Pines Baptist’s New Pastor Adjusting To Colder Clime

The Rev. Barry Foster recently joined Pines Baptist Church as senior pastor.

Foster came to Spokane in mid-October from the First Baptist Church in Denham Springs, La., where he was pastor for six years.

Foster said he has been able to make an easy transition despite the differences between the Valley and the South.

“There’s a little bit more of a laid-back attitude here,” he said.

One plus is that this area gives him more of an opportunity to engage in activities he loves, such as hunting and fishing.

Before he was contacted by Pines Baptist, though, he never considered leaving the South, where he grew up.

“Even three months ago if you would have told me ‘You’re going to be in Spokane, Wash., by Thanksgiving,’ I’d have said ‘You’re nuts.”’

Foster says he hopes to settle in further and help out in the community by coaching youth baseball, which he has done for the past 12 years.

Foster’s father was also a Baptist minister, so Foster was raised in the church. He was quite young when he decided to become a become a minister.

“I felt the Lord’s call when I was 12, preached my first sermon when I was 12,” he says.

While in high school he considered being a football coach, in college he thought of studying law.

But he always came back to the ministry.

He graduated from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1979.

Now that he’s here, he finds himself impressed with the people and the school system where he now sends two of his three children. And he doesn’t even mind the recent weather.

“It beats walking outside and breaking into an instant sweat, like you do in Louisiana,” he says.

Now that’s he’s settled in a bit, Foster says he’s ready to try out some new ideas.

On Dec. 14, Pines Baptist, 714 S. Pines Road, will hold a contemporary service called “Saturday Night Community Praise at Pines,” at 7 p.m.

If the service is well received, a contemporary service will be held weekly beginning in January.