1. Spiritual Gifts and Missions
2. Spiritual Gifts and the Missions Field
3. Spiritual Gifts and Missions Teams
4. What is the ‘Apostolic’ and Why Is It Important?
5. The 5 Essential Elements of an Apostolic Leader
6. Indicators of an Emerging Apostolic Leader

In this series, we’ve discovered what the word “apostolic” means, given the 5 essential elements of an apostolic leader, and discussed potential indicators of an emerging apostolic leader.

In this final post, we’ll talk about how to partner with and develop these proven or emerging apostolic leaders.

We’ve previously given some very practical steps for how to network with believers, build relational trust, and filter for a potential NAV through a “NAV Process.” This includes introductory meetings, discerning if they fit the NAV profile, vision casting, participating in ministry together, and finally piloting a training with them and their group.

Hopefully by the end of this process, you have 1-3 good candidates to partner with. As you partner together, keep the 5 essential elements and the indicators in mind to help you discern if they’re truly apostolically gifted.

But what happens if it turns out that they aren’t apostolic? What then?

Then you’ve spent time either learning about what you’re really looking for and / or you’ve found a local partner who has the vision to pioneer and multiply but may need some help in certain areas to see breakthrough. Either way, it’s time well spent. We’d encourage you to shoot for an apostolic leader because it’s a gifting that God clearly uses to pioneer. If He grants it, great. But any and all gifts can be used for the Kingdom. Any believer can be given a vision for multiplication and may have a crucial role in it. 

You’ll still likely find other faithful, vision-driven local believers that want to pursue multiplication – you should absolutely work with them! It could be that one of them has latent apostolic giftings and needs more time for those things to emerge. And no matter what, these local believers will have much greater effectiveness as cultural insiders in making disciples than we will. They may eventually help you find an apostolic leader that leads to breakthrough by training other believers or through the harvest, like how Paul raised up Priscilla and Aquila as leaders in Corinth who eventually found and developed Apollos. We believe that it’s best if the apostolic gift is involved somewhere in the movement work – through the insider believer, the outsider partner, a movement coach, or through the harvest. He will lead you to these types of people in His timing! Until He does, keep praying, looking, and partnering with faithful disciple makers towards multiplication.

Partnering With an Apostolic Leader

Here are some things we would encourage you to do with an emerging or established apostolic leader that you want to partner with. Some may happen earlier or later in the process of ministry, but all are beneficial in pursuing multiplication, identifying emerging leaders, and developing and using the apostolic gift!

Pioneer Together. As apostolic leaders are called to pioneer among new peoples and places, the first step is to do pioneering work together! Whether entering and preparing new areas through prayer walking, sharing with the lost, or catalyzing others through training, apostolic leaders will thrive in a pioneering environment. You can follow a MAWL (Model-Assist-Watch-Launch) process if you’re working with a potential apostolic leader who has never engaged in pioneering before. You’ll quickly be able to gauge their faithfulness, capacity, and gifting in harvest and catalyzing activities like seeing a fish in water! During the early stages with an emerging leader, you may need to set the parameters and guide a little bit more, but the apostolic leader will intuitively and earnestly start to generate more of the initiation of pioneering activities. Encourage them to pick the target people or places to start harvesting, the groups to train, the tools to use, and help them to gradually refine the vision that the Lord has given them. The goal is to empower them to grow into their gifting, not for them to become cogs in our ministry machine – so empower them by letting them take the lead and make decisions!

Train in Multiplication Principles and Practices. Being in the pioneering environment will feel natural and exciting for the apostolic leader, but pioneering activity does not necessarily equate to multiplication activity. Train and coach the apostolic leader in multiplication principles and practices. It doesn’t need to be a formal classroom setting to train; simply sitting together in a tea or coffee shop and talking through these things with a potential apostolic leader is great! Walking through the apostle Paul’s journeys is probably the best tool in showing a combination of principle and practice. Telling stories of movement, reading case studies, and introducing apostolic leaders to movement sources can help broaden their vision from simply expanding the Kingdom to catalyzing a multiplication movement. It can also be really helpful to show a process of how multiplication can happen, whether the 4 Fields or T4T or DMM processes. We use this Multiplication Cycle that combines elements from different streams of movement to help our partners understand how to pursue multiplication. For the sake of simplicity, we generally lean towards biblical training and tools over movement-jargon types of curriculum, though both are needed and helpful.

The apostolic leader will differ from other types of leaders when engaging in a vision for multiplication – they’ll believe it can be done. It’s the faith gifted to an apostolic leader to believe that God can and will do this miraculous work in their field, where many others may feel resistance or hesitance that it can happen. As with the first point – try to empower the local leader to make decisions about what ways are best to apply these multiplication principles in their context. As the cultural insider who is a foundation and DNA setter, they will likely be far more effective in choosing multiplication practices for their context after some initial guidance.

Focus on Apostolic Functions. Clinton’s Leadership Commentary on 1st and 2 Timothy has a number of very helpful articles around the Apostolic Function and Gift. He highlights 7 functions in particular:

1. Start New Ministries
2. Appoint Leaders
3. Establish Works (help newly started works to develop and grow)
4. Intercede for Works, both new and old
5. Combat Heresy
6. Resource New and Old Ministries
7. Test New Ministries for Validity

The last 3 functions – combat heresy, resource ministries, test validity – are probably later stage functions as opposed to the first 4 focused on starting new ministries, appointing leaders, and doing the work of intercession.

As we said in the post about indicators, an apostolic leader is likely to be a jack of all trades, multi-gifted in order to help the new ministry or work get off the ground. In a given week they might end up training, evangelizing, interceding, teaching, preaching, healing, shepherding, administrating ministry, leading worship, cooking food for the group, taking care of a believer’s kid, driving between multiple locations, answering the phone, helping a business, problem solving a strategic problem, encouraging a hurting believer, and 100 other things. As a leader of an emerging or multiplying work, they’ll have full plates! Your job as a Barnabas is to help them to focus. Spinning too many plates is one of the big pitfalls we see for apostolics, as their competency and the breadth of their vision drive them to end up doing everything.

As with any believer with a spiritual gift, they’ll be most effective when they can spend the majority of their time serving out of their gift instead of other things. Of course there’s some percentage of our time where we have to do things that we’re not gifted at – but honoring the Lord by releasing responsibility to other leaders is the role of an apostolic leader. Help them focus on starting new things, clarifying vision, investing in leaders, and interceding for the works! That leads us to…

Collaborate with and Release Authority to PESTs and Other Gifts. Again, one of the main pitfalls for an apostolic leader is to get caught up with all the needs of a new work and try to overcontrol everything by doing everything themselves. A critical component of an apostolic leader is to identify, appoint/recruit, develop, and release new leaders! Not just other apostolic leaders, but other Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers especially. These other gifts are greatly needed to establish and deepen the new works that the apostolic leader has started. Our post on the “Apostolic” covers some of the different functions of APEST leaders in a movement.

Many times a headstrong apostolic leader can butt heads with other types of leaders, especially shepherd/teachers who are particularly drawn to shepherd needs and grow maturity through teaching, which can feel slow to an apostolic leader. But a mature apostolic will be able to see their own limitations and know that Scripture teaches that we are all one body in need of each other (1 Corinthians 12). The apostolic really, really, really needs the other members of the body. A good way to see a ministry start quickly and burn out just as quickly is to leave it under the control of a fast-moving apostolic that never appoints other types of leaders to focus on health and depth.

Withdraw, Reflect, Listen, and Plan. With the apostolic leaders’ high proficiency, numerous responsibilities, and big vision, it’s likely that they will work themselves to the bone and straight to burnout. You as the Barnabas can play an intensely important role simply by reminding them and creating opportunities for them to do as Jesus did – withdraw to be with God (Luke 5:16). Many times, we’ll ask our partners to come meet us somewhere away from their place of ministry so that no one can knock the door down looking for them. We tell them to shut off their phone, and give them the first half of our time simply to rest and pray and spend time with God alone. We might spend the second half debriefing, hearing reports, training, and planning for future ministry, but our role is primarily to make space for them to rest in the Lord. In the whirlwind of busy ministry, the apostolic leader desperately needs to find the quiet space to reflect, listen to the voice of God, and plan and prioritize where they need to invest their limited time. These times are critical for them to evaluate and refine the vision they’ve received from God. When we cease to do this, we are doing ministry out of man’s power instead of God’s – and we’re guaranteed to fail one way or another.

Pulling our apostolic partners out of their ministry schedule for just a couple days of quiet, rest, and listening can make all the difference in seeing breakthrough in multiplication. But more than the strategic and ministry pieces, the apostolic leader desperately needs to focus on their intimacy and relationship and abiding with God. He cares so much more about our being than our doing. Allow them time and encourage them to hear from God for themselves and what He wants for them, not just the ministry.

