The new vicar wants to be a sheepdog!
Hi, my name is Mike, I am soon to be the vicar in the new Benefice of Cinderford with Littledean, and I want to be a sheepdog. I will explain the sheepdog thing later, but firstly I want to introduce myself. I was born in Birmingham but moved to Staffordshire when I was seven. I grew up with my Mum and Dad and elder brother, between Lichfield and Rugeley, on the edge of Cannock Chase. I went to school and church in Rugeley. Church was something we did as a family and I never thought much about it until I was about twelve when I went to Capernwray, a Christian Holiday Centre just South of the Lake District. I had signed up for the week thinking it would be a great holiday away with my friends, which it was. Once I got there I was surprised to discover we had to go to meetings each morning and evening where we were passages from the Bible and heard about their meaning. At each meeting people talked about the difference that Jesus had made in their lives. This was the first time that I had encountered the idea of a personal faith and a relationship with Jesus. It changed my life. I made a commitment to live my life for Jesus, and although I made a pretty lousy job of this as a teenager, I am gradually figuring out what this means. As an adult my faith has always been the most important thing in my life and has influenced everything I have done.
After school, I studied Sociology and Economics at Liverpool University and then spent a year working for Rowntree Mackintosh in York and going to church at St. Michael le Belfry (where David Watson was the Rector and Graham Cray was the Vicar). I then moved back to Merseyside and started working in IT for Girobank (which is now part of Santander). I got married at this time and we had three children, Rachel, Sarah and Joe. After ten years on Merseyside, we moved to Eyam, Derbyshire and I worked for Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) in Sheffield. Four years later I joined an American software company whose Cash Machine and Card Authorization systems I had been using as a customer at both Girobank and Midland Bank. This involved working in the States, based in Omaha, Nebraska, for five years. During this time we visited all fifty States and I became something of a Harley-Davidson enthusiast. We then moved back to our house in Eyam and I worked, for the same company, as a performance consultant visiting customers all around the world.
I left this job to start training for the ministry at St. John’s College, Nottingham. Since finishing at St John’s, I have served as curate at St Lawrence’s, Biddulph. St Lawrence’s is a lively and busy Church, having four services of different styles each week, many mid-week groups, and around 15 weddings, 12 baptisms and 75 funerals each year. I was responsible for a reasonable proportion of these in 2010, covering sabbaticals for my incumbent vicar and the vicar of our neighbouring parish.
About the sheepdog thing … When I was preparing for college, I read several books about ordained ministry. Ministers are often referred to as ‘shepherds’, but two of the books I looked at quote Sue Walrond-Skinner, who explores a comparison between a minister and a sheepdog. She states ‘The sheepdog possesses two all-consuming attractions: the sheep and her master. Her eye stays focused always on the sheep; her ear listens ceaselessly to the shepherds call. …The sheep are always the focus, the dog is merely an instrument which exists for their welfare and a tool that is usable by the shepherd in his own care of them.’ My desire is to be available to Jesus, the shepherd, and to help him in his care of people in Cinderford and Littledean.
Please say hello when you see me – I am quite harmless, really friendly and want to get to know you all. See you in March.
Mike Barnsley