In 1994, Robert Zemeckis released a film that went on to win six Oscars, gross over half a billion dollars, and launch Tom Hanks into superstardom.
The film tells the story of Forrest Gump, a kindhearted, Alabama boy with intellectual disabilities who grows up to influence some of the United States’ most important events. The filmmaker used CGI to place Forrest into actual historical footage so he stands alongside presidents, rock stars, and heroes. With a bit of movie magic, Forrest was revealed to be a key contributor to history.
A few years ago, as I was reading through the book of Acts, I noticed how often Barnabas shows up. There he was, like the fictitious Forrest, in the background of so many major events, playing an essential role.
Barnabas in the Background
Think of the most memorable highlights from the story of Acts:
People sell all their possessions and lay the proceeds at the apostles’ feet (or lie about it and drop dead).
Saul goes from a persecutor of the church to Paul, a defender of Jesus.
The church rises amazingly in Antioch, where the followers of the Way are called Christians for the first time.
A missionary band is sent out from Antioch to take the gospel west toward Rome.
If you look closely, Barnabas is standing in the backdrop of all these pictures:
Barnabas is one of the first to sell his field and give the money to the church, starting a trend that marks the early followers.
Jesus changes Saul’s life, but it’s Barnabas who connects Paul to the (rightfully) distrusting apostles and invites him into his first ministry role in Antioch.
Speaking of Antioch, when the church is in its nascent and most vulnerable form, the apostles trust Barnabas to develop and disciple them into the faith.
Barnabas does such a good job of raising up leaders in Antioch that he and Paul are freed up to be sent as their first missionaries.
Barnabas keeps showing up. But if you look at the literature on his life, you’d think his one contribution was as an “encourager.” It’s true that he’s the “son of encouragement,” but he’s also a teacher, trainer, goer, giver, challenger, and leader. I’d go so far as to say that Barnabas is the most overlooked missionary in the Bible.
And he’s one of the most important missionaries for us to imitate today.
Different Example
At times in mission history, we needed “Pauls” to bring the gospel to places where Christ’s name hadn’t been heard. Think of the Moravians reportedly setting out with their supplies packed in coffins, or William Carey leaving England for India, or the countless missionaries who poured out their lives in China and Africa.
However, the mission landscape has changed. The mission fields to which these brave men and women traveled have become mission forces themselves. If you show up at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, as a missionary, you have to make sure you don’t bump into all the Nigerian missionaries on their way out to the rest of the world.
There are fewer and fewer places where you can “preach the gospel where Christ [is] not known” or where someone else hasn’t already built a foundation (Rom. 15:20, NIV). Thanks be to God! Even Iraq has teams of Costa Rican missionaries, and Iran has the fastest-growing church movement.
Perhaps these different times demand a different posture based on a different example. Perhaps it’s time we rediscover an overlooked missionary.
Lessons from Barnabas
We can learn many lessons from Barnabas. I recently invited 12 global mission thinkers and practitioners to expound on 12 lessons from his life in The Barnabas Factor: How Crosscultural Partnership Amplifies Global Mission. Let me highlight three lessons.
1. Barnabas is trustworthy.
When the church in Jerusalem hears of God’s work among Greek-speaking Gentiles in Antioch, they trust Barnabas to nurture this young church while navigating the dangers of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic differences (Acts 11:19–24). When the church in Antioch collects money to support the believers in Jerusalem through a famine, they trust Barnabas to deliver it to the apostles (vv. 27–30). Barnabas is trustworthy with people and resources.
Anyone who wishes to participate in global missions today must also be trustworthy with people and resources. Wherever you go as a missionary, you’ll be working cross-culturally, not just with those you’re trying to reach but with your own team.
Anyone who wishes to participate in global missions today must also be trustworthy with people and resources.
I know of a mission team in Europe that consists of people from seven nationalities and five continents. Think of all the difficult conversations and cultural blunders they must walk through to succeed at the mission! You need a leader who, like Barnabas, is “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (v. 24).
One major cultural difference can be how to handle finances. The right use of and accountability for money differ from country to country. In a globally connected mission, where a trillion dollars will flow to and through Christian causes, accountability is necessary. Gordon-Conwell’s Status of Global Christianity 2026 report estimates $70 billion (or about 6 percent) will be embezzled by top custodians of Christian money. That’s about as much as is given to global missions annually. Our mission demands trustworthy men and women like Barnabas.
2. Barnabas advocates for others.
Barnabas enters the story in Acts with tremendous position and power. He’s a Levite. He has some level of wealth. He has connections and mutual trust with the apostles. Yet Barnabas uses this to empower others.
Paul is a problem for the church. As Saul, he persecuted and imprisoned them. But even as Paul, after his Damascus-road experience, he attracts persecution and plotting from the Jewish establishment. He’s a magnet for trouble in a time when the Jerusalem leaders are praying for peace to establish the growing church.
So when Paul shows up in Jerusalem desiring to meet with the apostles, they’re skeptical. Worst-case scenario, Paul is deep undercover, a fake disciple still trying to ravage the church. But even if he’s now a follower of Jesus, he’s still a lightning rod who might reignite the fire of persecution.
“But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord . . .” (9:27). Barnabas later repeats this advocacy when he brings Paul from Tarsus to Antioch after an extended absence (11:25–26). And he does the same for John Mark when Paul kicks him out of the missionary band (15:36–39).
Our global mission needs people who, like Barnabas, use their power and position not for their own benefit but for the advancement of others. There are brilliant thinkers and scholars in the Global South whose voices need to be amplified. There are excellent leaders overlooked because of their youth or cultural origin who need an invitation to the meeting where decisions are made. There are powerful practitioners whose methods aren’t discussed in seminaries or published in books but need to be promoted because they’re Spirit-led. They need an advocate like Barnabas.
3. Barnabas knows when to step back.
Inviting others in sometimes means giving up your own seat. It’s not clear when Barnabas realizes Paul will surpass him as a leader, but Barnabas knows his role and steps back when the time comes. He does the same in Antioch. He’s the “founding pastor” of the Antioch church, but he raises up elders confident enough to send him and Paul out as their first missionaries.
Inviting others in sometimes means giving up your own seat.
Even John Mark, the divisive team member who couldn’t endure their first missionary journey, surpasses his mentor by delivering to us the Gospel of Mark. Barnabas has the gift of seeing strength in others and then setting them free to overshadow him.
Here’s a hard word: Some of us need to get out of the way. As I look out over the global mission landscape, I see God raising up new leadership faster than the current leadership is willing to let go. We have excuses: They’re young; they don’t do things the way we’ve always done them; the donors won’t trust them. But to accomplish the mission Jesus has given us, we need to be OK with our name moving from first position to second place, or to a footnote. This is the Jesus way. This is what Barnabas models for us.
I believe we’re in the most exciting period of mission history. Jesus-followers from everywhere are going everywhere with the good news of the gospel. Jesus is using the ignored and unsung heroes of this world to accomplish his work.
Barnabas provides an example we shouldn’t overlook. Isn’t it better to stand in the background when the picture is of the most meaningful mission in human history?
The Gospel Coalition