Barbara Francis stepped away from 34 years in faith-based media this summer by relinquishing production of “Transitions” and “Ministry Jobs and More” for Baptist News Global.
Starting in 1990, she rose from typesetter to business manager for the Religious Herald until the 185-year-old Virginia Baptist newspaper’s 2013 merger with BNG predecessor Associated Baptist Press. She retired as the merged organization’s business manager and advertising director in 2020 but continued to curate the work-intensive listings of ministry-related jobs and staff changes, ordinations and deaths in Baptist churches and seminaries.
Barbara Francis
“I asked Mark Wingfield before I retired if he was interested in me continuing ‘Transitions’ and ‘Ministry Jobs’ and he said yes,” said Francis, a resident of Ashland, Va. “ABP didn’t have classifieds before I came, so I brought those over from the Herald in the merger.”
For the past four years, Francis devoted up to 30 hours a week scanning church Facebook pages, websites and newsletters to compile the listings. “I had done it for 30-something years, and I was just in the habit of doing it,” she said.
Francis demonstrated the same level of commitment to all her work, said David Wilkinson, former executive editor and publisher at BNG.
“Without Barbara’s flexibility, resourcefulness, patience and commitment, the merger would have been far more difficult to achieve,” he said. “Although she worked primarily behind the scenes in administrative and financial roles, her steady and dependable hand was evident to her colleagues and the board of directors.”
The decision to move on from “Transitions” and “Ministry Jobs” was prompted by declining eyesight rather than dwindling interest or time, Francis explained. “I have macular degeneration, so I have to blow things up on the computer to see. It’s become a real challenge and I wanted to get out of if while I could see good enough to do them.”
But Francis said she has no plans to retire from the many roles she performs at Biltmore Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Va., where she has attended and served all her life. “I am still treasurer, and my eyesight may lead to stepping back from that, although I hope to do as much as I can.”
Ken Wright
That was good news to Ken Wright, the bivocational pastor at Biltmore: “She is my treasurer. She is my chairman of deacons — her first time trying that. She’s also my missions chair, and under Barbara’s leadership we have done a great job of making this a missional church.”
Francis launched the congregation’s food pantry and clothes closet ministries which draw refugees and others in need from across the region, and she organizes monthly community dinners open to the homeless and anyone who wants to attend.
“She is one of our trustees, she heads up book-bag supplies and clothes for kids and, with her years of journalistic experience, she is my Facebook whip — she uses Facebook in powerful ways to connect with our community,” the pastor said.
Her fingerprints are all over the ministries and fellowship of the congregation, Wright added. “If something happened to her, I would need five people easily to do what she is doing. She is an amazing testimony to women in ministry.”
Francis said she serves the church — and drives nearly 10 miles from home to get there — because it’s where she was raised and because it’s a calling.
“There are other churches much closer to me, but you go to the church where your heart is rather than the one that’s nearest to you, and I would have to say my heart is at that church,” she said. “And not being married and having no children, I do believe God put me there because he knew I would have the time and the talents to do what was necessary.”
“She’s one of the most popular writers at BNG yet most readers wouldn’t know her if they walked into her church.”
Plus, her many duties at Biltmore are spiritually fulfilling, she said. “Even in retirement I didn’t feel like I retired at all because I just picked up being able to do more during the daytime than I could when I was working.”
And it also felt like a calling to work with the Herald and BNG and to see the evolution in the positions posted in “Transitions” and “Ministry Jobs” over the years, Francis added. “When I first started, we only saw ads for pastors, music directors and ministers of children. None of the transitions were for women pastors. But now we see transitions with a whole lot of women pastors. It has been a rewarding experience.”
BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield added his praise for Francis by noting — much like her pastor — he cannot imagine how the news service can find someone to do all she has done.
“Barbara’s work is among the most-read content on our site,” he said. “She’s one of the most popular writers at BNG yet most readers wouldn’t know her if they walked into her church. That’s the way she has wanted it. But her absence will not be invisible.”
Consider this article a double entry, he said: one a transition announcement for Francis and the other a help wanted ad for BNG.