February 20, 2005 Sermon

Paul and Barnabas
Acts 11:19-26

Fresh out of seminary I became an Associate Pastor at the Bonhomme Presbyterian Church in suburban St. Louis . We spent five mostly happy years there. Many blessings entered our lives then, not least our two children. By the grace of God we built up a youth ministry. It centered on discipleship. We used hard-labor mission trips, travel to fun destinations, confirmation, small groups, and other programs. As we look back after twenty years’ worth of experience, we feel mostly positive about what we watched God’s Spirit do among all those young people.

You may have noticed that I used the word “mostly” two times in that first paragraph. I said we were “mostly happy” and “mostly positive”. As a rookie pastor I made many mistakes, a few of which did damage to the faith of several youth. And my relationship with the senior pastor, after getting off to a promising start, plummeted off a cliff.

Our church staff meetings reminded me of the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Each person on that staff had a defect. One of the other associate pastors was all talk and no action. Our business manager was terribly forgetful. Our preschool director was demanding and impatient. Our Christian educator had a nearly-paralyzing case of Manic-Depressive Disorder. I was green. So was the senior pastor. He was less than a year into his tenure at the helm of a church with over 2,500 members. He was not ready for that.

Jim wanted to mentor me, he said. It felt to me like he wanted to father me. I already had a dad; I did not want another. But he doggedly pushed me to shape myself into a “tall steeple” pastor, to become skilled at preaching and leading large blocks of people. He wanted me to become, to put it a bit unkindly, a Mini-Jim.

Four years of cold war followed. Neither of us would talk about it; in fact, we did not admit to each other that we were fighting until I told him I had started looking to move to another church. That took the pressure off. We began dealing with each other more honestly. He stopped feeling he had to “fix” me, to mold me in his image. I stopped resisting his advice. Both of us felt deeply relieved. Our relationship improved. Today I would not call him my friend, but I do know that I can pick up the phone and ask him for help when I feel the need.

Fifteen years have passed since the day I left Jim’s staff. With the benefit of hindsight I admit have regrets. I took longer to learn important lessons. Some I still have not learned. I cut myself off from the warmth of his friendship (Jim can be extraordinarily supportive). I made it that much harder for the churches I have served to do their ministries. I resisted being mentored. Please do not make that same mistake.

In today’s passage from the Book of Acts we read a few hints about the relationship between Barnabas and Paul. These two early and great evangelists worked together for a whole year. What went on between them in that time? Why does it matter?

It matters because the church has traditionally interpreted this passage to indicate that Barnabas mentored, or discipled, Paul. Yes, even Paul—that fierce, powerful voice for Jesus—needed mentoring. If Paul needed to be discipled, so do we. Seek and follow a spiritual mentor.

Seek and follow a spiritual mentor. In the earliest days of Christianity, even before anybody had thought to call it “Christianity”, believers fanned out from Jerusalem to spread the Good News. At first, these early evangelists told only their fellow Jews about Jesus. After all, he was a Jew himself. He claimed to be the Messiah, whom the Jewish prophets had foreseen. He performed miracles. He healed people of all kinds of diseases. He died and came back to life.

But such amazing news could not stay a Jewish secret for long. Almost immediately non-Jews (Acts calls them “Greeks”) began hearing about, and believing in, Jesus as the Son of God. Men from Cyprus and Cyrene (in modern-day Libya ) preached in Antioch (in modern-day Syria ) about Jesus to non-Jews and “a great number that believed turned to the Lord (Acts 11:21 ).” The church was growing. It faced the question every growing church faces: now what do we do with all these people?!?

The answer was to send Barnabas to Antioch to supervise. Who was Barnabas? We first meet him in Acts 4, where he sells a piece of property and gives the money to the apostles. Luke tells us he is a Levite, a Jewish priest, from Cyprus . We next see Barnabas in Acts 9. Paul has been arresting and torturing Christians; even after he has a conversion experience and starts believing in Jesus the apostles cannot trust him. Barnabas can, and his sponsorship of Paul to Peter, James, John and the others makes it possible for Paul to join in spreading the Good News.

In Acts 11 we read that Barnabas heard about explosive growth in the church in Antioch . He comes to see for himself. The tone of these verses suggests that the Christians received Barnabas as a respected leader. Then he goes on to Tarsus , in Turkey , to fetch Paul. They return to Antioch and spend a year teaching those non-Jewish Christians.

We do not know precisely what sort of relationship Barnabas and Paul had. But these verses from Acts and church tradition hold that Barnabas mentored Paul. We do know he performed at least two key mentoring tasks for his younger protégé: he worked beside Paul for a little while, and he introduced him to the right people.

Barnabas did the right things to help Paul jump-start his ministry. But in order to mentor properly, first Barnabas had to be a particular kind of person. He had to be, as Acts 11:24 tells us, a “good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” While we all could use a little mentoring, not all people can mentor. Jim, the pastor with whom I worked right out of seminary, wanted to mentor me but was not prepared to do it. (To be fair, I was not prepared to be mentored.) I have watched him mentor others, so I know he can do the job and do it exceedingly well. But not all of us have the Spirit and the faith to serve as Christian mentors.

All of which makes it even more crucial that those who can mentor, do. Mentoring has become all the rage. Businesses pay millions to run mentoring programs for their employees. The Traverse City Area Public Schools have run an advertising campaign seeking mentors for at-risk students. Now here I am, preaching this sermon on mentoring. I urge you to consider whether you have the calling to mentor others. I urge you to accept the fact that you need a mentor. We all do.

Few people believe they have what it takes to mentor. Those who believe they do probably lack the humility to mentor effectively. How, therefore, can anybody ever become a mentor?!? They can only by the grace of God. Barnabas had the Holy Spirit and he had faith. So do many of you. Do not sell yourself short. You may have the calling to mentor. In fact, I believe I will start privately approaching a few of you to suggest that I see you as a potential mentor. But do not wait for me. If you think you might be called to mentor others in serving Jesus, ask God’s guidance in prayer. God will make it happen if it is meant to happen.

Meanwhile, let us all seek to follow Christians who can show us the way to follow Christ. We need mentors. Find yours and follow him or her. Should you have the calling to mentor others, do not shrink from the task. Spreading the Good News depends on it.