Daniel Darling's Blog, page 17

The Way Home: Sharon Dirckx on human identity and our minds

What does it mean to be human in regards to the connection between the body and the mind? Are we more than machines? Is free-will an illusion? Dr. Sharon Dirckx joins me to talk about this and more.

Dr. Dirckx is an author, tutor, and apologist who speaks and writes widely on the problem of evil and suffering.

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 and Am I Just My Brain?[image error] by Dr. Dirckx.

Show Notes

Book: Am I Just My Brain? [image error]
Website: rzim.org/speakers/sharon-dirckx
Twitter: @sharondirckx

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Easter and COVID-19: 3 Reasons the Message Fits the Moment

When the calendar rolled around and your leadership team gathered to plan out 2020, undoubtedly you had big plans for Easter.

You’d urge your people to canvass the neighborhood, inviting friends and relatives to join them on what is still, in many places, the one time of year to go to church.

Easter is when you go all out, with activities for children, vivid recreations of passion week for the adults, and a time to lean in on the central truths around which Christianity is formed.

But alas an unseen enemy came roaring in, making its way around the world. And those best laid plans for this holiday aren’t happening.

In what nobody could have predicted, even in the wildest, weirdest end times fiction scenario, churches are closed on Easter, celebrating the Jesus’ death and resurrection at home, online.

Click here to read more at Facts and Trends

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How Good Friday Helps Us Cope with the Pandemic

This year, thanks to the coronavirus, I will not be able to experience one of my favorite moments in the church calendar: Good Friday. I love Easter, with its bright colors and signs of spring, the celebration of a concept on which rests the entire Christian faith: resurrection. And yet sometimes we Christians rush too quickly past Good Friday, especially when the gospel writers devoted enormous space in the sacred texts to the ugly scene of Jesus dying an unjust and shameful death on a Roman cross.

This moment we are in, in a week when fatalities from COVID-19 are expected to rise dramatically, at what the surgeon general has called “our generation’s Pearl Harbor,” we need to linger longer, even if from our living rooms, at the message of Good Friday.

In normal times (remember those?), the end of life is not something we like to dwell on, but now, as the stench of death surrounds us, as frozen trucks parked outside hospitals serve as overflow morgues, as funeral directors prepare for a volume of work they never anticipated, as an invisible virus makes its menacing journey through our cities, we need to think about death. On Good Friday there are no pastel eggs or bright dresses, no Peeps or perfume. There is only a somber, sober reflection on the agony of the most unjust death in the history of the world. The Christian story says that, in God’s Providence, Jesus, both human and divine, was put to death by the very creatures that he formed with his hands and into whom he breathed the breath of life.

Click here to read more at National Review

The post How Good Friday Helps Us Cope with the Pandemic appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: James Merritt on why character matters in leadership

Dr. James Merritt joins me to talk about character, leadership, pastoring, and the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr. Merritt is pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga. He is the host of broadcast ministry, Touching Lives.

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: Character Still Counts: It Is Time to Restore Our Lasting Values [image error]
Website: crosspointechurch.com and touchinglives.org
Twitter: @drjamesmerritt and @touchinglivestv

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The Way Home: Justin Lonas and Jerilyn Sanders on COVID-19 and the economy

Justin Lonas and Jerilyn Sanders join me for a bonus episode of The Way Home. On Tuesdays we will be releasing episodes focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week was with with Jared Wilson on pastoring and encouragement during COVID-19. 

Justin and Jerilyn help us think through COVID-19 and the economy.

Jerilyn serves as the Director of U.S. Programs for The Chalmers Center. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Biola University and an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her position at Chalmers synthesizes several things: love for people, passion for training that empowers disenfranchised people, and a desire to see God’s church be all that he meant it to be.

Justin serves as Editorial & Content Specialist for The Chalmers Center. He coordinates the work behind books, articles, blog posts, online courses, video projects, small group curriculums, and other content produced by Chalmers Center staff and ministry partners.

