(With Denver Blue and Gregory Smith - Revival, First Baptist Bronte TX. - November 2006)

   Earlier this year, I attended a conference in Dallas led by popular author and professor Dallas Willard.  I was deeply struck when he made the following comment: "What we really need in our churches is not more money & not more people.  What we really need in our churches is more people that are Christ-like.  That will be enough to set the whole bundle on fire."

   Dr. Willard hit the nail on the head.  We don't really need more of anything in our households of faith except to start living up to the example set before us by Jesus.  We need that more than 40 days of purpose.  What good is purpose if our aim is not grace.  We need that more than the prayer of Jabez.  What good is that mantra if all it does is feed our selfishness.  We need that more than experiencing God.  What good is such a heavenly experience if we don't share some of it with those caught up in the hell that surrounds us.  Our children don't need to have the Bible taught to them in school as much as they need to see the Bible lived in us in all we say and do.

   Two-thousand years ago, Jesus sat down on a hillside and preached the greatest sermon ever heard.  We know it as "the Sermon on the Mount."  It is found in Matthew 5-7.  It is such volatile stuff that believers are still stumbling all over it.  It is as controversial as Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.  Jesus dared to issue such commands as "love your enemies" and "do not judge."  He dared to place conditions on God's forgiveness by stating we would receive (from our Heavenly Father) as good as we give (to our fellow man.).

   Jesus meant just what He said.  His admonitions are not open for debate.  And to prove He meant it, on another day He climbed another mount and died just what He lived!  Right before His death, He gave us a new command - "Love one another."  And then he added, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)  Strange.  He didn't say they would know by the doctrine we fastidiously keep.  Nor did He say they would know by our piety.  He said they would know by our love.  That is what those outside the church are desperately seeking.  And unfortunately, when they examine our fellowships, they are finding little to draw them in.  But if they ever saw in us what Christ intended them to, look out!  Such a church will go up in holy smoke, and our Father will be pleased by the aroma.

(Robert, Worship Leader Jeff Gore, and Pastor Doug Johnson - Revival at First Baptist Church, Pipe Creek, Texas - May 2001)

Do you really go wherever?  Since October 2004, Wherever Ministries has responded to almost every call and opportunity that has come into our office.  Only once have we turned down a revival - and only then because we felt the church's adamant revival theme could best be met by another ministry.  Beginning in 2010, we will prayerfully consider every call to speak.  However, because more calls are coming in; because we are beginning to prayerfully initiate evangelistic events on our own; because we are seeking to redeem the time; because we are seeking to balance home and ministry, every request can no longer be honored.  Please don't let that fact inhibit you from calling.  Your church or setting may be the very place God's Spirit wants us to be.

Do you require a certain fee to come to our church?  Beginning in 2010, we are making some changes in this area.  We will either come for a love offering plus expenses or for a set amount to be determined ahead of time.  There are several reasons for this change. 

     First, we are attempting to launch a major evangelistic campaign called 'the Jesus test."  We feel God's Spirit has placed this emphasis and strategy upon our hearts.  We are attempting to respond to this tremendous undertaking with undaunted faith and we unashamedly ask churches and individuals to join us in this bold endeavor.

     Second, only about 30% of the churches where I preach graciously cover expenses (travel, meals,  etc.)  We have not asked for any church to do so in five years.  Consequently, we have joyously preached a few free revivals.  And we will continue to do so as God leads.  We don't want our far west location to be an inhibiting factor to any church who feels led of the Holy Spirit to ask us to come.  This is the reason we have stated we will come on an either/or basis - either a love offering plus expenses or a predetermined fee.  The predetermined fee will be based upon each individual church.  We average about 24 revivals/events a year.  Therefore, the predetermined fee will be based upon how much a church pays their pastor (total package) for each week.  For example, if a pastor makes $750 a week (salary, housing, insurance, etc.), we will ask the church to double that weekly amount and the fee to preach a revival in that church will be $1500 for the week.  In this way, I will also be able to provide salary, housing, insurance, etc. for my family as well.  And again - the fee will be different for every church.  Or the church can opt for a love offering and expenses.

