Rev. Dr. Laurence J. Barber

Director of Missional Initiatives 

Background
Married to Jane, and with three children and two grandchildren, Laurie has served as a pastor in Uxbridge, Ontario, Calgary, Alberta and Kingsway Baptist, Toronto. He has served the Baptist Union of Western Canada, as Area Minister for Manitoba and Saskatchewan. For the past six years, Laurie has been CBOQ’s Area Minister for the Toronto Area Association of Baptist Churches (now Toronto Baptist Ministries).

'Missional’
Mission with Christ is Laurie's passion. He believes that the good things we have learned (and sometimes had to unlearn) and put into practice in mission ‘overseas’ now needs to be implemented in the many contexts and new opportunities of our churches ‘at home’ - as points of Holy Spirited light throughout Ontario and Quebec. We must be ‘missional’ in all we do - seeking to contextualize our lives and gospel witness, and living both wholly and authentically, as individuals, local churches and clusters of churches – conveying the gospel to 'our worlds' in ways both ancient and new.

Church Planting
Laurie’s role includes giving leadership in Church Planting, helping to create an awareness of what we can do together in starting new churches, encouraging an atmosphere of readiness and response to opportunities, and facilitating helpful facilitation strategies.

Partnerships
Laurie seeks to develop and strengthen partner church clusters and help CBOQ link with other mission agencies and denominations with whom we share Kingdom values and ministry. While serving as Area Minister with the Toronto Area Association, Laurie was able to help establish formal partnerships with four Virginia Baptist Associations and, informally, with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Because of these partnerships, hundreds of US Baptists have come to work in mission contexts of CBOQ churches in the Greater Toronto Area.

Experience
Laurie has had first-hand ‘immersion’ in various cultures, at home and overseas including various CBM Short Term Mission experiences in Kenya, Turkey, Lebanon and Great Britain. He encourages CBOQ churches to be as welcoming as possible to the hundreds of nations, cultures and those peoples of various language-groups now living among us.

Church Renewal Through Mission
Laurie seeks to help in the development and enabling of strategies for local church 'turn-around' and renewal, through mission - in both small, rural and multi-sized urban churches, throughout our Areas and Associations. He seeks to resource northern churches, and those of our family of churches that are more remote, as well as our rural churches, in the unique mission challenges and opportunities that they face. He is also working with our churches in Quebec in the mission opportunities before them.

Pray !
An impossible task - and Laurie requests our prayer and support as he endeavours to build a team of gifted and resource-full people, who will help to encourage and lead us all into a further awareness and response to "mission at our doorstep."

Laurie Barber can be reached at 416-620-2958
ljbarber @ baptist.ca • skype: cboq.laurie.barber