Show Notes

Website: chalmers.org and jryanlonas.com
Twitter: @JRyanLonas

The post The Way Home: Justin Lonas and Jerilyn Sanders on COVID-19 and the economy appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

Remembering the working poor in the time of Coronavirus

They have been the invisible people as I’ve moved around in my career: The people who have assembled and shipped my laptops, the factory workers who print, box, and ship my books, the Uber drivers who take me to meetings and speaking engagements, the flight attendants and baggage carriers who get me to my destinations, the waiters and waitresses, hotel workers who make my travel comfortable and seamless, the baristas who fill my cup every time I text someone and say: “Want to grab coffee?”

For all of my career — over 20 years — I’ve had a job in the information economy at a time when this kind of work is ascendant. This means I’m writing on keypads, staring into screens, posting on social media, speaking or preaching before crowds. I’m paid for words and content. So this strange and terrifying new season of social distancing has slightly disrupted my life with a new normal of working from home, less interaction with colleagues and friends (tough for an extreme extrovert), and cancelled speaking engagements. But for the most part, my life has not been made that much more uncomfortable. I could work from home for the foreseeable future with little disruption.

Read more at Made to Flourish…

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The Way Home: Chap Bettis on ‘Parenting with Patience’

What is proper anger in regards to parenting? How do we handle it? Chap Bettis joins us to talk about patience and anger in parenting.

Chap is offering The Way Home listeners free video training if they show proof of book purchase. Once you’ve purchased Parenting with Patience: Overcoming Anger in the Home[image error], email Melanie and she will send you a code for the video series.

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: Parenting with Patience: Overcoming Anger in the Home [image error]
Website: theapollosproject.com
Twitter: @chapbettis

The post The Way Home: Chap Bettis on ‘Parenting with Patience’ appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Jared Wilson on pastoring and encouragement during COVID-19

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

Jared shares some of the struggles pastors are facing during this unprecedented time. As well as encouragement he would offer pastors who are feeling overworked in this season.

Jared is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Spurgeon College, Author in Residence at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, General Editor of For The Church (and host of the FTC Podcast), and Director of The Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo.

Show Notes

Website: jaredcwilson.com
Twitter: @jaredcwilson
Book: jaredcwilson.com/books

The post The Way Home: Jared Wilson on pastoring and encouragement during COVID-19 appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

How to Find Peace in a Pandemic

I am, by nature, optimistic. Ask the people who know me best, and they’d all agree I tend to find the sunniest take on nearly everything, almost to the point of annoyance. But in this strange, uncertain season we are experiencing as the coronavirus ravages our communities and countries, I have been gripped, at various times, by palpable terror.

One night in particular, I read a dire, worst-case scenario projection right before I went to bed and found I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned and prayed all night, unable to find peace.

Academically, I know all the reassurances I’ve often given people in times like these. I can quote the psalms and other passages that speak of the goodness of God, His sovereignty, His power over creation. Still, fear sits in the doorway of my heart like an uninvited guest, refusing to grant peace entrance.

On some level, this is a perfectly natural response. A worldwide unstoppable pandemic is the kind of thing humans have feared since the beginning. In the Scriptures, plagues are often a part of God’s package of judgments against heathen nations or ways of chastening His own people. Faithful Bible students today avoid making those direct connections to what is happening now, but plagues are among the most severe kind of natural occurrence. And throughout history, we’ve read where pestilences wiped out entire civilizations. There is a reason we say “avoid it like the plague” about activities we hate. The dread of pandemics is a real and important fear.

Read more at In Touch Ministries…

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The Way Home: Jeanne Allert on offering hope to victims of human trafficking

Jeanne Allert is the founder and Executive Director of The Samaritan Women. She joins me to share how the organization helps those who have suffered from human trafficking and domestic violence find a place of shelter and hope to put their lives back together.

This episode of The Way Home is sponsored by our friends at The Good Book Company, publisher of Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With? by Sam Allberry, the latest from the bestselling Oxford Apologetics series.

Show Notes

Website: thesamaritanwomen.org

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