Which version of the Bible do you use when you preach?  I preach from the NIV (New International Version).  I use a variety of translations in conveying the meaning of the text  For example, I often quote from the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version, the Cotton Patch Gospel, and The Message.  A few years ago, I was asked to preach one revival using the King James as my main text and I gladly complied.

Do you have a certain worship leader that you recommend?  I have been blessed to work with many gifted worship leaders from a diversity of musical styles and backgrounds.  If asked, there are certain worship leaders that I would recommend because we complement each other's ministry nicely.  (See Favorite Worship Leaders column on the right.)  However, I would make sure that they would be a good match for your church.  I am open to working with whoever God leads you to invite.

Do you preach the same messages everywhere?  Yes and no.  Yes, there are certain messages that God has given me through the years that He leads me to preach more regularly than others.  No, I do not come to your church with only 5 or 6 gospel bullets in my gun to preach at your church.  God continues to give me new sermons regularly.   I treat each revival differently.  I will bring 70-80 messages with me and preach the ones He leads me to preach.

Do you prefer to stay in homes or at a hotel?  Again, I am easy.  I have stayed in both.  Whatever is best for the church, I will do.  If I do stay in a home, I always want the host family to know that, early in the week, I often require a lot of time in study.  Since I do not predetermine the messages ahead of time, I often spend time prayerfully discerning which sermons God wants me to preach once I have arrived in your town.

What do you normally like to do during the course of a revival?  As shared above, I have found a consistent daily time of meditation and study a must.  Also, because revivals are often accompanied by the continuous eating of good food, I will spend some time in exercise.  I will either find a place to walk around your community or spend time in the fitness room at the hotel.  Other than that, I am wide open to whatever the pastor needs to do during the day.  I have done a little bit of everything during revival meetings.  I have visited people and invited them to revival services.  I have witnessed.  I have visited in the hospital.  I have visited places of historical significance.  (At one revival, I spent most of the day at Horsehead Crossing).  I have explored caves.  I have played sports.  However, my first goal is always to minister to your church and to your pastor and staff.

Do you recommend special nightly emphases?  I leave that totally to the discretion of the pastor.  In some churches, a nightly focus is very effective.  For example, Youth Nights always seem to go well.  I have a good rapport with teenagers (Must be all those years in Youth Ministry) and they respond well to God's messages through me.  Special services at outdoor locations away from the church have also proved effective.  I have preached in football stadiums and in revival tents.  Cowboy or Western Night is well attended in most Texas towns.  A hot-dog supper and sharing the plan of salvation with children before Family Night has led to several decisions.

With Austin Bello & Caleb Turman - two members of the band "Committed" at Tabernacle Baptist Youth Revival in Gainesville, TX.

   Allow me to make this disclaimer: I cannot bring revival to your church!  (Does that sound like an odd thing for a "revivalist" to say?)  I can fervently pray for God's fire to fall upon your town.  I can preach revival messages.  That is my kingdom calling.  But I can't make revival happen.  And because of that fact, I suspect, lies the answer as to why so many churches quit having revivals.  That is why the terms "revival" and "revivalist" have been filed away in the archives, along with images of brush arbors and sawdust.

   Yet, the need for true revival is just as great today as it was 50 years ago.  If I had to choose one need that I have heard expressed over and over again through the years, without a doubt it would be the need for revival.  Just listen to your family of faith the next time you gather together to pray.  You will hear things like - "America is in need of a great spiritual awakening!"  "Our community needs a fresh outpouring of God's Holy Spirit!"  "Our church needs a revival!"

