Episode 81: Adopting Barnabas' Style of Next Level Encouragement

Hey, Friend!

In today’s episode, I share a little about the story of Barnabas, as recorded in the book of Acts. His nickname, given to him by the Apostles, means Son of Encouragement.

When you look at the Greek word: paraklesis, the meaning goes way beyond what we think of when we think of encourage. This is why Barnabas stood out. His encouragement was bold, visionary, generous, and healing. And your encouragement can be that as well.

I pray this blesses you!

Becky

Episode Transcript

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About a week ago, I was teaching a class on Sunday morning, we were going through the,

(00:05):
what we were calling the action heroes of the book of Acts.
And I chose to teach the class on Barnabas.
And we all know that Barnabas was called that because he was such an encourager.
And ever since I taught that class, I've been thinking, if someone were to change my name

(00:27):
based on this quality that they see, what would they call me?
What would they call you?
Here's the thing about Barnabas.
His method of encouragement is above and beyond what I think of when I think of encouragement.
His superpower of encouragement was next level.
Want to know more?

(00:49):
Let's dive in to today's episode.
Hey, friend, are you a people-pleasing conflict-avoiding leader?
Is your secret relationship with fear affecting your leadership decisions?
Do you want to learn how to build credibility and confidence or to navigate difficult conversations?

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Do you long to manage your time without sacrificing your family or self-care?
Welcome to Leadership Becomes Her.
I'm Becky Burroughs, your host and a minister and life and leadership coach with over 50 years
experience in leadership.
I firmly believe God has given you everything you need to lead well.

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You have the toolbox.
You just need to learn how to use the tools.
So get comfy or start a mindless task.
You know how to pause or rewind if you need to.
Let's get started.
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So there are several key characters in the book of Acts.
Of course, the most notable character, the leading character, the book of Acts is the

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Holy Spirit.
He was mentioned, I don't know, something like 56 times in the book of Acts.
But a minor character is the one that I chose.
His parents named him Joseph.
And he was a Levite from the island of Cyprus.
And the Levites in the church had the job of doing things like guarding the temple, keeping

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it clean, providing worship music, managing the treasury, overseeing the order of service.
And when I was thinking about this, I thought, well, this sounds like some of the kinds of
things Deacons would do or in our church we call them servant leaders.
When I was teaching this class, I asked the class, who does this remind you of?
They began to name employees, ministers and support staff who take care of various roles.

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But those are the kinds of things he did.
But we learn about Joseph and how he became Barnabas in the fourth chapter of Acts, where
it talks about this community of believers that hadn't called them the church yet, that
were of one heart in mind and none of them were selfish with their possessions, but they

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held everything in common.
They would literally sell whatever they owned, property houses, sell it and bring the proceeds
from the sale and place it in the care and under the authority of the apostles.
And then it was distributed to anybody who had a need.
We learned that in Acts chapter 4.
Well Barnabas was a nickname that the apostles gave Joseph.

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And he apparently had, was a man of means because he had a field and he sold it and he took
the money and he placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles.
So we know that he had radical generosity.
But because he had this other gift, this gift of encouragement, it was so profound, so significant

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that the apostles literally created a nickname for him, Barnabas, this nickname stuck because
all throughout the New Testament later on in Paul's letters he refers to him as Barnabas,
not with his given name of Joseph.
So as I was preparing for this class, I was thinking about Barnabas and him being, Barnabas

(04:18):
means son of encouragement.
And so being the word nerd that I am, I look up the word encourage and it means to give
courage or to give heart or to strengthen the heart or to build up someone, the word encourage
is made up of two parts in which is to give or to strengthen and then encourage.

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And so that's kind of how I think of when I think of encouragement.
When I try to be an encouragement to someone, I try to point out qualities that they have
or if they do something really well, I tell them, you did that really well or wow, I could
see you would be so good at this, I could see you doing this.

