The Journey so far…
Almost exactly 5 years ago, in January 2019, we published our first blog about what it meant for us to be ‘a Barnabas Community’. We had begun talking about the characteristics revealed in the person of Barnabas around the middle of 2018, inspired by a prophetic word that had come 16 years earlier, that spoke of embodying the traits seen in this man and following his example, outlined in the pages of the New Testament, as he followed Christs.
Over the last 5 years as a church community, we have sought to do various things that we feel honour this calling, such as:
- coming alongside churches to support them in being all that they have been called to be to their surrounding community, whether that be joining with them on Sunday services, helping facilitate groups like the Difference course and Kintsugi or providing ‘behind the scenes’ help
- orientating our church ‘vision’ to be built around what / who each of the families in our church feel called to and then doing what we can to help that vision be actualised (something we called ‘Tent Talks’)
- being as generous as possible, with the time, money and people resources we have, to those we meet along the way and do what we can to help them forward on their journey
- offering prayer and worship, in the form of what we called ‘Worship Evenings’, to church communities as an aid to help them ‘breakthrough’ into what is next for them
- The church community being encouraging of releasing me for 2 days a week, and one of the church leaders, to lead a charity in the city of Coventry (HOPE Coventry) that’s primary aim is to support, connect and strengthen churches and charities in all they are doing.
We feel in giving ourselves to the above, and the many other ways, some less easily ‘measurable’, that we are doing and being faithful to what God has put on our heart. We feel we have given our all to pursue this, and as such feel like we are ‘all in’, a trait that resonates strongly in the life of Barnabas.
Barnabas was all in
When you look at the life of Barnabas, you can see that he was ‘all in’ in whatever he did. This wasn’t a man who only did what he had to do but someone, because of what he had seen, could only give his all. We see it in our first introduction to Barnabas in Acts 4:
”Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means ‘son of encouragement’), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.“
There was a need for money, to ensure all that the church was doing was able to be done. Barnabas seeing this need, didn’t just give a token gesture, he had to give something that meant something to him, so he sold a field and brought the money (which implies the total amount that the field was sold for) and gave it to the apostles. He was all in!
As a point of clarity, I am not saying you have to give all your money to be all in, the following verses in Acts 5 speak to this, and Jesus talks specifically about how ‘all’ is a heart issue, but what Barnabas’ actions show us is a man who’s heart was all in and this was expressed at this moment, for him, by giving all the money he received from selling a field. It’s a heart issue. It could have been that being ‘all in’ with his money in a different moment meant giving 25% or 10%. The issue is not the amount, the issue is does what I am giving connects and resonates with my heart and what God is stirring there!
Equally, because it’s a heart issue, it’s not only expressed via money but also with how we are with people and what we’re willing to ‘give away’ for them. We see this when Barnabas risks his reputation to back what he has seen in Saul (Acts 9):
”And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus”
Barnabas ‘gave away’ his reputation to ensure what he saw God was doing in Saul was able to find space in the church. He was all in.
We see it again when Barnabas arrives in Antioch and encounters a revival breaking out, instead of taking on the leadership of this by himself, and as such the status, influence and even fame that would bring, he sees that Saul is needed to ensure what God is doing continues, he gave away status (Acts 11):
”When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Barnabas was ‘all in’ with what God was doing across the region.
When you see it
For Barnabas, I believe he lived this ‘all in’ lifestyle because of what he had seen. Something had caught him, captured his heart and inspired his life to such a degree that it almost came across like he didn’t have a choice to not be ‘all in’. Now of course, he had a choice, but what I see in his life, and I am sure we can all resonate with at different points, is what happens when we see something and how that changes us. On a slightly trivial level, people often talk about having seen how fast food is made, they would never eat fast food again, or on a more serious note, people mention being changed by what they saw when they visited people living in extreme poverty and how that changed them. I think this seeing is what happens when we fall in love, it changes how we live from that point onwards, or when we welcome a new baby into the world and when we meet Jesus. All these ‘seeings’ change how we live and to what degree or another, we become like Barnabas and are ‘all in’ for that thing we’ve seen.
I know for me and I believe, for us as a church community, because of what we’ve seen, we ‘all in’, and we have to follow where this thing leads, we have to keep being Barnabas, keep doing all that we can do to ensure we stay true to what God’s put in our heart. That’s not always easy, and many times it can require significant risk, sacrifice and bold steps of faith. However, that is exactly the same when we make the choice to get married, have kids or not eat fast food (!?), what we’ve seen requires us to take the risk, make the sacrifice and take the brave step, so that we can live in the fullness of what’s on the other side of that choice.
We see Barnabas face this with Paul when he ‘clashes’ over what to do with John Mark (Acts 15):
“Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”
I believe the same way Barnabas saw something in Paul (in Acts 9) was the same way he saw something in John Mark here, and because of what he’d seen he could not but stick with John Mark even though it cost him and meant he wasn’t able to continue his journey with Paul. At that moment, Barnabas was ‘all in’ with John Mark because of what he had seen.
When things are unclear
The last few thoughts I want to share are around when things feel unclear. A lot of what I have shared above can create the impression that Barnabas had this crystal-clear sight that made it easy for him to know what to do. Maybe he did, but I doubt that was the case, and it’s certainly not the case for me. Things don’t always seem clear, and we’re very rarely 100% sure about any decision we make. Still, I do think that when we sit with God, and sit with Him long enough so all the noise and distraction fade away, we can get a clearer sight of what it is God has for us and having that clearer sight gives us greater boldness and conviction on what we’re doing. It’s kind of like taking a jug and filling it with sandy sea water, the water is not clear when it just comes out of the sea, but if we place that jug somewhere and do not move it for a while, the sand and sediment in the water settles to the bottom and the water becomes clear. I think for a lot of us we need to stop, shut up and sit awhile to allow the ‘sand and sediment’ in our lives to settle so that we can see clearly once again. All of us, when we see something clearly enough are just like Barnabas, and we end up becoming ‘all in’ like Barnabas was, and like we’ve tried to be as a church community, no matter where it takes us.
So over the next few days and weeks, take some time, stop, shut up, let things settle down inside you and see what you see…
Hope Springs Church Coventry 