Pastor McGowin was saved and baptized at a young age in a Baptist church in central Alabama in 1973, but it wasn’t until a few years after his wife Karen’s salvation that God called them both into full-time ministry together.

They immediately began preparing for ministry at Ambassador Baptist College in the Spring of 1991. While studying for the ministry, Pastor McGowin gained experience in practical ministry in his local church.

After Pastor McGowin’s graduation in 1994, he felt burdened to plant a church, and the Lord led them back near home in Central Alabama. Together with their four (and soon to be five) children, he and his wife ministered as a bi-vocational pastor’s family in Central Alabama for over fifteen years.

After a short break from pastoring, God again called them back to shepherding a local church, and in May of 2021, Barry McGowin was appointed pastor of Manna Baptist Church. With the years of experience that God has given him through church-planting, youth ministry, and bi-vocational ministry, the Lord has equipped him with the tools, the burden, and the love for pastoring a local church.