Author: Seth Barnes

The three main models of student missions

Written by Seth Barnes on April 18, 2008. Posted in Youth Ministry. 2 Comments on The three main models of student missions

I’m neck-deep in short-term missions – I’ve been doing them since leaving for Guatemala as a young punk in 1975. These days I have a love-hate relationship with...

People monopolizing the group’s time

Written by Seth Barnes on April 17, 2008. Posted in Community and Covenant. 5 Comments on People monopolizing the group’s time

Q: As we seek to create a culture of honesty and vulnerability in our small group, how do we maintain a healthy community when group members monopolize the group’s time by...

Honey, we did the best we could

Written by Seth Barnes on April 16, 2008. Posted in Parenting. 4 Comments on Honey, we did the best we could

Caveat to this blog – The following never occurred in my family. My family communicated perfectly. Ahem. Ever hear this slice of conversation in your home? “Mom, why...

God made you to be great

Written by Seth Barnes on April 15, 2008. Posted in Reaching Your Destiny. 5 Comments on God made you to be great

April 15 – Tax day. It’s a downer of a day in a season when we may have so much that is negative or numbing in our lives already. Our society puts a premium on safety...

Confronting our culture of consumerism

Written by Seth Barnes on April 14, 2008. Posted in Simplicity Liberates You. 5 Comments on Confronting our culture of consumerism

I have a love/hate relationship with my privileged status as an American. On the one hand, it’s great to have a couple of cars, a house, and stuff that I enjoy. On the other...

Short-term missions done poorly

Written by Seth Barnes on April 13, 2008. Posted in Short-term missions. 3 Comments on Short-term missions done poorly

I’m headed home from Florida, will meet my board at the airport in Atlanta for our semi-annual meeting. It’s going to be a low-key, quick meeting. The AIM board is great...

Learning greatness from a Cambodian refugee

Written by Seth Barnes on April 12, 2008. Posted in Reaching Your Destiny. 3 Comments on Learning greatness from a Cambodian refugee

If you’ve been following my blog series, you’ll recall that I was on the Thai/Cambodia border at the height of Pol Pot’s rein of terror. I was in charge of a pig...

Greatness has little to do with your competence

Written by Seth Barnes on April 11, 2008. Posted in Reaching Your Destiny. 5 Comments on Greatness has little to do with your competence

I’m in Florida with my college friends. We’re going fishing for sailfish or shark today. I guess you could say that we’ll be flirting with danger. It’s the...

Pol Pot and Me: My year of living dangerously

Written by Seth Barnes on April 10, 2008. Posted in Reaching Your Destiny. 6 Comments on Pol Pot and Me: My year of living dangerously

I lead a fairly large and innovative ministry. It didn’t start in 1989 when we got our incorporation papers. If you look back in time, maybe it started ten years earlier, when...

Muslims seeing Jesus in their dreams

Written by Seth Barnes on April 9, 2008. Posted in Missions. 13 Comments on Muslims seeing Jesus in their dreams

I’m in Florida on vacation and today we celebrate Karen’s birthday. She’s the woman of my dreams – so this is a day to have a party! If you comment on this...

What’s wrong with the church and how to fix it

Written by Seth Barnes on April 8, 2008. Posted in Church. 10 Comments on What’s wrong with the church and how to fix it

Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna We’ve all heard Christian leaders proclaim, “At our church, we only do what the Bible says.” The irony is that...

How mission projects change lives

Written by Seth Barnes on April 7, 2008. Posted in Short-term missions. No Comments on How mission projects change lives

The validity of short-term missions stands or falls on its linkage to the spiritual growth that missions projects are supposed to produce in participants. Anecdotal evidence for...

Heidi Baker copes with floods in Mozambique

Written by Seth Barnes on April 6, 2008. Posted in Amazing God Stories. 3 Comments on Heidi Baker copes with floods in Mozambique

Bible Reading: Isaiah 61 Faith in Action MOZAMBIQUE – Floods in Mozambique (eight years ago in 2000) 2/7/00 Rolland and Heidi Baker write: TO OUR FRIENDS IN JESUS: The rain...

How the battle between good and evil started

Written by Seth Barnes on April 5, 2008. Posted in Kingdom Reality. 3 Comments on How the battle between good and evil started

Good morning, This battle for control of the world began years ago and is raging everywhere you go. It manifests in your household and in countries around the globe. In many countries,...

What’s at stake in the battle for souls

Written by Seth Barnes on April 5, 2008. Posted in Kingdom Reality. No Comments on What’s at stake in the battle for souls

What’s at stake in the battle for souls 1 Samuel 30:1-25 SUDAN – Sudan school still in shock after fatal air strike >> Five are in serious condition...

There’s a worldwide war between good & evil

Written by Seth Barnes on April 4, 2008. Posted in Kingdom Reality. 2 Comments on There’s a worldwide war between good & evil

Hey folks, just a few more days on this first week from A Warrior’s Journal. I know these entries are long, so I hope it’s worth your while. We’ll return to normal...

There is a war for souls going on

Written by Seth Barnes on April 3, 2008. Posted in Mobilization, Writing Blogs and Books. No Comments on There is a war for souls going on

Here begins the first day of A Warrior’s Journal. I’ll continue these excerpts for the next few days. They are a little long. I’m doing in this in part for the...

I’m not sitting down when my family’s attacked

Written by Seth Barnes on April 2, 2008. Posted in Courage. 14 Comments on I’m not sitting down when my family’s attacked

It’s a few minutes past midnight at our home. A low, but shrill scream broke through the stillness from the room above me. It was our youngest child, experiencing a grand mal...

Discipleship off to a roaring start

Written by Seth Barnes on April 1, 2008. Posted in Courage. 2 Comments on Discipleship off to a roaring start

Happy April Fools Day. At our house growing up, the favorite trick was to switch the salt in the sugar bowl. And our kids love to put a rubber band around the spray hose thing that...

Starting the Warrior’s Journal study

Written by Seth Barnes on March 31, 2008. Posted in Courage. 4 Comments on Starting the Warrior’s Journal study

It’s 2:00 a.m. as I write this – just back from Seattle and I wanted to kick off the discipling experiment we’re starting. I’ll be excerpting 9 weeks of curriculum...

Debt can keep you from realizing your dreams

Written by Seth Barnes on March 29, 2008. Posted in Reaching Your Destiny. 10 Comments on Debt can keep you from realizing your dreams

I spoke at a Christian college’s chapel in the fall and challenged the students to consider missions. The students there were like many – they understood the problems...

Doing our part to end modern slavery

Written by Seth Barnes on March 28, 2008. Posted in Justice issues. No Comments on Doing our part to end modern slavery

Earlier this week, on the night of Easter Sunday, a handful of ex-World Racers took off on a 450-mile bike excursion from Phoenix, AZ to the Grand Canyon. They are currently hiking...

It was a good day for orphans

Written by Seth Barnes on March 28, 2008. Posted in Orphans. 9 Comments on It was a good day for orphans

It was a good day for orphans yesterday, at least in my world. We had found 95 orphans in the Swaziland dirt last summer with no one to look after them. We felt God saying, “Take...

I’ll disciple you: Two month trial!

Written by Seth Barnes on March 27, 2008. Posted in Discipling. 8 Comments on I’ll disciple you: Two month trial!

If you’ve never really been discipled and are interested in what that might look like, stay tuned. Yesterday I offered to “disciple” those who would disciple...