Values & Principles

Barnabas Foundation was founded with, and continues to be guided by, three foundational principles.

We are...

Kingdom Focused: As followers of Jesus and part of the family of God, we know that everything we do must be based on our desire to love Him and further His Kingdom.

Stewardship Minded: We recognize that everything we have belongs to God and has been entrusted to us. We will engage every client as unto the Lord, helping them plan wisely, reduce their costs and deliver the maximum financial impact for the ministries they support.

Member Oriented: We serve a network of distinctly Christian organizations, enabling them to offer their supporters a much higher level of planned giving expertise, service and experience than it would cost them to build independently. Through our work together, we illustrate how the body of Christ can work together as a family to strengthen and serve each other for God’s Kingdom.

Core Values

These are the values we aspire to live out in our work.

Prayer. We are people of prayer. We bring our clients, member ministries and staff to God in prayer. We approach each challenge asking for God’s wisdom and intervention first, and then we apply our best knowledge, prudence and effort.

Community. We put people and relationships first. We treat our coworkers, clients, ministries and others with grace and respect because we are all created by God and deeply loved by Him. This does not mean we ignore relational conflicts, differences of opinion or problems. Rather, we address them in a way that reflects our love for God.

Trust. We tell the truth and fulfill the promises we make to our members, clients and each other. We hold the confidence of our clients and coworkers while maintaining loyalty and trust with our member organizations. If we fail, we admit our shortcomings and attempt to make it right.

Service. We have the privilege of working with amazing ministries and the most generous, giving and caring people in the world, so we serve them with humility and gratitude. We are friendly, responsive, caring and prompt in our interactions with clients and do whatever we can to help them accomplish their charitable goals.

Excellence. We approach our work as professionals and aspire to reach a high level of excellence and efficiency. We are continually looking for ways to improve our systems, strengthen our staff capabilities and develop new best practices in our work.

Expertise. Our staff members have the required knowledge, experience and skill to serve our clients and members well. Because our work is detail-oriented, we make sure our team receives ongoing training and is equipped with the proper tools to provide the expertise our constituents need.

Joy. We believe purpose, hard work and fun are not mutually exclusive. The Christian workplace should reflect the joy of the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to provide a life-giving, encouraging, laughter-filled environment where employees enjoy working and spending time with one another.

Guiding principles for employment, membership and distributions.

Barnabas Foundation’s employment, ministry membership and charitable distribution policies are guided by our Christian faith and biblical understanding, as outlined in the Foundation’s “Statement of Christian Faith.

As followers of Christ, we recognize there are countless daily decisions that must be made, both individually and corporately, regarding how to best speak and act in a God-honoring way. We commit as a community to praying for the Holy Spirit’s leading, so that we will reflect His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our thoughts, words and actions.

Furthermore, we recognize that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and our brokenness is expressed in a number of ways that are contrary to God’s greatest design. In God’s arena, there is no distinction or hierarchy in the manifestations of sin, whether that be greed, selfishness, dishonesty, gossip, sexual misconduct or otherwise immoral behavior.

Because of public discussion and legal attention being given to a number of particular topics, we present the following statements to clarify our biblical understanding on these issues:

Statement on the Sanctity of Life

We believe that all human beings are image bearers of God, therefore we affirm the unique value of every human life. Barnabas Foundation condemns the wanton or arbitrary destruction of any human being at any stage of its development from the point of conception to the point of death.

Statement on Marriage

We believe God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, which is an institution created by God between a man and a woman in accordance with their biological sex.