This Site has Moved

Click HERE to go to the new blog

After some thought and research, I've realized that Wordpress is the best place to continue forward with this blog. It has more features and a cleaner layout, and also makes it easier to actually write, which was the whole reason I started blogging in the first place. Everything from this blog has been imported onto that blog, and is pretty much the same with a better look and better features. Please keep on visiting!

Time for a Switch?

I'm thinking of changing over to wordpress. I really like the appearance of their sites as well as some of the other features that are offered.

Any bloggers out there have preferences of one vs. the other?

Considering Seminary?

For any of y'all out there considering seminary - you don't have to go to Southeastern, but be sure to go to a place with professors like this:

Who am I? That's a silly question to be asking! But I'm writing the preface to my book on discipleship so the topic has come up, at least in my own mind. Am I a conservative or a liberal, right-wing or left? Though my theology is conservative, I've learned much from my brothers and sisters on both ends of the evangelical spectrum. Some of my friends think only about Israel, others only about Palestine. Some complain about the 3,000 unborn who are killed every day in America, while others focus almost exclusively on the 30,000 children who die of starvation every day in the world. I see no need reason to establish boundaries of love. If we mourn the loss of 4,000 U.S. service personnel in Iraq (as we should), we must also mourn with the same outrage and passion the life of every innocent Iraqi civilian who was lost. Some evangelicals believe that right-wing politics hangs the moon; others support the liberal left. I pledge my allegiance to neither. Folks, I just want to be a Christian -- a simple, radical, marginal, downwardly-mobile follower of Jesus. There's nothing unique or spectacular about being a Jesus-follower. You just remember that God's love is borderless. You just declare the Good News to the poor, as He taught us to do. And it all happens through relationships, not programs or organizations. And here's something strange: I am learning to fall in love with people and not just ideas. And I love ideas! Crazy people like Jim Elliott are finally beginning to make sense to me. I'm learning how to reprioritize my values and resources. Just think -- the average American consumes as much as 520 Ethiopians do. Can we do anything about it? You bet! Because of our website Becky and I receive gifts for reading glasses and protein bars and pre-natal vitamins Bibles and meeting houses and evangelists' salaries and equipment to show the Jesus Film with and food to feed hungry prisoners and on and on the list goes. No fancy organization, no 501 c(3), no overhead, no bureaucracy, no HQ. Just Jesus-people connecting with Jesus-people.

Mark Driscoll on the nature of a church

A.M. Metzger sent me this definition of the church today from Mark Driscoll. Andy said he'll be blogging about it soon so I eagerly await his thoughts.

"The local church is a community of confessing believers in Jesus Christ who obey Scripture by organizing under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, and scatter to evangelize and care for people everywhere. They observe the Biblical sacraments of baptism and
communion, are unified by the Spirit for mission in the world, and discipled to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to the glory of God."

By the way, the Mars Hill podcast now has a great message about preaching from Mark Driscoll, and when I can find the link I will post it here.

What's Wrong with Preaching Today? (A.N. Martin)

Two quotes from A.N. Martin's What's Wrong with Preaching Today?:

"How could men ever teach some of the things they teach in the name of orthodoxy if they were on their knees poring over the Scriptures? No, they are not on their knees poring over the Scriptures, and hence they are simply parroting what their peers have said. How can we who say we believe the biblical doctrines speak of them in such a perfunctory way if we are receiving those truths from God in the context of living communion with Him? We shall speak of them with the glow and fire of heaven upon our souls if we are receiving them in the glow of His presence. Hence, the problem of preaching today lies in the man who preaches, first of all in the area of personal devotional life."

and

"One of the elements of powerful preaching is preaching as a man that has been liberated. Liberated from what? From the ensnaring effects of the fear of men. You are never free to be an instrument of blessing to your people unless you are free from the effects of their smiles and their frowns. People know when you can be bought by their smiles and beaten by their frowns. It will not take them long to discern whether or not you are a man who is not affected either by their smiles or by their frowns. Such a man is a free man in Christ. [...] if your eye is to men, you will be unable to give utterance to that which you know you ought to."

Is it football season yet?

If this doesn't give you goosebumps, then something is wrong with you.

A New Direction

Jonathan Parnell and I's blog, Did Not Our Hearts Burn, is adding a new emphasis as we'll be discussing church planting. In Jon's words:

This blog is heading into a revised direction. Our subject material is expanding from biblical theology to include church planting, and the necessary ingredient that unites the two– gospel proclamation. To be clear, the intention here concerns a limited audience. I realize that the review posts are long and probably unfit for the blog genre. What I hope to see happen is
conversation between men who are passionate about these subjects (even if its just Bryan and me). I want to learn more about them, see them working together… to gain deeper knowledge theologically, and proactive wisdom that puts feet to doctrine.

