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The Word on Worldliness

A couple of months ago I read C. J. Mahaney's book Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. This book was and continues to be a source of conviction to me. What a joy it is to have our thirst for our past mindset and activities wane as our thirst for Christ and his transforming work in our lives increases. While I was reading it, my pastor, Drew Conley, was preparing to present a paper on Worldliness at the Mid-America Conference on Preaching at Detroit. I was also very excited to know that he would be presenting his study to our people at Hampton Park. The first question I asked him was, "Have you read Mahaney's book?" To which he answered "No. Intentionally." I appreciated his response. He wanted this to be a first-hand, biblical survey of the topic without too many outside influences. Drew Conley's treatment of the topic was thorough, balanced, and convicting. I was especially excited to see the similarities in the two studies. This tells me Mahaney and Conley are reading the same "book." Nonetheless, I wanted to post a .pdf of the general outline of Pastor Conley's messages as well as the audio messages themselves. I hope this will be of spiritual benefit to you as it has been to our people.

• The Word on Worldliness pdf


• The Word on Worldliness Part 1


• The Word on Worldliness Part 2


• The Word on Worldliness Part 3


• The Word on Worldiness Part 4

A slight disappointment with the ESV Study Bible

Before I jolt too many of you out of the excitement (yea even euphoria) that surrounds the ESVSB, let me first begin by saying that I am very impressed overall with it. Especially helpful are the articles on Old and New Testament theology, the canon of Scripture, and the introduction to the gospels and Acts by Darrell Bock. I also found Piper's and Hughes's articles concerning one's reading of the Bible to be very instructive and convicting. My disappointment came in my reading of the introduction to Genesis. Specifically, the section entitled, "Genesis and Science." The author of the introduction does give a good survey of the various ways interpreters have taken the days of creation. He ultimately argues that no violence to the historicity of Genesis is done if one does not hold to a solar day. In the notes of Genesis, the author opts for the "work day" interpretation which also is a metaphorical view of the days of creation. There are a couple of concerns. 1) I know the Hebrew use of "day" can be used in several different senses, but the Scriptures do seem to go out of the way to mention that there was evening and morning. This would seem to limit the use of "day" substantially. 2) On a theological note, I have a concern with giving credence to the "day age" theory or other theories that seek to allow for long periods of time in an effort to square with fossil records and other "scientific" theories. Rom. 5:12 states, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." If one is trying to account for fossil records and the like by expanding the days of creation into long spans of time, then logically there must have been death before Adam was created. Therefore, how could God have looked on his creation and said it was very good if it were already full of death. This also impacts our understanding of the gospel. If sin was not brought into the world through the first Adam and death by sin, how can the second Adam (Christ) be analogous for the taking away of sin? I don't think this is a reason to throw out the ESVSB or else we would have to create an equally large bonfire for all those Scofield Bibles. I would expect more, however, from those who hold the gospel to be the centerpiece of interpretation. I also think that much more research has been done in recent years in the area of creation science that it is not neccessary to account for humanistic theories of origins as did so many orthodox men in the 19th and 20th centuries to whom the "scientific" evidence seemed overwhelming. Ultimately, allowing for such theories does taint the historicity of Scripture, namely Rom. 5:12.

This should probably be a second post, but I was also disappointed in the assumption that Noah's flood was localized. I don't plan to refute the notes in this posting, but I do have to question the nature of the Noahic covenant if the flood were localized. God promised Noah in Gen. 9:11, "Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." If I hold a localized flood, what is the nature of this promise? Did God promise never to send a localized flood again that would kill flesh and destroy a particular part of the earth? If this is the promise of God, then the promise has been violated numerous times.

Don't get me wrong, I do like this resource, but I do have ask whether I would want to put this in my children's hands to study it without any qualifications. We usually do issue disclaimers with any work, but I just haven't seen anyone give any disclaimer yet on this information. I think the notes do not account for a lot of recent creation research which would actually give a fuller appreciation for the interplay of science and the Bible. Rather than science being considered in light of biblical statments, I think the notes on Genesis try to explain the Bible in light of naturalistic origins. I know this is an attempt to be even handed in terms of explaining theory, but provides too much credence to views that may not support biblical authority strongly. Ultimately, the approach in these notes does give ground on the ultimate authority of Scripture as seen in Romans 5 and the Noahic covenant.

Now that this is off my chest, I will continue to enjoy my ESVSB, especially the notes on the N.T. that I find to be remarkably conservative and not given to the assumptions of higher criticism.

