Relationships Talk

By Zoe Jennings

For Dr. Velma Bagby, retirement from a demanding career was the start of a new chapter.

A lot of new chapters, in fact.

The Richmond native and former deputy division chief and employment administrator with the California Employment Development Department recently published her first book, Your Adam is Asleep Until God Opens His Eyes, which provides marriage advice based on Adam and Eve’s Biblical relationship.

After leading over 100 staff and 10 Workforce Services One Stop Centers throughout the state, Dr. Bagby wasn’t about to take it easy in retirement.

In fact, she’s practically held two jobs: one with the state of California, and the other with her Christian faith. Dr. Bagby is an ordained minister who has earned two Masters of Theology and a PhD from Sacramento Theological Seminary Bible College. Along with her husband, Pastor Bruce Bagby, she is a founding pastor of True Foundation Ministries and is a sought-after bible teacher and counselor to singles and married couples.

The “author” part came to be when her daughters asked her about relationships. They loved and valued her advice and encouraged her to write a book.

According to Bagby, Your Adam is Asleep Until God Opens His Eyes “uses the first married couple’s relationship, Adam and Eve, to inform today’s guidelines for marriage.”

In an age when divorce is common even in the Christian church, Dr. Bagby says “we must reconsider what a fulfilling marriage looks like.”

Her first book was released by Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, the world’s largest Christian self-publisher, and is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com.

And if you think this will be her only book, think again.

“There are four additional works in progress,” Dr. Bagby said.

Perhaps retirement never happened, after all.