Barnabas - An Encouraging Leader - Problems and Solutions
The encouraging leader needs a stable organization with which he can do his best in keeping people harmoniously relating to one another. He fears any feelings of disunity in his congregation since it might indicate conflict. which he shies away from. For this reason the encourager wants everyone to feel like an important member of an enlarged family. He runs his institutions like a loving father or nurturing mother would care for one’s family. He is extremely sympathetic to the hurts of his people since he shares their suffering vicariously. Whenever he preaches, he is sure to include a large measure of the need for unity, harmony, and the ability to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. (Eph. 4:28-32)
He prefers to work in secure organization that have established a track record of stability, success, and solid traditions.
An encouraging leader is not one to take risks since this might mean arguments which he avoids at all costs. Since he wants everybody to like him, the encouraging leader will practice compromise to head off conflicts before they become crisis. Sometimes, he subconsciously tries to avoid preaching the whole counsel of God because he is afraid of offending certain members of his church. It is occasionally said that the encouraging leader is willing to gain peace at any price. "Fellowship is the key word to this leader’s style. He loves to have meetings so that everyone is able to air their views in a peaceful atmosphere. He is not so concerned about production, accomplishment of goals, or the performance of essential duties as long as people are in good relationships. It is said that the encouraging leader loves visiting with people so much that he often has little time to settle down and do his own work. The encourager’s style of teaching, preaching, and presenting of ideas is inspirational more than informational. Some people become frustrated with his "feel good" style of leadership because they want the organization to evidence progress.
The encourager leader is content to let some members be extremely active with their ministries while allowing others to just attend church services. Not wanting to offend anyone, the encourager has a lot of tolerances for different approaches to projects. As a result, he is particularly concerned about helping those who cannot help themselves. He is willing to do whatever makes for good relations.
Acquiescent at times, the encourager may sometimes act like a defeatist when it comes to difficult projects. At the heart of the encourager’s motives is not to cause anyone any offense. He does not want to be a stumbling block to the smooth flowing of operations. The encourager feels that once the policies have been decided, it is his job to help people stay on track of the set agenda. His leadership theme is unity with a toleration for diversity. Traditional in his approaches to most problems, the encourager usually tries to look to the past to discover the previous tactics. As a result, the encourager is particularly conservative since he does not want to make too many waves.
True to the dogmatics of the faith, the encourager feels the need to stick with the established policies and beliefs. It is for this reason, that the encourager must be given a manual, a policy book, or a constitution to operate from as his basis of authority. This gives the encourager a solid foundation from which he make his decisions. It also affords the encourager an easy way out of conflicts by referring to the set policies. He does not like to hassled with arguments. He loves to refer to the "official position" of the organization rather than taking an innovative interpretation and application in developing new wine in new wineskins. If you are looking for change, progress, and innovation, the encourager is seldom able to initiate this without several strong attachments to a directive or a facilitative superior. Many people find that the encourager tends to take a resigned approach to situations being content with the status quo. Encouragers often feel helpless to expand their understanding of a situation if those around him are sharply in favor of maintaining a certain position.
He desperately needs the support of friends to succeed as he is very much in need of people’s encouragement.
Since the encourager fears public disapproval, he tends to lead by various degrees of consensus while being very submissive to his authorities.
He is the most consistent in his leadership style since he never wants to be known to inconsistent in his treatment of people. There is a deep emotional need in the encouraging leader since he never wants to stick out from the norm. Therefore, there may tend to be an overemphasis on the way that his predecessors acted. Continually one may hear the encourager referring to the way that his predecessors acted as a basis for his own actions. The encourager is a faithful man under authority who delights in pleasing those he reports to.
When the encourager gets into academic circles he tends to emphasize the acquisition of knowledge not for new applications, but for gaining wisdom in fitting in with the approved way of thinking, perceiving, and acting. He really only seems comfortable when he has taken on the "preferred doctrines and practices" of the organization he is with. Therefore, the encourager is interested in contextualization as long as it paves his way to great harmony, peace, and unity within his circle of associates.
He is the quintessential party man. When talking with the encourager you will notice that he enjoys speaking in generalities because he is afraid of being too specific in his commitments - unless it is just parroting the approved thought pattern of his superiors. When information is given by his authorities, the encourager seldom questions it in order not to appear insubordinate. However, the encourager is usually not the one to lead people during unstable, growing, or independent situations since he is more of a maintainer. Most of the discussions with the encourager are well received, but seldom acted on because the encourager is more concerned with pleasing people than bringing change. Instead, the encourager will put emphasis on past models, principles, and doctrines of the faith that must be obeyed.
Preferring to approach the common problems of the whole organization, the encourager has a hard time concentrating on the evolving needs to improve his people or their ministries.