Be a Friend and Encourager. Lastly, as the apostolic leader jumps into an emerging and thriving ministry, the list of problems, crises, needs, difficult people, conflicts, and burdens increases exponentially. Any ministry, and certainly pioneering ministry, can be extremely isolating and lonely for leaders. Not many will understand what they’re going through.

They need to first and foremost surrender those things to the Lord and find their motivation and peace in him. And they need a friend. Someone to listen to their frustrations, to be thoughtful in loving them, to point them to Jesus, to encourage them to persevere.

There’s a reason why Barnabas was called the Encourager. What a role he had in encouraging, supporting, empowering Paul. Without Barnabas, we don’t get the book of Acts.

I think Paul could call Barnabas a lot of things – mentor, advocate, co-laborer. My guess is when I get to ask him, he’ll first call Barnabas his friend.

How to Develop an Apostolic Leader

All of the above things will be great for an apostolic leader’s development in learning through doing. But there’s other ways to help them understand more about the apostolic gift that God has given them and use it effectively.

Study the apostolic. There’s plenty to study in the New Testament about the apostolic gifting, function, and ministry – basically anything about who Paul is or what he does will be informative. The book of Acts reveals much about the pioneering aspect and his letters give more insight into his own development, perseverance, and heart in being an apostolic leader. If you’re able, we’d recommend diving into some of the resources we listed in the 5 essential elements post. The more you can understand what the original model of the apostolic gift looks like, the better we can imitate it. It can also be helpful to read books and biographies about other pioneering leaders.

Interact with other apostolic leaders. If you’re able to, interact with other apostolic leaders. It’s hard to describe this but an apostolic leader is probably more used to resistance, hesitance, rejection from others around them when they begin talking about big vision and multiplication. Others can feel intimidated by their intensity or just the scope of their work. But when they’re in a room with other apostolic leaders that they trust, there’s a freedom and an excitement in getting to talk to others who get you. Others who won’t frown at their big ideas but encourage them and share their own experiences and ideas. It can make them feel like they’re not crazy – at least when they’re in a room of people as crazy as they are!

A couple of disclaimers in this – just because someone is an apostolic leader doesn’t mean they don’t feel insecurity or deal with comparison. Naturally when apostolic leaders gather the focus will be on ministry. But it’s a smart idea to bring the focus on God. Highlighting shared experiences and sufferings will draw out vulnerability and increase trust before you start trucking ahead on ministry topics. Creating safety in the room before jumping in to discussing ministry can help the interaction. Secondly, although we’d encourage apostolics to interact with other apostolics, there can be some intense friction in working together. We’ve had mentors advise us that apostolic leaders can probably agree or work together at a high, 30,000 foot perspective (let’s generally share tools, or have a semi-frequent coaching meeting together, or strategically parse out people and places to focus), but can step on each others’ toes when working closely together. The apostolic leader probably wants some freedom to pursue their own ideas, and working with another highly opinionated, highly confident leader might cause some problems. This isn’t always the case but just something to be aware of.

Find apostolic mentors. This is similar to the previous point, but finding an older, more experienced apostolic leader to mentor you, especially in personal development, can be a gold mine. Hopefully this mentor has experienced and gone through many of the pitfalls and problems that an apostolic leader faces and you can learn from their wisdom. Again, the apostolic leader will want freedom to try new things on their own, but they also will value a mentor’s wisdom and shared understanding of their experiences.

Develop other leadership skills. Since the apostolic leader has so many functions in establishing a new work, it can be helpful for them to also develop leadership skills that will support their gifting. Clinton lists out several including strategy, planning, change agent, leadership styles, motivating, inspiring, mentoring, organizational skills, team building, identifying and developing leaders, and communication skills. Even though an apostolic leader may do these things intuitively, equipping them with skills and frameworks to boost their efficiency is a good idea. Or focusing on shoring up weaknesses that they may have like shepherding skills can be beneficial.

Develop intimacy with God. Whether as an apostolic yourself or in helping your apostolic partner – focus on developing intimacy with God. Learn to hear the voice of God for everyday direction and decision. Being surrendered to God is an essential element for an apostolic leader, so practice the process of surrendering and receiving from God. The pioneering ministry has an avalanche of challenges and trials that we’ve noted repeatedly. At times, Paul mentions feeling “so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor. 1:8). If God grants fruitful multiplying ministry, the challenges will also multiply accordingly.

Without this critical foundation of intimacy with Christ, the apostolic leader is guaranteed to fail. The Enemy is prowling to take out those that will greatly expand the Kingdom through isolation, sin, discouragement, and spiritual warfare of many kinds. Guard yourselves in His armor and through intimacy with Him. Fight to not allow ministry to become your idol. Fight to have Philippians 2 humility in the midst of ministry fruit.

It’s an example for all believers but especially the apostolic leader that we see Paul’s own dependence on the Lord grow over the years of his ministry, from being the least of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9), to the least of the saints (Eph. 3:8), to the foremost of all sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). He constantly prioritized his intimacy with God, withdrawing to be with God as we see our Savior did.

If God’s pattern throughout Scripture and history is to raise up apostolic leaders to pioneer the least reached people and places for His glory, then there are people He has prepared in your field.

I firmly believe there are in- or near-culture believers that He intends to use to finish the Great Commission. If you’re reading this, and you have the heart to find these modern-day “Pauls,”’ then I believe you can be a Barnabas to them. Ask the Holy Spirit, have a heart to serve, have eyes to see these people, and He will lead you to them. Remember, it only takes one.

I’ll finish this series with an exhortation to the apostolic leader reading this or the Barnabas who will empower a national apostolic leader. Sometimes we feel the temptation to cut corners or skip over inconvenient things or treat people unlovingly in pursuit of the big vision. And we use the defense – “those people don’t understand us” or “it’s worth it to see more multiplication” or something of the sort.

Apostolic gifting without apostolic character produces apostolic malfunction.

Steve U.

What’s really happening is that ministry success and numbers and fruit have become our idol. Being overly busy is a badge of pride instead of a warning indicator that we are allowing our doing to overcome our being with Jesus. Increased isolation or surrounding ourselves with only others who enable us is explained off as being a contrarian, a pioneer, a barrier breaker instead of the truth that we’re not willing to humble ourselves and submit to a group of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Scripture is abundantly clear – the ends of ministry don’t justify the means. Being an apostolic leader doesn’t give us license to trample people, to steal and extract sheep, to be disingenuous about ministry numbers, to ignore clear discipleship and maturity problems in pursuit of the more and the faster. Unfortunately, we’ve seen apostolic leaders pursuing movement do these types of things repeatedly. I won’t attempt to judge their hearts, but there often is not a humility to even admit to these things or correct them. The very thing we claim to be effective at in catalyzing movements, the apostolic gift, becomes a testimony against the ministry we are doing and against ourselves.

Matthew 7 has a haunting statement from Jesus, that “on that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not do… many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

My prayer for myself and to others reading this – 

May we keep our hearts tender before the Lord. 
May we always mirror the character and heart of Jesus to others in pursuing big vision for him. 
May we not twist the gift He has given to us for our own personal and selfish gain. 
May we not allow ministry to become an idol that keeps us from worshipping Jesus.

I’d recommend Andrew Murray’s books Humility and Absolute Surrender as regular reads to help us check our hearts. And about this specific topic of losing our way in pursuing movement, I highly recommend my friend David’s book, How to Pursue Great Works without Losing Your Soul.

Every believer, every gift can be used towards completing the Great Commission, but I believe that He means to use those with the apostolic gift as first in sequence to pioneer. My hope is that these few at the tip of the spear could be surrendered to Jesus and become who God has called them to be, leading to multiplying movements among the remaining unreached peoples and places of the world.

The world has yet to see what God can do through a man [or woman] who is totally yielded to Him.

Henry Varley

In our last two posts, we’ve defined what the “apostolic” is, and 5 essential elements of an apostolic leader. An apostolic leader needs to have all 5 elements of big vision, risking faith, foundation setting, leader developer, and surrender to God.

If you can find a clearly apostolically gifted, mature, national believer to partner with, that’s awesome! But, someone that gifted and experienced will likely already have many ministry responsibilities and it may take time to build trust with that leader in order to partner.

However, we are often looking for leaders with latent apostolic giftings that have not yet fully emerged. For one, I think apostolic leaders are relatively rare – there’s no research around this but talking to other CPM practitioners, generally the number is <10% of believers, if not <5%. Secondly, a fully mature apostolic leader is rarely available.

It may feel like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. But our encouragement is this: It only takes one.

