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Biographical Sketch of Rev. Barney Kinard

Barney was born in New London, CN in 1943. His father was a career Naval Officer and veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Barney is the oldest of five children and spent a good deal of his childhood and youth moving around the country following his father’s career. One of these moves changed his life.

Barney’s conversion story occurred when he was a boy of nine in a neighbor’s home in Encinitas, CA. Mrs. Kay Fulton was a new adult Christian and the Lord led her to open her home to the neighborhood children by hosting and teaching a Good News Club, sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship. Barney responded at the age of nine (1952) to the invitation following the story called Barney’s Barrel. Kay introduced Barney to the Savior, a Bible, a Church and a Sunday school teacher. He continued to attend the Good News Club for five years and then moved. It was during this time that Barney read The Boy from Northfield, a book on the life of D. L. Moody. That was the first time Barney wanted to be an evangelist like D. L. Moody. By his senior year in High School, Barney experienced a definite call from God to “preach the Word.” This was the time he knew he was called to evangelism and Billy Graham became his new hero. God was leading him to prepare for a career in ministry.

So from these simple beginnings, he first attended and graduated with a diploma from Moody Bible Institute in the Pastor’s Course, in 1964. Then he continued his studies at Biola College (now University). Further, he received his B.A. in Biblical Literature and Theology from Azusa Pacific College (now University) in 1966. That summer he married Sharon Russell. Then he continued his studies with graduate work at Talbot Theological Seminary. While speaking at Forest Home Conference Center to two children’s camps, the Lord specifically called Barney into children’s evangelism. With this new calling came the need for more study, so he attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where he received his M.A. in Youth Ministries, with a research emphasis in Children’s Evangelism in 1972.

Rev. Kinard now brings a wealth of background of 50 years in ministry, including ten years of pastoral staff experiences in five churches working with children, youth, and families. Barney was ordained with the American Baptist Denomination in 1972. He served in two American Baptist Churches and two Baptist General Conference Churches. He also served a Congregational Church in Pacific Grove, CA. Currently, Barney is a member of Whittier Area Community Church in Whittier, CA.

Barney has maintained an interdenominational ministry for forty years as an Itinerant Evangelist with CCM. Barney is widely recognized as an “Incorporation Evangelist,” with the distinct ability to reach new children and parents for Christ and the Church through his outreach crusades and rallies.

Throughout the United States, Rev. Kinard has become known for his unique visual methods that creatively illustrate the Bible for children of all ages. Barney is a popular Puppeteer, Ventriloquist, Gospel Magician, and a Master of Object Lessons. Although Barney favors the use of performing arts in his ministry, he also adds effective visuals, both projected and non-projected, in his theme programs that successfully reach and teach children (i.e. overheads, slides, large black-light felts). Barney has written, designed and produced three staged puppet productions.

In addition to evangelism of children, Barney has extensive experience training lay and professional children’s ministers in workshops, seminars and classes. He has maintained an active schedule during the last forty years with numerous Sunday School Conventions and frequently conducts regional workshops. He has been actively involved with the National Children’s Pastors’ Conventions for fifteen years. His ministry has sponsored the unique training conference called Music, Magic & Storytelling, which showcases the creative aspects of CCM.

For ten years Barney served on the Board of the Greater Los Angeles Sunday School Convention, now called Christian Ministries Training Association (CMTA). He also served twelve years on the National Board of Children’s Christian Ministries Associates (CCMA) as the Vice President of Networking. In his travels he has been instrumental in starting several regional networks, which encourages Children’s Pastor’s to gather for monthly fellowship. He has been actively involved with the Fellowship of Christian Magicians for over forty years and helped start the former Orange County Chapter. Currently, Barney currently serves in the leadership of the Los Angeles Chapter of FCM. Barney has developed a unique Magic Course called the Trick Brain.

Helping churches to release their untapped growth potential is an important aspect of the CCM ministry. For the last twenty-five years Rev. Kinard has been doing Church-growth consulting with training received from the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth. He has maintained an active, but selective involvement in consulting with churches. He has also developed programs to prepare churches to incorporate those who respond to his Family Crusades and evangelistic work with children. Several churches have retained Barney’s services to sharpen the focus of their ministry to children and young families.

Children’s Christian Ministries Association presented Barney the Mover and Shaker Award for challenging others to a deeper commitment in children’s ministries in l988. In January of 1992, the International Network of Children’s Ministries presented Barney their National Award of Excellence in Children’s Ministry at their Denver Children’s Pastors’ Conference. Barney served on the National Board of Directors of Children’s Ministries of America for the five years. They launched a national evangelical awareness campaign, called “Celebrate the Child,” which called Christian leadership to make evangelism and discipleship ministries with children a priority in 1998-2000.

In 1999 Barney accepted an invitation to be a part-time Children’s Crusade Director/ Evangelist for the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association. This exciting new partnership began in Nov. 1998 with preparations for Palau’s “Mission Maine,” an all-state campaign held during April of 1999. Barney successfully conducted six citywide-children’s crusades called Kid’s Celebrations held concurrently with Palau’s adult crusades.

As an experienced Children’s Evangelist, Barney was asked by Mission America to moderate a new children’s ministry coalition composed of national children’s ministries. They had a national vision to pray for and share the Gospel of Christ with every child in America by the year-end 2,000. The program included a Lighthouse Back Packet that contained evangelistic materials for any child to receive the Lord as their Savior.

For the last thirteen years Barney has conducted Kid-Missions overseas. The first Kid Mission was for children in the Republic of Vanuatu, an island nation between Fiji and Australia in 2002. The Next two Kid-Mission trips occurred in 2003 and 2004 to Estonia, a nation in Northern Europe, formerly ruled by Russia for 50 years. He conducted children ministry and leadership training in some select churches from the Union of Baptist and Evangelical Churches there. The next Kid Mission was in late spring of 2005 to Pakistan. What an experience it was working with missionaries and missionary children from The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). Barney has continued to go on Kid Mission trips for the last five years that has included five trips to Mexico a year. In addition, he gone  with the Bread of Life Church in Torrance with teams to Oaxaca, Mexico, Panama (three times) Just this year (2010) Barney returned to India two more times under the auspices of Whittier Area Community Church. Two more trips to India since then.

In the last ten years, Barney has maintained a serious monthly-writing schedule to develop a new curriculum to mentor and educate children’s ministry professionals. This Writing Project led to a face-to-face mentoring program with fifteen students. It is now part of a long-distance learning model  to train leaders in children’s ministry called Kidology Personal Coaching, that is found on the Internet: www.Kidology.org. Over forty leaders from U.S. and Canada have been involved in this online-training program.

Rev. Kinard, and his wife Sharon reside in La Mirada, CA. Together they have raised four grown children: Karina (husband Mike), Ken (wife Jennifer), Kevin (wife Sarah) and Kristen (husband Bryan). They currently have eight grand children.

Permission is hereby granted to use selected portions of the above biographical sketch for promotion and publicity purposes only. It is not recommended that this be printed and used in its entirety.

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