Assistant Pastor for Singles

It is official. Hampton Park Baptist Church has called me to be the assistant pastor for singles. I look forward to this ministry with the singles and serving with Drew Conley and the rest of the staff. I will be preaching as Associate Pastor of Tri-City for the last time on Sept. 7th. I will begin my new position on Sept. 15. I praise the Lord for His sovereign and gracious leadership.

Bible Faculty Leadership Summit 2008

Today concluded this year's Bible Faculty Leadership Summit. As always it was a very enjoyable time. The theme this year dealt with scholarship within Fundamentalism. The papers that dealt with this theme provoked much thought and discussion. Fundamentalism has made some great strides in this area over the last decade or so, but so much more needs to be done. I am not talking about scholarship for the sake of being recognized by others, but a scholarship that will aid in the setting forth of biblical truth for the health of the church. In other papers that deviated from the general theme, the doctrine of the Trinity appeared to be the other main topic. These discussions demonstrated how important scholarship is if fundamentalists are going to accomplish their self-proclaimed and important task - the preservation of biblical teaching. Many important facets of biblical truth are falling by the way side because scholarly discourse has often been viewed as esoteric and largely antithetical to the qualities promoted by those in pastoral positions. I wished more pastors could have heard these conversation so that professors and pastors alike could affirm what Dr. Mike Barrett always taught me. "There is nothing more practical than the study of theology."

Two asides: 1. The facial hair sported by the Bob Jones faculty was quite impressive.

2. I was able to procur a copy of Phil Brown's and Bryan Smith's A Reader's Hebrew Bible. It is an impressive work, and I think it will prove to be very valuable to those who desire to main

tain their Hebrew skills.

Vacaville Bible Church

My family and I just returned from a week of ministry at Vacaville Bible Church in Vacaville, CA. This church is an assembly of truly warm and spiritually-minded people. I spoke in three services on Sunday. We then loaded up and went up to Hartstone Bible Camp where Vacaville Bible Church holds their family camp. In total, the Lord gave me the privilege of ministering the word over 20 times, and Emily taught 4 sessions to the ladies.
My morning sessions were with the teens and we discussed knowing and obeying God's will.
My sessions with the men dealt with Money, Possessions, and Eternity largely based on Randy Alcorn's book.
My morning general sessions dealt with prayer.
My evening sessions dealt with God's amazing grace from Titus 2 and Colossians 2-3.

After camp, Emily and I were able to take the boys on a quick vacation to San Francisco and the Monterey Peninsula. In light of all that is happening in terms of possible ministry transition, it was a great blessing to minister away from K.C. for a while as well as spend some valuable family time together.

A ministry transition

I have spent most of my morning on the phone answering questions concerning my announcement last evening to my church. I announced that I would begin exploring the possibility of a ministry transition. I am finding how hard it is to explain in only one phone conversation all that has factored into my decision. I have come to some firm conclusions concerning ministerial philosophy and ministerial structure (polity). I have also become more firmly entrenched in my theological emphases that dominate my ministry in the Word. God has used a long and complex process to help me better understand my "holy ambition" (to borrow John Piper's terminology). Below is a general letter that is reflective of the announcement that I made to the congregation of Tri-City ministries last night.