All it takes is one national ‘Paul,’ with the vision, faith, giftings, and surrender to catalyze a movement that will change the trajectory of a nation.

In the early 2000s, the president of Campus Crusade in Thailand, Pastor Nok, used his significant influence to gather 80% of the pastors in Thailand in a Congress to ask the question, “What will it take to complete the Great Commission in Thailand?” From that, they formed the National Plan to see the gospel go to every district and village in Thailand. The churches that our team currently work with came through introductions from leaders within the National Plan.

I asked one ex-pat worker who knew Pastor Nok well, “What is his story? How did he come to faith?” He told me that Pastor Nok was the first Thai Cru staff ever, and that he was led to faith by one American Cru staff member named Chip, who only managed to win and disciple one Thai person to faith in 10 years in Thailand. That was Pastor Nok.

It only takes one.

But how do you find that one? How do you discern if they have the elements to be an apostolic, multiplying leader? What do you do with them to develop them and help their gifting and vision emerge?

Barnabas: Recognizing Hidden Apostolic Potential

Out of anyone in Scripture, Paul was perhaps the most unlikely candidate to be transformed and used by Jesus for his purposes. Often the apostolic leader may emerge from the most unexpected of places. Barnabas saw the latent giftings in Paul – that he had a miraculous transformation from a persecutor of Christians to a chosen instrument to bring the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15), that he immediately and boldly shared the gospel with the Jews in the synagogue (Acts 9:20), and that he needed an advocate before the disciples in Jerusalem that didn’t trust him (Acts 9:27). Eventually, Barnabas spends a year with Paul in Antioch discipling others (Acts 11:26), likely identifying and developing Paul’s strengths, before the Holy Spirit sets them aside for the first journey in Acts 13.

When everyone else saw Paul’s evil background, Barnabas saw his new transformation and calling.

When everyone else didn’t trust who Paul said he was, Barnabas advocated for his faithfulness.

When opportunities arose for new ministry, Barnabas went to recruit Paul, developing his giftings and maturity.

And when the Holy Spirit called them to be set apart to start a new work in new places, Barnabas was beside Paul as he stepped fully into his giftings as an apostle.

We need to be like Barnabas, to have the eyes to see the potential in latent apostolic leaders, and the ears to hear from the Holy Spirit how to help them fulfill their calling.

Indicators of an Emerging Apostolic Leader

When we are looking for these apostolic leaders, we are certainly checking for the 5 essential elements. We’ll ask them questions like, what is your vision? How did you come to faith? What does your ministry look like? What obstacles are you running into? And we’re listening for big vision, willingness to risk, methods that look like multiplication or at least are different from the norm, leaders that they’ve developed, and signs of surrender. But a latent apostolic leader may not have had the chance to step into pioneering ministry, and therefore may not yet exhibit some of these elements. Apart from directly evaluating these 5 elements, we’ve observed some other hints of someone having an underlying apostolic gifting.

They don’t need to have all of these indicators, and just having one doesn’t mean that they are certainly apostolic leaders. But if you see some of these, it may be worth building trust and listening to the Holy Spirit about helping these leaders emerge into their calling and gifting.

Black Sheep – Often, latent apostolic leaders can be seen as black sheep that don’t fit the mold of their church. Other words could be non-conformist, oddball, contrarian. They are still part of the flock, still a sheep, but different from the rest. Sometimes church leaders don’t know what to do with this person who rocks the boat and may have a lot of new ideas that others aren’t willing to do. Whenever someone in Thailand tells me that another believer is interesting / weird / eccentric / not like the others – my radar immediately pops up. The latent apostolic leader is dissatisfied with the status quo, and it can cause friction with people in the church because their drive and desire is to pioneer, though they may not have personally clarified that vision yet.

Failed Entrepreneurs / Not Afraid to Start Things / Flexible Methodology – “failed entrepreneurs” was often a phrase that we were coached to look for in identifying apostolic leaders. That desire to set foundations, without a clear vision of their calling, can result in starting a lot of new businesses, ministries, and start ups. This boldness and risk-taking demeanor could be indicators of an apostolic leader. When we meet new leaders, we also want to see if they’re willing to be flexible in their methods or if they’re strongly tied to some kind of program or curriculum. If they’re willing to try new things to pioneer, that’s a good sign. If they’re wanting to simply grow their own ministry flavor, we would probably move on.

Anointed / Fruitful – Even before Paul started on his missionary journeys, he was faithfully sharing and discipling in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Antioch. He boldly and powerfully proclaimed the gospel and made disciples. Many times, we can meet a person that is saying all the right things – that they’re excited about multiplication, that they have a vision to pioneer – but the fruit of their lives doesn’t reflect that at all. It could be that they’ve never been empowered or equipped, and then there is an opportunity to help them live out that vision. But often, there is a lot of exciting talk without the actual faithfulness and fruitfulness indicative of a leader that God desires to use. Given the choice between someone who says the right things versus someone who has the fruitfulness of disciples and a godly life, I am taking the latter every time.

Character Immaturities – I’d imagine Paul was pretty rough around the edges when he first came to faith. Although he was certainly humbled by his Damascus road experience, there was still much of his old life – the prideful, highly positioned, well-known persecutor of Christians – that needed to be transformed. Though some of the disciples in Acts 9 were afraid of Paul, Barnabas came and advocated for him, eventually recruiting him and developing him into the minister to the Gentiles that he was called to be.

Similarly, a developing apostolic leader probably has some character immaturities that might be signs of opportunity. Sinclair says “self confidence, overassertiveness, and independence” along with stubbornness and overcontrol could be some character issues that an immature apostolic might struggle with. Miley adds impatience and being overextended in their commitments. You can see in these developing leaders the innate vision, passion, and drive to accomplish great things for God, but without the humility, testedness, and surrender needed for them to succeed. 

An immature apostolic has probably had many people in their church exhort them in their impatience and roughness, probably almost condescendingly so – “you’re young so you don’t get how things work.” “It’s nice that you have big goals and new ideas but we have to be realistic.” Increasingly they can balk against authority because of their internal conviction and what the Spirit is stirring up. When someone validates the vision they’ve received as well as challenges them to grow in their leadership to meet that vision, we’ve seen apostolic leaders respond with eagerness. There is a great opportunity for a Barnabas-type leader to say, “I see the potential in you and love your vision. I’d love to walk alongside you to help you grow in your ministry and your walk with God to see those things happen.”

Jack of All Trades / Multi-Gifted – For a yet developing apostolic that has started some new ministry, you may see that they are at least competent, if not gifted, to do many different types of ministry – evangelism, leader development, teaching, shepherding, mercy, administration, etc. In the pioneering environment, it may be necessary for an apostolic leader to play a lot of roles to get things started and God empowers them to do so. But the opposite pitfall for a multi-gifted leader is to hold on to control because they are so competent at so many things. Which leads us to…

Releasing Authority – The apostolic leader is willing and quick to release authority. As new disciples grow in their maturity and gifts, the apostolic leader is quick to empower every disciple to step into their authority to make disciples and serve God. Over control by leaders is a major barrier to multiplication. Apostolic leaders understand that they will play an important role of spiritual parent to many leaders, but they are also active in helping disciples step out in faith to grow in their dependence on God. If a leader expresses too much hesitation in letting disciples take simple steps of obedience like sharing the gospel or leading a discovery Bible study without them, that could be a barrier.

In coaching movement practitioners, identifying a national partner with apostolic gifting is one of the most complex and difficult parts of the process and something we get the most questions about. How do I know if it’s worth investing in this person? Should I spend more time with person A or person B?

Going out to share the gospel takes boldness but it’s relatively simple and straightforward – people are interested to know more about Jesus or they aren’t. But getting to know believers, building relationship with them, navigating language and culture, discerning their words, their actions, their vision, and their character is an art, not a science. It takes a lot of prayer, getting to know people, trying new things, and failing forward repeatedly before you might find someone. Sometimes, we’ve partnered with people for 3, 4, 5 years before it becomes evident that they are missing an essential element of an apostolic leader. And that’s OK. We don’t think of that time as wasted, but as time invested in trying to find a pioneering leader and learning what that might look like in our culture and mistakes to avoid. It’s also never a waste of time investing in local believers to grow in their disciple-making.

Hopefully, knowing the 5 essential elements and some of the potential indicators of a latent apostolic leader will help you in the process. Some practitioners we know met their apostolic partner in their first ever training – hooray for them, really. We were relatively fortunate and found our partner after about 3 years of ministry, 5 years in country. Some people we know took 10 years and hundreds of trainings and relationships to find their partner. It’s up to the timing of the Lord.

But remember – it only takes one.

