Pastor Mike Obadja · Chino, CA
The Barnabas
Co-Lab.
Six months. Sixteen leaders. A Christian leadership formation cohort for those called to build something that lasts.
Includes Mike's new book About Face — launching April 2026.
Reserve your seat.
16 seats available. Drop your email for priority access and next steps.
“You can lead people, build things, make money,— Mike Obadja, About Face
make progress… and still feel that quiet ache in your chest that says:
There has to be more than a life of performance.”
The Ache Beneath the Achievement
You can be successful in ministry and still feel empty inside.
Christian leadership burnout is an epidemic. Pastors, ministry leaders, and faith-based entrepreneurs are leading from exhaustion — full calendars, thin roots, high output, low presence. Not broken. Just tired. Grateful, but busy. Blessed, but not deeply resting.
Somewhere along the way, gifting replaced identity. Performance replaced sonship. Strategy outran prayer. And the question we stopped asking was the one that mattered most: Who am I when I'm not producing?
If that resonates — if you've been leading from a wound instead of from wholeness — Barnabas Co-Lab was built for this exact moment. Not another conference. Not another leadership hack. A formation space where the Father can rebuild the leader from the inside out.
The Book
About Face: A Turning Back to God's Original Design
About Face is not a self-help book. It is a return. A reorientation of identity — from performing to belonging, from building to being, from surviving to becoming the blessing.
December 2023. A ranch outside Houston.
Mike sat at a table of Christian business leaders. He felt like the smallest story in the room. Pastor Craig Hill didn't respond to what Mike said. He just looked at him. Quietly. Waited. No challenge. No critique. Just presence. The kind that doesn't rush to fix you. And something cracked open.
That moment — and what it taught Mike about the Father's blessing — is what this book is about.
- 1Identity & Sonship You are not a project to be managed. You are a son. The Father's blessing is where the turn begins — from orphan patterns to living as a beloved child of God.
- 2Sabbath & Rest The ache beneath the calendar. Learning to receive, not just produce. Sabbath is not what you do after work — it is who you are before it.
- 3Blessing & Legacy What you pass down is not what you preach. It is what you practice. Generational patterns break when one person lets God rewrite the family script.
- 4Formation & Leadership Gifting can build crowds. Only wholeness can build family. Formation before function — who you are before what you do.
“Mike Obadja has discovered something profound — that it is impossible to truly love and bless others until you yourself have received the Father's blessing. I wholeheartedly recommend About Face to anyone who desires to deeply impact the lives of those God has entrusted to them.”— Craig Hill · Family Foundations International · Author of The Ancient Paths and The Power of a Parent's Blessing
Coming to Amazon
Turning Back to the God Who Turns Toward You. Available on Amazon in April 2026 — Kindle and paperback. Join the list above to get notified the moment it goes live, plus a free chapter delivered to your inbox before launch.
Mike Obadja
Pastor · Author · Founder
About the Author
A pastor who learned to come home.
Mike Obadja is a pastor and leader based in Chino, California. For over two decades, he has led communities, built teams, and cultivated leaders — while slowly learning that the most important formation happens in the quiet, not the spotlight.
About Face is his most personal work yet — a memoir and a pathway, written for every leader who has ever wondered if there's more to faith than function. It draws on his own journey from performance-based leadership to identity rooted in the Father's blessing — shaped by mentors like Craig Hill (Family Foundations International) and Ps. Eddy Leo. Mike lives in Southern California with his wife Mira and their children Mika and Malakai.
Barnabas Co-Lab
A 6-month Christian leadership formation cohort.
Barnabas Co-Lab is a pastoral formation program based in Chino, CA — rooted in the fivefold ministry of Ephesians 4. 16 seats. In-person and online. Built for leaders who are ready to stop performing and start forming. Not content first, but culture first — habits, relationships, and a shared way of life that can be handed on.
Month 1
Leader First
Formation before function. Who you are before what you do. Identity and sonship as the foundation of leadership.
Month 2
Apostolic
Kingdom vision. Building that outlasts you. The apostolic gift sets vision and lays foundations (Eph. 4:11).
