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Click here for A Spiritual Hospital for Your Church

 

Dear Pastor:

First of all, thank you for your interest in Barnabas Ministry. We do not advertise this site because, frankly, we are not looking for much new business.  Our goal is to serve our base and a targeted, select clientele, and to serve them well with our limited resources.  However we are very receptive to all those folks, like yourself, who find us by divine appointment.

We here at Barnabas Ministry Network are enthusiastic and encouraged about what the Lord is doing through this exciting endeavor.  We have seen people’s lives changed to Christ’s glory. We have seen many church members come alive in a new way through His work in using them in Barnabas Ministry - particularly leaders and, not surprisingly, many believers with a variety of underutilized spiritual gifts and natural abilities.

Barnabas Ministry is a tool for you to use in reaching people within and without the church through a deeper understanding of the application of diverse levels of encouragement and grace.  This Barnabas perspective is from a Christ-centered combination of the spiritual and psychological understandings necessary for connecting to people in a substantive and meaningful way.  We see Barnabas Ministry as much more than just a tool.  We believe God has raised up this cultural approach to reach people at a basic, bottom line level:  where they are real AND where they hurt AND are fearful. This is a level that most of us will never see via traditional approaches.  Without reaching it, there won't be the deep needed ability to employ a meaningful, relational Christ-centered ministry for our particular culture.  At best we'll be politely listened to and quietly dismissed. But with Barnabas Ministry we can vibrantly penetrate lives for Christ at a deep and Godly level.

We understand and respect your need to screen all programs to be considered by your church.  That is why our website contains a large amount of information to allow you to get a pretty good idea of who we are and what we are all about. We’re also concerned about coming alongside you as pastor.  We want to help you equip, encourage and employ your people for the work of the ministry to which God has called you. 

As the pastor (or as the staff) you can be involved with this ministry as much OR as little as you would like!  Certainly we want your use of Barnabas Ministry to be accountable to church leadership but your level of participation in the actual hands-on training and experience is up to you and your unique schedule, demands and availability. We’ll gladly do all the hard stuff and provide all the necessary training and supportive materials - even hands-on, online supervision if so desired.  Our goal is to make your life - and the life of your staff - easier AND more effective especially in terms of reaching and ministering to your people and to people all around you needing your involvement.

The idea is to assist you in equipping the saints for the work of encouragement and all ministry that the saints need to be doing - not just you, or your staff, doing for them.  It trains responsive believers, who God will raise up, to understand and to reach people in a way that is compassionate and effective.  Our staff can conduct the training on-site and be available thereafter via Internet hook-up for continued consultation and involvement. OR we can furnish materials and back-up support to allow your people to lead the training. We view Barnabas Ministry as an ongoing, interactive partnership between you, us and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Barnabas Ministry reaches everyone but especially those persons who endure inner wounds OR who are going through wounding circumstances.  ALL of us carry various levels of inner wounds that impact our ability to follow, or to serve, Christ completely - even if such wounds begin with the very denial of those same wounds OR even if those wounds aren’t recognized or fully appreciated!

Barnabas Ministry doesn’t in any way change the WHAT part of the whole message of Christianity or your church vision.  It respectfully endorses these messages.  It does, however, address the HOW part: how to reach people that are otherwise not being reached or who need deeper levels of ministry due to personal needs or personal circumstances. 

I’m sure as a pastor you’ve encountered a number of marital situations, like I have as a psychologist, wherein the well meaning husband quotes Ephesians 5:22 to you and expects you to jump-start intimacy in his marriage without much further effort from him. 

As you well know, wives - even the best Christian wives - don’t respond that way!  In much the same way,  wounded people, or individuals experiencing wounding circumstances (e.g., sickness, loss of loved one, crisis, marital-family problems, job stress, etc.) , don’t respond very well either.  Deep down they may desperately yearn for a relationship with Christ and others yet they won’t pursue it just because it is expected or desired. Bridges of communication and understanding have to take place first.  Barnabas Ministry is in the business of equipping believers to construct those bridges.  

