Barkley is new pastor at First Baptist Church

    GRUNDY CENTER — A new face has found the pulpit at First Baptist Church in Grundy Center. Nathan Barkley formally took over the pulpit earlier this month and is working to install a family-based ministry.
    “I want a church that’s not divided, that’s not sectarian, that doesn’t have cliques and groups,” he said. “I want a family. I want a place that’s warm, where people care about each other. That we come together as a family when we come together each week.”
    The First Baptist Church position is Barkley’s first as a senior pastor after he had previously served as both a youth pastor and an associate pastor. Most recently the Marion native was serving as a Pastor of Visitation in his hometown.
    Barkley’s trek to Grundy Center, as he put it, a “comedy of accidents.” The church that had been without a pastor since Mike Nemmers stepped down last year, and Barkley was one of several individuals invited to be a guest speaker.
    “Gordon Bloxham, the chairman of their deacon board took us out to lunch and had told us that originally they weren’t looking for a full-time pastor, but actually they were,” Barkley said. “He said, “We kind of want to know, are you looking for a church?’ and I said ‘Actually I am,’ so we started having all those conversations.”
 

For more of this story, see the Feb. 27 Grundy Register.