(05:02):
I just try to say things to lift up their spirits and to encourage them.
The name Barnabas comes from the Greek word paraclesis and that word is rich and multifaceted
depending on the context, it can be translated as encouragement, it can also be translated

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as exhortation, comfort, appeal or plea.
So you know, I tend to think of it as encouragement, lifting someone up emotionally or spiritually.
So think of someone that has lifted you up emotionally or spiritually or maybe think
of something that you have said to someone else to lift them up emotionally or spiritually.

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I remember when I was going through the actual, the darkest time of my life, I had a friend
who would send me a text very often, very often and it would simply say, you are loved,
I am with you.
And that was so encouraging to me.
But the other meaning of the word paraclesis is exhortation and this is where you urge someone

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to action or faithfulness.
So think of someone who has done that for you or perhaps someone you've done that for.
It's happened to me many times in my life where someone saw a quality in me that I didn't
necessarily see in myself and they would say something like, you know, you would be so

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good at this.
You need to do this.
This actually happened, this is actually the reason I became a coach.
It was five or six years ago, six years ago.
And I started thinking about my future and what am I going to do when I retire from ministry
because I'm not one to sit around and do nothing.

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And I would also like to earn some extra money because I want to travel.
And so I went to dinner with two friends and I'm telling them this story and I said,
some thinking of something that I can do on the side to earn a little bit of extra money.
And without hesitation, one of the women who has who used to work for me when I was a high

(07:16):
school principal and we've known each other for over 25 years said, you need to be a professional
coach.
Well at the time, I'm not even sure I could have defined what a professional coach was.
I heard of it, but I really didn't, couldn't speak about it intelligently.
And so I said, well, why do you say that?
And she said, because she still works at the school where I used to work and she said, we

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hired a professional coach to work with administration.
And every time I see her, I think, oh, she reminds me so much of Becky.
She said, you really need to consider that.
Well, I was flattered, even though I didn't really know what it meant.
And I went home and I googled it and I thought, oh, yeah, I could do this.

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I would love to do this and I began to research programs because I like to learn and I wanted
to, didn't want to just skate on my experience.
I wanted to learn how to coach properly.
And so it was just a few weeks later, I enrolled in a year long coaching program and became
a certified professional coach all because someone exorted me, urged me to action.

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Paraclesis also means comfort, bringing peace and consolation, especially in suffering.
Think of something someone has said to you that brought peace or consolation to you when
you were hurting or when you were suffering or maybe you've done it for someone else.
Again, going back to that very dark time in my life, there were two things that happened.

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There was one friend and it really was not even what I would consider a good friend.
It was actually someone I work with and I don't know that well.
Sent me a greeting card every week for one year.
Now think about the cost alone, the cost of your average greeting card and then putting

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it in the mail and doing that week after week after week 52 times for one year.
And this person would always add additional words and of course, their signature.
It meant so much to me and it became something I looked forward to every week.
I had another friend who would text me periodically and go, something tells me to check on you.

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Are you okay?
Now this was during the pandemic.
Every single time I received that text, something really rotten was going on.
I was struggling in some way or I was sad or I was grieving or I was hurting.
It was a bad day or a bad moment in a day and it was like she just knew.

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I really believe God pressed it on her heart.
But that brought such comfort to me.
There was nothing she could do for me.
We were in isolation, sheltered at home as it were.
But yet just hearing that made it so much better.
And so encouragement, paraclesis, the way Bartabas did it was so much more than just encouragement.

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Bartabas style was bold, it was visionary, it was generous and it was healing.
Let me show you what I mean.
In the ninth chapter of Acts, we know that Bartabas believed in people even when others
didn't.
If you'll remember, Saul was part of a group of people persecuting Christians and when

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they were stoning Stephen, he was the guy standing there holding everybody's coats to make it
easy for them to do the stoning, he had a terrifying reputation.
And understandably most of the Christians were scared of him, certainly skeptical of him,
but not Bartabas.
Bartabas saw something in him.
A quality, a redeemable quality and Bartabas took a risk and he vouched for Paul and he

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used his own credibility with the church to lift someone else, to lift Paul up and that
takes courage.
It takes courage to bring somebody who's helping to kill somebody into the circle of the
apostles and sometimes being an encourager demands having courage in yourself.