Month 3
Prophetic
Hearing God. Speaking into what is not yet. The prophetic gift discerns and declares what God is doing.
Month 4
Teacher
Rooting others in truth. Wisdom that builds, not impresses. Teaching that forms people, not just fills notebooks.
Month 5
Pastoral
Care without losing yourself. Presence as ministry. The pastoral gift shepherds, heals, and walks alongside.
Month 6
Evangelistic
Living sent. Influence as witness. The evangelistic gift carries the good news into every sphere of life.
Weekly Core Night
In-person in Chino, CA. Tuesdays, 7–9PM PST. Scripture grounding, teaching, and guided cohort discussion.
Zoom Integration Lab
Weekly online session to apply what you're learning in your actual context and relationships.
Sage Saturdays
Monthly gatherings with seasoned leaders — including Craig Hill, Ps. Eddy Leo, and Bob Roberts Jr.
Who This Is For
Built for leaders who feel the ache beneath the achievement.
Pastors & Ministry Leaders
You've been leading faithfully — but the pace is unsustainable. You need formation, not just more information. A space to be a son or daughter before you're a pastor.
Christian Entrepreneurs & Marketplace Leaders
You're building in faith — but your identity got tangled in your output. You want to lead from wholeness, not from the ache of proving your worth.
Fathers & Husbands Seeking Wholeness
You want to break generational patterns — to bless on purpose, not just correct by instinct. To give your family a face turned toward them, not just a provider turned away.
Emerging Leaders Ready for Depth
You sense a calling but don't want to build on shallow roots. You're looking for spiritual formation in community — not just a course, but a way of life.
Enrollment
Choose your track.
Two ways to join the cohort. Both tracks attend the same Sage Saturdays. 16 seats total across both tracks.
Barnabas Co-Lab · Chino CA
first installment, then $250/month Months 2–5
Total: $2,000
- Weekly Core Night (Tues, 7–9PM, Chino CA)
- Weekly Zoom Integration Lab
- Monthly Sage Saturday
- Formation community & cohort group
- Leadership placement support
Barnabas Co-Lab · Online
first installment, then $250/month Months 2–3
Total: $1,000
- Weekly Zoom Integration Lab
- Monthly Sage Saturday (virtual)
- Formation community & cohort group
- Same curriculum and sages as In-Person
Sage Saturdays
Learn from those who've walked it.
Monthly gatherings with seasoned leaders who bring decades of spiritual formation, family, and Kingdom experience to the room.
Craig Hill
Family Foundations International
Author of The Ancient Paths and The Power of a Parent's Blessing. Foreword author of About Face. His teaching on the Father's blessing and identity has reached families in over 40 nations.
Ps. Eddy Leo
Pastor · Indonesia
Author of ECCLESIA and Havruta — True Friendship. Visionary leader with reach across Indonesia and the United States. A model of marriage, family, and apostolic vision.
Bob Roberts Jr.
Northwood Church
Pioneering voice on church multiplication, glocal mission, and multi-faith engagement. A practitioner, not just a teacher — with influence across the US and the world.
What Makes This Different
Not another conference. Not another course. A formation community.
Identity First, Skills Second
Most leadership programs teach strategy. Barnabas Co-Lab starts with who you are — your sonship, your identity in Christ — because formation before function is the only foundation that lasts.
Fivefold Ministry Formation (Ephesians 4)
Six months walking through the apostolic, prophetic, teaching, pastoral, and evangelistic gifts — not as theory, but as lived practice in a covenant community.
Table, Not Stage
Culture is caught around a table before it is taught from a stage. Barnabas Co-Lab is 16 people in a room — not a crowd, but a family learning to bless, rest, and lead at a pace love can keep.
Sage Access
Monthly Sage Saturdays with leaders like Craig Hill, Ps. Eddy Leo, and Bob Roberts Jr. — voices who have walked the journey of spiritual formation and can speak from decades of Kingdom fruit.
The turn starts
somewhere real.
One relationship. One room. One responsibility. Barnabas Co-Lab is that room — a Christian leadership formation cohort for 16 leaders who are ready to lead from identity, not performance.