Daniel Darling's Blog, page 27

Joni Eareckson Tada on dignity and advocating for people with disabilities

This episode is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the release of The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity. In this series, Dan is bringing together leaders and thinkers whose work helps Christians think well about what it means to be human.

What does it mean to be a God reflector? How do we act out of humility rather than pride? Joni Eareckson Tada joins me to discuss this and more.

Joni is the Founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center and is an international advocate for people with disabilities. A diving accident in 1967 left Joni, then 17, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, without the use of her hands.

You can pre-order The Dignity Revolution today and receive a free one-year subscription to Light Magazine.

Show Notes

Website: joniandfriends.org
Twitter: @joniandfriends

The post Joni Eareckson Tada on dignity and advocating for people with disabilities appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

How Did Jesus View the Bible?

When I pastored my small, theologically conservative church, I could safely assume the people sitting in the pews on Sunday morning to hear me preach believed that the Bible they held in their hands was God’s Word. But what exactly does that mean?

Enter Pastor Kevin DeYoung. His book, Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me (Crossway, 2014) doesn’t break any new ground in the debates over inerrancy. Coming in at just under 140 pages, this is a quick and easy read. But that’s just the point. DeYoung synthesizes the best scholarly arguments for the reliability, trustworthiness, and inspiration of Scriptures and presents them in a way that my deacons could digest and understand.

What is helpful about DeYoung is his willingness to address contemporary questions about Scripture and our perennial desire to mold Scripture to our current context. Perhaps the most valuable chapter in Taking God at His Word is chapter seven, “Christ’s Unbreakable Bible” where he pushes back on the notion of a “red-letter” Jesus. “I’m not asking how Jesus interpreted the Bible or fulfilled the Bible, or what he taught from the Bible,” DeYoung writes. “I’m addressing only the simple, absolutely crucial question: what did Jesus believe about his Bible?” Then DeYoung systematically describes Jesus’ strong doctrine and high view of Scripture.

This is an especially important argument today when many evangelicals are placing a high premium on the words of Jesus, but questioning whether they are compatible with the rest of God’s revelation. Unhelpful dichotomies such as “Jesus came to abolish the law” or Jesus came to “do away with religion” confuse believers and lead them away from a holistic understanding of the entire span of salvation history.

Taking God at His Word also makes Sola Scriptura accessible to a new generation. The Bible occupies the magisterial role, and the Church is its minister. You’ll find a fuller treatment in works such as Timothy Ward’s Words of Life, but DeYoung gives a terrific and clear-eyed view of the important arguments.

Last, DeYoung forcefully urges Christians to consider the Bible to be “clear” and “sufficient” for faith and practice. To evangelicals for whom certainty is a four-letter word, DeYoung’s apologetic will go down hard, but he offers an important reminder of the danger of shading God’s revealed truth in gray hues.

DeYoung may not convince those already determined to press their cultural preferences upon Scripture, but he’ll likely influence those curious about the relationship between Jesus and the law. What’s more, this little book will sharpen those who agree, philosophically, with the argument that “the Bible is the Word of God” but are unsure of how to explain it. Its compact format has the potential to stimulate good thinking from lay believers otherwise unengaged in the important apologetic arguments surrounding the Scripture they trust to be breathed by God.

Pastors and church leaders will find this a handy resource to hand out to new believers and mature saints who never personally grappled with the doctrine of Scripture. In making esoteric arguments accessible to the average Christian, DeYoung has succeeded. If he equips a new generation with a confidence in God’s revealed Word, this is something worth applauding.

This article was originally published here.

The post How Did Jesus View the Bible? appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Rick Smith on human dignity and Down syndrome

This episode is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the release of The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity. In this series, Dan is bringing together leaders and thinkers whose work helps Christians think well about what it means to be human.

How can Christians help lead the conversation of Down syndrome? Rick Smith, founder of Hope Story, joins me to talk about being a dad to a child with Down syndrome. He shares how he and his wife started a ministry to educate people about Down syndrome.

You can pre-order The Dignity Revolution today and receive a free one-year subscription to Light Magazine.

