Who We Are Looking For
We are an organization that provides pastoral care to global servants from a wide variety of cultural and language backgrounds. We are looking for people who fundamentally have a shepherd's heart. This shepherding ministry can be implemented from a multitude of platforms depending on one's gifting, skills, training, and experience. The BI staff travel globally on a regular basis in their quest of offering general pastoral care and counseling, Bible teaching and discipleship at retreats and gatherings, a variety of professional and personal trainings, debriefings, TCK/MK reentry seminars, member care- and ministry-related publications and writing, etc.
Preliminary Qualifications
Barnabas is looking for staff who minimally have the following qualifications:
- Able to clearly articulate a calling to pastoral care of global servants.
- Endorsed, sent, and financially supported by a local church.
- Ready and able to raise financial support for personal and ministry expenses.
- If married, both individuals must apply as full-time, fully active members. In other words, Barnabas is not accepting any married individual whose spouse is not also applying to Barnabas as a fully active member who is engaged in the pastoral care of global servants. Barnabas is a pastoral care organization, and while several of our staff are trained counselors, we are not a counseling organization. (Please see FAQs concerning this point.)
- Cross-cultural ministry experience (not a strict requirement); at a minimum, an applicant must demonstrate the ability to thrive personally and spiritually while regularly moving in and out of various cultures.
- Readiness to work with Barnabas leadership to design an international ministry and a willingness to engage in international travel multiple times a year, primarily focused on those serving the least reached people groups.
- Gifted and skilled in pastoral ministry, such as the handling of God's word, pastoral counseling, shepherding, public speaking, and spiritual guidance.
- A spiritual life others would eagerly want to emulate.
- A high level of self-awareness and relational skills that others can readily identify.
- Minimum of one year of formal Bible training or equivalent training/experience.
- Formal ministry training commensurate with the ministry role to be pursued within Barnabas.
Ministry Models and Focuses
- Global pastoral care providers/global pastors
- Ministry families/marriages
- Member care trainers and providers (SYIS, conflict resolution/Peace Makers, team building, retreats, debriefings, etc.)
- Bible teachers, conference speakers
- Leaders, coaches, mentors, trainers, etc., of global workers
- Men's and women's ministry
- Counselors
- BI events and communications coordinator
- MuKappa Staff (TCK/MK care)
FAQs
Where are Barnabas staff located?
Barnabas staff live all around the world. The majority of the staff are based in the United States and have highly itinerate lifestyles. Staff are not required to live in any particular region or location. That being said, we are seeking to direct incoming staff toward the current locales of other Barnabas staff to form communities and teams for personal well-being, ministry effectiveness, and to exemplify this ministry model.
How do budgets and income work?
Each Barnabas staff member is required to raise support for all of their personal living and ministry expenses. Barnabas has a philosophy of not charging for services provided overseas. On some occasions other organizations offer to cover some costs such as airfare and/or room and board. This can be gratefully accepted. Barnabas leadership help new staff set their initial budgets.
Does Barnabas take an overhead fee from staff support?
Yes. Barnabas currently takes 10% of all staff income to cover administrative overhead and various staff events.
Can I work part time with Barnabas and part time at another job?
Other than the initial period of acquiring support, Barnabas is looking for full-time pastoral care providers. We are currently not accepting applications for part-time staff, nor do we do "short-term" efforts.
Does Barnabas give staff specific ministry assignments?
We work with our staff to help discern which ministry engagements would be a good fit for them. These opportunities may originate from external requests to Barnabas or come from within the network of relationships that the staff members maintain. Either way, most aspects of the development of ministry opportunities will be up to staff members. Therefore, people who come to Barnabas must be tremendous self-starters.
Must I have cross-cultural experience?
Cross-cultural life/ministry experience is an ideal that Barnabas seeks in its staff, although it is not a hard and fast requirement. We realize that many people have gained valuable experience traveling internationally doing "short-term" trips. However, from the long-term global servant's perspective, there is a significant gap in understanding between someone who has visited their country and those who have become multilingual and multicultural and who have experienced the normal stressors of everyday life cross-culturally. It is difficult to acquire such validation any other way.
Does Barnabas accept counselors or those with a clinical background?
Barnabas is a pastoral care provider, but some Barnabas staff are clinicians. The crucial distinctive that BI leadership is seeking in new staff is a strong, obvious pastoral posture in all the work they do. If the applicant has a strong clinical background, then Barnabas will still be looking for ministry distinctives, such as being Word saturated, demonstrating a shepherding approach to ministry, and being highly relational (i.e., not programmatic driven or "professional/client" driven). They use their clinical training and know-how to meet the needs of many global workers, but their approach and the care that they offer are still rooted in a shepherd's heart.
What is the application process for Barnabas?
The BI application process is somewhat fluid. Our philosophy is to be as relational as possible through this process. Of course, relationship building takes time. Thus, we would ideally like to have time with applicants in varying scenarios, particularly seeing an applicant "in action" if at all possible. Below are the required elements in the application process. A reality that complicates this process is that the leadership team is fully engaged in ministry activity and all travel globally. Naturally, this slows the process down somewhat. The following steps are in relative, not absolute, order:
- Preliminary application form filled out and submitted via email (download it here). [Note: Some browsers will not allow Word Doc downloads. If you are not able to download this file, you can request it at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.]
- Face-to-face time to get to know one another. This is not an interview. The more contact you have with Barnabas leadership and staff the better. The annual Pastors to Missionaries conference is an ideal place to focus on this relationship building.
- Complete and submit a formal application, including references. There are also several assessments to be completed that will be followed up with personal time with a psychologist for interpretation and explanation of the findings. The applicant and Barnabas leadership will be the only ones to see these findings. Barnabas also will run a background check on all applicants.
- Face-to-face interview with the Barnabas leadership team.
- Any resulting follow up that may be needed.
- Acceptance and starting date set.
If I have further questions, who can I contact?
If you have any other questions about joining Barnabas, please contact Alan Steier (Enquiries Coordinator) at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..