Fr. Barnabas (Charles) Powell is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Having been raised in a small Pentecostal church as a boy, Barnabas grew to love the church, enjoy the music, and eventually came to be the youth pastor of his home church.In 2007, Barnabas was given the blessing of Metropolitan ALEXIOS of Atlanta to enter Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA.
On November 8th 2009, Barnabas was ordained to the diaconate in his hometown of Atlanta, GA at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios and on Sunday March 8, 2010 he received ordination to the holy priesthood at the same cathedral. He is now the proistamenos (senior pastor) of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA.
Fr. Barnabas founded Faith Encouraged Ministries in 2014 and was the host of Faith Encouraged LIVE talk show on Ancient Faith Radio until January 2019.
Faith Encouraged Ministries continues to produce the Monday through Friday Devotional called Faith Encouraged Daily. Fr. Barnabas published his first book “A Faith Encouraged” through Ancient Faith Publishing and produced the 16 part video series called “A Journey to Fullness” to help parishes introduce the Faith to the average person. To date, over 200 parishes across the United States and Canada use the video series to serve their communities.
Fr. Barnabas travels extensively across the country speaking at spiritual retreats, and sharing special presentations like “Becoming Orthodox on Purpose: Practicing the Faith Every Day” and “Taming the Passions: The Orthodox Wisdom to a Truly Free Life.” His current project is a video series explaining the Divine Liturgy step by step to people who were not raised in liturgical traditions. He was recently one of the invited speakers at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care, sponsored by the Orthodox Academy of Crete and the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi.
Fr. Barnabas is particularly motivated by the beauty and timelessness of our Orthodox Christian faith and strives to see this timeless faith put down deep roots here in America. The Orthodox Christian faith is uniquely suited to quench the spiritual thirst of Americans from all backgrounds with the depth and beauty of the Timeless Faith of the Apostles.