Barry Jones (ThM, 2002) serves as the senior pastor at Irving Bible Church. A Texas native, Barry graduated from the University of North Texas before earning his ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary. Barry first attended Irving Bible Church with his wife, Kim, during their seminary days. It became their home church until they moved to Wheaton, where Barry earned his PhD. When they moved to Illinois, Kim shared how sweet it would be if they eventually moved back to Dallas, where Barry could teach at DTS and sporadically preach at Irving Bible Church. It sounded like a crazy daydream, but things played out just so.
When Barry and Kim moved back to Texas, Barry joined the DTS faculty, and their family of five called Irving Bible Church home. Barry preached his first sermon as a fill-in on January 7, 2007. Later that spring, he received an invitation to join Irving Bible Church’s teaching team. Barry continued working as a full-time professor and as a part-time pastor for thirteen years. His preaching opportunities grew, and he eventually launched a church-planting program and joined the Irving Bible Church’s senior leadership team. In 2019, Barry transitioned into his full-time senior pastor role. He served as an adjunct at DTS for a few more years before devoting his vocational, professional attention to the church. The switch has allowed Barry to fully invest in Irving Bible Church, while also affording him more time with his family. Barry devotes some of that extra family time to travel; he and Kim love to travel, and they especially love introducing their children to new destinations, exposing them to great food, rich cultures, and the beauty of God’s creation.
Every day presents unique pastoral challenges. Mondays are the longest, packed with meetings. Barry divvies up the rest of his week, allotting time to teaching preparations, leadership responsibilities, and pastoral care. If Barry did not offer that life-on-life pastoral care, he would have a really hard time feeling like an actual pastor. So while the congregation size requires some delegation, Barry still makes himself available, caring for both his staff and members of the congregation.
Barry is passionate about connecting people with the Scriptures, and that involves training them to use both the left and right hemispheres of their brains when approaching the text. Well-informed imaginations can paint an accurate picture of the text, showcasing its sights, sounds, and smells. Barry challenges his people to ask what it feels like to experience the emotion and tension packed into the stories of Scripture. Barry does not want to diminish the importance of the careful work done at the exegetical level. Rather, he wants to ensure that his people do not miss how the text also engages imaginations and affections. It is no accident that God mediates a huge portion of his self-revelation to his people through narrative. He created his image bearers to be storytellers whose lives are shaped by stories. Careful exegesis paired with practical homiletics utilizes the imagination and deepens insight into the Scriptures, as well as the human condition.
During Barry’s DTS student days, his father passed away, and Barry experienced a season of doubt. Dr. John Hannah’s (ThM, 1971; ThD, 1974) personal testimony of a season of doubt provided timely aid, marking the entirety of Barry’s ministry. He learned that a key difference between Christianity and every other religion is that in the Christian story, God does not stand at a distance but rather enters into our suffering. God takes our suffering and triumphs over it, giving His people hope. As Barry shared, “only the Christian God has tear ducts.” Our God weeps with those who weep. Barry does not preach a sermon without asking how it might sound to the suffering.
What happened outside the classroom shaped Barry just as much as what happened inside it. He spent extra time with Prof Hendricks (ThM, 1950), serving as Prof’s travel companion. Winsome and funny in front of a crowd, Prof Hendricks proved to be quieter and more introverted in private. Prof and Barry both enjoyed sitting quietly together, neither feeling the pressure to carry on a conversation. Barry will never forget the first time he traveled with Prof. That first morning, Barry woke up to the sound of Prof shuffling around the hotel room. He looked over and saw Prof sitting at the desk doing his quiet time. Barry wondered if he had even brought his own Bible; meanwhile, Prof, who had taught the Bible for decades and probably had forgotten more Bible than Barry had learned, sat in the corner, starting his day not with study preparations but with the Lord. Prof’s example continues to challenge Barry.
During Barry’s days as a DTS professor, he was asked to attend a prospective student luncheon. One of the deans asked all the professors to answer a question. What’s your favorite place to do ministry? That is a fun question to ask, especially when you have a roomful of well-traveled DTS professors. Barry thought about his answer. The Holy Land? What about Italy? His mind returned to the DTS campus coffee shop, where he sat across from leaders in a formative season preparing for a life of leadership and ministry. That was his favorite ministry setting: participating in the formation of other believers through deep, meaningful conversations over a cup of coffee, preferably a medium Americano with an extra shot. When Barry and Kim left for Wheaton, they had no clue what God would do. Regardless of Barry’s role, God has always called Barry to do life with others. The added blessing is that Kim’s desire to do life in Dallas was fulfilled. God does not stand at a distance. He intimately cares about everyday life, shaping His people and their affections so that they crave Him and are transformed into His image. Barry enjoys entering into the everyday too, participating in the spiritual formation of God’s people and watching as God captures their affections and orchestrates their lives.
Morgan E. Underwood (ThM, 2023) is an administrative assistant for the Alumni and Career Services Office at Dallas Theological Seminary. She is also a Theological Studies PhD student and writer. She is married to her husband, An Dau, and they, along with their black cat, call Dallas home.