Please see the Sermon Discussion Questions listed below. We highly encourage you to listen, think, and talk about the sermon. These are questions you can reflect on by yourself, with your family, or with your small group.

1. Why is it encouraging when the Bible portrays within its pages, real people with real flaws? 

2. After their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas were unified in their desire to return to every city in which they preached to check on the Christian convernts. In spite of all the persecution they endured the first time around, why do you think this was so important for Paul and Barnabas?

3. What do the parables of the sower in Matthew 13, and the vine and branches in John 15, teach us about true salvation and how should this impact a church’s mission strategy? 

4. What might cause a church to drift from sound doctrine and what must it do to prevent such drifting?  On a more personal level, what can you do to prevent yourself from drifting?

5. Do you think Paul was right for prioritizing the mission over the person?  Or was Barnabas right for prioritizing the person over the mission?  Explain your answer

6. Do you think their split could have been prevented?  If so, how?  

7. After the sharp dispute over John Mark that broke apart Paul and Barnabas, we learn that years later, in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul is asking for John Mark “because he is helpful to me in my ministry.”  What should we learn from this?  

8. Ultimately, what should we learn from the split between Paul and Barnabas?  What does it teach us about idolizing our heroes?  What does it teach us about God and His church?