Rick Barnhart said when Gary Swafford first called him from the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and asked if he would be interested in moving up from the coast to Montgomery, he didn’t want to say yes.
“I was happy,” said Barnhart, who at the time was the associational minister for Baldwin Baptist Association. “I knew Baldwin was a place I could retire, and my grandkids were really young.”
But even though he didn’t want to consider moving, he knew he absolutely wanted to be faithful.
“I asked the question, ‘What is the last great impact God wants me to have before I retire?’ And in that, the answer came that I was to come on to the State Board and help other associational missionaries as well as church planters to accomplish their work,” he said.
It wasn’t long before Barnhart started seeing those answers flesh themselves out in his work as director of the SBOM’s office of associational missions and church planting.
“It was a hand-in-glove fit,” he said. “The Lord just worked everything together to make it happen.”
‘Best years of ministry’
As he prepares to retire June 30, he feels like “these have been 12 of the best years of ministry.”
“And it’s not really over,” he said. “I’m retreading.”
In December 2023, Barnhart finished his doctor of ministry, which focused on developing a way to help Baptist associations in rural contexts with strategic planning.
“Because of the graciousness of Cooperative Program giving, I’ll be able to work one week per month to do this project across the state of Alabama,” he said. “The diversity of responsibility I’ve had over the decades, all that experience has allowed me to have the layered learning that I have needed to accomplish this work.”
That “layered learning” has included not only his church planting, pastoral and associational missions work in Baldwin Association, but everything that’s happened in his SBOM office in the past 12 years.
“We’re one of the most diverse offices in the whole facility,” Barnhart said.
The office of associational missions and church planting encompasses those two things plus a variety of others.
“It’s been such a joy to establish friendships with associational missionaries, men sold out for Christ who are doing the very best they can in the place where they are, and they just need encouragement,” Barnhart said.
Successful investments
He said it’s also been a privilege to be part of a season of church planting that involves more intentional teaching, coaching and funding — something championed by Lamar Duke, an SBOM church planting strategist who died in 2020.
“Then Brian Harper came on, and we introduced residencies and internships and funding to assist with health insurance and annuity,” Barnhart said. “We also introduced so many more varieties of cohorts and coaching for two years and assessment processes that are so expansive.”
That “advanced process” helps Alabama be one of the top states to plant a church in, he said. The success rate is more than 85%, which means church plants are still surviving five years later.
Hispanic church plants specifically have been “just exploding” in recent years, he said.
Barnhart’s office now also has two catalysts for Deaf ministry.
All of it together has “been phenomenal,” he said.
He’s grateful for the opportunity to keep serving associations and to be based in Baldwin County closer to his grandchildren in this next season.
“I want to express real gratitude to my dear wife, Marcy, and to the State Board and its leaders,” Barnhart said. “I have a heart of gratitude that they would trust me to do this.”
‘Versatile leader’
Rick Lance, SBOM executive director, said all Barnhart’s experience has made him a “solidly versatile leader.”
“During his tenure at the SBOM, Rick has ministered to associational missions strategists in a pastoral way,” Lance said. “He has always been there when he was needed.”
Barnhart has also served in beyond-the-call-of-duty-type ways, he said, such as with disaster relief.
“Additionally, Rick has assisted churches with future planning efforts such as in developing strategies to reach people for Christ and also to help churches with facility needs as they look to the future,” Lance said. “This is one of the many behind-the-scenes responsibilities through which he has made a difference in Great Commission ministries among Alabama Baptists.”
He said Barnhart is a “true difference maker for the cause of Christ.”
“Although we wish Marcy and him the best in the next stage of life and ministry, we will continue to call on him as a consultant here at the State Board of Missions,” Lance said. “His gifts and skills will be helpful in the future as we seek to assist churches.”
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