The Barnabas Factor

Everyone can be an encourager - and that includes you! God has already given you everything you need to be an encourager. All you have to do is put to use.
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Paperback , pages. Published by Inter-Varsity Press first published December 12th To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Barnabas Factor , please sign up. They are just as happy to cheer on someone else.

The Barnabas Factor: The Power Of Encouragement

Thank God for the men and women who encourage the rest of us. What a sad and dreary world it would be without them. They light the way and lift us up when we fall down. In all the Bible there is no better example of this gift in action than Barnabas. The biggest part of his story is told in the book of Acts.

This particular part of his story is found in Acts 9, the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. It begins like this:.

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He is in Jerusalem where he has been hunting down converts to Christianity and putting them in jail. Now he wants to take his diabolical crusade to Damascus and attack the church there. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way an early name for Christianity , whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

This is the most amazing conversion in the history of the Christian church. In the beginning, Saul is bent on murdering the followers of Jesus. By the end, he has become a missionary of the gospel of Christ. First he would kill them, then he became one of them, then his former friends wanted to kill him. The next few verses detail how a reluctant Ananias began to disciple this new convert.

How could Saul dare to go over to the other side? After many days had gone by, the Jews set out to kill him. But Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers the Christians he had formerly sworn to kill took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

So he leaves Damascus to return to Jerusalem. The last time he was there he rampaged through the city, dragging believers out of their homes and putting them in prison. Now he returns, a follower of the same Way he had once tried to destroy. There is only one catch.

The Christians in Jerusalem know nothing about his conversion. To them, Saul is still Public Enemy 1. They remember what he did and they have been praying he would never come back. Verse 26 tells us what happens then. After all, what better way to destroy the church than to fake a conversion, infiltrate the ranks, gain the trust of the leadership, and then put them all in the jail.

The Barnabas Factor: The Power Of Encouragement by Derek Wood

He has a reputation. He has a dirty past. Not that long ago he was trying to kill them. Now he claims to be converted. The Christians in Jerusalem smelled a rat. They would just as soon he be de-converted and leave them alone. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly the name of Jesus. This was a risky step to take. After all, what if Barnabas is wrong about Saul? If he is wrong, hundreds of innocent people will die.

So you ask yourself, did Barnabas know how Saul would turn out? Did he have any inkling that he would someday write 13 books of the New Testament? Did he know that he would preach the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome? But he had a hunch, a conviction based on solid evidence. And he acted on what he believed to be true. You see, the early church looked at Saul and saw a problem; Barnabas looked at him and saw incredible potential.

The early church looked at him and saw his past; Barnabas saw his future. The early church saw what he had been; Barnabas saw what he could be. They see potential, they look to the future, they focus on what people might become given time and the power of the Holy Spirit.

He Was Named For His Spiritual Gift

You can see in Barnabas several of the characteristics we talked about earlier. He was quick to respond to a human need; he was quick to give Saul the benefit of the doubt; he was quick to spot spiritual potential. All too often new people come into our churches and feel unloved and unwelcome. And we especially like new people who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, and act like us.

We like people who are polite enough to come to church with the same skin color we have. And if they have our socioeconomic back-ground a fancy word for social class , all the better. But pity the poor fellow who comes from a different part of the world.

He is, in a sense.

The Barnabas Factor

When new folks come in to the church, they bring three specific pieces of baggage with them: And they think Haggai is another name for Psoriasis. We do so many things that seem strange to them. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem?


  1. See a Problem?;
  2. Research for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for C.
  3. The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched;
  4. SECTOR C?
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Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Barnabas Factor by Aubrey Johnson. The Barnabas Factor 4. Everybody loves to be encouraged -a pat on the back, a helping hand, a kind word. Not everyone can be a great preacher or Bible class teacher. But everyone can be an encourager, and that includes you. It doesn't matter if you are young or old, a woman or a man, rich or poor. God has already given you everything you need to be an encourager - all you have to do is put to us Everybody loves to be encouraged -a pat on the back, a helping hand, a kind word.

God has already given you everything you need to be an encourager - all you have to do is put to use those abilities you already have.

The Barnabas Factor

You too, can become a Barnabas, a Son of Encouragement. All you have to do is practice being an enourager. You will be absolutely astounded at what it will do for other people and most of all, for you. Paperback , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Barnabas Factor , please sign up.

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