Q3 Gathering Recap

If you lead a business, you already hold what most ministries are short on: experience, a network, and a way of getting things done. That is what fills the room at every Barnabas gathering.

On Tuesday, September 1, business owners, executives, pastors and ministry leaders made their way up to the third floor at Topgolf Ontario for the Q3 Gathering. The evening opened the way every gathering does: dinner, a lot of first introductions, and a prayer asking for God's presence over everything that would happen in the room that night.

A year as Ministry of the Year

First up was Byron Aguirre, City Director of Love Life Riverside and our 2026 Ministry of the Year. Love Life works with churches to walk alongside moms, babies and families. Byron looked back on what a year of partnership has opened up:

Since we've been partnering with Barnabas, we have onboarded new churches in Riverside, in Norco, in San Bernardino, and in Fontana.

Love Life now partners with California Baptist University, a partnership Byron said Barnabas helped inspire.

The National Christian Foundation shared a few minutes on generosity, and on giving appreciated assets like stock, a business or real estate.

The keynote

Eric Goodman leads three companies today. The keynote was not about how he built them. It was about what carried him through the seasons that could have broken them, and him.

Every leader in that room has had one: the year the numbers would not add up, the loss nobody saw coming, the stretch when showing up took everything you had. Eric has walked through his own. Looking back over the hardest stretches of his life, he found that the circumstances were not what decided how each one ended. What decided it was how he chose to think about them.

That choice changed how he led. A leader who carries every hard season alone builds a company that cannot run without him. Eric built the opposite: managers who carry the weight, make the calls and keep going without him in the room. His companies now lend space, delivery and people to more than a hundred ministries, capacity they were already paying for.

He closed with three questions for any hard season. They are worth hearing from Eric himself: watch his full keynote on YouTube.

Eric brought copies of What's Your Mindset? and signed one for anyone who promised to read it or hand it to someone who needed it.

The 2027 ballot

Three ministries stood for 2027 Ministry of the Year, and each answered the same three questions in front of the room: who they serve, what Barnabas has helped them do, and the big goal they are believing for.

• Lee Anne Gridley, Young Life Inland Empire, reaches adolescents in schools and communities, beyond the doors of the church.
• Colleen Myers, Engage To Go Ministries, goes as parents and grandparents to the music festivals where young adults gather, to share the gospel and disciple those who respond.
• Justin Unger, Likewise Worship, comes alongside worship leaders with mentorship, care and coaching so they serve faithfully for the long haul.

Ballots were cast in the room. The winner will be named on November 11 and receives a $1,000 grant and ongoing support from Barnabas partners. More of each story is coming in the weeks ahead.

A word to fathers

Matthew Hanson started with a confession. A few weeks earlier, alone at the top of an empty arena before speaking to thousands of men, Matthew felt the confidence drain away and asked a simple question: who does God say I am? The answer that came back put identity before the work. Ministry flows from being a beloved child of the Father. It does not create it.

From there Matthew turned to the next generation, and to the person with the most influence on whether a child keeps the faith:

Moms plant the seed, dads are the weather.

Aion Path is Matthew's answer: a rite of passage journey designed to help fathers disciple and launch their sons and daughters into adulthood. Think of an Eagle Scout path meeting a bar or bat mitzvah, walked side by side with a dad.

The program ended with prayer over Matthew and the work ahead, then worship with Likewise Worship.

Managing partners of Barnabas chapters from across the country joined us for the evening.

Where you come in

Every ministry at the front of that room is led by people who are good at what they do. What they asked for was practical: introductions, expertise, a seat on a local board, a place on a prayer team. Without that kind of help, good ministries spend years learning what someone in that room already knows.

That is where you come in. Your business does not have to stand in the way of the mission. It can be part of it. Your experience, your network and a few hours of your time can carry a ministry a long way.

The path is simple. Come to a gathering. Meet the ministries. Put your experience to work where it fits. Barnabas makes the introduction and walks with you from there.

Every talk from the night, start to finish, is in our Private Community.

Your seat at the next gathering

Next up is the Q4 Gathering on Wednesday, November 11, at Benedict Castle in Riverside: a Veterans Day keynote from Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez and the reveal of the 2027 Ministry of the Year. Gatherings are free, and dinner is included. Come see where your experience fits.

See upcoming gatherings

Between gatherings, follow along on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Photos by Randy Cosio.