New pastor at Trinity UMC is there to transform the church

By Mary Pieper, Special to the Charles City Press

Before he became a minister, the Rev. Tom Barnard was in the business world where he specialized in turning companies around.

Barnard, a Transitional Intentional Ministry Specialist (TIMS) with the United Methodist Church, now does something similar for churches.

He became the pastor at Trinity UMC in Charles City two months ago and is already seeing results.

When he first arrived, the church averaged around 80 worshipers on Sundays. That number has grown to 100 to 120.

The goal is to increase the number of people in the pews to 250 or 300 people, according to Barnard.

He anticipates that in three to four years he will move on and another pastor will come in to lead the transformed church.

“Most denominational churches are not thriving,” Barnard said. “They are diminishing, they are closing, especially the medium to large-sized churches.”

Most people leave a church or don’t attend in the first place because it doesn’t meet their needs, according to Barnard.

“Church in 2022 is not like church in 1952 or 1972,” he said. “Everything has changed and churches change.”

One of the changes he wants to make at Trinity UMC is add a contemporary worship service “that speaks to all ages.”

He also wants to form two praise bands and eventually start a Spanish-language service.

These kinds of innovations need to be done “with compassion and love” because change can be frightening for many people who are already part of a congregation, according to Barnard.

However, once they begin to see positive change and growth at their church, they get behind it, he said, noting the congregation at Trinity UMC has been very supportive.

One change that people really love is Zeke, a beagle Barnard has raised from puppyhood. Barnard trained him not to jump on people so the friendly dog could accompany him to work wherever he has been appointed as a pastor for the past six years.

“When he hears someone come into the office, he’ll come out and greet them with his tail going just like that,” Barnard said as Zeke wagged his tail.

Barnard, who is originally from Wisconsin, studied music at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. After graduation, he found a job as a middle school orchestra director.

However, after a year he decided he wanted to do something different with his life. He went back to college to become a stockbroker.

After working as a stockbroker and financial planner for five years, he started his own company. At age 39 he took over as manager of a large company and then took over some other companies that were in trouble financially.

When he was 48 and living in Raleigh, North Carolina, he drastically changed the course of his life again.

“The Lord didn’t give me a choice,” he said.

Barnard was praying in the middle of the night and asked, “Lord, give me a sign.”

He said he then heard a voice saying, “Tom,” and realized it was God speaking to him.

“I was in seminary three weeks later,” Barnard said.

After graduating from seminary, he served as pastor at churches all over the country.

He retired on June 30, 2019, because of the mandatory retirement age for pastors in the United Methodist Church. However, pastors are allowed to come back and work as retirees, so that’s what Barnard did the very next day.

Barnard had received his special training to become a TIMS before he retired and had served several churches in that capacity. He went wherever his area bishop appointed him.

Retired pastors can serve as a TIMS at any church in the world that needs their services. Barnard decided to take advantage of that because he had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and wanted to go somewhere close within a 200-mile radius of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The first church he served following his retirement was Trinity UMC in Waverly. Barnard said that church was thriving after three years, but he was still undergoing cancer treatment at Mayo. Fortunately, he had the opportunity to come to Charles City.

“I am delighted,” he said. “I love the community. I’m a Midwestern boy, and I am just enjoying it here.”

When he came to Iowa, Barnard had to leave his wife, Branch, behind in their condo in Virginia because she has disabilities that prevented her from coming with him.

“That’s a sadness in my soul,” he said.

However, he talks to her for two or three hours a day and takes comfort in the fact that they are together spiritually even though they can’t be together physically.

Barnard said he hasn’t missed a day of work despite his cancer treatments.

“The Lord gives you energy to get done what needs to be done,” he said.