Press the arrow to listen to Michael Card sing “Things We Leave Behind” as you read today’s devotion about serving together.

Scripture
And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul. Acts 11:25

And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders. Acts 11:30

Observation
Ministry is not supposed to be like an episode of the Lone Ranger but like Batman and Robin. God work is done well in pairs of servants working in tandem. It started with Jesus and John the Baptist, then in the pairs he sent out into the countryside to preach, and then throughout the book of Acts. Like the twin poles of a battery, the synergy of two has a greater impact than one alone.

Barnabas deliberately sought out a ministry companion. That was good, but what was intriguing was the partner he sought. Barnabas did not trek off to Jerusalem to pick someone from the circle of the famous. Instead, he went beyond where any church had yet been planted, and picked Saul.

Saul was not a likely choice to be a teaching pastor for the first Gentile church. Saul had been like a pest control exterminator for legalism. Yet Barnabas must have remembered conversations with Saul years before, when he had shared the words of Jesus commanding him to go to the Gentiles. Saul had changed and needed a chance to become Paul.

Saul had been forgotten by others for over a decade, but Barnabas did not forget his friend. The faithfulness of Barnabas gave Antioch a pastor, the world the first missionary journey and to us the author of most of the New Testament.

Application
It pays to reach out and to lift up and we minister best as duets rather than as soloists. I want a ministry that finds leaders beyond the city limits and I want to do my ministry in tandem, not alone.

Prayer
Father, give to me a heart like Barnabas and men like Saul who I can be instrumental bringing from the edges to the centre of your purposes. Amen.