The conviction is drawn straight from the Scriptures. When I think about Luke-Acts, the two themes that come to mind are Jesus’ hermeneutics and the rise of the church. Biblical theology and church planting are so intimately connected in the Word that I don’t want to conceive of one without the other.

Avoiding Extremes when Preaching

I preached this morning, and as usual after preaching I am quick to think back and try to identify what I could have done better. While preachers are often their own toughest critic, I recognized that one mistake that I tend to fall prey to is going to the extreme in order to make my point.

For example, while preaching yesterday in Acts 1 about keeping the main thing the main thing, I discussed that in vv. 7-8 Jesus points out to the disciples that they are not to know about the end times but instead called to be His witnesses. Trying to make the point that the church often gets sidetracked by non-essential issues, I took a few minutes to discuss some of the theological labels that we sometimes give to ourselves to identify who we are in Christ, when really it should be Christ who defines us.

I made a comment that I would take back now when discussing titles like, "Arminian," "reformed," "pre-trib," "post-mil," etc. I said, "if you don't know what those titles mean, God bless you." Thinking back on it, that was really stupid. I went to the extreme there to try and make a point. I think it's a good thing to know what those titles mean since being theologically literate is never a bad thing. It's only a bad thing when it becomes more important to us than Jesus and impedes our mission for Him (as seen in Acts 1:8).

Oregon is always doing it differently

Is Oregon always on the cutting edge for college football? They've already got the odd-looking jerseys, and this is one way of recruiting that I've never seen before:

Back in 2005, Oregon coaches enlisted students to design custom comic books for the Ducks' top 20 recruiting targets. Each comic portrayed the recruit as a hero who leads the Ducks to a national title. Oregon sent each prospect one page per week during the recruiting period. Here is the entire comic made for running back Jonathan Stewart, one of the nation's top recruits at the time.

Here's a few pictures - what a unique way of recruiting:

Men Rejecting Passivity & Accepting Responsibility

If you saw the news today you saw that Kansas City Chiefs TE, Tony Gonzalez, saved a life last night. What was so amazing about this was part of Gonzalez's report of the event:

"She was screaming, "He can't breathe, he can't breathe,"' Gonzalez said by phone from California, where he lives in the offseason. "The whole restaurant was quiet. Nobody was doing anything."

Colin Cowherd made a comment today that this quote by Gonzalez gives a picture of the current state of manhood in America. Fifty years ago there would have been men fighting one another to help. Now, there is a room full of passivity. What has happened to our society that we will watch another person die without feeling any responsibility to help?

As Robert Lewis, founder of Men's Fraternity writes, a real man rejects passivity and accepts responsibility. Thank goodness Tony Gonzalez did that last night.

Georgia Dome Renovations

The Falcons are in the process of renovating the Georgia Dome to make it more "spirited." Looks good. Thank goodness there's no more teal and aquamarine colored seats in there.

Can a long distance relationship work?

Conventional wisdom would say no. However, this weekend would say yes. Megan and I made the trip to Louisville to see one of my best friends and former roommate, Matt Thomas, get married to Ms. Tara Lynn West (now Mrs. Tara Thomas). Matt and Tara met on a WorldChangers trip before college and dated from then until two days ago when they were married. Not only did they date throughout college, but they also survived a long distance relationship as Matt attended USC while Tara attended Western Kentucky. I told Megan as we made the 9.5 hour drive out to Louisville that I had a new respect for Matt and Tara's relationship that they could make it through that sort of distance. It provided another tangible example of one of my strongest convictions - that love is first and foremost a commitment - commitment that will help them in the future to overcome little mishaps like this:

Why I love used bookstores

As part of our trip to Matt Thomas' wedding in Louisville, Megan and I made a step in Beckley, WV where we came across a small used bookstore. After thinking that there wasn't anything worth buying I came across three volumes of the Anchor Bible Dictionary (vols. 4-6). Each was being sold for $5. I checked the actual cost on Amazon.com today and found that each one is being sold for $85. There's nothing like making a rare find at a used bookstore! As one of my professors here says, "the good thing about used books is that they work just as well as new books..."

Are Apologetics Dead?

While many have claimed that apologetics are not neccesarry in the "post-modern age," clearly this is not the case.

My Wish

Every year Sportscenter does a "My Wish" series where children who have been or are seriously ill get to have their sports-related dreams come true. I have to admit it gets a little emotional here in the Barley household when videos like this come on...

Vacation

Megan and I are enjoying a week of vacation in Clarksville, VA, enjoying sunsets just like this on beautiful Kerr Lake.