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Covenanter Plays Key Role in Faith-Based Initiative
By Craig Pinley
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (May 27, 2003) - A former minister with Evangelical Covenant
Church connections is one of the leading figures in President George W.
Bush's faith-based initiative that is assisting many church ministries with
government funding.
Brad Yarbrough of Life Church, a Covenant congregation in Edmond, Oklahoma,
has served as director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives for the State of Oklahoma since July 2000. Yarbrough has
participated in many meetings as the President shared his vision for the
faith-based initiative. The Oklahoma agency also has served as a model for
how government and churches can best serve the local community. As one of
the country's frontrunners in organizing a faith-based initiative agency,
Yarbrough has been a key voice of wisdom in assisting a number of others in
their efforts, including the states of Ohio, Florida and Utah.
"I want to affirm the value of faith-based initiatives to the community . .
. in collaborating with social agencies to help those who are facing life's
biggest problems," Yarbrough said. "The fact is the church has been at the
epicenter of meeting needs in the community since the beginning of the
church. But the government has specific needs for specific people that
might live in your backyard. The church just needs to know where and how to
help those that the government is trying to assist."
It should come as no surprise that Yarbrough sees his job as a ministry,
given his vocational background. Yarbrough served in church ministry for
eight years in Oklahoma and his ministry experience, along with a keen
business mind, has proven a successful combination in his new profession.
Winner of the Outstanding Business Student Award while attending Southern
Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma, Yarbrough was successful in
starting three businesses following college. His life took an interesting
turn in 1986, however, as he and wife, Carolyn, became associated with an
evangelistic ministry that included such luminaries as author Bob Phillips
and pastor David Wilkerson. During that period Yarbrough considered a call
to ministry and in 1988 became pastor of Grace Community Fellowship in
Oklahoma City, supplementing his income by starting a fast-change oil
company.
Yarbrough's ministry skills were apparent to many, especially during times
of crisis. Following the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building that killed 168 people in downtown Oklahoma City,
Yarbrough served as the clergy coordinator at the Family Assistance Center.
He also directed relief efforts for Oklahoma Heart to Heart International
after tornadoes ravaged the state in May 1999. He said that the crisis
response by the community in both instances convinced him that the
faith-based initiative in Oklahoma could work.
"The bombing was truly an enormous display of the state's and the nation's
outpouring of love," Yarbrough observed. "The tragedy here uncovered the
deep roots of faith this city has had since the roots of its founding. That
quality makes this fertile ground for social service programs within the
church. But sometimes, when a church has a heart to help, they need to have
help to express their heart."
Five years ago, Yarbrough was one who needed help to express his heart. He
had left the church he had served two years earlier and decided to sell his
lucrative oil service business to a competitor, leaving him with no job and
seemingly no place to minister to others.
Yarbrough described 1998 as a spiritually difficult period, saying, "I'm 45
years old with a wife and two kids (Amy and Brian) and I wondered, 'God,
did I miss something?' But on the same day that I was inking documents to
sell my business, my attorney Howard Hendricks (who was also a state
senator) got the job as the state's director of the Department of Human
Services and he said to me, 'So Brad, what are you going to do with your
life?'"
Although Yarbrough wasn't sure what his long-term prospects were, God
provided him with short-term employment through his longtime friend.
Hendricks asked Yarbrough to attend a number of national conferences on
government partnerships with faith-based groups. The conferences piqued
Yarbrough's interest in government/church partnerships and when Jerry
Regier, the state's health and human services secretary (on behalf of
Governor Frank Keating), chose Yarbrough to start Oklahoma's Faith-Based
Liaison Office, he accepted the challenge and hasn't looked back.
"Pastors at inner city churches were talking to government agencies about
social services," said Yarbrough as he recalled some of the conferences he
attended. "And these preachers were bringing messages with the same
scripture references and passion that you'd find at a revival. That's where
my interest was kindled.
"I feel like God is using me to enlarge his borders," he continued. "And I
feel great about talking to pastors who have a heart that goes outside of
the church and into the community. I love to encourage them, to affirm
them, and then to invite them to touch other lives as they collaborate with
the government."
During recent years, Yarbrough has discovered that while big churches often
have the resources to help those around them, smaller congregations often
are unable to start or continue viable ministries due to lack of resources.
Yarbrough has tried to address the needs of smaller churches wishing to do
community ministry by starting the Intermediary Organization with offices
in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, providing technical assistance to churches that
may not have the resources to handle the task alone.
Yarbrough has found other practical ways to help better the world around
him. He and Carolyn minister locally through Hannah House, which provides a
home and training at several locations for women in crisis. "Small,
grassroots community churches and medium-size churches don't have the staff
and capacities to identify and secure government money," Yarbrough said.
"This idea just puts government - which has the political mandate to help
the poor - with the church, which has the divine mandate
to help the poor."
To learn more about what Yarbrough and his department are doing in
Oklahoma, visit the State of Oklahoma Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives web site at www.faithlinks.state.ok.us.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