Dear friends,

Recently, I had introduced the idea of a holy ambition during the course of one my sermons at Tri-City Ministries. This idea is not unique to me, but it is one that I ran across during the course of my private reading. It is an idea that made a profound impact on my life. Simply defined, a holy ambition is something that you really, really want to do, and God wants you to do it, too. This is what gives our lives focus. A holy ambition not only keeps us from following selfish or sinful ambitions, but it also causes us to forego pursuing even other good things. There are many good pursuits in life, but we can’t do everything. We must weed through the many good things that we could do and follow what is most important to us and what God wants us to do most. It is a holy ambition, for instance, that kept Paul from doing a good thing, namely going to Rome. There was something more important that God would have him do. Developing a holy ambition is a key sign of spiritual development.
My holy ambition has developed more clearly over the last few months, but not before God taught me some key lessons.
1. God had to teach me the joy and satisfaction of handling His Word accurately, powerfully, and joyfully despite how many people were gathered to hear it. My joy of handling the Word cannot be derived from the size of the audience, but rather from the privilege of speaking of Scripture’s central topic: Jesus Christ.
2. God had to teach me that ministry passions and a holy ambition make the pursuit of position irrelevant. I cannot allow a rank or position to cloud what God would have me do. By His grace, God has begun and is still working in me to delight in serving according to my ministry passion rather than pursuing a particular position or rank. Following hard after Christ and my holy ambition is supremely more joyful and commendable by God than pursuing rank, notoriety, or position.
Once God worked in these specific areas, my ministry passion or holy ambition became more sharply known to me. Most uncomfortably, I have had to reckon with the fact that the pursuit of God’s ambition for my life at this time demands a change of ministry direction. I believe it is necessary for me at this time to forego something that has been very good, in order to pursue what is most important to me and what God wants me to do most. Serving at Tri-City has indeed been a good, commendable, and blessed thing.
It has been good to serve with my whole family.
It has been good to serve wonderful, loving people.
It has been good to serve godly and willing servants training in the seminary.
It has been good to serve under caring leadership.
It has been good to serve with dear friends.
God’s leading, however, requires that I follow after a ministry passion that is burning in my heart and cannot be ignored. My change of ministry direction does not require that I launch into uncharted territory, but to return to a type of ministry with which I am familiar. I have spent most of my adult life in a college setting teaching and ministering to college age students and singles. This has been my life. I love college students, I think like college students, and I love the opportunity to give biblical data to those at such a critical crossroads of life. Having been away from this kind of ministry over the last couple of years has caused me to miss it greatly. The saying is very true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
God seems to be directing me back toward a ministry that is more intensely involved in the lives of singles and college-age adults. God has already begun this process, and I want my friends to hear the details from me personally before I pursue another ministry possibility any further. Hampton Park Baptist Church in Greenville, SC has asked if I would consider becoming their Singles’ Pastor. This position would include several aspects of ministry.
1. I would be responsible to shepherd, disciple, and teach a group of single adults through the structures of Sunday School and various Bible studies throughout the week.
2. I would greatly desire to see the area secular colleges reached with the gospel of Christ. I specifically would like to target Furman University through Bible studies and student-led events. I think God has given me the desire, personality, and academic background to minister effectively on a college campus.
3. I would also oversee the mentoring and additional ministerial training of the many ministerial students who attend Hampton Park. Bob Jones University is a large Christian school and the faculty desires to mentor all of their students, but it can be nearly impossible. I don’t think we should lay the blame on BJU. I think the local churches in the area should take up the slack and mentor this next generation of ministers of the Word. I would consider this particular ministry a great privilege.
4. My drive to teach in an academic setting would also be fulfilled. Not only would I teach Bible at Hampton Park Christian School, but I would also pursue teaching in a college or seminary as an adjunct faculty member.
I have had several conversations with Hampton Park’s pastoral search committee. They have voted unanimously to have me come to the church to candidate. I will be preaching and teaching at Hampton Park on Aug. 3. The church will then take a vote later in the week to decide whether or not to call me. I am asking for you to pray with me about this. I want nothing more than to follow the ministry passion that God has given me. Someone may ask, “Why would a guy who is an Associate Pastor move somewhere else to become a Singles’ pastor rather than pursue the next step of being a senior pastor?” I refer to the earlier discussion. I must follow my ministry passion first. God will take care of position. I must take care of the depth of my ministry, and God will take care of the breadth. Will I ever be a senior pastor? I don’t know. If that is the position that would best allow me to live out my ministry passion, then I accept it joyfully. I don’t believe that is how God is leading me right now.
I have found the following Puritan prayer particularly encouraging and convicting in the last few months:

O Lord,
I hang on thee, I see, believe, live,
When thy will, not mine, is done;
I can plead of nothing in myself
in regard of any worthiness and grace,
in regard of thy providence and promises,
but only thy good pleasure.
If thy mercy makes me poor and vile, blessed be thou!

It is the meek and humble who are shown thy covenant,
know thy will, are pardoned and healed
who by faith depend and rest upon grace,
who are sanctified and quickened,
who evidence thy love.
Help me to pray in faith and so find thy will,
by leaning hard on thy rich free mercy,
by believing thou wilt give what thou has promised;
Strengthen me to pray with the conviction
that whatever I receive is thy gift,
so that I may pray until prayer be granted.
Lord, help me to cry out in prayer
as parched ground opens wider and wider until rain comes.
So shall I wait thy will, pray for it to be done,
and by thy grace become fully obedient.

To the praise of His glorious grace,
Christopher D. Barney