Show Notes

Website: noahsdad.com and hopestory.org
Twitter: @RickSmith and @hopestory_org

The post The Way Home: Rick Smith on human dignity and Down syndrome appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: John Kilner on the image of God and why people matter

This episode is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the release of The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity. In this series, Dan is bringing together leaders and thinkers whose work helps Christians think well about what it means to be human.

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Dr. John Kilner joins me to talk about bioethics, the Imago Dei, and why people matter.

Dr. Kilner served for more than eleven years as president of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity on the Trinity campus, where he continues as senior fellow. He is currently co-chair of the bioethics section of the Evangelical Theological Society.

You can pre-order The Dignity Revolution today and receive a free one-year subscription to Light Magazine.

Show Notes

Website: divinity.tiu.edu
Book: Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God [image error] and Why People Matter: A Christian Engagement with Rival Views of Human Significance [image error]

The post The Way Home: John Kilner on the image of God and why people matter appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Mindy Belz on international reporting and humanizing ignored people groups

This episode is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the release of The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity. In this series, Dan is bringing together leaders and thinkers whose work helps Christians think well about what it means to be human.

Mindy Belz is senior editor of WORLD Magazine and the author of They Say We Are Infidels. Through her reporting she has helped to humanize people we are otherwise tempted to ignore.

You can pre-order The Dignity Revolution today and receive a free one-year subscription to Light Magazine.

Show Notes

Website: world.wng.org/globe-trot
Twitter: @mcbelz

The post The Way Home: Mindy Belz on international reporting and humanizing ignored people groups appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Russell Moore on being created in the image of God

This episode is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the release of The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity. In this series, Dan is bringing together leaders and thinkers whose work helps Christians think well about what it means to be human.

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? How does this relate to human dignity? Russell Moore joins this special edition of the podcast. Dr. Moore is the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

You can pre-order The Dignity Revolution today and receive a free one-year subscription to Light Magazine.

Show Notes

Website: russellmoore.com and erlc.com
Twitter: @drmoore

The post The Way Home: Russell Moore on being created in the image of God appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

Behold Your Mother

“Yeah, well, we’re leaving tomorrow for vacation.”

This was the stunning response I received from the adult daughter of an ill and elderly church member when I called to let them know her father was in the hospital, hanging on to life.

I wish I could say this was a rare exception, but I’d be lying. When I pastored a mostly elderly congregation, I was shocked at the cavalier attitude of their Christian children. These were otherwise professing, faithful, generous believers who, nonetheless, seemed dismissive about their parents.

I’m not referring to the very difficult decision many face of whether to personally care for parents in the home or to find them a facility where their needs can best be met. This is always a complex and difficult decision and it’s not the same for every family in this situation. What is clear, however, is the responsibility of children to stewardship, oversight, and compassion for parents in their twilight years.

I know some children who found this kind of care a sacred honor, even though the hours were often filled with thankless tasks and sad realities. Elder care can be a grueling and lonely grind.

What disturbed me were the others, too many of them, who offered a “not my problem” approach, a kind of blame-shifting, pass-the-baton attitude that leaves family members without the resources to live the last years of life with dignity.

Sometimes this responsibility was shifted to the church. A refrain I often heard was “Isn’t this the church’s problem?” There is some truth here. Christ’s body is supposed to look out for the marginalized, particularly those in their advanced years. I was always amazed at the level of care and generosity exhibited by our small congregation. But there are some levels of care and decision-making that even the most resourced, well-meaning churches can’t provide, such as power-of-attorney, difficult housing decisions, and medical decisions. What’ s more, the church shouldn’t enable abdication of responsibility by family.

A theology of parental care

So where does this indifference come from? Why does this exist among Christian children of elderly parents? There are likely quite a few complex factors, but I wonder if some of this lack of compassion stems from a failure to adequately teach the biblical ethic of “honoring father and mother,” given by God as law in the Pentateuch (Exodus 20:12) and continued in the New Covenant (Ephesians 6:2).

