Can you tell us how you came to faith in Christ and be part of his church?

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I had no interest in religion, but when Jackie became pregnant with our first child, for some strange reason I was concerned whether we should have the baby christened. I reasoned that if we simply evolved, then it didn’t matter, but if we were created, I wanted to know what that Creator wanted me to do with the baby.

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I spent eight months researching evolution vs creation and came to the conviction that there must be a Creator, but how did I know that the Bible was God’s revelation? So I spent another eight months researching ‘Is the Bible God’s word?’ I came to the conclusion it was, so I purchased a Bible and knocked on the doors of many denominational ministers and asked them, ‘Please show me where the Bible says I must christen my baby’. Unable to get a sensible answer from them, Jackie and I decided to find out for ourselves what the Bible required, so every night after dinner we spent two hours reading the Bible, beginning from Genesis 1:1.

 

My mother happened to tell a woman who was a member of the Newnham church of Christ what Jackie and I were doing. that led to Tommy Poarch, an American evangelist, knocking on our door. We studied the Bible with him for a considerable time, then began visiting the Newnham church, and were baptised one morning at 2am in a freezing cold church baptistry. Every Newnham member in attendance in their pyjamas, nightshirts, and dressing gowns.

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What motivated you to begin preaching the word?

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The Newnham church had a policy (that I now disagree with) that upon conversion the males were required to become part of a ‘mutual ministry’ preaching roster whereby I was required to preach a sermon every fifth week. Having to meet this requirement was disastrous for my marriage and family life, but it forced me to study the Bible for many hours every day.

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I came to love God’s word and wanted to teach others, so I prayed every day that I could become a full-time preacher. The way that God answered my prayer is an almost unbelievable story, and too long to record here.

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The result of it all is that we had a well-known doctor from the U.S. stay in my home for three days, and when he returned home he organised and fully paid for Jackie and I to spend fourteen weeks in the U.S. I preached on fourteen consecutive Sundays in fourteen different states.

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When we returned home to Tasmania I began receiving emails from church elders in the U.S. offering to fully support me to preach in Australia. I am now eighty years of age and I’m still fully supported by those churches.

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What are some of the particular challenges faced by smaller or isolated congregations in Australia?

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The greatest challenge I see for small congregations is an inferiority complex about being small, rather than seeing the blessings available. My personal view is that small congregations have more potential to be practising New Testament Christianity. What I’ve seen of large congregations in major cities is that because of distance, time, and lifestyle, members often only see each other for short periods during their church’s worship meetings. In small congregations every member can develop a deep and personal love for every other member, because they have more opportunity to do things together almost every day.

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I’m not saying, ‘Let’s stay small’. We desperately need to be seeking to increase our numbers, but the time should come for every large congregation to realise that distance and time constraints can hinder members from being a church like I described, and that congregation might need to divide into two or more smaller congregations.

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Having said that, there are areas where small, isolated congregations do need assistance. Large, big city churches could implement programs whereby preachers regularly visit and preach for small churches.

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Large churches can also provide small churches with sermon and Bible Class material. I’ve spent over forty years indexing every page of every book in my extensive library so that brethren can contact me requesting material on any given subject. All I have to do is go to my filing cabinets and take out the file on the subject requested, which tells me every page in my library where that subject is mentioned. I can then photocopy about fifty sermons, Bible Classes, articles, and comments about that subject to mail out. Sadly, though I’ve spent over forty years creating this resource facility and receive requests weekly from brethren overseas, I’ve never had any from Australian brethren. One preacher in Sri Lanka once contacted me and said, ‘Barry, where have you been all my life?’

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Have you noticed any changes in the church over the years, or how the Gospel is received?

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People in Australia, just in my lifetime, have become less religious, more materialistic, and sport and recreation loving, and I believe that one of the reasons is because members of the church of Christ have become less serious and less committed to God’s word being the central core around which every aspect of their life revolves.

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Non-Christians notice that church of Christ members don’t study their Bible every day, don’t offer thanks before meals when non–Christians are present, their speech is worldly, their only religious action appears to be attending the worship service each Sunday (if it is convenient).  Then if a dedicated member of the Lord’s church tries to interest them in spiritual matters, they conclude that because so many ‘church of Christers’ have such a lukewarm attitude toward God and the Bible, it must not be very important.

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Sadly, too many people (Lord’s church included) have a ‘real life’ and then a bit of religion on the side as an insurance policy, instead of their real life being following God’s word every second.

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What advice would you have for anyone as they consider or prepare for a ministry of preaching?

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The best advice I can give – before studying the Bible with someone you must first build a relationship with them, because people will more readily listen to a genuine friend than a stranger. This may take years, as it requires you to become a valued part of their life, and they a part of yours.

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Thirty-two years ago I began attending games at the Hillwood football club. Their President was a stranger who I thought was so ‘high’ above my standing that I couldn’t contemplate even speaking to him. As the years rolled on, that man became the secretary, then treasurer, then Head Trainer, then Head of the board of the club, and still too ‘distant’ for me to feel confident about approaching about religion. During those years, Jackie and I began to assist volunteers in the canteen on match days, then managed the canteen for many years, and then the club asked us to fill the role of ‘Club Chaplains’, which we’ve done for ten years now. All this time we grew closer to that man.

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Two years ago his wife died, and he asked me to conduct her funeral service. Then early last year he shocked us all by walking in to attend Eastside’s worship service. While I was preaching I kept looking at him and thinking, ‘I cannot believe Bob McLean is sitting here today listening to me preach’. Bob is now a valued member at Eastside, and he often says to the other members, ‘I believe that God sent Barry and Jackie to the Hillwood Football Club thirty-two years ago so that they could become my friend, and when my wife died God had Barry in place for me to become a member of the Lord’s church and go to heaven when I die.’