Narrative Summary
Interview with Barby Pohl byKyla Odle
I had the opportunity to interview Barby Pohl from The Venues on November 11th, 2016. Growing up, Barby’s family rarely attended church, so Barby did not have much of a church background. Therefore, it came as a surprise to hear that Barby is extremely active in the church she currently works for now, The Venues, but also worked in a different church prior to that. One of the main reasons I choose to interview Barby was for that reason, I knew that she would have a fascinating testimony about how church came to be such a prevalent part of her everyday life.
Barby is the executive director at The Venues, which some might find surprising because she is a woman. For a woman to have that much authority in the church is significant, given some of the attitudes our culture tends to still hold about women leadership roles in the church. One interesting aspect that Barby pointed out is how different The Venues is compared with other churches around the Ozarks. She mentions that their auditorium is not called a sanctuary and it’s not “The Venues Church”, but just “The Venues”. The reasoning, as Barby points out, is that anyone and everyone can feel more welcome. Whether someone is a believer, someone who has never stepped foot into a church, or someone who may not even be a Christian, they are all welcome and will be invited in to be a part of the Venues’s community.
When asked about any push back from anyone in the church, because she is a woman, Barby very affirmingly emphasized that since she started working at The Venues, she had never felt any inequality. Even though many churches have women in leadership roles, it seems, more often than not, that many women have some kind of experience about being treated unfairly or differently because they are a woman. Not Barby though! She even goes on to explain that even if she did, she sees it as something that she simply cannot control and she would simply attempt to find a different path in the situation.
Another very interesting part of the interview was when Barby discussed how The Venues came to be. Barby explains the church’s first two meetings times, the first in Rick’s automotive garage. The second was at the Gillioz Theater, in which they had nine-hundred people show up! That is a remarkable amount of people! Barby explains that at this point, The Venues had a lot of catching up to do, considering it was only her and Phillip, the head pastor. It took some time, but eventually the found a building on East Battlefield Road. Regardless of the amount of people and all the work that had to be done to keep The Venues on its feet, Barby explains how after she made the leap from the first church she worked in to The Venues, she felt an overwhelming amount of comfort.
Barby tells about the advice she might give to a younger person whom is trying to figure out what religion means in their life. I found her advice to quite important. Barby begins by explaining that we [humans] are journey people, not destination people. Throughout one’s life, their opinions, viewpoints, and mindsets on various aspects is likely to change, and that is okay. When giving advice to a younger person seeking to work in a church setting, Barby explains that the most important aspect of the church is the people within it. Everything else will end up working out, but one should put major focus on helping the people who are in need.
One of the last conversations Barby and I had during the interview was the one thing that she found to be most significant while growing as a follower of Jesus. Barby explained that the things she has learned and continues to learn about the Bible and how it does not necessarily need to be thought as inerrant. Barby discusses how over the years she has been able to become an independent thinker and has discovered more about the Bible by asking questions to people with varying experiences and broadening her perspective on Biblical inerrancy.
Missouri State UniversityFall 2016Religious Lives of Ozarks Women