Daniel Darling's Blog, page 16

Why Words Matter to God

It’s a bit ironic that the human race’s descent into darkness began with the serpent’s own twisted misrepresentation of God’s words of instruction to His image-bearers. Words, after humanity’s fall into sin, can now be used either to injure or inspire.

This is why King David prayed that the words of his mouth be “acceptable” in the sight of God. In a fallen world, we often don’t even understand the weight of what we say or, in this age, what we type.

David’s son, Solomon, understood well the power of words. The wisest man in all the world often reflected on language in his proverbs:

There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,

but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Proverbs 12:18 ESV).

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

and those who love it will eat its fruits (Proverbs 18:21 ESV).

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And, we might say today, the power of the thumb.

Words can create or destroy; they can uplift or condemn. They can reflect the Word by which God has spoken, or they can echo the whispers of the serpent. So powerful are words, the Apostle James tells Christian leaders that “no person can tame” them (James 3:8).

If Solomon saw fit to warn the people of God in the Old Testament of the power of words, and if James saw fit to warn the early church of the power of words, how much more today should God’s people heed what God is speaking to us about how we speak?

We live in a world with a vast and seemingly unlimited economy of words. There are more ways to communicate today than at any time in human history.

It may seem at times that stewarding our communication, especially the easy and free way we communicate online, is next to impossible. We might say with James, “Who can tame this beast?” But we should remember that those destructive half-truths in the garden were not the final word.

Jesus, God’s Final Word, has spoken a word over those who have turned to Him in faith. He declares His word that we are justified and we are transformed. Jesus has conquered that unruly, death-dealing beast, and has given us God’s Holy Spirit to help us tame our tongues and our thumbs.

This originally posted at Facts and Trends and is an excerpt from my new book, A Way With Words, releasing in August and available now for pre-order.

Three Reasons White Pastors Need To Start Preaching On Race

We have all watched, horrified, at the viral video of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man arrested in Minneapolis. It is video evidence of a reality that most of our black and brown brothers and sisters in Christ have been trying to tell us for years. And a few weeks ago, an unarmed black man, Ahmaud Arbery, was killed by two white vigilantes after innocently walking through a construction site. It is clear we have a race problem in America.

Thankfully, this has spurred many evangelical leaders toward a renewed emphasis on racial reconciliation. But how do individual, local churches begin to embody this kind of racial reconciliation in their own communities? It must begin, I believe, with pastors—particularly white pastors—prioritizing racial reconciliation in their preaching and teaching. Those called to teach the Bible carry a weighty responsibility (James 3:1) to feed the people of God (1 Peter 5:2-4).

I didn’t fully recognize this until I became a pastor. It was while serving my congregation that I realized the influence of the office. Church members value what their pastor values. In many ways, they depend on their church leaders to help them understand what is and what should be important. Those of us who spend our working hours analyzing the news, reading theology, and learning from a variety of sources help filter these things for church members who are busy working long hours, raising their families, and doing their best to study the Word and evangelize.

For most white evangelical pastors, racial reconciliation hasn’t been a primary emphasis of their teaching. This may be for a variety of reasons. First, as the majority culture, white Christians don’t feel the sting of prejudice. It’s not that all white evangelicals are insensitive; it’s that many are not in proximity to racism or injustice. Because most of our friends are white, we aren’t forced to empathize with our minority brothers and sisters in Christ. Second, there is likely some fear of addressing race. Racial issues are delicate. Pastoral leadership is already a tightrope act; why stir up more trouble? Third, it could be that pastors might view racial reconciliation as a worthy goal, but not a gospel issue. Russell Moore reminds us that it is:

The church, the Apostle Paul said, is a sign of God’s manifold wisdom, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Eph. 3:10). When God joined together in one church, those who are both Jewish and Gentile, he was doing more than negating the bad effects of ethnic strife. He was declaring spiritual warfare. When those who the world thinks should hate each other, instead love each other, the church is testifying that our identity is in Jesus Christ (Col. 3:11). We cannot be pulled apart from each other, because we are one body, and a body that is at war with itself is diseased.

