Barnabas Initiatives

These ministries could be described as a ‘kaleidoscope’ because they are constantly changing, renewing and growing, around the varieties of people being blessed through the Gospel. They reflect the variegated grace of God as He works through us.

By nature, Barnabas churches are places of learning – for both practical living and service, as well as theory. Our vision is that these churches would be contexts where lay leaders and students preparing for ministry and mission may come to get hands-on experience.

Your support of CBOQ is making these Barnabas ministries possible. It is an exciting time to be God’s church. Through the seeds of Barnabas Initiatives, we look forward to a future filled with passionate, growing churches.

Barnabas Initiatives

A Man Named ‘Barnabas’

There was a man in the New Testament Church that God powerfully used in the building up of individuals, of the whole Church (local congregation as well as the spreading communities of faith). We could do with a few more like him today. Perhaps we already have some men and women like this among us? Who are they – what can we learn from them?

Barnabas was a generous man, this Joseph from Cyprus. (Barnabas was merely (!) his ‘nickname’ – this ‘son of encouragement.’ Unlike Ananias and Saphira, he held nothing back – or was at least honest in what he gave.

Barnabas was an encourager
Barnabas was a defender of the faith and of faith-ful people. He saw the best in others – in what they could become – in spite of past, in spite of failure
This ‘son of encouragement’ defended Saul / Paul when the early church in Jerusalem was scared to death of Him, Saul having returned from Damascus and now trying not to destroy the Church but merely (!) to join it. He spoke up for John Mark who had grow tired or frightened or found the going too hard, and had returned early from the missionary trip he shared with Barnabas and Paul.

Barnabas had the gift of discernment.
He was able to discern the working of the Spirit of Jesus – not only in good people but also in good ministries. The church at Jerusalem sent him to Antioch to find out what was going on and to report back – since in that city not only Jews, but also Gentiles (!) were coming to faith in Jesus.
He was “a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”

Barnabas was a good person
A good person is, of course, only one who has become a godly person, even God-like in being filled by the Presence of Christ who became what we are that we might become what He is. We are being restored, through the Persona and work of Jesus into the Image of God, into our rightful place, into full humanity – we who were created just a tad lower than the angels. Becoming full followers of Jesus, devoted, disciplined, disciples, we become more like Him, and more God-like and, somehow mysteriously more our rightful selves.

Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit
It seems to us sometimes, that we hear our Saviour say to us: “I’ve seen you’re ministry; I’d love to show you mine.” What would happen if we walked more in steps with the Spirit instead of rushing ahead or lagging behind, instead of coming up with a million plans and ideas and hoping God might bless one or two of them? What would happen if we were to discern what He’s doing and what and how it is He wants us to join in – this or that ministry, even waiting to be asked, or asking if He would use us and how and where . . .?What if we (like Moses) were to throw down the rod (resources) in our hand – the education, talent, prowess, money, things, we think we can merely use as and if we want? What if we laid it down – if only to see what could happen as God takes these ‘dead things’ and animates them with His power and Spirit, asking us to take them up where they can become powerful, almost animate symbols of a new reality – that we (and they, with all our resources and all our hearts and lives belong to Him) might become ‘rods’ (instruments, gifts and talents) that are Holy Spirited – to enable us to guide not the sheep of Jethro but the flock of God?We need a constant, daily filling of the Presence and Power of the Living Christ through the inflow of His Spirit, the stirring up of the gifts He has given. We are wee bits of pipe through which the water of life flows. We are wires that conduct spiritual power and energy and with less resistance (through sin, rebellion or disobedience) we may become fine filaments that make bright light (rather than the merely warm toaster-ovens we may otherwise be through our resistance).
By the Spirit, is presented the very Presence of Jesus Christ – ever with and among His Church, speaking, loving, forgiving, doing the very things He began to do on earth until the time He was taken from our physical presence and discernment. Nevertheless (as in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles), he continues by His Spirit His Presence among us – as He will until the end of the Age, thereby encouraging, equipping and enabling His Church to be the People of God, indeed (and in deed – not in profession / word only.

He was a person full of faith.
He had the ability to see not only what was, but also what could be. He could discern the Presence of God when others could only see problems, or problem people. He could see potential. Like our Lord he could see past the shifting reed that Simon was to the Peter (the rock-like character and action of this vital church leader) that yet was to be.

Barnabas was a teacher.
He taught and he practiced, coaches, mentored and led by example in the truths of God and in the life of faith in the developing community of God’s people. With Paul, he taught both in the local church fellowship and in the wider community – of both Church and world – eager to build up the saints and introduce other into our most Holy Faith.

Barnabas was on the cutting-edge of mission in a new way and in a new day
Barnabas was part of the new people of God. He was part of the diaspora of the faithful who had fled Jerusalem following the martyrdom of Stephen and because of the subsequent and arising persecution. To borrow from the idea of ‘songs from the border land’ when the OT people of God found themselves in captivity in Babylon upon their exile from Jerusalem, Judea and all Israel, he helped God’s NT People learn to sing the songs of Zion in a new land, in a new time – with all of its challenges and opportunities to be and to do as God’s chosen ones.

Barnabas was on the cutting edge of mission
Barnabas, with God’s people, moved by persecution and opposition, by challenge and opportunity, by displacement (from Jerusalem to Antioch) saw and approved the sharing of faith – the living out of the Gospel in a new time, a new situation, to new people (now the Gentiles also!). He helped build up the Antioch church, comprised of a missional people (a community of faith largely formed by those displaced from elsewhere), a multi-cultural people evident in the names, roles and make-up of the leaders of the body.

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