My typical blog entry is much shorter than this one and about conceptual ideas that I am passionate about. This one is considerably longer and the “concept” today is my personal ministry calling. Many of my friends from my church, Constance Free, will be looking in to see my thoughts on a change in direction that Pastor Randy recently shared with you.
The shingle I hung here is symbolic of a path I believe that God has had me on for some time. As much as 10 years ago, I considered the idea of becoming a church consultant. Then 7 years ago Pastor Randy, our District Superintendent and I agreed to make church consulting about 5-10% of my ministry. Since then I have enjoyed facilitating the organizational strength of several other churches from Rochester to Morris Minnesota. Two years ago, I also thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to speak at the Germany Free Church Conference on Church Growth.
Another factor for me is that a friend and mentor encouraged me to write a book and consider going in this direction of consulting about five years ago. There are times in life where people speak words into your life and you know you are supposed to do something with that. This was one of those times for me. I did not pursue the idea of consulting as a full time profession until recently. However, I did start to write a book. I have not shared that with many people because of my personality, but also because that journey has been a lot like learning to play guitar. When you start to play guitar, your fingers hurt, it sounds terrible, and there are days when you are learning to play and there are days when you are not learning to play because of your frustration.
I have been writing a book and I have not been writing a book up until a couple of months ago when God allowed me to finish something that I have now submitted to several Christian publishers for their consideration. Whatever the outcome, I will self-publish if I cannot find a publisher because my motivation all along has not been to be published, but to help other churches, smaller than Constance, make the necessary organizational changes that would help them with their growth.
So the completion of the book was a milestone that has fueled my passion to help others smaller than Constance. However, two other important factors led me to come to Pastor Randy in March with a proposal. Cheri and I created our Dave Ramsey budget along with many of you this winter. We also did a Dave Ramsey “What-if” budget that considered the idea of me becoming a consultant. We were able to see a path there. The other important factor has been Cheri’s support and acceptance of the idea from the very beginning. I would not have taken this step without that.
So, beginning September 1, I will be Barber Church Consulting under contract with Constance for 15 hours a week to continue to oversee BridgeLink and to help part time with the administrative transition that will be necessary. The remainder of the time I will be seeking engagements with other churches locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally as God leads. My consulting strengths and focus are the subject of this blog.
Constance is an awesome church and I have invested the past 18 years in leadership (15 on staff) to help her get to where she is so she can reach even more people in our community and around the world. She is our church and Cheri and I will continue to worship here. You may even see me playing guitar from time to time. In fact, you will for the next two weeks!
BridgeLink is an essential part of Constance’s vision to influence our world and I look forward to continuing to grow this arm of what we do. There are some exciting new collaborations in the works and I will enjoy helping facilitate this as long as the church and I mutually agree on that.
One final thought. I have had confirmations of the rightness of this decision almost weekly. Another precious one came this past week from an eighth grader. The middle school has been blessing the staff with notes, chocolates, and Scripture verses. Mine had this verse:
“Thou dost keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee” Is 26:3.
Nice verse. But here’s the deal. This is a verse that I memorized early in my Christian life in the 70’s. It is a verse Cheri and I claimed during the time of our engagement and wedding. It is fair to say it is one of the most important guiding verses in my life and it has been for over 35 years now. It is on the church website in the “About Me” section and that is probably where it came from. But, God wanted one of his little ones to remind me of it, at this crossroad, now.
God is good and I am in perfect peace (Shalom Shalom) about the future, as I trust in Him.
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