So how do pastors begin to preach on racial reconciliation in a gospel-centered way? Here are three ways I’ve found helpful in my own ministry and in observing the ministries of others:

1. By Faithful Exposition of the Scriptures

The best way, in my view, to embed the priority of racial reconciliation into the everyday lives of our people is through the faithful application of the text. By this I mean through expository preaching. I’m a firm believer in the systematic, Jesus-centered preaching of whole counsel of God. The task of a pastor is to declare what God has already said in His Word.

Racial reconciliation is not something that has to be forced onto the text. In fact, if you are preaching systematically through Scripture and you do not preach on it, you might be skipping it. The thrust of God’s promise to Abraham and the promises to Israel are His desire to be made known among all nations. And almost every New Testament book embeds its presentation of the gospel with its unifying, reconciling power.

You can’t faithfully preach the Great Commission passages without stopping to acknowledge them as the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to build His church from every nation, tribe, and tongue.
You can’t preach Galatians without preaching on the racial divisions that flared within the early church.
You can’t exposit Ephesians without spending time on the gospel’s bringing together of diverse people into “one new humanity” (Ephesians 2:15).
You can’t preach through Acts 1:8 without seeing the gathering of the peoples of God as a sign of God’s promise to call a people to himself from every nation, tribe, and tongue.
You can’t do a series on the book of Revelation and not behold the majestic beauty of the diversity around God’s throne in Revelation 7 and 9.

Sadly, I’ve heard many messages from many “New Testament churches” that never touched on the priority of racial reconciliation found in Scripture. Why is this? It could be that we, as white evangelicals, don’t see it as a priority because we don’t see the problem of racial tension in our midst. It’s time pastors start seeing and preaching what is already there in the text. The heart of God’s people must be stirred to make this as much a gospel priority as Christ has in His inspired Word.

2. By Faithful Discussion of History and Culture

We’re not only reminded to preach on racial reconciliation when the text demands it, but faithful pastors should take the opportunity to preach on racial reconciliation either when the calendar reminds us or when a cultural issue is so big it becomes necessary to address it. My preference is to do this kind of topical preaching sparingly. The best way to address racial reconciliation and other cultural issues is to be faithful to them when they are specifically referenced in the text. This way your people understand that racial issues are gospel issues, not merely political or cultural issues. But exceptions can be made, as we do on issues like abortion with events like Sanctity of Life Sunday.

It’s important when we do a special emphasis that we still adhere to good hermeneutical practices and avoid a sloppy, proof-texting approach. It simply means we choose a text like Ephesians 3 and exegete it faithfully. (See here for a good example of this).

What a special Sunday like this signals, to the congregation, is just how important an issue is. It also sends a signal to our minority brothers and sisters that we are seriously thinking through, studying, and learning their heritage. Sundays like this might also be accompanied by resourcing the church through blogs, newsletters, and handouts. We might recommend good books to read on civil rights and encourage people to have meaningful conversations with people of other ethnic backgrounds. Your church might also consider hosting a roundtable with leaders from the community, maybe even a local civil-rights leader.

3. By Faithful Sensitivity in Application and Attribution

I’ve often found it is in the types of applications made during preaching that demonstrates pastoral sensitivity to the people. This is where pastors can offer leadership on an issue like racial reconciliation. When we talk of forgiveness of sin, perhaps we might not only name sins that are common: sexual sin, financial impropriety, and church gossip. We might also include prejudice, pride, and racism. When we speak words of comfort to our people during trial, we might not always include the same kinds of suffering stories. We might instead include a story from the perspective of a minority fighting oppression in the civil rights era.

My friend, David Prince, assistant professor of preaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and pastor of preaching and vision at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky told me that white pastors need to reach outside of their own experiences when making applications from the text:

“The reason we don’t immediately think of racial issues is the same reason we read past famine in the Bible without thinking much of it. We are the dominant majority so we think of ourselves as the insiders and the norm. Loving our neighbor means counting others as more significant than ourselves. Awareness of and sensitivity to ethnic minorities is not some foreign social agenda–It is Christianity 101.”

Application is a subtle teaching tool. It personalizes, for the congregation, the abstract things we are preaching from the text. It sends a message; this is the kind of thing the Bible is talking about. We should be specific, original, and diverse in our use of application. This means we shouldn’t only draw from our white majority status, but from the experiences of minorities.