Reflection Questions

1. Do you have a personal bias toward or against any of these indicators? Why?
2. Consider the local believers that you know. Do any of them display these indicators or essential elements?
3. Do you know local believers that seem to “say the right things” but lack demonstrated faithfulness and fruitfulness? Why do you suppose that is? How should you continue to engage with this believer?
4. Where are some networks or communities that you could build relationships to get to know potential apostolic leaders?

In our previous post, we covered a simple definition of spiritual gifts and some key points about gifts. In this post, we’ll explore why using spiritual gifts is critical on the missions field.

As we’ve mentioned in our spiritual warfare posts, our encounters with spiritual warfare during our first short-term trip to Thailand opened our eyes to spiritual realities. It also made us begin to seek out the Holy Spirit and learn about spiritual gifts. As we discerned our calling to go and sought out development and preparation before launching, this category of the Holy Spirit (listening prayer, spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare) was a blind spot for us. As we heard stories from movement practitioners on the field, they shared about healings, demons being cast out, Muslims having dreams of Jesus, and supernatural usage of spiritual gifts. We studied Acts and saw miraculous signs and wonders accompanying the proclamation of the gospel.

It made us ask the question – how come these supernatural acts seem so prevalent on the mission field but feel so rare in our home context? And, if these things are happening and are critical to the work, what can we do to learn about the gifts and access them?

Part of the answer has to do with our own cultural and theological perspectives about the spiritual world, what Paul Hiebert calls The Excluded Middle. Another reason is that we simply are more self-reliant on our ‘natural’ skills and giftings rather than the Spirit’s power when we are in our own comfortable culture. Laboring cross-culturally can humble you quickly and turn you towards looking for power beyond yourself.

The truth is that we need the Spirit’s power for supernatural impact just as much at home as we do on the mission field – it just isn’t as apparent to us. But the field has a unique way to draw out the reality of our need for the Spirit’s power.

The Missions Field is a Pioneering Environment.

Floyd McClung coined the term ‘apostolic passion,’ which he defines as “a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations.” It’s drawn from Paul’s ‘ambition’ in Romans 15:

“And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

– Romans 15:20-21

I think many, if not most, cross-cultural workers have this apostolic passion. We not only desire to see Jesus worshipped among the nations, but have what McClung calls the apostolic abandonment and focus to give our lives and time and efforts towards making disciples among the unreached.

Those with apostolic passion will go to start new work among people and places where Jesus is not yet known. These missions fields are what I would call pioneering environments, where the methods, systems, structures, institutions, and the sufficient number of disciple-makers needed to reach a people or place do not yet exist. As such, pursuing disciple-making and church planting in a pioneering environment requires different approaches than in reached areas, including increased innovation, more flexible methodology, a higher rate of experimentation and failing forward, and more agile teams that can adjust quickly to change.

But above everything, pioneering environments require spiritual breakthrough.

The Pioneering Environment Requires Spiritual Breakthrough, Including Spiritual Gifts.

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

– Mark 16:20

As much as I believe that strategic and innovative approaches can be helpful in starting movements, too often we see cross-cultural workers put their hope in their strategies and tools rather than in the Spirit’s power. These unreached communities have been resistant to the gospel for potentially hundreds of years, and there are too many cultural, religious, historical, and most of all spiritual barriers to the gospel in these pioneering environments for human ability to make a dent. Even the perfect persuasive evangelism tool has no power to change the heart of someone who lives in darkness. Seeing people among the unreached repent and believe the gospel requires the Spirit to move in power!

Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12), and that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). Throughout the New Testament, we see signs, wonders, gifts, and power coincide with the proclamation of the gospel in the mission field, whether through Jesus himself (Matthew 9:35), in the disciples (Luke 10:19), or through the early believers in Acts (Acts 14:3).

These spiritual realities of warfare that faced the early church should inform how we approach the pioneering environments that we are in! For every hour of planning, how many do we give to prayer? For every resource we develop, how much do we focus on receiving and using the Spirit’s power and gifts? Do our approaches even allow for “divine power to destroy strongholds,” or are they weapons of the flesh and human wisdom? These are questions that I need to ask myself often!

If we can see the battle is spiritual, just as Elisha’s servant had his eyes opened (2 Kings 6:17), the good news is that the “weapons of our warfare” are already promised and given. I love that in every one of the Great Commission passages, power is promised to accompany the commission to make disciples and preach the gospel. One significant aspect of this power is through the spiritual gifts that each believer is given.

We should expect, depend on, and regularly use the gifts of the Spirit in the work of pioneering movements.

Our Thai partners greatly outpace us in this category. Their primary method of entering new communities is by praying for needs. We train and practice praying for people with a simple prayer, and then see if God moves and opens their hearts to hear more about Jesus. Often, people request prayer for physical ailments and illnesses.

Early on in our partnership with Mint, we went with her to visit one new believer’s house that was 40 minutes down a dirt road. After going through a new believer lesson with the new believer Sarah, she introduced us to her mom. Sarah told us that her mom hadn’t been able to stand or walk for several months, and a doctor told them that she would likely never walk again because of severe osteoporosis. Together with Mint, we gathered to pray for Sarah’s mom. Nothing happened. We said our goodbyes and Mint told Sarah that she would come back next week to go through more discipleship lessons.

A week later, Mint and her team went back to Sarah’s house. And they prayed again for Sarah’s mom.

And Sarah’s mom stood up and walked down the stairs for the first time in months.

The next week, she walked into the nearby creek to be baptized by her daughter.

As more and more disciple-makers were trained to engage the harvest, reports of healings, miracles, and salvations began coming in weekly. 

• One new believer was beaten by her husband so severely that her right eye swelled and she was blinded in that eye. She came to the local house church and had the believers pray for her. The next day, she woke up, and the swollenness was gone and she could see! 
• In another province, a new believer discovered he had the gift of healing and met a sick woman while selling bus tickets. After praying for her, she invited him to her nearby village where he healed an entire group of elderly ladies and started a new group! 
• Another new believer was in the hospital and prayed for a person in the bed next to them that had stopped breathing and was declared dead – and they came back to life! 
• At one training, we heard one leader yelling “Go out! Go out!” into the phone which is the same word in Thai as the go in “go and make disciples” from Matthew 28, so we thought he was training. But one new believer was working on a rubber farm and a coworker put on an amulet and became possessed by an evil spirit. She didn’t know how to cast it out so she called this leader to cast it out over the phone!

Over the past 7 years of partnering with this network of church planters, we’ve heard dozens, if not hundreds, of answered prayer stories like these, and probably have missed hundreds more. We start almost every meeting or training with the question – is there anything you would like to praise God for? And stories begin flowing out. One of my favorites is where one new believer prayed for rain on their farm, and the storm poured out rain just on their land and stopped exactly at the border between their farm and their neighbor’s!

These types of supernatural breakthroughs are common and normative in movements, like those in the book of Acts. When normal, faithful disciples (and almost all of the above stories are from new believers) are released to operate in power, God shows up! Are we expectant of these things? Are we asking the Spirit for them?

Though All Gifts Are Useful, Certain Gifts Are Particularly Helpful in the Pioneering Environment.

Certain spiritual gifts are particularly useful in pioneering ministry work, and others are more useful for building up the body in the context of a local church or mission team.

To give some examples:

• Healing and Miracles – We see this as a standard aspect of bringing the Kingdom of God to the world. Accompanied with the proclamation of the gospel are signs and wonders like healing and miracles. The several stories from the previous section are examples of what it can look like!
  
• Evangelism – Obviously, evangelism gifts are valuable to pioneering environments! All believers should share the gospel regularly regardless of gifting, and, those gifted in evangelism should use it frequently! People with an evangelistic gift just seem to very easily connect with people, and can have more effectiveness in sharing the gospel and winning people to Christ.
  
  Before we launched as a team to Thailand, we tried to live out disciple-making rhythms in preparation for overseas work. Out of our team of 12, one teammate who was evangelism gifted had led more people to Christ than the rest of our team combined! We will talk more about Ephesians 4 later, but evangelism-gifted leaders shouldn’t only exercise their gift in sharing the gospel, but need to use their gift to equip others to share.

• Teaching / Training – At first glance, it’d seem that teaching would be a gift more appropriate for within the local church. But for teams trying to start movements with a ‘Be Barnabas’ approach, catalyzing near culture believers to share the gospel means there’s a lot of training! It means that those with a teaching gift who are able to handle the Word simply and equip near or in-culture believers to share the gospel, make disciples, and multiply churches is extremely valuable! Also, teaching gifts can be crucial in developing simple, reproducible, biblical curriculum that can be used in new multiplying works.

