Sunday, February 11, 2024 Rev. Dr. Barry Steiner Ball will be sharing the good news with Cross Lanes UMC in honor of Boy Scout Sunday. Barry is a proud Eagle Scout.
More about Barry:
Barry Steiner Ball graduated from The Citadel with a B.A. in Psychology and then from Duke University with a Master of Divinity. Barry was then ordained as a United Methodist Minister.
Barry served three different charges on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in Talbot County. In 1998 Barry was offered a position with the Maryland Natural Resources Police (game wardens and marine police), working Talbot and Caroline counties and serving as the NRP’s chaplain when needed.
In 2008 Barry was moved into the investigative unit for NRP and worked boating and hunting accidents and larger commercial fishing cases. During this time Barry also served in the Air Force Reserves as a chaplain at Dover Air Force Base, supporting the work of the Port Mortuary. Barry began a Doctor of Ministry program at Wesley Seminary in Washington DC focusing on Military Chaplaincy.
In 2012 Barry’s wife, Sandra, also a United Methodist Minister, was elected into the office of Bishop and moved to West Virginia where she oversees all the United Methodist Churches in West Virginia and Garrett County MD. With the move west, Barry was offered by the NRP a position on a Drug Enforcement Administration’s Task Force in Hagerstown Maryland. In this position Barry worked larger drug cases in Western Maryland and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. During this assignment Barry was exposed to the plight of Drug Endangered Children and changed his doctoral project and began working with local United Methodist Churches helping them discover how they can support these children.
Barry earned his doctoral degree finally in 2017. Barry retired from the Maryland Natural Resources Police on Oct. 1, 2017 to work full time with local churches in helping them find their ministry in response to the opioid epidemic. Barry and Sandra have two grown daughters, Sarah a high school math teacher in Talbot County Maryland and Becky, an elementary school teacher in Delaware and one practically perfect granddaughter, Sloane.
To learn more about Barry’s work in response to the opioid epidemic please follow this link.