The overall idea of Barnabas Ministry training is:

1. to equip servant-leaders in an in-depth ministry of encouragement wherein participants are taught how to encourage, counsel, understand, and speak a new language of woundedness. ("Woundedness" simply means having undergone, or being in the process of ongoing, injurious and/or stressful life circumstances ranging from illness to grief to dysfunction.)  

2. to train church leaders and members how to minister in specific situations - without depending on the paid professionals to do it - to people undergoing wounding circumstances and/or personal pain due to inner wounds.  The pastoral staff's role is to equip the people for ministry and Barnabas ministry is a powerful tool for accomplishing this.

3. to protect and respect the pastor and pastoral staff, and to assist with biblical ministry. 

If you’re a first-time visitor, I hope you enjoy this website.  If you’re a member of the Barnabas Ministry Network, welcome home.  Let’s get back to work together.  How can we help you today?

Sincerely,

Glenn P. Zaepfel, Ph.D.

Founder  

 

Welcome to Barnabas Ministry

A Spiritual Hospital for Your Church

 

At this website you’ll learn about Barnabas Ministry, an in-depth discipleship ministry of encouragement to wounded people or to people in wounding circumstances.

It is helpful, as we start out, to think of Barnabas Ministry as a spiritual hospital.  The pastoral staff can be viewed as specialists who are doing wonderful work in the operating rooms.  Unfortunately the entire community has been affected by a bomb that has exploded in the same way as occurred in Oklahoma but now to your church.  As Pastor, you are already very busy.  There is only so much of you and your staff to go around.  That’s where Barnabas Ministry comes in. 

Barnabas Ministry comes in to supply your church and community with additional hands and resources.  We’ll train church members to be able to perform certain duties according to specific needs.  We’ll teach some how to take vital signs; some to perform first aid; some for technical areas; and some for hands-on work like bandaging and splinting; some to hand out pain medication; some to carry the injured to the right room for help; and some to be there for necessary nursing care.  We’ll provide a lab for testing; an emergency room for crisis cases; on the scene instruction and consultation; and outpatient follow-up.  We’ll coordinate what we are doing with what you are doing around your needs, assessment, direction and availability.

Does this analogy seem too drastic?  Well maybe so.  However, it may be closer than we tend to think when we consider those physical wounds to be emotional -relational- psychological- spiritual wounds.  There is one major bonus too: the people who are trained and used in ministry grow spiritually and psychologically themselves and are thereby blessed and further used by Christ.  And this process occurs while pastor and staff continue their normal work.  It should also be pointed out that Barnabas Ministry teaches leaders and caregivers how to honor and care for their pastoral staff and to understand their biblical roles for ministry which often are misunderstood due to faulty congregational expectations. Barnabas Ministry also helps those pastoral equippers to be better equippers while it engages members into service.

So why does my church need Barnabas Ministry?

- To identify and reach wounded people that are very often missed

- To more effectively assist people undergoing wounding circumstances

- To employ church members in the work of the church thereby lessening the pastoral load and clarifying faulty or unreasonable expectations of church staff.

- To honor and protect the church staff while increasing ministry without adding extra work or burdens to the staff.

- To complement and supplement work done in churches who have participated with Marketplace Resources.  Note that Barnabas Ministry is a strategic partner with Marketplace Resources, which, generally speaking, trains in a top down reorganizational capacity.  Barnabas Ministry trains, generally speaking, from  a bottom-up and horizontal capacity engaging members and non-members in a manner that is helpful, healing and biblical.  

- To train leaders how to understand and effectively reach people who are wounded, or undergoing wounding circumstances and to recognize how current efforts may actually be unknowingly harmful.

- To assist an often overloaded pastor and staff in getting ministry done effectively without adding extra burden to pastor and staff.

- To ignite, at a deeper level, body life, comfort, caring and healing.

- To provide training, supervision and resources in an ongoing capacity without burdening existing staff or resources.

- To train leaders and responsive church members (who God will raise up) to reach people, connect to them, and minister to them like never before.

 

Won’t you come along?