Troy Pastor Moves into New Season of Ministry
Pastor Johnathan Newman and Koinos Church, Troy, are in a new era of ministry.
For the last few years, Newman and his wife, Jeni, have sensed the Lord calling them into something new.
However, Newman wanted to transition the church in a way that was best for its long-term health.
“Being here for almost 27 years made me really have the desire to see the church do well beyond our lifetimes,” Newman said.
He also wanted Koinos to avoid the very normal church pattern of start, growth, plateau, and decline during the transition.
“Talking about that, thinking about that made us realize the importance of finding a way when the church is at a place of health and growth and strength became important to us,” he noted.
Newman and the other elders at Koinos began to pray and seek the Lord’s will for a new senior pastor for the church.
“A plurality of elders caused us to see the growth of the church and development of younger men growing up, developing for ministry and becoming pastors. Just recognizing that has created a pool of leaders, an abundance of leaders in the body, where it seemed like that would be the best case scenario if the next pastor would be raised up from within and that’s exactly what happened,” he said.
Fifteen years ago, Brian Barnes and his wife Deanna came to Koinos as newlyweds. They were both baptized at the church and Newman says they just took off growing, learning, and being discipled.
“Then we saw them begin to disciple others,” Newman recalled. “We saw clearly God’s giftedness and calling in their lives to be faithful disciple-makers, which led to Brian becoming a Life Group leader.”
As time went on, the church recognized the biblical qualifications of Barnes and appointed him as an elder.
“So he’s been a pastor already for several years, but then as my wife and I began to think about God’s calling for us to take a step to do something different, I began to have the conversation with our elders, including Brian, about what God’s doing in our hearts,” he said.
The elders found themselves on the same page – Brian Barnes was the man God was calling to be the next Senior Pastor at Koinos.
“Not only does he love being an elder at our church, he really had the yearning to go be a lead teaching pastor of a church, plant a church, find a church to pastor,” Newman said. “As we’re hearing him say that, we’re thinking we don’t want him to move away and go find a church somewhere. We think he needs to be the next pastor at our church.”
The succession plan was executed on February 16, when Barnes stepped into the Senior Pastor position.
Following the execution of the successful succession plan, the transition period commenced for Newman, Barnes, and the church.
“I’ve moved from full-time Senior Pastor to part-time Pastor and Discipleship,” Newman said. “My role for 2025 is to do counseling, but also, really whatever is necessary to help Brian get fully acclimated in the new role as Senior Pastor.”
In 2026, Newman will no longer be on staff at Koinos but will serve as a non-staff, non-employee elder.
And, he and his wife will be fully launching the new ministry the Lord has placed on their hearts – Thrive.
Thrive is a non-profit ministry aimed at providing coaching, care, and counseling to pastors, pastor’s wives or other ministry leaders and missionaries.
“What we recognized over the years is the huge importance biblical counseling has been in our church,” he recalled.
In 1998, Koinos Church was planted with a group of addicts from Narcotics Anonymous.
“Over the years we had lots of broken people in our church,” he said.
As people requested help, Newman sent them to a Christian counselor.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? That’s what all pastors do,” Newman remembered. “I’m not the professional. Go see the Christian counselor.”
However, the feedback he received from the people he sent wasn’t good and he decided he couldn’t send people there anymore.
“At that point, I discovered biblical counseling and I became a certified biblical counselor.”
Newman is currently doing some counseling on a small scale but will be full-time at Thrive in 2026 meeting the great need for biblical counseling he sees in the ministry.
“Many pastors are in a single pastor church where they don’t have that kind of culture of care elders around them, helping them settle conflict,” he noted. “There are lots of pastors who just don’t have anybody to go to to talk about these things.”
Johnathan and Jeni Newman’s new mission is to be the ones that pastors and missionaries can contact for help, counseling needs, addressing conflict in the church, coaching, embracing change, and other spiritual and practical needs, as they devote the next chapter of their lives to Thrive.
For the last few years, Newman and his wife, Jeni, have sensed the Lord calling them into something new.
However, Newman wanted to transition the church in a way that was best for its long-term health.
