Church Planting in Bucks County

March 29, 2015

Rev. Barry Noll (M.Div. '01) serves as a church planter for the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and Liberti Network in Warrington, PA.

Barry's first taste of ministry came after his conversion, during his junior year in high school. He volunteered to teach Sunday School, served on mission trips, and led young men’s discipleship groups under his pastor, Angelo Juliani, at New Life Church. While he was working on his undergraduate degree in elementary education at Temple University, New Life hired Barry part-time to serve as Director of Junior High Ministry to oversee the discipleship of junior-high students and their families. Less than a year after marrying his wife, Melanie, Barry enrolled as a part-time student in the pastoral ministry track of Westminster's M.Div. degree program, in fall 1996.

Upon completion of his M.Div., Barry, his wife, and 18-month-old daughter Samantha moved to the Midwest where he served as an assistant and associate pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, OK. In April 2013, Mission to North America (MNA) recommended Barry and Melanie to plant a church in Warrington, PA. After 13 years of ministry in Tulsa, Barry, Melanie, and their five children moved to Warrington to start Liberti Church Bucks County in August 2014.

Barry is excited about starting a church near his hometown in the suburbs of Philadelphia. In particular, Warrington and Warminster Townships are intriguing mission fields, predominately white but with dense pockets of socio-economic and racial diversity. Families who earn over $92,000 live near those that live on $35,000 per year. Dense pockets of Guatemalan, Russian, Indian and Hispanic immigrants live among the African American and white population.

Spiritually, 35% of people in this region do not yet believe in Christ as their savior. However, this region is still very open to the gospel and spiritual renewal, owing much of this spiritual heritage to Presbyterian minister, William Tennent, his Log College, and the 18^th century Great Awakening. Central Bucks County is ripe for another gospel-centered church that shares the good news of Jesus in word and deed.

Barry feels completely inadequate to plant a church and reach this community in his own strength but is grateful for the lifting up of Christ and equipping for ministry that he received at Westminster. He learned to preach Christ from all the Scriptures from professors like Al Groves, Doug Green, Mike Kelly, Vern Poythress, Dan McCartney, Richard Gaffin, Sinclair Ferguson, Clair Davis, Bill Edgar, and Tim Witmer. He learned to apply the gospel to his own life, marriage, and ministry through M.Div. courses from the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF). Barry is especially grateful for learning contextualization from Harvie Conn in preparation for church planting.

Liberti Bucks County is the seventh church plant in a network that began in 2002 with the first Liberti Church plant in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia by two Westminster graduates, Steve Huber (M.Div. '97) and Geoff Bradford (M.Div. '00). Liberti Bucks County seeks to live, speak, and serve as the very presence of Jesus in Warrington, Warminster, and surrounding townships, so that, together with those in those townships, we might enjoy and share in the freedom of Christ's gospel.   

Would you ask God for his continued equipping of Rev. Noll and blessing on the ministry to the people of Bucks County, PA?