Bishop Bob Farr
Robert Farr serves as Bishop of the Missouri Area of The United Methodist Church. The Missouri Conference includes 800 local churches, approximately 1,000 retired and active clergy and 80,000 weekly worshippers, offering ministry through local churches, colleges, campus ministries, social services and mission projects throughout the world.
Before his work as Bishop, Rev. Bob Farr has served as the Director of the Center for Congregational Excellence for the Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church from 2007-2016, guiding 35 church starts into life and has overseen over 150 Healthy Church consultations in the Missouri conference. In 2011, Farr received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from Central Methodist University. From 2000-2007, he served as senior pastor of Church of the Shepherd in St. Charles where he led the congregation through relocation that increased worship from 450 to 1,200 in worship attendance. Prior to that, Farr started Grace UMC in Lee’s Summit in 1990 and Hope Church in Lone Jack, a daughter congregation of Grace, in 1998. Farr was ordained deacon in 1983 and elder in 1987 after attending seminary at Perkins School of Theology, where he served student appointments of Celeste, White Rock and Kinston charge and as student associate at Wesley UMC in Greenville, Texas. In addition to his latest work: Building Worship Bridges: Accelerating Neighborhood Connections Through Worship written with Cathy Townley and Kay Kotan, Bishop Farr has also co-authored with Kay Kotan: Renovate or Die – 10 Ways to Focus Your Church in Mission (2011), Get Their Name – Grow Your Church by Building New Relationships (2013), 10 Prescriptions for a Healthy Church (2015), and The Necessary Nine (2015). Bishop Farr is a certified Fire Chaplain through Global Board of Higher Education and Ministry. His passion for the global church has taken him to India, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, China, Haiti and Mozambique. For the past five years, he and his wife have helped support Nhachengue UMC in southern Mozambique, including the drilling of a deep water well. He and Susan have been married since 1979 and have two adult children and two grandchildren. |