James C. Barry, Ph.D

James C. Barry, Ph.D, 100, of Nashville, Tennessee, went to be with the Lord on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 73 years, Naomi Lancaster Barry.

Survivors include two sons, James Michael (Fredia) and David Bruce (Teresa), all of Nashville; a daughter, Nancy Barry Moss (Dr. Ronald Moss) of Winfield, Alabama; three grandchildren, Leslie Moss McNutt (Grant), Barry Moss (Deborah) and Lydia Moss McBryde (Will); and seven great-grandchildren.

Barry retired from the Baptist Sunday School Board, LifeWay Christian Resources, in 1989 as senior consultant in preaching and worship. In 1984, Barry was honored by the board with the Career Professional Employee Award for outstanding service as Senior Consultant in Pastoral Ministries. In July 1987, he received the Career of Excellence Award.

In 1970, the Board sensed a need of helping ministers to stay fresh and effective with their preaching and worship leadership. To meet this need, Barry was asked to design and implement a program of continuing education for all ministers in all 50 states. This called for special approaches to meet the needs of pastors from bi-vocational to those in mega-churches. He averaged teaching 3,000 ministers yearly covering the 50 states.

He called on effective, leading pastors to help with workshops and conferences. To support these conferences/classes he wrote or compiled numerous books, such as Preaching in Today's World, Preach the Word in Love and Power, Preaching That Impacts Lives, Ideas for Effective Worship Services and Leading Dynamic Worship. He continued to lead preaching/worship conferences for several years after retirement. Among these were trips to Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in Pineville, where he lectured for 40 years. They honored him with the James C. Barry Lectures on Preaching and Worship, which will continue, they say, "until the Lord comes again."

He was an active member of the Academy of Homiletics for many years. Since retirement, Barry has taught worship and/or preaching classes during the "J Terms" at Baptist seminaries in New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Alaska and many universities.

Prior to Barry's work with pastors, the Baptist Board asked him to design and implement a church program of weekday religious education. He was invited to leave his pastorate in Emporia, Virginia, in 1954 to assume this new position. The full design included church kindergartens, nursery schools, all-day care for working mothers and church schools, first through 12th grade. This called for the preparation of administration and educational resources for each. The need for such was strong because of the absence of kindergarten in public schools at that time. By 1970, more than 2,000 Baptist churches had kindergarten plus some of the other programs with more than 100,0000 enrolled. During this time, he designed and edited the parent magazine, "Living With Children", The Kindergarten Resource Book and Bible study textbooks for teacher and student for all grades through high school.

Barry was born on a farm near Elizabethtown, to Everett and Edith Barry, along with a total of eight children. All of the family attended a one-room country church, Mount Zion Baptist Church, eight miles from their home. During the August revival in 1931, he confessed Christ as his Savior and in another August revival in 1940, he responded to the call to preach. Three weeks later, he was enrolled in Western College in Bowling Green, where he received a bachelor of arts degree and invited Naomi Lancaster from Versailles to become his wife.

In 1944, they entered Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, where they spent seven years as James received three degrees, BD, Th.M and Ph.D. During the last three years, James served as Teaching Fellow in Church History. Naomi gave birth to two boys during this time. Pastoral leadership skills were developed during this period while serving as pastor of Garfield Baptist Church in Garfield, on the first, third and fifth Sundays and Corn Creek Baptist near Bedford on the second and fourth. During this time, he served on the executive committee of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

In 1951, Barry accepted the call as pastor from the Main Street Baptist Church in Emporia, Virginia. During the 3+ years he was there, Sunday school attendance doubled, money was raised for a new church building, six youth felt called into the ministry and daughter, Nancy Lynne, was born. This church had a different view of ministry from that in Kentucky and helped to equip the pastor to understand and serve churches in all 50 states.

Since coming to Nashville in 1954, Barry had served as interim pastor of 46 congregations, ranging in attendance from 7 to 2000, including one in Scotland and another in the Bahamas. Naomi Lancaster Barry shared richly in all.

A private family entombment will be held in the Woodlawn Cross Mausoleum. A memorial service will be held at a future date to be determined.

Donations can be made to The James Barry Lecture Series at Clear Creek Baptist Bible College, 300 Clear Creek Rd, Pineville, KY 40977.