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You can't encourage others if you don't have courage in yourself.
And of course we know the story, Saul became Paul and ended up becoming a leading character
in Scripture, wrote several books in the New Testament and did great, great things for
the beginning of the church.

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In Acts chapter 11, the church in Antioch was growing and Bartabas saw an opportunity.
He knew how to bring talented people into a setting where their gifts could be of use.
Now think about that.
Think about that in your life.
How can you bring talented people and connect them into a setting where their gifts can be

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used?
Bartabas didn't keep the spotlight for himself.
He must have been an amazing man to have his name changed to something so profound as
paraclesis.
But he wanted Paul's gifts to be used.
He knew that Paul would be a powerful person for a ministry to Jews and Gentiles.

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He saw Paul's gifts and he wanted to find just the right context in which Paul could thrive.
And that's what encourages do.
They look for ways to match talent to opportunity.
They unlock people's potential.
They're a talent scout for the Kingdom of God.
So in their first missionary journey they took together, Paul and Barnabas worked hand

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in hand.
And when they got into Listera, people thought they were gods.
They called Barnabas Zeus, which means the leader, they called Paul Hermes, which means the
speaker.
They had incredible influence and impact when they worked together.
And Barnabas wasn't just the sidekick to Paul, even though Paul was the one very often out
front.
He was a leader in his own right.

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But when encourages and visionaries team up, the gospel moves powerfully.
Barnabas also stood by John Mark when he needed him to.
Next chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas had words and they split over whether or not to take
John Mark on another journey.
Paul said no because John Mark had abandoned them once before, but Barnabas.

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Barnabas saw something different.
He saw something worth redeeming.
He was the son of encouragement and he gave John Mark a second chance to prove himself in
mission work.
And hey, this led to the formation of two military, two missionary teams.
Paul took Silas.
Barnabas took John Mark, doubled their impact.

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And so encouragement isn't always flashy and it isn't always just saying a kind word
behind the scenes.
It's powerful.
Barnabas showed us that encouragement isn't soft.
It is bold.
It is visionary.
It is generalist, generalist.
It is generous.
It is healing.

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Think about a Barnabas that you've had in your life.
I shared a few examples of the Barnabas in my life and the difference they made for me.
How about you?
What difference did it make?
And can you be a Barnabas to someone this week?
And I'm talking about someone who needs a second chance.
Someone who needs a little courage.
Someone who needs a voice to stand up for them.

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Because encouragement is more than just kind words.
It is sacrificial.
It is courageous and it is impactful.
I pray that you spend this week thinking about yourself as an encourager and what you can
do for your encouragement to be beyond what we think of as encouragement for it to also

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be exhortation and comfort and a peel or a plea.
And I don't think I got into that.
But I was talking a moment ago.
I remember talking about, I got so caught up in talking about comfort when I got the greeting
card every day for a year.
Then I just kind of glossed over encouragement as an appeal or as a plea.

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Think about when someone sees a quality in you that matches a need.
So they come to you and say, you are such a good teacher.
Would you come teach the students this week and talk to them about this topic or you really
know, you really understand the ministry of presence.

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Would you go with me to visit this person?
I really need to learn from you how to do pastoral care better.
Or when someone matches a gift you have within a need that's out there.
So this week, give it some thought.
Ask God, ask yourself, how can I be a better encourager to the people around me?

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Hey, I hope this has been helpful.
Let's do this again next week.
It is my prayer that this podcast inspired you, blessed you, or made you think.
If so, please share it with a friend, subscribe and please leave a review.
Hey, I want to connect with you.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, send me a DM or email me at [e-mail].

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We'll talk soon.
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