It also helps if we quote, non-white pastors and theologians and acknowledge their contribution to the shape of Christian history. This kind of preaching, however, has to be shaped by a pastor who has the curiosity to read outside of his tribe and experiences. White pastors should read biographies of civil rights heroes, histories of the era, and should engage in regular conversations with minority pastors and leaders.

This is about more than merely adding some diversity to the message. It’s about serving your people by cultivating a growing, learning, changing mind. You, as the pastor, will model for them what it looks like to work for racial reconciliation. And you will see your people, over time, begin to emulate what you display.

This is an updated version of a piece originally published by Facts and Trends.

My friend Trillia Newbell and I edited a Bible study for churches, families, and small groups called The Church and the Racial Divide. It’s a six session video series from evangelical leaders like Walter Strickland, Juan Sanchez, Russell Moore, and Trevor Atwood that sheds light on issues of race, culture, and the gospel, and equips small groups to take action. Learn more here.

Forgiveness in a Cancel Culture

Today, we can get the news quickly and react just as quickly. We can thumb a few sentences and press send, immediately expressing our thoughts to thousands or perhaps millions of people around the world. This kind of power isn’t just available to celebrities and politicians. Anyone can post anything on a seemingly unlimited number of platforms.

In many ways, this is a welcome new reality. When a natural disaster strikes, relief and aid can be mobilized sooner. When there is a tragic death, online fundraisers can be created and money can be raised in mere hours. Missing persons can be located when millions of people spread the word. And, unlike previous generations when many voices were not part of a national conversation, the barrier to entry to speak, to write, and to mobilize are much lower. Movements can be created faster and more voices can be heard.

But the torrent of information coming at us combined with the ease of instant communication can also be damaging. And our instinct to be right, to be first, to be heard is one of the reasons we often make mistakes. Because we don’t wait before speaking, we allow confirmation bias and the Internet’s hive mind to keep us from wisely evaluating both what we are hearing and what we are communicating. Alan Jacobs says that our “instinct for consensus is magnified and intensified in our era because we deal daily with a wild torrent of what claims to be information but is often nonsense.”

We also don’t realize how much of this “nonsense” is a form of entertainment, an intoxicating theater of the absurd. Read more here:

The Way Home: David Kinnaman on the state of the Church

David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, joins me to talk about the 2020 research on the State of the Church.

The decline of church attendance is well documented. What happened? Barna has committed this next year to empowering the Church with the insights and resources they need to reach the unchurched in their communities.

Show Notes

Book: Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon [image error]
Website: barna.com
Twitter: @davidkinnaman

The post The Way Home: David Kinnaman on the state of the Church appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Daniel Grothe on wisdom and living well

Daniel Grothe joins me to talk about wisdom and the importance of learning from those your senior. Daniel is Associate Senior Pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

This episode of The Way Home is sponsored by our friends at The Good Book Company, publishers of Talking Points: Abortion by Dr Lizzie Ling & Vaughan Roberts.

Show Notes

Book: Chasing Wisdom: The Lifelong Pursuit of Living Well [image error]
Instagram: @mrdanielgrothe
Twitter: @mrdanielgrothe

The post The Way Home: Daniel Grothe on wisdom and living well appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Derwin Gray on shepherding his church and ‘Finding True Happiness’

Derwin Gray joins me to talk about how he is shepherding his church through this difficult time, as well as his new book The Good Life: What Jesus Teaches about Finding True Happiness[image error]. He is the founding and lead Pastor of Transformation Church (TC) in Indian Land, South Carolina, just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.

This episode of The Way Home is sponsored by our friends at The Good Book Company, publisher of Where is God in a Coronavirus World? by John Lennox.

Show Notes

Book: The Good Life: What Jesus Teaches about Finding True Happiness [image error]
Website: derwinlgray.com and transformationchurch.tc
Twitter: @DerwinLGray

The post The Way Home: Derwin Gray on shepherding his church and ‘Finding True Happiness’ appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Scott James on the unknowns of COVID-19 and how we can pray

Scott James joins me for a bonus episode of The Way Home. On Tuesdays we will be releasing episodes focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. James is a pediatric infectious disease physician. He joins me to talk about COVID-19, the struggles of the unknown, and how we can pray for healthcare workers. Dr. James also serves as an elder at The Church of Brook Hills.