• Helps – Another gift that seems like it would be more suited to within the local church is helps. But a Be Barnabas approach means that the National Apostolic Visionary (NAV) leader is the “Paul” that God has chosen to pioneer new ministry among their people, and our role as outsider is to serve and support that leader. If we want to Be Barnabas, it requires a humbling of ourselves to serve that leader, and those with the gift of helps will be particularly suited to caring for, supporting, and providing whatever is needed for that NAV leader to thrive and multiply.
  
  One of our teammates gifted in helps walked alongside a local believer who was going through burnout. That believer wasn’t implementing movement practice or actively making disciples, so Jenn and I questioned if that was really the best use of that teammate’s time. But after helping this Thai friend take a sabbatical, this local believer came back and said – I want to devote my time to multiplying disciples! – and has recently started a number of new groups! As people not gifted in helps, we saw that time investment as questionable, but to our teammate, she was drawn to serve through her gifting. That’s why it’s critical that all the gifts have an opportunity to participate in the Great Commission! Side note – this is why we love the Be Barnabas approach! The apostolic and evangelist will clearly have value in supporting the NAV’s ministry, but so do the teachers, shepherds, and helpers in a very different and much needed way!

We Should Have the Ability to Identify and Develop Spiritual Gifts In Our National Partners.

Lastly, it’s critical that we have studied, practiced, and developed our own gifts and gifts in others so that we can identify and develop spiritual giftings in our national partners. When we’re looking for a “Paul”-type national partner who can catalyze movements, part of that is looking for a specific type of gifting. It’s in the name – a National Apostolic Visionary leader. We break down some of that in our article about what a NAV is. We’ll also have a future post further exploring the word “apostolic” including the apostolic gifting.

Although we have a certain eye out for apostolic leaders, we should also partner with local believers that have other giftings. Anyone who is ready to be obedient to the Great Commission to share the gospel and make disciples is worth investing in! At the end of the day, the goal is to multiply healthy churches, and that requires all of the gifts, though different gifts might be emphasized at different phases of ministry. For example, apostolic and evangelistic gifts might be most helpful in pioneering in a new area to win people to faith. But as churches grow, gifts like pastor/shepherding and teaching will need to be emphasized. As issues needing correction come up in the church, giftings like exhortation and prophecy will need to be elevated.

Do we know what the Word says about each of these giftings? Are we able to identify them in emerging leaders? Do we know how to develop these giftings and encourage local partners to use them to advance the work of multiplying churches?

In our next post, we’ll explore how different spiritual gifts can help edify the body, either in the local church context or on missions teams. Below are some questions for reflection about spiritual gifts and the missions field.

Reflection Questions

• Are you expectant for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in you and in your ministry? Why or why not?
• Have you seen the Holy Spirit’s power working actively in your ministry? In what situations, experiences, or people have you seen this most clearly?
• Are you, your teammates, and your national partners regularly using spiritual gifts in ministry? Why or why not? Where do you, your teammates, or national partners need greater development in this topic?
• How could God specifically use your spiritual gifts to move your ministry forward?

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In the last couple of posts, we’ve heard from some guest contributors about who Barnabas was from the Bible and what he did to find and partner with Paul to catalyze multiplication in the 1^st Century. This gives us some foundational principles about who we should try to embody as we approach Being Barnabas in pursuing movements.

From here, we’ll start to walk through the different stages of finding and partnering with a National Apostolic Visionary (NAV). But before we start with what to do, we need to focus on who we’re looking for. We’ll start with breaking down the term, and then look at some characteristics of a NAV.

“National” (or “Near Culture”)

Firstly, the movement leader needs to be a near-culture or cultural insider. So we can use the word ‘national,’ but ‘near-culture’ also works – the NAV may come from another country that is in the same region and has a similar cultural background. We’ve touched on the importance of why the key leader should be a cultural insider in previous posts, but it boils down to the reality that the vast majority of movements are started and led by national or near culture leaders with the support and coaching of outsiders.

However, if we think about ‘why’ this might be the case, there are a few different reasons. Among the unreached, outsider workers, especially from the West, have very little credibility as messengers of the gospel. Language and culture are also significant barriers in our ability to communicate the gospel in a contextually appropriate way.

However, as the church has grown in the global South and globalization allows for increased international travel, Christian workers from the West can have an inherent credibility in training and providing resources to churches in the global South. Where we lack credibility in sharing the gospel in an unreached context, we are generally welcomed by the growing church to help train and influence – provided we can gain trust.

To me, this is highly encouraging! It means that God has selected believers from their own people groups to lead the advancement of the Kingdom, and it means that we as outsiders can have a role in partnering with, training, coaching, and empowering those national leaders.

“Apostolic”

The term ‘apostolic’ can bring about a lot of different opinions and even different emotions, depending on where you land theologically. However, movement practitioners largely agree that it is national leaders with the apostolic gifting that are most commonly the ones that catalyze movements. At the very least, you’re probably looking to partner with someone that has a strong ‘APE’ gifting (Apostolic / Prophetic / Evangelistic) in order to get a new disciple-making and church planting multiplication ministry started.

We plan to do a longer post in the future about the word ‘apostolic,’ but for the purposes of understanding what to look for in a NAV, we’ll point to 4 aspects of the apostolic gifting that we’re looking for in a NAV. These are compiled from a few different resources about the apostolic gifting, as well as trying to investigate from the Word. We’ll list a few of those resources at the bottom of the post.

Vision – firstly, they have received big vision from God. At the very least, it is vision that goes beyond growing their own church. When we met Mint and asked her what her vision is, she felt called to bring the gospel to Laos and wanted to see multiplication happen throughout northeast Thailand and Laos. Another NAV that we work with in southern Thailand said, “I want to see 1 million Muslims follow Jesus in my lifetime.” That seems to fit the bill!

Faith – They have the faith to believe that God will complete this vision and use them towards that big vision. This might feel redundant, but we’ve seen plenty of people be drawn to big vision or even create big ideas, but lack the faith to believe God wants to use them in this and therefore do not pursue the vision wholeheartedly. Those with the apostolic gift will have both the vision and the faith to pursue it.

Systems and Structures – Clinton describes the function of the apostolic as “a special leadership capacity to move with authority from God to create new ministry structures and to develop and appoint leadership in these structures.” In particular, we think that those with the apostolic gifting pioneer new ministries, specifically in the context of unreached church planting and disciple making. There may be pioneers who set up new structures within the local church or in an orphanage ministry, which is great, but we believe the apostolic gift is one that is primarily used among the unreached. It reflects Paul’s apostolic passion in Romans 15:20, to go where there is no foundation. In setting up new systems and structures, the apostolic leader may for a time act as a ‘jack of all trades,’ leading out in evangelism and teaching and shepherding – whatever is needed to establish this new pioneering ministry. As the ministry moves towards maturity, it’s better and healthier for the apostolic to then release the ongoing growth of the ministry to the other leadership giftings, especially the shepherds/teachers.

Leaders – Lastly, the apostolically gifted leader is able to recruit, develop, and release leaders. They understand that leaders are critical in starting and multiplying a new ministry, and will constantly have a lens of raising up new leaders to take over responsibilities that the NAV has started or to pioneer new areas under the NAV’s leadership. Young leaders will be attracted to the NAV’s life, ministry, vision, and character, and want to follow them.

These 4 aspects are what seem to come up consistently in various writings about the apostolic gift as well as our own personal experience. But a few others things might be indicators of an apostolic leader:

• Apostolic leaders most likely won’t keep to the status quo. The vision that God has given them will result in some discontentment if the group they’re with or the current role they have isn’t pursuing that vision wholeheartedly. As a result, these apostolic leaders could stick out as a little weird or be known as a ‘black sheep’ of sorts.
• Apostolic leaders are not afraid to fail forward and start new things. One CPM practitioner told us to look for ‘failed business entrepreneurs,’ as that could be an indicator of their willingness to fail forward and pioneer that needs to be directed towards a God-given vision and ministry.
• God has clearly been moving in their lives. Whether in the story of how they came to faith, or in the ways that the Lord has been refining them to step into ministry, there is a clear pattern of the Lord’s hand on their lives that can be an indicator of Him preparing them for a significant work ahead.

“Visionary”

Lastly, at the risk of being redundant, a NAV is a visionary leader. They have the big vision and the faith to pursue it like we mentioned in the apostolic section. They’re also surrendered to God and willing to do anything – to sacrifice, to fail, to pioneer – in order to pursue that vision. As with the ‘leaders’ section of the apostolic gifting, the visionary leader is able to influence others – sometimes large numbers of people – towards a vision of multiplication.

Now that we have more clarity on the different aspects of the term National Apostolic Visionary, we’ll look at some additional characteristics of a NAV that we’re looking to partner with in pursuing movements.

