Babs Mullinax

Why you want to talk to her:

• District Stories | You have a great story to share to the rest of the district family.
• Design Consultation | You are beyond frustrated with things that need a creative spin (like your web site or bulletin layout) and need some advice.
• Alliance Missions | You are looking for ideas on how to better connect with our overseas workers safely and meaningfully.
• Alliance Peacemaking | You need a Level 1 training or you would like some coaching in Biblical conflict resolution.

Babs has been serving with the Alliance most of her adult life.  In college she was a core counselor for Beulah Beach Camps on Lake Erie, proudly wearing a whistle and on her lanyard that was engraved with John 21:15-19.  After graduating college with a degree in English, Communications, and Drama she moved to Fort Wayne, IN and started volunteering with the youth group in a lay capacity.  Ministry formalized for her in 2006 as she and her husband, Marshall, accepted leadership of the youth ministry in preparation of going overseas to serve with the Alliance.  Babs and Marshall served two terms overseas until God firmly said, “Now there is something different.”  It turned out “now” was not her idea of “now”, and so she waited for what was next to be as clear to her as in other appointments in life.  After more than a year, the invitation was extended for her to use her creative capacity in service of the Midwest District.

Having grown up in a family of science-minded people, Babs was always the odd one out – although she did graduate top science student in her class!  She is invigorated by ideas and possibilities.  Marshall once gave her a Valentine’s gift of a brainstorming session (which, if you know Marshall, was truly an act of love for him).  She loves discovering – new places, shopping deals, and better ways of doing something.  Babs would rather read a physical book, and yet she’s a goon for gadgets.  All of her side gigs have one thing in common: She reflects the worth of a person back to them.

Babs’ life has been hallmarked with transition and change.  She often jokes, “Embrace the ambiguity,” but a girl can only handle so much. Her foundation has been her confidence in God, who is a designer and builder.  We are rooted and built up in him.  In us he is building not only calling and spiritual gifts, but also character and good works.  When you step back to see the scattered pieces of life (a little gifting here, a season of loss there, a love for certain people), God allows us his divine perspective and we see things coming together in a beautiful design that only God could have architected. The verse Babs has landed on in the last several years is Ephesians 2:22, “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”  She says, “Now imagine… You are pretty incredible on your own, but that’s not where God stops building! God doesn’t desire that we be scattered miniature masterpieces; rather he desires to build us up together into the body of Christ, the bride, the working image of God!” Do we want people to see God?  Individually we are a reflection of him, but more like a dim mirror or a single pixel. However, the more of us that are built together, the clearer the image; the larger the dwelling place of God; the more space for him to “flex”!