When Paul went on his first missionary journey in AD 47, there were no churches in the areas that he visited. Ten years later, there were many. So he set out on his second missionary journey, to go back to all of those areas and see how the believers were doing.
He talked to his colleague in ministry, Barnabas, and they both agreedโbut only on the mission, not on the composition of the team. The disagreement was about Barnabas’s cousin, John Mark. On Paul’s first missionary journey, Mark had left them and gone home (see Acts 13:13). Evidently, Paul saw this as a failure, a weakness. Barnabas, however, did not.
“Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; but Paul chose Silas and departed” (Acts 15:39-40). In Greek, the word for contention means a heated argument, a divisive, confrontive disagreement.
A split was inevitable, and evidently, they agreed to disagree and go in two different directions. Now, who was right? I think both were right, because now God had two teams, not one.
The split was because of their different leadership styles. Neither was bad, they were just different. Paul looked at a person and asked, “What can that person do for the work of God?” Barnabas asked, “What can the work of God do for that person?”
Barnabas, the rehabilitator, the son of encouragement, found people who were broken and got them going again. Paul wanted to launch people into service for God. He concentrated on the work to be done. Barnabas’s focus was on getting people whole, and then giving them a second chance. Two different ways of doing ministry. Both fit different tasks.
As Paul and Silas went back to the area that Paul and Barnabas had first visited , they met a disciple named Timothy, who was “well spoken of by the brethren” (Acts 16:2). He became Paul’s protรฉgรฉ, his “true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2).
Timothy accompanied Paul frequently, and much later, Paul would send him to the church at Ephesus, to be its pastor. And Timothy always proved faithful, so much so that Paul called him “like-minded” (Philippians 2:20), a way of saying, “We’re on the same wavelength. He values what I value.”
Paul included the younger generation in his team, to instill principles into them, because he knew that was the future. A pastor needs to make sure he has people who are going to carry on the ministry.
For the next few years, Timothy listened as Paul preached and talked with people about faith versus grace versus works, etc. And it shaped himโfollowing Paul’s lifestyle and being around him for such a long period of time.
Somebody once said the ministry is more caught than it is taught. You can teach a person theology and give them head knowledge, but to just be able to observe someone’s life up close like Timothy did with Paul is tremendous.
Howard Hendricks once wrote that every follower of Christ needs three relationships. Everybody needs a Paul, a mentor who meets with them regularly and inspires them in the things of the faith. Everybody needs a Barnabas, because we all need encouragement. When you feel like you’re not going to make it, you need somebody to say, “Let’s get up and try it again.” And everybody needs a Timothy, a person they can pour themselves into, and help shape their future.
How are you doing in those three relationships? Who’s your Paul? Your Barnabas? Your Timothy?