“Being here for almost 27 years made me really have the desire to see the church do well beyond our lifetimes,” Newman said.
He also wanted Koinos to avoid the very normal church pattern of start, growth, plateau, and decline during the transition.
“Talking about that, thinking about that made us realize the importance of finding a way when the church is at a place of health and growth and strength became important to us,” he noted.
Newman and the other elders at Koinos began to pray and seek the Lord’s will for a new senior pastor for the church.
“A plurality of elders caused us to see the growth of the church and development of younger men growing up, developing for ministry and becoming pastors. Just recognizing that has created a pool of leaders, an abundance of leaders in the body, where it seemed like that would be the best case scenario if the next pastor would be raised up from within and that’s exactly what happened,” he said.
Fifteen years ago, Brian Barnes and his wife Deanna came to Koinos as newlyweds. They were both baptized at the church and Newman says they just took off growing, learning, and being discipled.
“Then we saw them begin to disciple others,” Newman recalled. “We saw clearly God’s giftedness and calling in their lives to be faithful disciple-makers, which led to Brian becoming a Life Group leader.”
As time went on, the church recognized the biblical qualifications of Barnes and appointed him as an elder.
“So he’s been a pastor already for several years, but then as my wife and I began to think about God’s calling for us to take a step to do something different, I began to have the conversation with our elders, including Brian, about what God’s doing in our hearts,” he said.
The elders found themselves on the same page – Brian Barnes was the man God was calling to be the next Senior Pastor at Koinos.
“Not only does he love being an elder at our church, he really had the yearning to go be a lead teaching pastor of a church, plant a church, find a church to pastor,” Newman said. “As we’re hearing him say that, we’re thinking we don’t want him to move away and go find a church somewhere. We think he needs to be the next pastor at our church.”
The succession plan was executed on February 16, when Barnes stepped into the Senior Pastor position.
Following the execution of the successful succession plan, the transition period commenced for Newman, Barnes, and the church.
“I’ve moved from full-time Senior Pastor to part-time Pastor and Discipleship,” Newman said. “My role for 2025 is to do counseling, but also, really whatever is necessary to help Brian get fully acclimated in the new role as Senior Pastor.”
In 2026, Newman will no longer be on staff at Koinos but will serve as a non-staff, non-employee elder.
And, he and his wife will be fully launching the new ministry the Lord has placed on their hearts – Thrive.
Thrive is a non-profit ministry aimed at providing coaching, care, and counseling to pastors, pastor’s wives or other ministry leaders and missionaries.
“What we recognized over the years is the huge importance biblical counseling has been in our church,” he recalled.
In 1998, Koinos Church was planted with a group of addicts from Narcotics Anonymous.
“Over the years we had lots of broken people in our church,” he said.
As people requested help, Newman sent them to a Christian counselor.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? That’s what all pastors do,” Newman remembered. “I’m not the professional. Go see the Christian counselor.”
However, the feedback he received from the people he sent wasn’t good and he decided he couldn’t send people there anymore.
“At that point, I discovered biblical counseling and I became a certified biblical counselor.”
Newman is currently doing some counseling on a small scale but will be full-time at Thrive in 2026 meeting the great need for biblical counseling he sees in the ministry.
“Many pastors are in a single pastor church where they don’t have that kind of culture of care elders around them, helping them settle conflict,” he noted. “There are lots of pastors who just don’t have anybody to go to to talk about these things.”
Johnathan and Jeni Newman’s new mission is to be the ones that pastors and missionaries can contact for help, counseling needs, addressing conflict in the church, coaching, embracing change, and other spiritual and practical needs, as they devote the next chapter of their lives to Thrive.
Recent
Be Strong and Courageous, Ohio Baptists
March 28th, 2025
Baptisms, Cooperative Program Giving on the Rise in SCBO
March 25th, 2025
Snowstorm Doesn’t Deter Church Launch in Central Ohio for Send Network Planter
March 21st, 2025
Troy Pastor Moves into New Season of Ministry
March 19th, 2025
SCBO Churches Participate in Free Graphic Design Training
March 17th, 2025
No Comments