Most of us are probably pretty familiar with Paul’s story. He’s the one who used to be called Saul, a high-ranking Jew and adamant persecutor of Christians in Jesus’ day. He had a miraculous encounter with God by way of a blinding light and voice from above, and he turned his life over to Jesus. He became a renowned missionary and penned roughly half of the New Testament through his heartfelt letters to the early church.

Although Paul accomplished a lot – arguably more than most of us will ever achieve in our lifetimes – he did not do all of his ministry solo. During much of his mission work, he had a partner named Barnabas to work alongside him. In fact, Barnabas was the one who introduced Paul to the apostles (who were, as you can imagine, afraid of him) after his conversion (Acts 9:26-28).

One of the things that I think is so neat about Paul and Barnabas’ ministry is that they shirked recognition; instead, they sought to train new leaders to follow in their footsteps and pave their own paths in ministry. Paul ended some of his letters with requests to encourage leaders in the local churches, and he and Barnabas commissioned new missionaries (Acts 12:25).

Barnabas’ real name was Joseph (Acts 4:36), but everyone called him Barnabas because it meant encourager. I can think of a few monikers people have assigned to me over the years (smart-aleck, hard-head, goodie-two-shoes … but encourager? I’m not convinced if that one fits.) One of the most reassuring things to me about Paul and Barnabas’ ministry was that neither of them were perfect. Sure, Paul had extensive training in Jewish customs and teachings, and Barnabas apparently had a gift of encouragement, but at the end of the day, they were just regular guys.

What’s keeping you and me from being like Paul and Barnabas? What can we do to be more encouraging toward the people we encounter day-to-day and more forthright about our faith in Christ? Being a “missionary” doesn’t necessarily mean packing up and going to the far reaches of the globe (though it could!). It could also mean representing Christ in your own backyard, right here in our hometown. Are you up for the challenge?