  What do we mean when we say that?  Do we understand what revival means?  Have we forgotten who revival is really for?  Has the expectation of seeing the lost come to Christ and the subsequent failure of that expectation coming to pass led us to conclude that revivals are no longer relevant?  Revivals are for the saved.  When the church gets right, then the lost will get saved.  That will be a natural by-product of real revival.  What then is revival?  Why did they seem to be so fruitful in bygone days and how can they be so again?

   True revival occurs in the atmosphere of prolonged periods before God.  When I agree to come to a church to preach a revival, I ask that church to commit to at least three weeks of prayer before the revival begins.  It is important that the children of the kingdom undergo this time of spiritual preparation before the scheduled services begin.  After these days of prayer, there should be a greater sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and a heightened level of expectation to see God move.

   The great revivals of yesterday were neither rushed in to nor out of!  Instead of four days in October or April, they were often 10 day events that continued on after the original dates had passed.  It was not uncommon for the visiting revivalist to move on to his next obligation while the congregation's pastor continued preaching nightly for several more days.

   Lives change when the bride of Christ puts aside their busy lives to seek the face of God.  Church-wide revivals still have the potential to be very effective in building God's kingdom.  Unlike a week-long camp or retreat, church revivals offer us the powerful transformation of the mountaintop without removing us from the tremendous needs of the lost in our valley's below. 

 (With Pastor Ronnie Lambert and Worship Leader Ray Batson - First Baptist Paducah, Texas Revival - September 2007.)

   Wherever Ministries is committed to revival and renewal in the local church.  Our primary aim is to assist churches, individuals, and communities in recognizing their need for spiritual awakening through the preaching of God's Word.  We are ready to travel wherever to fulfill this calling - small church or big church, from Abbeville, Alabama to Zwolle, Louisiana and all points in between.

   Revivalist Robert Barge believes the following:

++ Jesus Christ is God's only son, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the sins of all humanity, buried on Friday, resurrected from the dead on Sunday morning!

++ Jesus Christ is the only way to have a personal relationship with God.  He said of Himself, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father accept through me."  (John 14:6 - NIV - italics mine)

++ Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved.  "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."  (Acts 4:12)

++ We were created by God to enjoy eternal fellowship with Him.

++ God loves every person.  He sent His Son Jesus to live so that we might see God - He sent Him to die so that we might be forgiven of our sins.

++ The Bible is God's Holy Word.  It is true cover-to-cover.  God's Holy Spirit speaks to us through the reading, study, teaching, and preaching of his Word.  "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

++ Jesus not only wants to be your Savior - He demands to be your Lord.  We are called to follow Jesus Christ with reckless abandon.  His call to discipleship is just as viable today as it was when first cast before the original twelve: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."  (Luke 9:23)

++ The Christian life is the greatest adventure one could ever live.

++ Every person has an eternal destination - either heaven or hell.  We will all one day give an account of our lives before God - either when we die or when Christ returns.

++ Every Christian is called to be a minister of the gospel through the church.  We were gifted to serve at spiritual birth.  "It was (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13)

++ Christians are all called to be His witnesses.  Christ can use your life now to make a difference for eternity.

(Robert, son Daniel, & father, Miles W. Barge, Jr. at Wayland Baseball Double-Header - April 09)

   Robert Barge has been a minister of the gospel since 1977.  This fall, he will begin his 33rd year in Christian ministry.  Robert was born in Birmingham, Alabama.  He was raised in a Christian home.  He grew up attending the Baptist church.  At the age of 11, Robert decided to follow Jesus.  During a spring revival in 1977, Robert accepted the call into full-time Christian service.  He was licensed into the ministry by Helena Baptist Church - Helena, Alabama.  He preached his first sermon in 1980.  He received his Bachelors of Music degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.  He also worked towards a minor in religion.

   In July 1982, Robert married Vicki Lynn Holbrook.  He received his Masters of Arts degree with an emphasis in Youth Ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas in 1986.  In 1986, their first child, Daniel was born.  In 1989, their daughter Lauren was born.  Robert was ordained into the ministry by the First Baptist Church of Warner Robins, Georgia, where he served as Minister of Youth for six years.