To “honor” in ancient times meant more than what we think that word might mean. It carried with it a commitment for children to care for their parents in their infirm years. This was a countercultural idea, both in the ancient Near Eastern context of Israel and the first century world of the Church. It might be just as countercultural today, in an increasingly utilitarian society. Health care experts are writing, more persuasively, about the elderly’s lack of societal usefulness.

This is why care for the elderly is not simply “the right thing to do” but a vivid portrait of the gospel story. The Holy Spirit in us renews our self-centered motivations, reminding us that Christ cared for our spiritual disability while we were spiritually dead and “yet sinners.” Witness Jesus’ words to his beloved disciple John, from the cross. Even while suffering cruel injustice and bearing sin, he made sure his mother Mary would have her physical needs met. “John,” he said, “Behold your Mother.”

We often read Jesus’ final words here as a sign and symbol of the New Covenant, where Christ is calling out a new people with new allegiances. He’s creating a new family, made up of the redeemed from every nation, tribe, and tongue. So John has a new mother and Mary has a new son. Two thousand years later the Spirit is still creating new mothers and new sons in the family of God.

But there is also something else at work here. Jesus was fully human, a real son from a real mother. His submission to the Father’s will in going to the cross didn’t release him from the earthly responsibilities to the one who had wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger, who nurtured him, provided for him, and cared for him as a child.

What does Jesus’ example offer for his followers? It reminds us that honoring our parents isn’t simply payback for their care for us in childhood. It’s not a reward dependent on how well they parented us. Care for your parents is a reflection of what we believe about the gospel.

It seems we need to recover this ethic in church life. I fear that our good desire to reach the next generation becomes an obsession with youth so much so that we often leave behind the aging. I wonder if we’ve imbibed too much of our culture’s pragmatic utilitarianism that discards people when they are no longer at peak usefulness.

Care of parents, particularly in the latter years, is difficult, grueling, and offers little tangible reward. The elderly seem like speed bumps on the road to relevance. But if we really believe each human life was made in the image of God, if we really believe that every human has intrinsic worth, regardless of utility, we’d do better at embodying this ethic when it comes to equipping our people to care for their elderly parents.

We can do this in several ways. First, we can preach the biblical texts on honoring parents and include the elderly in our preaching on the sanctity of human life. Second, we should be more intentional about fostering intergenerational relationships so the younger see the value of engagement with senior saints. Third, we need to be more intentional about challenging those tempted to abdicate their responsibility to their parents and affirm those who willingly take up the task. Lastly, the church can connect our people to helpful resources in the community that offer help and wise counsel.

Most of all, however, the church must embody the ethic of Jesus on the cross, who embodied the holistic nature of the gospel, which doesn’t only say, “Father forgive them,” but also, “Mother, here is your son.”

This article was originally published here.

The post Behold Your Mother appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Way Home: Rich Stearns on human dignity and the Great Commission

This episode is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the release of The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity. In this series, Dan is bringing together leaders and thinkers whose work helps Christians think well about what it means to be human.

He has traveled all over the world in a 20-year career, helping World Vision bring help and hope to the most vulnerable. World Vision CEO Rich Stearns joins me to talk about what he’s learned about a Christian’s call to both the Great Commission and Great Commandment, about leadership in a multi-national Christian organization, and why he still thinks too many Christians have a hole in their gospel.

You can pre-order The Dignity Revolution today and receive a free one-year subscription to Light Magazine.

Show Notes

Website: worldvision.org
Twitter: @RichStearns

The post The Way Home: Rich Stearns on human dignity and the Great Commission appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

The Worst Ministry Advice I Ever Received

“Son,” the pastor whispered to me as he put his hand on my shoulder, “You need to listen up to what I’m about to tell you, because it will be the key to your ministry success.”

I leaned in, eager to hear this crucial insight.

“Don’t become friends with anyone in your congregation.”

This pastor was only a few years older than me, but he’d grown up in a pastor’s home. He was scarred from the abuse he’d seen his father suffer and from his own experiences in ministry.

To be fair, his advice did contain some bits of wisdom. There is a danger for leaders in allowing friendship to cloud judgment or show favoritism. If we’re not careful, we’ll allow ministry to either damage relationships or to keep us from necessary confrontations. I think he was genuinely trying to warn me about these pitfalls.

