Barnabas' name was Joseph, but was changed to 'son of encouragement'. He must have been the sort of person who left a trail of encouraged people behind him wherever he went. The various episodes in the New Testament where he appears from time to time bear this out. (By the way, if your friends gave you a nickname, would you be likely to get one like 'Encourager'?). When he arrived he certainly 'barnabized' them (Acts 11:23).

Gene Getz has a good book on the 'one another' passages of the New Testament. In the final chapter - 'Encourage One Another' - he points out that the Greek word parakaleo has several related meanings: to exhort, admonish, teach, beg, entreat, beseech, console, encourage, comfort. 'But the basic word is always used for one primary purpose - to describe functions that will help Christians to be built up in Christ, or to help them to build up one another in Christ... Evaluate your church structure in view of this New Testament exhort- ation. Many traditional churches are designed not for 'body function' but for 'preacher function'. Only the pastor or minister or some other teacher is delegated to share the Word of God with others in the church... The Bible teaches that every Christian must be involved in this process (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 10:24-25)... One thing stands out as being very important in this ministry - the 'body of Christ'. Every member contributes to its success'. (4)

Like Jesus, you must always be gentle with the wounded, and - only if you have earned the right - occasionally be tough with the lazy or those whose potential may be realized more by rebuke than a soft word. Helpful criticism should always - or nearly always - leave the person feeling he\she has been helped. Goethe said: 'If you treat people as they are they will stay as they are. But if you treat them as they ought to be they will become bigger and better persons.' There are more 'win-win' conflict resolutions around than we realize!

Churches are often inept at encouraging their leaders. John Claypool in a sermon said, 'What often happens in life [is that] a person is given a difficult job by a group of people and then, instead of struggling with him and helping him find his way, the group sits back and lets him struggle alone until at last he "hangs himself".' James Stewart quotes this legend: God decided to reduce the weapons in the devil's armoury to one. Satan could choose which 'fiery dart' he would keep. He chose the power of discouragement. 'If only I can persuade Christians to be thoroughly discouraged', he reasoned, 'they will make no further effort and I shall be enthroned in their lives.'

Let me share a personal story about encouragement. I came to the Blackburn Baptist Church in Victoria, Australia, when it had about 300 members. The staff was one and one third: I was the 'one' and my part-time secretary was the 'third'. Within five years the salaried staff had grown to 25 (including seven pastors), and the membership to over 700, the largest Baptist church in the country. How? Why? If I were to name one key factor it would be that the 'BBC' was a church of encouragers. No Sunday would ever pass in the last few years of my leadership there without my pockets bulging with affirming notes from people. Sometimes we'd incorporate an 'encouragement segment' into a service, and write encouraging messages to others.

If we appreciated someone or their ministry, we'd give ourselves permission to tell them! People are healed by encouragement; they grow to like themselves in a healthy way if they're encouraged; they reduce their 'self-despising' through encouragement. Beware of a church of encouragers: you're going to have space problems after a while! May Barnabas' tribe increase in our churches: God knows we desperately need more church-members like him.

An eighty-year-old saint wrote me a note: 'If he earns your praise bestow it; If you like him let him know it; Let words of true encouragement be said. Do not wait till life is over, And he's underneath the clover; For he cannot read his tomb-stone when he's dead!' Suspect theology, but wise psychology!

However, all that said, let me add a note of caution. My desk calendar today reads 'People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.' We can depend so much on positive feedback that such praise becomes addictive: we cannot function without it. A young monk, one of the 'Desert Fathers' looked after his elder, who was gravely ill, for twelve years without interruption. Never once in that period did his elder thank him or so much as speak one word of kindness to him. Only on his death-bed did the Old Man remark to the assembled brethren, 'He is an angel and not a man'. The story illustrates the need for 'detachment' although it could be argued the old man took his side of things a bit far!

Bible Study: Using a concordance, Bible dictionary and commentaries, prepare a group Bible study on 'Barnabas: The Ministry of Encouragement'.

A Prayer: Lord, Give me a ministry -

not of pulling down, but of building up.

Help me to encourage, to uphold and to understand.

Give me a ministry -

not so much of confrontation, as of reconciliation.

Not so much of criticism as of intercession.

That life might be a prayer and a benediction for those You love. (5)