Previous episodes:

Justin Lonas and Jerilyn Sanders on COVID-19 and the economy
Jared Wilson on pastoring and encouragement during COVID-19
Jesse and Julie Masson on new challenges families face during COVID-19
Keith Getty on family and hymn sings during COVID-19


Show Notes

Book: Where Is Wisdom?: A Treasure Hunt Through God’s Wondrous World, Inspired by Job 28 [image error]

The post The Way Home: Scott James on the unknowns of COVID-19 and how we can pray appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Vance Pitman on being free from the burden of religion

Does following Jesus feel impossible? Are you trying hard to be a good Christian while secretly feeling exhausted and overwhelmed? Vance Pitman joins me to talk about his first book Unburdened: Stop Living for Jesus So Jesus Can Live through You[image error].

Vance is the senior pastor at Hope Church Las Vegas.

This episode of The Way Home is sponsored by our friends at The Good Book Company, publisher of Where is God in a Coronavirus World? by John Lennox.

Show Notes

Book: Unburdened: Stop Living for Jesus So Jesus Can Live through You [image error]
Website: hopechurchonline.com
Twitter: @vancepitman
Podcast: Vance Pitman Leadership Podcast

The post The Way Home: Vance Pitman on being free from the burden of religion appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

Some Personal News: A New Opportunity at NRB

Six and a half years ago I got an email that changed my life. It was from Phillip Bethancourt on behalf of Dr. Russell Moore, someone I greatly admired. I had read Dr. Moore’s books and articles and had had the opportunity to interview him for Christianity Today and was overjoyed that he would be the new president of ERLC. After a series of conversations over the ensuing weeks, I was offered a job as Vice-President of Communications. We packed up our family, offered an awful, tearful goodbye to our church in Chicago, and moved to Nashville, a city that has now become our home. This was, in many ways, a dream job and a dream team that I had the chance to work with. We built something significant and helped shape the public conversation and equip pastors and church leaders to think well about moral and ethical issues. Dr. Moore’s investment in my life is deep and wide. I’ve learned more theology in car rides with Dr. Moore than almost anywhere else. I’ve grown in every way in this season of my life at ERLC than almost any other season. ERLC has given me an opportunity and platform to flourish.

But alas, God has moved in our hearts to take on another challenge. I’ve accepted an offer to become Senior Vice-President of Communications at NRB. National Religious Broadcasters is an important organization that has, since the middle of the 20th century, equipped and advocated for Christian broadcast ministries. When I think of the scope of these ministries, it’s staggering, how many people around the world have heard the gospel on the radio and television and over the Internet. And it has come full circle in many ways for me. I grew up listening to Moody Radio. Ministries like Chuck Swindoll’s Insight for Living and Allistair Begg’s Truth for Life (among many others) were crucial in my formation in my early twenties. And Moody Radio has been an instrumental platform for getting the word out about my books.

I’m intrigued now by the opportunity to equip the next generation of Christian communicators. I’ve spent most of my career communicating: words, writing, preaching, radio, podcasting, TV, etc. I’m also overjoyed to work with my good friend, the new CEO of NRB: Troy Miller, who loves the gospel and has a vision for building an NRB for this next generation.

So this is a bittersweet announcement: I’m sad to leave my incredible and gifted colleagues at ERLC and I’m excited to join this new team and see what God has in the days ahead. One of the guiding principles of my life is Proverbs 16:9: “A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.”

The post Some Personal News: A New Opportunity at NRB appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Keith Getty on family and hymn sings during COVID-19

Keith Getty joins me for a bonus episode of The Way Home. On Tuesdays we will be releasing episodes focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.

An impromptu St. Patricks’ hymn sing that the Gettys did from their home in Nashville garnered great engagement. They’ve since decided to be live on Facebook each Tuesday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CT sharing songs and encouragements with their children.

Previous episodes:

Justin Lonas and Jerilyn Sanders on COVID-19 and the economy
Jared Wilson on pastoring and encouragement during COVID-19
Jesse and Julie Masson on new challenges families face during COVID-19


Show Notes

Website: gettymusic.com
Twitter: @gettymusic
Facebook: facebook.com/watch/gettymusic

The post The Way Home: Keith Getty on family and hymn sings during COVID-19 appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.