Weir Using Technology to Reshape Ministry: C3 Teams Zooming, ‘Owl’ Turning Heads

Barry Weir is one busy guy. In addition to running his computer services company, each month he participates in eight different CBMC Connect3 meetings thousands of miles apart. They span from Miami, Fla. to Kapolei, Hawaii, with Houston, Texas and Phoenix, Ariz. in between. Not to mention four C3 teams in California.

If you’re wondering how Weir manages such a full schedule or what he’s doing with his frequent flyer miles, he does most of it from the friendly confines of his office in Yorba Linda, Calif. He literally “zooms” from one meeting to another, assisted by the wisdom of an “owl.”

We’d like to forget the COVID-19 pandemic, but it had a few notable benefits. Among them was the emergence of virtual meetings, enabling people to connect remotely by using Zoom and other video conferencing tools. With businesses forced to change how they did meetings, demand for these resources exploded.

Weir, whose decades-long career has emphasized staying on the front edge of computer changes, quickly saw applications for CBMC ministry. His expertise helped a number of CBMC groups to continue meeting virtually when in-person gatherings weren’t possible.

In addition to Zoom software, his company was already marketing the Meeting Owl Pro, a fish-eye camera developed for virtual conferences. It switches focus between speakers around a table, showing the last three on a large screen at the end of the table. With eight microphones and four speakers, and remote participants on the screen, “it brings people in. They all have a seat at the table.”

Even though the pandemic has ended, many C3 teams continue to meet either virtually or as “hybrids” – some participants attending in person and others remotely. The rationale, Weir explained, has gone far beyond social distancing and health concerns.

“From my Friday C3 team, two of our men relocated their homes during COVID, one moving 16 miles away. In Orange County traffic, that’s a two-hour drive each way. The other moved 35 miles away. Since there’s no CBMC in their immediate areas, they continue to join our group every week.”

Another benefit has been extending the team’s reach far beyond California’s borders. Ron Weber was actively involved with the group. After moving to Phoenix, he was able to stay connected with the C3 team via Zoom and now is helping to rebuild the CBMC ministry in that area. Last year he launched a weekly Mountain Time Zone C3 team.

Weir started joining a monthly “Coffee with Courage” Zoom meeting after he met Steve Solomon, a CBMC staff leader, while in Boca Raton, Fla. visiting with family. “I wanted to learn a new way to lead a C3 team,” he said.

Mike Jones, a member of a C3 team and Operation Timothy leader in Santa Ana, Calif. for years, stayed connected to them virtually after he moved to Texas. At his invitation, Monty Boyle joined Santa Ana’s Zoom meetings. Within a few months Boyle gathered some men to start rebuilding the CBMC ministry in Houston. “I joined with them as a wingman and encourager as they launched,” Weir said.

There’s even an international flavor, with men from South Korea, Bangladesh and Nigeria periodically logging on to the weekly Zoom meetings of the Santa Ana C3 team. “Virtual keeps them connected,” he said, “and if they gather two or three other men, they can start their own C3 teams – and we can help.”

Why expend the effort to connect with so many different CBMC groups? Weir said it’s because he’s sold on the impact Connect3 teams have on individual men, facilitating their spiritual growth, providing much needed encouragement, and giving them a vision for the ministry God has for them in the marketplace.

“Every week in our C3 team we review CBMC’s vision: the Power of One God, the Value of One Man, and the Leverage of One Team,” he said. “We can’t emphasize that enough.

“In a Connect3 team we can go through every element of CBMC’s excellent ministry curriculum: Being a Marketplace Ambassador; Operation Timothy; Living Proof Adventure; and Becoming a Spiritual Reproducer. These are tools we need to effectively represent Jesus Christ where we work and where we live.”

Weir has deep roots in CBMC. “I’ve grown up around it. My father, John Weir, was active in CBMC when we lived in New Jersey, and while I was attending Westmont College in the mid-1960s, I started attending CBMC meetings in Santa Barbara, Calif. I was selling advertising for the student newspaper, but felt ill-equipped to talk to a 50-year-old businessman about the important things in life. CBMC enabled me to invite a guy to an outreach meeting where he’d hear a peer give his testimony, and I knew guys there would follow up on him.”

After college, Weir served as a pilot in the Navy but maintained his affinity to CBMC. While stationed in Pensacola, Fla., he met future CBMC President Ted DeMoss and other leaders, and helped start and restart CBMC groups as a naval officer in Norfolk, Va.

After the Navy, his business career took him to northern California. There Weir met men like Jim Brady and Roger Erickson, “giants of the faith in CBMC who became significant mentors in my life.” As a member of the CBMC group in Oakland, he helped restart another group in Walnut Creek.

After his company transferred him to Southern California, he found only 10 CBMC groups there actively engaged in the twofold mission of evangelism and disciplemaking. However, he saw the ministry begin to grow as more men embraced the vision.

“One reason I got involved with CBMC in the first place was learning about how to tell other men about Jesus Christ, helping them mature in their faith, and encouraging others in how to do it.”

That undergirds Weir’s philosophy in leading Connect3 teams. “I think it’s important to give various members an opportunity to lead a piece of the meeting. This way we can see their skills and ability, and also see groups multiply as new leaders emerge. It’s a great way to develop guys and see their passion for ministry grow.”

For more information on the use of the Owl for virtual and hybrid CBMC meetings, contact Weir at dbarry@weir.com.

To get connected with a CBMC team near you, visit https://www.cbmc.com/membership and sign up.