on the...

Learning to be a Vulnerable Leader

Written by sethbarnes on May 24, 2023. Posted in Leadership, Vulnerable Leadership. 6 Comments on Learning to be a Vulnerable Leader

I’ve spent a lot of my life mentoring young leaders. Gen Z is different. While they desire mentoring, they want their leaders to be vulnerable. Why? My theory is that they’ve...

RIP George Verwer – A Missionary Statesman

Written by sethbarnes on May 10, 2023. Posted in Missions. No Comments on RIP George Verwer – A Missionary Statesman

George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization (OM) and one of the greatest advocates for missions of our day died last month. OM currently has 6,800 people working in 134 countries[1]...

Update on the AIM Mexico Base

Written by sethbarnes on April 25, 2023. Posted in Missions. 1 Comment on Update on the AIM Mexico Base

Over 30 years ago, God laid it on my heart to establish a training center and mission base in Mexico. Every night I’d pray with our kids and they’d say, “Lord,...

To Grow in Faith, We Need Freedom to Fail

Written by sethbarnes on April 14, 2023. Posted in Culture and Faith. 4 Comments on To Grow in Faith, We Need Freedom to Fail

Photo: AJ Yorio Growing up in a digital world makes our commitments continually reversible. Don’t like something posted online about yourself? Just erase it or edit it. Regret the...

Giving Up Your Need For Certainty

Written by sethbarnes on April 6, 2023. Posted in Culture and Faith. 5 Comments on Giving Up Your Need For Certainty

This morning I find myself in Brooklyn, NY. I’m going to spend the day with the founders of StoryTime Chess, a business that teaches kids how to navigate uncertainty. It teaches...

Is It Possible to Apply Jesus’s Model of Spiritual Growth?

Written by sethbarnes on March 29, 2023. Posted in Discipling. 2 Comments on Is It Possible to Apply Jesus’s Model of Spiritual Growth?

You’d think it would have gotten easier to make a disciple. For one thing, in Jesus’s time, life was more difficult. Getting food, clothing and shelter took all your...

Churches Raising Up World Changers

Written by sethbarnes on March 22, 2023. Posted in Youth Ministry. 2 Comments on Churches Raising Up World Changers

Cal and Courtney Herrmann are the kind of sharp young couple who could get six figure jobs in a company near home in Nebraska. Instead, they will be going to the Dominican Republic...

Don’t Get Stuck Using an Old Wineskin

Written by sethbarnes on March 20, 2023. Posted in Church. 7 Comments on Don’t Get Stuck Using an Old Wineskin

Photo by Geda Žyvatkauskaitė The Bible is full of illustrations and lessons that involve wine. It’s the blood of Jesus; it’s medicine for your stomach; it’s a key part of celebrations;...

When Do We Need to Repent? The Asbury Revival Shows Us

Written by sethbarnes on February 16, 2023. Posted in Revival. 7 Comments on When Do We Need to Repent? The Asbury Revival Shows Us

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash How rare is public repentance these days? Politicians who used to reach across the aisles instead shout each other down. Online we see cancel culture...

Why We Need Leaders Who Can Be Vulnerable

Written by sethbarnes on December 20, 2022. Posted in Vulnerable Leadership. 3 Comments on Why We Need Leaders Who Can Be Vulnerable

This generation of young people is hungering for authenticity and vulnerability. They’ve been lied to and have so many reasons not to trust. They want to follow leaders who...

Books I’ve Written, Including Some You’ve Never Seen

Written by sethbarnes on December 6, 2022. Posted in Writing Blogs and Books. 13 Comments on Books I’ve Written, Including Some You’ve Never Seen

This is a new format for the blog. The first format change in 17 years! What do you think? I’ve been thinking about “why do I write?” and “what have I written?” I...

What is Spiritual Feedback?

Written by sethbarnes on November 21, 2022. Posted in Debriefing. No Comments on What is Spiritual Feedback?

I grew up in a family that did not have great feedback loops. We were all about high-performance, but often you didn’t know how to perform well and you had to be careful in...

Learning from the door closing behind you

Written by sethbarnes on November 21, 2022. Posted in Finding your call. 2 Comments on Learning from the door closing behind you

If you’ve been fired, why did it happen? As a young man, I was fired twice. The story I told myself about it I then carried around as a false narrative for years. Why? Reflecting...