First English Baptist Church
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

Our Pastor

      Reverend Lee Barnhardt

The First English Baptist Church is happy to introduce you to Reverend Lee Barnhardt, our pastor.  We are particularly drawn to Pastor Lee’s pastoral message (from his American Baptist Churches minister's profile), which we believe fits beautifully with our own church’s spiritual mission and commitment to family. This is Pastor Lee’s message in his own words:

• If there is an integrating motif to my ministry, I would call it "community-building" It arises out of my sense of what the church is called to be and do --a calling best expressed for me in the word "community." Community describes a human family related not by blood, but by mutual commitment to the health and wholeness of each individual, the community itself, and even to those yet outside the community. In the church, the heart of our community is the liberating, loving presence of Jesus Christ.
• Community is a safe place where any and all may come and find acceptance, affirmation, and compassion. It is a place that struggles honestly with life and human issues, affirming the whole range of human emotion and experience, focusing it toward growth, integrity, and wholeness. It is a place of accountability and pardon, of failure and success, of tears and laughter, of vulnerability and respect, of questions and hope. It is a family where diversity of all kinds race, gender, theology, social class, age, and culture is treasured. It is a family that is learning to fight graciously, simultaneously valuing openness, kindness, and forgiveness.
• This is the kind of community Jesus Christ calls and empowers the church to be in His name. And this is the kind of community to which many, many people (including me) long to belong. My ambition as a pastor is to help the church catch a vision of the kind of life-giving community it can be and to lead it toward that vision. 
• This focus of pastoral call has been born out of my experience of churches where the community has been fractured by various kinds of conflict. I have experienced the pain of these fractures, and I have also experienced the miracle of their healing a transformation from God as the church has sought to be a true community.
• My pastoral style is very interpersonal, building upon cultivating relationships and listening to people’s stories, Making contact with people in person or by telephone, being present at times of crisis, interacting with people at opportune moments are all of high priority.
• I also give much attention to the worship service. My goal is to foster a worship environment that invites openness to God, to oneself and to others. One of my gifts is preaching, and I love it, for it is an opportunity to remind people of the boundless love and power of God, offered to them in their quest to grow toward true community.

Rev. Lee Barnhardt’s Christian experience began in Sunday school and Vacation Bible School as a child in the First Presbyterian Church of Asheville, North Carolina. He was active in both the church Boy Scout Troop and the youth group throughout his school years. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lee became active in Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship and the Chapel Hill Bible Church. Through these experiences, he recommitted his life to Christ and found himself drawn toward a Christian vocation. To further explore his calling, Lee volunteered to serve as a short-term student missionary following his graduation from college. In June 1980, he began a fourteen-month term of service with Latin American Missions in Mexico, Columbia, and Honduras. There, he worked closely with local church pastors and congregations in the areas of worship, evangelism, teaching, and Bible distribution. When Lee returned to the United States, he entered seminary. During this time, he worked as a senior high Youth Pastor at Ham Lake Baptist Church outside of St. Paul, Minnesota. There he had the opportunity to preach, counsel, and lead worship. These positive experiences confirmed to Lee that God was calling him into the ministry.

Pastor Lee was ordained as an American Baptist Pastor in April of 1987. His pastoral career includes a position as an assistant pastor (with an emphasis on Christian Education) in a Rochester, New York Baptist church and as a pastor of two Baptist churches in Charles City, Iowa, and Rochester, New York.

The American Baptist Church references noted Pastor Lee’s strengths in preaching, interpreting the faith, pastoral care, communication, visitation, worship preparation, and creating a nurturing church fellowship. Pastor Lee also has experience in Bible study, leadership, and community building. Pastor Lee has a Masters in Divinity from the Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and has continued his education with pastoral classes in leadership development, spiritual life, and parish ministry.

Pastor Lee and Annie enjoy the outdoors and are avid hikers. They share their home with a retired greyhound racer named Max.

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Webmaster Bill Lowthert mailto:Bill@alwaysimproving.com,  Bill's Website is http://www.alwaysimproving.com