D. Michael Henderson, disciple maker, told me of Areva Barnes, a Nazarene Sunday School teacher who lives in Parkside, Florida. He first heard of Areva Barnes from Angel, a dynamic young lady with a remarkable spiritual journey.
Angel and Dan are leaders in a young adult ministry in their church. They both are effective in training serious disciples. Angel’s specialty is teaching young women to pray and to follow Jesus. When asked how she became a Christian and where she was trained, she replies, “I was saved in a little Church of the Nazarene. When I was in junior high, my next-door neighbor, Mrs. Areva Barnes, invited me to church. I call her Grandma Barnes, because she’s 86 years old now. She and her husband Barney would go around the neighborhood on Saturdays, inviting kids to Sunday School. If their parents said it was OK, she and Barney would pick them up in a bus and take them to church. When the bus became too small for all the kids, they got a second bus.
“Barney collected kids from one side of Highway 427; Areva from the other side. He couldn’t figure out how she got more kids on her bus than he did on his. The secret was this: she’d go out on Saturdays with a big jar of peanut butter and a couple loaves of bread and talk to kids in the park or on the playground. He was inviting kids, too, but he did not know about the peanut butter, and she didn’t tell him.
“As soon as I was on my feet spiritually, Grandma Barnes got me involved in ministry: first just inviting kids to Bible School, then helping in classes, and eventually leading my own Sunday School class. That’s how I got my training in making disciples. I just did like Grandma Barnes did.”
If you visit the Church of the Nazarene where Areva attends, the first fellow to greet you will be Lee—an enthusiastic young man who will welcome you warmly and graciously get to know you. When asked how he came to be a greeter at the church, Lee says, “Well, there’s this lady named Mrs. Barnes—-Mrs. Areva Barnes. I needed help. I was in rough shape—-no job, living in my car, really messed up. She took me in and gave me a place to stay in a building behind her house. She talked to me about the Lord and helped me get on my feet. I’ve got a job now, and I’m getting my life sorted out—thanks to the Lord and Mrs. Barnes.”
By this time you want to meet Mrs. Barnes. You want to find out how she has influenced so many people over the years. You soon discover Areva did not have an easy life. Her husband Barney suffered from serious illnesses most of their married life. First, it was Parkinson’s disease, then kidney cancer, 12 major operations, and finally Alzheimer’s disease. For over 30 years, she worked as a nurse and came home tired every day—just like everybody else. However, every week she has found times to invest in the spiritual lives of her neighbors, helping them follow Jesus, one-step at a time.
The church in which Mrs. Barnes serves originally met in a lawnmower repair shop on Highway 17-92 in Longwood. As the fellowship grew, they purchased a piece of property and constructed a nice building. Members of the congregation, including the children, dug the footings by hand. Brick by brick, they erected a center which would serve as a base for ministering to their neighborhood.
Through the years, Areva and her husband simply did what Jesus told them to do—go…and make disciples. They had no theological training and no official position. They just helped their neighbors follow Jesus. That is what making disciples is all about--encouraging our friends to take the next step, and the next, and the next. “People just need to be loved,” she says, “and if you love them you’ll tell them about Jesus.”
Go visit the Parkside Church of the Nazarene in Longwood and sit behind Mrs. Barnes. You are most likely to find on one side of her a fellow who is struggling with drug addiction; she’s helping him get help. On the other side, there is a strong chance there will be a man recovering from a devastating divorce and family break-up. When you ask, she will explain, “What these people need is just for someone to love them and point them to Jesus. Jesus taught you’ve got to go to wherever they are, because they are surely not going to come to church. And you’ve got to feed them. That’s what I do. I invite people over for a good meal, and then we talk about Jesus. They’ve got to eat, you know!”
That is what Jesus did too—he fed the multitudes and ate with sinners. From the crowd he fed and the sinners with whom he ate, he called a few disciples. Those who followed him he sent out to announce the good news that God’s kingdom had come.
“I remember one little girl,” Mrs. Barnes will tell you, “who led me to her house to talk to her parents about coming to Sunday School. The mother was so drunk she couldn’t hold her head up, and the father was passed out on the couch. When I asked if I could pick up their daughter on Sunday for church, the mother said, ‘Whatever.’ Well, today that little girl has become a wonderful Christian.”
Visit on another Sunday in the summer. Lee, the greeter, will apologetically say, “Today is the Vacation Bible School program. I’m afraid it won’t be a normal service.” Twenty-three little ragamuffins from the neighborhood have attended Bible School all this week. Mrs. Barnes’ grandson Todd and his wife have directed the program. The members have taught the kids crafts and memory verses and scripture songs. As they stand in front, singing praises to Jesus and quoting their verses, you think about Angel as a grade school kid, singing her Bible School songs and taking her first steps as a disciple. Maybe someone should tell Lee, the greeter, “Don’t ever apologize for doing what Jesus told us to do—going out into the world and making disciples, even if they look a little ragged right now.”