Meet Desiree Barker of the Great Commission Committee
By Desiree Barker
EDITOR's NOTE: This is the next installment in our "Into Harvest Series" where we are meeting and getting to know members of the Great Commission Committee of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, learning more about who they are and why they are committed to the mission of church planting. Photo: Desiree Barker (on right) gathers with her family.
My name is Desiree Barker and I am a member of All Saints' in Woodbridge, VA, and a member of the Great Commission Committee. My husband, Steve, and I have been at All Saints’ since the early 1990’s. We have one daughter who lives in Charlottesville with her husband and our two active grandsons. I have been a lay ministry leader for more than 25 years. During that time, I have served as a member of the church staff, as a spiritual director and most recently as the Resource Director at The Titus Institute for Church Planting.
When I started with The Titus Institute several years ago, one of my responsibilities as the Executive Assistant for our Canon, Tom Herrick, was to provide administrative support for the GCC. This allowed me to sit with the committee at their meetings and to provide various kinds of support at events sponsored by the GCC. It was during this season that I learned about the vital work the committee seeks to encourage and support. Last year, when I transitioned to the position as Resource Director for Titus, and the Rev. Tim Howe became Tom’s Executive Assistant, he took over the administrative support and I was invited to join the committee as a voting member. It is my passion to see people formed spiritually that has shaped my ministry and my role on the GCC. As a lay member with a background in discipleship, evangelism and spiritual formation, I provide a slightly different perspective on the mission we seek to carry out.
As a diocesan committee, one of our canonical responsibilities is to help plant new churches. These fledgling churches and those who plant them need various kinds of support. Some of that support is practical and tangible but, often, the most important support we can supply are things like coaching or training—things that strengthen the planter so that they can lead and grow a new church. The project I am working on at The Titus Institute, in partnership with Passion for Planting, is a computer application designed especially for Anglican church planters. It will bring together multiple church planting resources in one easy to access place for our planters. The idea is to break the process of planting a new Anglican church down into smaller steps that can completed by the planter or delegated to the planter’s team. By having the steps and the resources like teaching, web links, and team exercises all in one place, the app is designed to make it easier to keep track of the details and put vital resources right into the planter’s hand. The goal is to free the planter to do the relational and spiritual work of growing a team and a congregation. The application is due to be Beta tested later this fall and available to DOMA planters early in 2018. You can learn more about Anglican Planter Plan here: https://vimeo.com/222640015
In addition to my work at The Titus Institute, I provide spiritual direction and it is often leaders who seek me out. In the process of listening with them, God has given me a heart for the burden leaders carry in their everyday responsibilities. As a spiritual director, I often provide a safe place for them to explore their own faith journeys in the context of the pressures and challenges of ministry. And it is from this kind of listening that I glean how much our clergy and leaders sometimes need the kind of support the GCC can offer. We have some really gifted leaders in our diocese and they are doing amazing Kingdom work! As the GCC supports the work God has called them to, through equipping, coaching or training events, we fulfill the mission God and the diocese has called us to.
The last thing I would like to share is an upcoming opportunity. For the past few years, the GCC has been offering a pre-Synod workshop open to anyone in the diocese. The first year we offered a workshop on various types of evangelism. Last year the topic was multi-cultural ministry. And this year the focus will be on various types of discipleship. The workshop is offered on the Friday afternoon before Synod starts on Friday night. This year it will be on Friday, November 17, 2017. If the last two years are any indication, and you are interested in discipleship, this is an event you won’t want to miss!
Desiree Barker is a member of All Saints' Church, Woodbridge, VA. She also serves as a member of the Great Commission Committee.
