When Don arrived to take up a leadership position at his new church, the Holy Spirit gave him a dream. He saw a group of men dressed in white hazmat suits. They were cleaning out piles of horrible muck from a culvert and moving it to the roadside nearby. Don woke up thinking how horrid it was that the muck was being exposed to all those driving by. Two days later, the nature and depth of the “muck” became clear as one by one, six different women came to Don to confess an affair with the former senior pastor.
This episode of the God Conversations podcast is a heavy but important one. Our guest is a pastor from New Zealand who has decades of experience in ministry but has also been privy to some God conversations he’d rather not have. Along with his wife Karen, he led Gateway Church in Hamilton, New Zealand for 20 years. During this season, they watched God restore a church that had been torn apart by the sexual failure of its senior leadership to become a thriving congregation of over 1200 people.
Don Barry is a gifted teacher whose ministry has been appreciated throughout New Zealand and many other nations. You’ll learn so much from his wisdom born of experience walking with the Spirit.
On the show you’ll hear about:
“I knew it was the Lord and we needed to know it was the Lord because a couple of voices from our executive said to me that this is the devil’s attempt to destroy a good man’s ministry. You should keep this covered…”
Covering up is the worst thing we can do. There are rotten apples in any barrel. The test is what leadership do with them. The answer is not to put the lid on and hope they go away. People felt safe confessing it to you. Perhaps there was safety and integrity in your heart.
Uncovering sin is painful. There’s no such thing as “Dr Painless the dentist.” We must confront the ugliness of of our lives. It’s not to condemn but to deliver, but it does require the drill!
God has incredible love for his church. If we don’t discipline our children, we hate them. Truth-telling is an act of love – not a thing to be feared, but to be welcomed.
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Bio
Don Barry has been involved in church leadership for five decades. For the last 30 years he has been a senior leader of Gateway Church in Hamilton, New Zealand. During this season he has watched as God has restored a church, broken and bruised by the sexual failure of leadership, into a thriving congregation. Don is a gifted teacher whose ministry has been appreciated throughout New Zealand and in many other nations. Don’s wife of 50 years Karen, sadly passed away earlier last year. Don’s book, Water Under the Bridge is available here.