Flexible Methodology

A NAV that we want to partner with will have openness to try different methodologies of church planting and disciple-making. I don’t think that CPM practitioners can have a monopoly on the apostolic gifting (although we may prefer to!); there may be apostolic leaders that you meet that God has called to pursue a different type of ministry than CPM. And that’s OK! But it may not be the right timing for you to partner with them until they’re open to try a movement methodology. If they’re locked in and committed to a different type of ministry methodology, we will continue to keep the relationship open and even vision cast towards trying something new in hopes that they might be open at a later time, but we won’t partner with them until we know they’re willing to pursue a movement approach.

Surrendered to God

Lastly, we’re looking for a NAV that we partner with to be surrendered to God. Even if a national leader has what looks like apostolic gifts and a big vision, if they have major areas of their lives that are not submitted to God or still need to grow, then they may not be ready for us to jump in fully and partner with them in catalyzing movements. This can look like major distractions with their time, like other ministries, family issues, debt, or character issues. Ultimately, if these things are not addressed in submission to God, they will end up being barriers to the national leader moving forward in the work. Or possibly even worse, some of the work will get started under their leadership and then be wiped out when these issues come back to bite them. Even Paul, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, had a significant amount of time where his convictions, character, and skills needed to be honed before he and Barnabas are ultimately set aside by the Holy Spirit to begin the first journey.

Does Paul Fit the NAV Definition?

Speaking of Paul, the whole point of the Be Barnabas approach is to find a national “Paul,” an insider who God has chosen to catalyze and lead movements where the gospel has not yet gone. So does Paul fit the NAV definition we’ve listed above?

National – The intent of the term ‘national’ has to do with the NAV being a cultural insider, able to contextualize the gospel and whatever the movement needs with fewer limits than a cultural outsider. In this sense, and in a literal sense as Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37), Paul was uniquely situated to contextualize the gospel to Jews, Greeks, and to Romans. As Paul famously notes in 1 Corinthians 9:

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

1 Corinthians 9:20-23

Paul is clear about his legitimacy as a Jew (Phil. 3:5-6), who was from Tarsus which was well-known as a center of Greek learning and who writes his epistles in Greek, and he also leverages his Roman citizenship to appeal to authorities on his journeys in Acts 22:26-28. We see Paul contextualize his gospel message depending on the audience, reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue in Thessalonica from the Scriptures (Acts 17:1-4), or conversing with the philosophers in Athens and in the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-34) out of his cultural understanding of these varied contexts.

Apostolic – This is very obviously a yes. More than having the apostolic gifting, Scripture makes it clear that Paul is THE Apostle to the Gentiles, as Paul calls himself that in Romans 11:13. We see in Acts and in the epistles that Paul also more than fits the other criteria.

We’ll address vision and faith under the ‘Visionary’ section below. As for systems and structures, along with leaders, we can see in Acts and the epistles the gifting Paul has to set up the early church to thrive and multiply. He raises up local leaders as well as an apostolic band of leaders, sending letters and leaders to and from different key cities to address various issues in the churches, bring encouragement and vision to the believers, and manage the first Century movement in 6 distinct cities and regions through word of mouth and written letters!

Visionary – Paul’s vision and faith to be used to reach the Gentiles and those who have never heard is the clear example of the apostolic leader that we are looking for!

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation.

Romans 15:18-20

Flexible Methodology – As we can see in the different strategies that Paul uses in Acts, Paul uses a variety of methodologies to reach different peoples in a pioneering context. Whether he went first to the synagogue to win near-culture Jews and God-fearing Jews to follow Christ, cast out demons and healed people through signs and wonders, or reasoned with philosophers, Paul was clearly not tied to a single method, but willing to do whatever it took to win some.

Surrendered to God – Lastly, we could pick a dozen verses to illustrate Paul’s surrender to God. But perhaps none exemplify it more than his words in Philippians 3. 

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:8–11

As DL Moody said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him.” I might propose that we have seen the result in the Apostle Paul. May we find and advocate for many more National Apostolic Visionary leaders like him!

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We realize that other CPM practitioners may or may not agree with these characteristics, or have ones that they’d like to add, and that’s great! Identifying and partnering with NAVs is definitely not an exact science, but these are the aspects that have consistently come to the top for us in reading the Word, learning from CPM literature, talking to CPM practitioners, and in our own personal experience. The term NAV, the related characteristics, and the following posts about how to filter for NAVs are simply meant to be a helpful tool for goers to begin looking for catalytic leaders that will multiply among the unreached.

In the next few posts, we’ll walk through the various stages of how a goer can begin to filter and find a NAV to partner with. We’ll introduce the NAV Scoreboard, which will help you evaluate these different aspects of a NAV in the process of filtering.

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Resources on the Apostolic Gifting:

Leadership Commentaries by Robert Clinton (has a variety of articles on the apostolic gift, process, ministry)
Loving the Church, Blessing the Nations by George Miley (Chapters 9-12)
A Vision of the Possible by Daniel Sinclair
The Permanent Revolution: Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century by Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim

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Guest Contributor: Jorge Gonzalez

In our last post, we learned from John C. about what Barnabas did in order to help us understand why it’s strategic and critically important to play a Barnabas role in the Great Commission today.

For this post, we have another guest writer! Jorge is a mobilization leader based in Spain, whose passion is to see the Spanish-speaking church engaged in multiplying disciples among the unreached. Jorge will bring us through who Barnabas was in Scripture, mainly looking at his character as an example to imitate as we seek to be encouragers to the National Apostolic Visionary Pauls that will start movements.

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Hello, my name is Jorge Gonzalez, I’m honored to help us learn about who Barnabas was from Scripture!

When I was a kid, I remember me and my friend trying to jump over a wall. The only way to do it was for one of us to put our hands together and boost the other over the wall. One person got to go up high over the wall while the other was the support who would get stepped on trying to help his friend! In soccer, everybody knows who scores the goal, but the goal scorer needs someone to pass the ball to them in order to score.

Usually, those that give the pass or boost others over the wall are forgotten or unmentioned, but they are so needed! That’s why we are going to be looking at Barnabas. As the writer of Hebrews encourages us:

^“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”

Hebrews 13:7

We want to consider the outcome of Barnabas’ way of life and imitate his faith. What was his outcome? God used Barnabas to initiate and advocate for two key leaders in the New Testament – Paul and John Mark. As far as we know, Barnabas wrote none of the New Testament. But the men he developed wrote half of it: Paul wrote 13 of the epistles of the New Testament and Mark wrote one of our four gospels. And much of the first century church was established through Paul. We want to examine who Barnabas was because we want to imitate him as he imitated Christ, and because we want to develop and encourage great leaders like Paul and useful laborers like Mark. So together, we’ll look at different aspects of Barnabas’ character that we see from Scripture.

Encourager

The first time we see Barnabas mentioned is in Acts 4:

“Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

Acts 4:36-37

His name was actually Joseph but the apostles saw a gift so strong in him that they gave him a new name. Barnabas was so full of the Spirit of God they called him Son of Encouragement. He boosted others over the wall, he advocated, he comforted others. Usually they give you nicknames for something bad, or something funny, like sons of thunder, but imagine being so filled with God and so gifted at encouraging that the apostles named you the encourager!

Generous

Barnabas sold a field and brought money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Many were giving gifts because they loved each other and wanted to help the needs of the community, but Luke particularly uses the example of Barnabas as an example of a generous man. Barnabas was free from the love of money because his trust was not in the money for his security but in God, and he was free to give whatever was necessary.

Took Risks

“And when he [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.”

Acts 9:26-28

Saul was a persecutor – imagine a well-known ISIS leader killing Christians, and now he says he is a Christian. Many would normally think this guy could be working as a spy to continue persecuting Christians. Luke said all were afraid of him. But Barnabas saw his potential, saw God’s transformation in him, and he stood up for this Saul. He took him and brought him to the apostles and gave his testimony. We rarely want to risk our reputation for others, but Barnabas reflects Jesus and the Holy Spirit in how they advocate for us with the Father. Barnabas, full of the Spirit of Christ, advocates for a brother in Saul that others would not. He had the courage to stick out his neck and take risks for potential leaders that God wanted to use!

Loved the Church – Rejoiced and Exhorted

“The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”

Acts 11:22-26

After persecution caused Christians to scatter all over, normal believers went to Antioch and preached the gospel and one of the first Gentile churches was formed. So the church in Jerusalem wants to send someone trustworthy to see what God was doing and they send Barnabas. He loved the church – was obedient to be sent by the church in Jerusalem, see what God was doing in the church in Antioch, and stayed to rejoice and exhort the believers in Antioch towards faithfulness and purpose. From Barnabas’ actions, “a great many people were added to the Lord!” And Barnabas intentionally invites Saul into what God is doing in Antioch, modeling and partnering with Saul in fruitful disciple-making.