In effect, the encourager is more reactive than proactive to his leadership responsibilities. In other words, the encourager would rather wait for a problem to happen before attempting to find a solution than initiating new projects that might cause embarrassment and shame. Looking for mainstream solutions to the problems that will please the majority of the people is a characteristic of the encourager. With the encourager there is a emphasis on submitting to idealistic truths and authority while discouraging dissenting, individual and independent thinking. To him, these people tend to not fit in with the smooth flow of communications and ministries. As a result, the encourager is quick to forgive and patch up differences with most anyone.
The encourager rarely speaks out against the authorities for fear of confrontation. He is a master at encouraging the down-trodden, oppressed, or depressed since he genuinely feels the hurts of others. He is able to speak kindly with his gestures, as well as his words. He is a specialist in the art and science of counseling since he wants people to feel encouraged to face the most difficult of situations. Viewing students, church members, and employees as subjects of the authority, he often feels that the followers should be more passive than active in their behavior.
The encouraging leader honors faithfulness to the norms much more than personal initiative. Being able to repeatedly do a task well is much more important to the encourager than developing an improved textbooks on leadership. He is often content to spend his entire life in one or two jobs. He loves being a faithful and obedient maintenance man of the system in which he pledges his allegiances. As a result, the encourager is able to find his strength in giving and receiving encouragement from friends - even if it is not obvious to observers. Prone to want assurances and guarantees before enacting a policy, the encourager is plagued with doubt without them. He never wants to appear to be a failure so he is in constant need of reaffirmation from significant others in his organization and family. His specialty is playing the supportive element in a stable organization that needs a time for healing, restoration, and renewal. The encouraging leader wants to maintain the order and stability in his organization so much that he is the quintessential "maintenance leader".
Sometimes, the encouraging leader seeks the "normal ways" of decision-making. He is often not aware that he is allowing his organization to drift away from their primary goals. The encourager is often accused of being a man pleaser. One such example of an encourager who fell into this man pleasing trap was Barnabas as seen in the book of Galatians.
Barnabas sinned because he tried to place relationships in front of truth. Eventually, Paul exposed Barnabas for his precociousness. Even when Paul approached him about the deserting of John Mark, Barnabas stubbornly insisted on giving the young convert another chance. Barnabas’ case is an example of how nepotism can often take a high priority in one’s ministry choices since, John Mark was Barnabas’ cousin. African believers, in a similar vein, continue to struggle with putting tribalism motives before Biblical incentives in their decisions. As a result, Acts 15 tells us that Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement not over doctrine, but personnel management procedures. Barnabas was no doubt the son of encouragement. He was the master of encouragement because he felt such a deep need for it in his own life. Barnabas even succumbed to the pressures of the Jews with Peter to conform to their culture and customs at the expense of their ideals. Instead of being appalled at the duplicity of some of the Galatian believers he went along with the hypocritical practices just to be accepted. Barnabas had a hard time breaking his pattern of encouraging people with all his heart and soul. Paul had to stress to Peter, Barnabas and the believers in Galatia that their hypocritical double standard approach to the Jews and the Gentiles would not pass the inspection of the Holy Spirit. He writes in Gal. 2:11-15:
"When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified."
Barnabas was formerly Paul’s superior, yet he submits to Paul’s leadership and rebukes. The encourager is often so humble that he takes instruction and reproofs better than any other type of leader. He is genuinely moved by people’s confrontation although they hurt him deeply. Those encouragers that cannot take instruction usually become bitter, resentful, and end up associating with wrong companions. People are too important to the encourager to live without their support. Barnabas did not want to remain estranged from his old friend Paul, even though his repenting must have taken a great amount of humility. Barnabas did not want to appear to be inconsistent with his previous way of life and teaching so he welcomed the rebuke. The resolution comes without undue embarrassment or shame since Barnabas is the master at smoothing over potentially destructive situations. Whenever, one needed someone to diffuse controversies, Barnabas would have been called into mediate the conflicts. Barnabas was smart enough to know that Paul was not out to discredit his character, but to help him stay on the correct track rails of truth. Barnabas did not want to derail his life or ministry and so took Paul’s advice.
The encouraging leader is usually more open to suggestions than any other leader because of his deep need to feel in harmony with others.
Barnabas was objective enough not to let the issue become a subjective war of egos. Instead, Barnabas understood that Paul was trying to clear up an important doctrinal issue without creating a lot of personal hostility. Wanting to please Peter, Barnabas got dragged into the controversial acts of eating with Gentiles and then withdrawing when the Jewish elders came to town. He probably did not want to isolate Peter so he went along with him for the sake of maintaining his friendship. It is doubtful that Barnabas acted belligerently in a hypocritical way. Yet, the encouraging leader must be careful that he does not fall into this trap of leading his people down the path of least resistance. The encouraging leader needs to develop the strength to make difficult decisions even when it means losing his best friends. Eventually, Barnabas had to learn that ethical as well as relational issues must not be mutually exclusive issues. Barnabas had to learn how to emphasize the essentials of the faith in theory and practice before he could stabilize a potentially destructive situation.