   In October of 2004, Robert stepped out of a local church ministry position for the first time since 1977 to launch Wherever Ministries - a ministry committed to revival and renewal in the local church.  He is the author of two books - "The Souljourn," published July 2005 and "the Jesus test," published July 2009.

Part-Time College Churches

   First Baptist Church of Pratt City - Pratt City, Alabama +++ Collins Chapel Baptist Church - Thorsby, Alabama +++ Bethsalem Baptist Church - Billingsley, Alabama +++ Summer Missions Director - Chilton-Unity Baptist Association - Clanton, Alabama.

Full-Time Churches

   Maplesville Baptist Church - Maplesville, Alabama.  Minister of Youth and Music: 1981-1984.

   First Baptist Church - Warner Robins, Georgia.  Minister of Youth: 1986-1992.

   First Baptist Church - Abilene, Texas.  Minister of Youth: 1992-1996.

   First Baptist Church - Fort Davis, Texas.  Pastor: 1996-2004.

Other Activities Enjoyed

   Robert enjoys spending time with Vicki Lynn, Daniel, and Lauren.  He enjoys hiking, reading, camping, baseball (Go Braves!), riding horses, preaching, writing, and westerns.  Autumn is his favorite time of year.  Mexican food, seafood, and steaks are his favorite dishes.  Sweet-tea and Mountain Dew are his favorite beverages.  Christian doctrine was his favorite class in college and seminary.  He likes to visit places of historical significance.

   Robert's favorite authors include Mark Batterson, Henry Blackaby. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Frederick Buechner, Tony Campolo, John Eldredge, Zane Grey, Vance Havner, Elmer Kelton, Louis L'Amour, C.S. Lewis, Max Lucado, Brennan Manning, Calvin Miller, John Ortberg, Eugene Peterson, Chester Swor, George W. Truett, Dallas Willard, Philip Yancey, and Mike Yaconelli.

   His favorite musicians include Rich Mullins, John Denver, Jeff Gore, Geoff Moore, Amy Grant, and Michael Martin Murphey.  He also collects western soundtracks.

The Souljourn by Robert M. Barge

12 Pressing On - The final chapter is up to the reader.  The sun is up.  The day is fresh.  Let us pursue the journery marked out for us while we can and not miss a single mile ordained for our steps.

     Howdy!  My name is Robert M. Barge and I am the founder of Wherever Ministries.  Wherever is a ministry that is committed to challenging the local church through revival and renewal - and engaging the culture through outside-the-walls events.  With 27 years of local church experience as a pastor and minister of youth and 5 years of full-time on-the-road revival experience, God is using Wherever Ministries to challenge adults and young people alike.

   Wherever!  That word has always held an intriguing attraction for me.  It carries with it a sense of adventure - a notion of the unknown - a hint of what it really means to follow Jesus.  I was first captured by that word while singing hymns as a child.  "I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, wherever He leads I'll go."  "We will follow the steps of Jesus wherever they go."

    The spirit of "wherever" is what Jesus desires of His followers.  Christians should be the most uprooted people on the planet.  We should be ready to respond to the voice of God's leading at the drop of a net.  When I first felt the Spirit's prompting to begin this new ministry, "Wherever" seemed the most fitting of titles.  I am committed to go and preach God's Word wherever.  Small church, big church....church size doesn't matter!  Church-wide revival or youth retreat weekend - the situation doesn't matter!  Texas or Georgia, across the nation or around the globe....distance doesn't matter!

   If God should lead you to use me, I am willing and ready.  I can be contacted at whereverministries@yahoo.com.   His Word is our assurance - "Have I  not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."  (Joshua 1:8 - NIV)

                                                  God's grace to you!

                                                            Robert

Wherever Ministries   P.O. Box 1145  Fort Davis, TX 79734

Office Phone:  (432)426-3474 (8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. - CST)