Pastor Barry Norris
By his own admission, Pastor Barry is not your average pastor. Ministry is a second career but a first love. Growing up passionate about sports and science, Barry had a desire to play shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals but that didn’t pan out so well. Science was more of a success however through the pursuit of engineering degrees at the University of Illinois and Lehigh University in Allentown, PA. His love of solving problems and persistent studies has led to a full time career at Fermilab in Batavia, IL since 1984. In 1998, life changed radically. God sent him and his lovely wife Blanche and daughter Shannon to China where Barry experienced a summer to remember. The young people of China with nothing on their back but a tee-shirt won his heart and it was off to the ministry. Barry returned to the USA a changed man and spent the next 3 years praying, studying, and searching for God’s lead. In 2003 the Norris family adopted lovely Jacqueline from Hunan Province China and in 2006 they were blessed again with Jordan (Harbin, China). To Pastor Barry, people are valued. People are the highest value after God and so he lives his life to meet people along their journey and help them. While Barry was pursuing the highest levels of achievement in the engineering world, he lost his way and became controlled by the need to achieve. Jesus has changed all that and called Barry to a life of bi-vocational ministry: that is a life as an engineer AND a pastor. Pastor Barry believes God wants to meet you where you are, just as He met Barry some years ago. Pastor hopes to meet you in your walk too. He would love to sit down and talk life over a cup of coffee. (And by the way, don’t be surprised if a sports topic arises in your conversation).
