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Flight path

A biography of Frank Barker Jnr.

The adventure of faith

FLIGHT PATH
A biography of Frank Barker Jnr.
By Janie Buck and Mary Lou Davis
Christian Focus. 85 pages
ISBN 1 85792 918 7

This is the very encouraging story of a contemporary Presbyterian (PCA) leader in America. Brought up as a bit of a rebel within a Christian family, Frank Barker, was called to the ministry and converted while he was as fighter pilot on US aircraft carriers during the 1950s.

Starting with a little church which met in a shop-front in Birmingham, Alabama, God blessed the work and over the years Briarwood Presbyterian Church has grown to a membership of over 4,000 people and has missionary interests all over the world. The book makes a good read for several reasons. First, there is a challenge to practical faith. There is a risk taking for the kingdom and Barker's description of God's 'guiding stars' in his life is a theme throughout the book. His sacrificial attitude to the use of money is remarkable. Second, the story takes place against the background of big social changes in the American South. Briarwood took a firm stance for black civil rights during the 1960s. Third, the man admits his many failings, both before and after his conversion. This conveys a down-to-earth reality about his dealings with God from which we can all learn. The chapters are short (40 in a book of less than 200 pages) and though it is a biography it is written as if it is an autobiography. All this turns it into a spiritual 'page-turner'.

One has to realise that there are very different breeds of Presbyterian in the US. A split came in the early 1970s over faithfulness to Scripture and the doctrines set out in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Barker, stood with the traditional evangelicals who formed the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) are the more stridently Reformed. But the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA) have become a complete liberal washout.

If there are any young men out there on the brink of embarking on the pastoral ministry, this book is to be recommended. It will give you both a steer for the future and a foretaste of the hardships and the joys of the great adventure of faith on which you are about to embark.

John Benton