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Published Tuesday, November 17, 2009 in Local

A Better Way Ministries makes move to Senoia

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

A Better Way Ministries has been making big changes in men's lives for four years now; a move to Senoia is hoped to help even more people.

Last week, the ministry was able to erect its very first sign -- at the site of a proposed complex in Senoia.

"We're finally getting to kind of come out of the closet," said John Barrow, president and founder of A Better Way.

The residential ministry, which helps men ages 17 to 55 who have "life-controlling issues," has been operating quietly out of a Christopher Road farm, and an industrially-zoned area in Peachtree City, since November 2005.

The residential portion of the ministry will be moved to the Senoia complex, with the full blessing of the Senoia city government.

"It's a big day for us. We don't have to fly under the radar" anymore, Barrow said Thursday.

The first of several large houses to be built on the Senoia property is almost complete. Hopes are that the ministry will be able to move in in time to put up a Christmas tree.

Just having a sign "is huge," said Barrow. "We've been waiting for a long time."

The sign "says this is who is are, this is where we live," Barrow said. It also raises awareness, and can help get people interested in helping and donating to the ministry's thrift store, for instance. The store, currently called "Changing Hands," is located in Peachtree City at 32 Dividend Drive, along with the ministry's bakery, offices, wood shop, auto-body shop, and moving company, A Better Way Moving.

Barrow said plans are to change the thrift store's name to A Better Way Bargains. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Proceeds from the thrift store, as well as the moving company, bakery, and More Than A Table wood shop, benefit the ministry. "We don't go around rallying up money -- we work to sustain ourselves," said Barrow. The different businesses also are an integral part of the ministry itself.

Men who are accepted into the ministry stay for 15 months. Men have to give up not only alcohol and drugs, but also cigarettes, television, and secular music.

"All that stuff goes hand in hand for an addict," Barrow said. "They can't stop with just a beer... we just cut it off completely," Barrow said.

The idea is for the men to "get re-calibrated," Barrow said. "They become true disciples.

"The Lord really has an opportunity to change them totally."

Barrow had a wild youth, and spent time in both youth detention centers and state prisons. While serving a sentence for armed robbery, he ended up in "the hole" for 30 days after getting caught selling drugs to fellow inmates.

It was during that time in solitary confinement that his life changed. He decided he was tired of the way his life was, and turned it over to God.

Another great thing happened to him in prison -- he learned how to lay bricks.

When Barrow was released, he started a masonry company and became a builder. He got married, adopted children, and became quite successful. He started a small ministry called "Remember." Cowetans might recall having seen the signs in fields or on people's vehicles.

In 2003, during the height of the housing boom, Barrow decided he wanted to develop a subdivision. He particularly liked the land along Christopher Road near Sharpsburg. "I had written everybody on this street a letter, asking them to sell me their land," he said. He finally heard back from a woman in Marietta. She still owned the house and farm where her late husband had grown up. She offered him a good price, so he decided to check it out.

"As I pulled into the driveway I said... if she sells me this land, there is no way we could put a subdivision here. It's too beautiful," Barrow said.

He bought the property and "walked the land every day for a month." He built a small chapel alongside the lake.

"I would go down there and sit and pray. I built the chapel because that's where I ended up every day. And then the Lord just started putting it on my heart to do this thing here," he said.

He decided he wanted to have a home for men. As a teenager, Barrow had attended a Teen Challenge program. God spoke to him then, but "I ran for another 13 years," he said. "What I saw there, I never could get out of my life, my heart."

He remembered how inspired he had been by a man who spoke at the Teen Challenge.

The farm was a great place to have the ministry. "It's absolutely great for a man to sit down and look across these fields and smell the hay and watch the sunrise," Barrow said.

"To hear the rooster crow and have these men who are trying to do right, beside them," he said. "It's a very therapeutic and God-inspired setting."

When he started the moving company with one truck, he never imagined things would grow so much. Now there are 10 trucks, the bakery, and the wood shop. "Now we're looking at a print shop and vinyl lettering to do signs," Barrow said.

The work not only helps the men as part of their treatment, it also gives them a marketable skill they can use to support themselves when they graduate.

"We do a lot of work. And that is what men should do," Barrow said. "So it has become more of a true discipleship -- in that you teach a man how to provide -- to work, to pray, to weep, to rejoice. We're trying to make him well-rounded," Barrow said. When a man is ready to graduate from the program, "we try to get them a car," he said.

Ideally, the men who come to the program are asked to pay $1,000 down and $1,000 a month, which covers their counseling, room, and board. But very few of the men can afford that. "We never turn anybody down because they don't have money," Barrow said.

To be successful in the program, the men have to want to change. If they are only there because parents or girlfriends want them to be there, the chances of success aren't very good, he says.

"The guys we want are the guys that are really hungry for change," Barrow said. "We want guys that are really broken. They really are reaching out for help. They are tired of living the way they have been living," he said.

"We want to lead them to the cross. We want to show them a better way."

For more information, visit www.abetterwayministries.com or call 770-599-8111. To really find out what A Better Way is all about, Barrow recommends watching the "Redemption" video on Youtube. Just search for "a better way redemption" on youtube.com .

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