J.D. Barnes took the path less traveled in ministry.

After graduating from the University of Alabama, Barnes seemed destined for a career in computers and technology. But, on a Sunday in January 2001, all that changed.

“We were living in Fort Payne at the time,” he recalled. “I was walking out of church with my wife and my priest and I told them both that I thought this was something I was supposed to do — that I was being led to enter the rectory.”

Their initial reaction was less than overwhelming.

“They laughed,” he said smiling, “At that time, that probably wasn’t something either one of them expected. It just kind of hit me.”

Barnes graduated the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest before actively entering the ministry and spent the last two years as assistant rector at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Huntsville.

Last Sunday, he gave his first sermon as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Demopolis.

When contacted by the Trinity search committee last spring, Barnes said the proverbial handwriting on the wall became clear.

“The search committee was very complimentary of the church, the members of the church and the town,” he said.

“God works with you to point you where you’re supposed to be and I think I was supposed to be here.”

Barnes and his wife, Amanda, have two children, Joseph, 6, and Samuel, 1.