But is this detached view of leadership, espoused in many leadership models, a good one for the pastor? Is the risk of being hurt by possible betrayals a good reason to adopt an “above the fray” approach?

I didn’t think so, for a few reasons.

First, my wife and I just didn’t know how to not make friends with the people we served. We are both natural extroverts who thrive on relationships. More important, we didn’t see a way to faithfully serve our small congregation without investing fully in their lives, forming friendships, and being vulnerable. In other words, how would we live and work among humans without being fully human?

Second, I don’t see a detachment from people in Jesus’ public ministry. Yes, Jesus took time to get away from the crowds and be alone—something too few pastors do—but this is the same Jesus who purposefully chose, discipled, and cultivated 12 men to walk closely with him for three years. What’s more, Jesus further winnowed his inner circle to three: Peter, James, and John and had perhaps a best friend in John, often described as “the Apostle whom Jesus loved.”

So Jesus, the Good Shepherd, had good friends. He chose a best friend. How can we do less? Of course, there are a few considerations. Unlike Jesus, by choosing and forming deep friendship with a few parishioners, we can form an unhealthy bubble and be isolated from real issues and legitimate criticism. We can also send a signal that we favor, both in our preaching and in our service, certain people over others. Jesus didn’t allow his close friendships to keep him from ministry to others—and neither should we.

Third, not developing friends with your parishioners leaves you isolated. And isolation in ministry is dangerous. I’ve observed that every pastor is a preacher, but not every preacher is a pastor. There is a tendency among pastors who (rightly) prioritize personal study to disconnect from the congregation and function as glorified conferences speaker. We become someone everybody shows up to hear once a week to deliver a sermon.

I don’t want to diminish the importance of preaching. Jesus told Peter in that famous walk on the beach in John 21 to “feed my sheep.” God’s people need the regular, systematic, lifelong feeding on the Word of God. Pastors cannot be less than preachers, but they should be so much more. In fact, I feel strongly that a pastor who is isolated from his congregation, who never makes deep friendships, who is detached from the real-world, daily struggles of those who walk in the doors will not be able to effectively shepherd his own people.

It shows up in your preaching. When I pastored, I preached differently after having conversations with my people. I had their faces in my mind as I prepared. I thought of the restaurant executive who was under constant pressure to see his franchises pull bigger profits. I saw the college student who faced a daily barrage of anti-Christian rhetoric from his professors and classmates. I saw the homeschooling mom who felt inadequate, most days, to do her job.

If you don’t know your people, if you are not friends with them, if you do not share your life, your vulnerabilities, even your fears with them, you will not have the relationship capital to then shepherd them well through the seasons of life.

In my current role working for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, I’ve had the chance to hear a lot of different pastors in a lot of different churches. I can tell the ones who have been among their people. There is an earthiness to them. They are . . . shepherds. I can also tell the pastors who are essentially conference speakers. They preach awesome, well-crafted sermons, sermons that edify and educate. But there is a kind of academic, ivory-tower feel to what they are saying. It sails right past the guy who works 70 hours at the warehouse and the single mom who waits tables.

There are a lot of people who can preach well. But far fewer are willing to pastor. Some argue that these are separate gifts and it is true that, especially in larger churches, different people will be called to different roles. Pastors of large churches can’t possibly befriend everyone who walks in the door on Sunday nor should they be guilted into thinking they should. Neither Jesus nor Paul were personal friends with most of those who heard their preaching.

And yet, pastors should at least be friends with some in their congregations. Some of their best friends should be from among the people they serve. There is certainly a risk to forming these kinds of bonds, but there is also great reward, both personally and for the ministry as a whole. Some of my best, most enriching and sanctifying relationships are with people whom I pastored.

So, with all due respect to that pastor who gave me the advice to “not get too close” to the people I served, I would give the opposite advice. If you are going to shepherd God’s people faithfully, don’t do it from afar, detached, and disengaged. Roll up your relational sleeves and live among them. This will be the key to your ministry success.