A Good Man – Full of the Holy Spirit and Faith

Luke makes it clear that all of this was because he was full of the Spirit and faith. He was a man that abided in Christ, delighted in Him. He put his faith in God, meditated on his Word, and was obedient to the Spirit.

Humble Advocate – Put Others Above Himself

We already saw that Barnabas took a personal risk in advocating for Saul. And Barnabas also had the Philippians 2 humility of Christ. He saw that Saul was the more gifted speaker and more dynamic leader than him, and wanted to empower Saul to be used by God. Normally, we think of leaders as getting others to follow and help them, but are we willing like Barnabas was to be the one boosting people over the wall? Even if they might surpass us and take our “position,” will we be willing to serve others as if they were better than ourselves?

In Acts 13, Luke has referred to Barnabas and Saul together six times, with Barnabas as the first name listed and given priority. But in Acts 13:13, everything changes!

“Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.”

Here, Barnabas is not even mentioned, but Luke now calls them “Paul and his companions” and the narrative shifts to Paul as the primary character. Barnabas took a risk to humbly advocate for Paul and see his gifts as even higher than his own. It makes me want to imitate Barnabas because he imitated the humility of Christ like in Philippians 2! 

Faithfully and Boldly Proclaimed the Gospel, Made Disciples, Planted Churches, and Developed Leaders

“And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.”

Acts 13:46-49

“When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

Acts 14:23-23

Many times, when we talk about Being Barnabas in starting church planting movements, people think that means we won’t be a part of sharing the gospel or making disciples. But if we are really imitating Barnabas, we see that with Paul, Barnabas boldly proclaimed the gospel, made disciples, planted churches, and raised up leaders. And like we would expect, “he strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith.” Barnabas was an advocate and supporter of Paul, but he was also an apostle that made disciples!

Joyfully Endured Persecution

“But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 13:50-52

We see more of Barnabas’ character in that he was persevering in the face of persecution, with the Holy Spirit filling Paul and Barnabas with joy and his own presence.

Gives Second Chances – Sees the Potential in Leaders

“And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.”

Acts 15:36-40

Just as he did with Saul, Barnabas repeats the process of advocating for John Mark. Barnabas was such an encourager and advocate that he risked his own reputation and even his relationship with Paul for John Mark. In this occasion, we see Barnabas as someone who gives second chances. Even though Mark had previously abandoned Paul and Barnabas, Barnabas gave Mark another chance to go on mission and to develop him in the process. We see the result several years later when Paul writes to Timothy, “ Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.”

Barnabas was patient, saw the potential even in those that had previously failed, and gave a second chance to John Mark and encouraged him in his leadership. And God uses Mark not only to be a fruitful laborer in Paul’s ministry, but also in having a huge impact by writing the gospel of Mark.

Barnabas Was Not Perfect

Even though we see so many great and godly characteristics in Barnabas, we want to be objective and realize that he wasn’t perfect. In Galatians 2, Paul talks about the separation between Gentiles and Jews and that Barnabas also fell into sin. 

“For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.”

Galatians 2:12-13

Barnabas also fell into the sin of wanting to please people more than God. He was not perfect, and even though there are many things to learn from Barnabas’ example, we don’t want to fall into the temptation of idolizing a biblical character. 

Barnabas had flaws like any of us – but it encourages me that even with these flaws, what made Barnabas have a powerful impact on the Kingdom was that the Spirit of God was in him. Barnabas was not perfect – but still God used him. 

We want to imitate Barnabas in being full of the Spirit, full of faith, a humble advocate, and an empowering encourager. Let us be like Barnabas in reflecting Christ – becoming less so others can become more. And let us be Barnabas to find, advocate, take risks, and launch many more Pauls that will fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of Christ through multiplying church planting movements.

Guest Contributor: John C.*

In this post, one of our friends and co-workers will answer the question – ‘Why Be Barnabas?’ through Barnabas’ example in Scripture and his personal experience.

We are defining ‘Be Barnabas’ as the role of the outsider in finding, equipping, and empowering a national apostolic visionary (NAV) who is a cultural insider to catalyze movements. Additionally, the vast majority of movements have been started by these near culture or cultural insider NAVs that receive coaching and training from outsiders.

John C. is a team leader in Southeast Asia pursuing movements among the unreached and is passionate about his team’s role of Being Barnabas to national partners in their ministry to multiply.

*name changed for security reasons

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As goers pursuing movements, we often look at Acts 13, with Antioch as Paul’s sending base, and the point in the Acts narrative where the Gospel begins to explode across Asia and Europe.

We want to see something similar in this generation and it’s helpful to not just see what happened, but where it came from. So to that end, let’s look together at the community in Antioch before Acts 13, and see what we can learn from one person in particular, Barnabas.

So we’re going to focus on just a few observations, and ask: What can we learn from Barnabas and his community about helping others reach the unreached around them?

Let’s look at Acts 11:22-26.

The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 11:22-26

Sent from the Church to the Church

The first thing we see in verse 22: Barnabas was sent. Just like many of those reading, Barnabas was a missionary. But there are so many different roles and we need to ask ourselves, what’s our specific role? What is God’s calling for me in his work?

Barnabas was sent, from the church, to the church! Barnabas didn’t find out about the work by himself, but the news was delivered to the church in Jerusalem, who decided for Barnabas to go to do something for the believers in Antioch. What was his purpose?

Rejoice to Witness the Grace of God

What was Barnabas’ purpose in being sent to Antioch? In verse 23, ‘when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.’

When my wife and I finished multiple years of language school, we were feeling great: we could now speak the local language like a 6-year old, and so it was decided we should start taking on more ministry responsibility. One of the first things we did was join a small group at our partner church. It was mostly college students, and the leader of the small group had a previous relationship with some of our teammates. Our task was to help her to help the small group make disciples. Easy peasy!

Our first week at the small group went like this: first, we try for 10 minutes to get a taxi during rush hour traffic. I have to fumble through the name of the college where the small group meets and anxiously hope the driver knows where that is. We sit in traffic for an hour to go 3 miles. We are off to a GREAT start. But we finally make it! And on time! 

Buuuuuut, everyone is 20–30 minutes late. We sit waiting in a badminton court for someone to arrive and open the shipping container where the group meets. Finally, people start trickling in and we have to do the whole small talk thing, but again, language:

“My name is John.”

“Do you like food?”

That’s about all I can say at that point – we’re totally winning people over left and right. Then, and this next part is kind of a blur, we played icebreaker games for an hour, sang worship songs for an hour, prayed in tongues for a few minutes, and someone read a short Bible devotional out loud. Then we all hung out eating snacks for another half hour. I was livid. What the heck were we even DOING?! I thought, NONE of this would lead to movement.

When Barnabas arrives in Antioch, he sees the grace of God and what does he do? He REJOICES. Antioch wasn’t perfect. Later on, we read about controversy between the Jewish-Background Believers and the Gentiles that require the apostles’ attention to resolve. They for sure had issues. Yet, Barnabas rejoices. He recognizes the church for what it is: the grace of God.

Where our team lives, there are only 800 believers for a population of 2.5 million Muslims. You’d have to talk to 3,125 people before meeting someone who could tell you about Jesus.

And there I was, sitting with a dozen college students who know Jesus, know the culture, know the language, have the Spirit, have the Scriptures, are loving each other, and I’m angry. Because it’s not done the way I think it should be done. Because it’s not “reproducible”, “missional”, or whatever.

If you’ve read all the CPM/DMM books, or have a seminary degree, or whatever else – none of that matters if you are unable to rejoice at the sight of the church, even if it doesn’t look the way you think it should.

Yes, in all churches, there are valid criticisms and things to grieve that are not right, but the repentance we move towards comes from a salvation that erupts into JOY. So, if our interactions with the church, wherever your local context is, are marked more by criticism than by joy, then we have to ask ourselves whether we desire to see the grace of God, or the law of missions methodology.

Our goal is to empower believers in the local church to catalyze movements, but perhaps the first thing that gets in the way of us even entering into relationships with local believers is our attitude about them and our opinions about what the local church should or should not be doing.

You are definitely going to run into situations that don’t line up with what your tradition or training holds as obedience to the Scriptures, and you’ll have to wrestle with that. I have no solutions for you, only an exhortation to be like Barnabas and rejoice at the sight of God’s grace.

The Most Effective Disciple-Makers Among the Unreached

If you look at the largest unengaged, unreached people groups on Joshua Project, there are 33 UUPGs with more than 10 million people. Of the 33 largest UUPGs, all but 2 have a numerous, local church in the same country. That means for the largest UUPGs, almost all of them have tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of believers right next door. With the growth of the Church in the global South, and with globalization bringing people from everywhere to everywhere, chances are that there are national or near culture believers somewhere in proximity of the unreached that we’re trying to see reached with the gospel.

Using my country as an example, a worker did a huge study in 2008 looking at how churches grew in our country. Working through loads of statistical and survey data gathered by in-person visits to 80% of the churches in the country, he uncovered some interesting observations:

• Statistically, no group is more receptive to the gospel than others.
• A local person is 700 times more likely to follow Jesus if they have a Christian relative.
• And someone living in a village with a church is 100 times more likely to become a Christian.

Furthermore, 70% of all believers said that the main influence in their turning to Jesus was not a missionary or even a church leader, but a lay person – another local believer.

Let’s consider ourselves as outsiders. We are not related to anybody in our overseas contexts. We are not the local church – we speak a different language, have a different background, have different ways of doing things.

Compare that to the typical local believer. They have relatives and relationships in that country. They are part of the local church. And they don’t carry the associations people have with “missionaries”. They are an order of magnitude more likely to lead someone to Jesus, not to mention the quality of the discipleship after conversion.

For me, the key takeaway is that the most effective disciple-makers among the unreached are local believers!

Bringing Movement through the Local Church and Local Believers

We are well-served to take a humble, yet critical eye to findings like this, but the sheer volume of the data in this study does force us to consider: the local church might be the very vehicle that God wants to use to bring a movement of multiplying churches through the proclamation of the Gospel, and not us directly.

I was talking with my teammates last week, and one of them said, “Any time I go out sharing it is hard to know if the person is just interested in my white skin or actually interested in what I am talking about. My skin color can often be a barrier to deeper heart conversations with non-believers.”

That’s a hard pill to swallow for our Western sensibilities, that what we look like and where we come from could be an obstacle to spiritual conversations across the world. Then, what can we do?

Barnabas Encouraged The Church

Let’s look at what Barnabas does next: ‘[he] began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.’ Let’s note 1) who he encourages and 2) what he encourages them towards.

First, Barnabas encourages them ALL. He doesn’t just encourage some select few, isolated from the community as a whole. He doesn’t just focus on whomever meets some arbitrary list of man-made criteria, subject to cultural norms or internal biases. He doesn’t just focus on those who have “already started a movement”. He encourages the whole church, and everyone in it, with all their beautifully unique wirings, giftings, diversity, whether from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria or any other part of the world.

Barnabas doesn’t limit himself when it comes to those that God can use.

Steven likes to quote Ratatouille here: Anton Ego at the end of the movie writes, ”In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” In the same way, we encourage the whole church, because we don’t know who God is planning to use to start a movement. Not everyone will be a movement leader and that’s OK, but a movement leader can come from anywhere in the body of Christ.

The Lord can use anyone to do his work. After all, he has chosen to use you and me!

Encouraged to Abide

What does Barnabas encourage them all towards? ‘With resolute heart to remain true to the Lord’. In Barnabas’ encouragement, he doesn’t point them to fruit they’re seeing. He’s not bringing some new, crazy effective discipleship tool. He doesn’t even have a super cool vision statement, or three-point, alliterated presentation on church-planting strategy.

He points them to Jesus.

I like the way Darrell Bock translates this: “abide in the Lord with a devoted heart.” Barnabas encourages the believers in Antioch to abide in Jesus. Why does he do this? Because he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

Many of us have heard, ‘character precedes calling.’ Your character matters, your maturity matters, your dependence on the Spirit and understanding of who God is – not just knowledge about who he is – but your relationship and believing in him. All these things are fundamental to you being one sent to help spark movements of the church around the world. In Being Barnabas, one of our primary roles is to encourage the disciple-makers among the unreached to abide in Jesus.

What happens as a result? Considerable numbers were added to the Lord. Barnabas is a pretty great guy: we just read that he was ‘good’, which is the ONLY time in Acts someone is called good. None of the apostles get that kind of description. He was FULL of the Holy Spirit. He was FULL of faith.

Of course big things are going to happen now that this guy shows up, right? Well, they do and they don’t: instead of going to Antioch and doing everything himself, Barnabas set it upon himself to go to the local believers, rejoice with them and encourage them to abide in Jesus. And then, the Lord continued to build his church.

My invitation to you is this: embrace your role as an outsider, and encourage, equip, and empower the local church to reach the unreached around them.

Barnabas and Saul

How do we do that? Let’s finish this last part of Acts 11.

To recap: Christians on the run from persecution make their way to Antioch, and some of them, Cypriots and Cyreneans start to share the Gospel with Greeks, Gentiles. The Lord brings many to faith, and the church in Jerusalem sends Barnabas, also from Cyprus, to check it out. He’s ecstatic at what’s going on and encourages the believers to abide in the Lord, and things continue to blow up.

What does Barnabas do next after visiting Antioch? He goes and gets the guy who was there when Stephen was stoned 3 chapters ago, sparking the persecution that forced the believers to flee in the first place: Barnabas goes to Tarsus to get Paul (v. 25). Why does Barnabas get Paul?

Let’s remember Paul’s story: after Paul’s conversion, he goes to Damascus and proclaims Jesus. He has to run from the Jews, so he makes his way to Jerusalem, where he tries to get in with the disciples, but they’re all still petrified of him. Who should advocate for him, but our dear friend, Barnabas? He ‘takes hold’ of Paul, believes him, and Barnabas brings him before the apostles and backs him up and shares his story, that Jesus called him ‘to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel’.

What does Paul do in Jerusalem? He continues to speak boldly, this time reaching out to Jews with a Greek background, the Hellenistic Jews. This gets him in trouble again, which leads to him being sent to Tarsus. Then, after some time, Barnabas shows up to bring him to Antioch.

Barnabas Listened and Connected

But of all the people to get, why Paul? Because Barnabas listened.

Barnabas listened to what Paul said about his calling to the Gentiles.
Barnabas listened to what Paul was doing in Damascus and Jerusalem.
Barnabas listened to what God was wanting to do in Antioch.

And Barnabas connected all of that together, that Paul was called to the Gentiles, and that the Spirit was now at work grafting them in, first through Philip, then through Peter, and now in Antioch. That’s why he went to get Paul.

Barnabas connected the need of the church with the calling of those around him. The need among the unreached is national apostolic visionaries who will catalyze movements – as Barnabas, we can connect local believers called and gifted in this way to principles and opportunities that can help them fulfill their calling.

Barnabas Spent Time with Paul

Back to Barnabas and Paul. Is it that simple? Just moving the right people to the right places? We read in verse 26, ‘for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers of people.’

Barnabas spent time. He didn’t just bring Paul and dump him in Antioch; for an entire year, they served together, spent time together, did ministry and lived life together. Mobilization is so much more than a class, or a conference, a video, or a training. It’s good to have all those things and they all have their place and purpose, but the kind of encouragement, equipping, and empowering that is required to see movements? That takes time. And being with each other.

In fact, after that year, Barnabas and Saul go on a short-term trip to deliver relief to the churches in Judea suffering from a famine. They come back and we don’t see them until another chapter, Acts 13, where they are sent out on the first missionary journey. Then after that journey, we read in Acts 14:28 that they spent ‘no little time with the disciples.’ Commentaries differ on how long Saul was in Tarsus vs Antioch, but adding his time in the 2 cities together, it was at least a decade between his conversion and his being sent out, and Barnabas was a part of his life the entire time.

Helping the local church pursue movement among the unreached isn’t fast – but I’m convinced that it is better.

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Conclusion

Acts 11 gives us a very clear outline of what Barnabas did which leads us to understand why we should follow Barnabas’ example today.

Why Be Barnabas? 

Because Barnabas was sent from the church to the church. To encourage the church towards abiding. To rejoice in the grace of God.

Because Barnabas found Paul, by listening, connecting, and spending time with Paul to empower him to catalyze multiplication in the first century.

Because the most effective disciple makers among the unreached are local or near culture believers. 

Because the vast majority of movements are started from near culture or cultural insider NAVs (Paul) with coaching and training from outsiders (Barnabas). To see movements started among the unreached, our role as outsiders is to Be Barnabas.

Questions for Reflection

• From Barnabas’ example, what aspects of his ministry and character would you want to model your approach after?
• Would you consider shifting your role to support and empower national believers? Why or why not?
• Are there local or near-culture believers in proximity to where you are among the unreached? Could you consider partnering with them? Why or why not? What obstacles might exist?
• What’s your perspective or attitude about the local church in your area? Is it primarily critical or rejoicing like Barnabas? Why?