This article was originally published here.

The post The Worst Ministry Advice I Ever Received appeared first on Daniel Darling, author, pastor, speaker.

A Ministry of the Mundane

I’ll never forget the quiet of the church building on my first day as pastor. I had previously served on a large church staff with many action-packed weekly ministries. The building was a beehive of activity. But in my new role as pastor of a small church, it was a different experience, one my Bible-college training and Christian upbringing didn’t quite prepare me for.

I suspect most of my ministry colleagues have made similar adjustments. I once heard Chuck Swindoll say to a gathering of ministers, “In ministry life, there are more moments of the mundane than the magnificent.” This is true, but why is it so hard to adjust to a ministry of the mundane?

Pastors are rightly motivated to see God do a grand work in their midst. After all, that’s why we surrendered to the call to ministry in the first place. We want to be vessels through which God changes the lives of the people we serve. We read the book of Acts and are inspired, again and again, by the way the Spirit of God builds Christ’s church. And we ask ourselves: Why can’t that happen here, in this community, through this local church?

We all want God to do something big, and we want that big thing to happen through our ministry. This isn’t necessarily a bad or carnal impulse. We should dream, as Paul did in Romans 10:1, for the salvation of those who are alienated from God. We should read the Great Commission and the words of the Lord in Acts 1:8 and the picture of the gathering of the kingdom from all nations in Revelation 5 and 7 as both a challenge to spread God’s name and a promise of Christ’s activity in this generation. Nobody should go into ministry with only a casual interest in seeing people moved from death to life.

God is in the whisper

However, this doesn’t mean we, ourselves, have to be overcome with frenetic activity. Sometimes God moves in big, catalytic moments like conferences and memorable worship services or large-scale events. Other times, however, God moves in the quiet, small things.

I’m reminded of Elijah, who experienced an adrenalin crash after his showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Many in Israel still worshipped Yahweh, yet still he was despondent because the big convert, Queen Jezebel, remained hardened in opposition.

As God ministered to his discouraged prophet in 1 Kings 19, he demonstrates God’s unwillingness to be held captive by our expectations. Elijah stood and watched a series of big natural phenomena: a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire. Each time, the text is clear that God was not in any of these events. God was in what came next: a whisper.

Does this mean God isn’t in control of earthquakes and fires and wind? No. Does this mean God doesn’t use big events to bring about his purposes? No. But the point God is making to Elijah and to us who speak and minister for God, is this: God is also in the whisper. He’s in the quiet, ordinary moments of life.

Gregory the Great wrote, “Purity of heart and simplicity are of great force with almighty God, who is in purity most singular, and of nature most simple.”

Most of our professional ministry training prepares us for the big moments. This is good. But I wonder if we go into the pastorate expecting every day to be Mt. Carmel, when more days are like Elijah’s solace under the juniper tree.

We have a natural restlessness. In part it’s a product of the culture in which we live, where we are constantly awaiting the next big thing. Our smartphones light up with alerts from social media, email, text, and phones. Each one has the promise of something new: a new conversation, a new opportunity, a new news story. We are mastered by the moment.

I find it extraordinarily difficult to turn this off. It’s a constant battle that I don’t always win. I find it hard not to check my phone regularly, even when I should be present with people.

This is a symptom of not just a busy culture, but a busy heart. We are restless creatures because we are running from the solitude that allows us to meditate, to be quiet, to hear God speak, to repent. It’s uncomfortable to face ourselves, so we fill our time with distractions.

The way of Jesus is not just active ministry. It’s time away with the Father. It’s not just crisis and confrontation; it’s the ordinary, mundane, and common. As much as we need to plan the next big event, we need to experience routines, and rest and renewal. At times, this might mean a sabbatical or time away with the family. Often it’s simply structuring our lives to include moments that are not big or consequential: breakfast with friends, a few hours to read and grow, or pursuing a life-giving hobby. I’m reminded of Thomas Carlyle’s statement that silence is “the element in which great things fashion themselves together.”

It’s one thing to cultivate this “theology of the mundane” in our own hearts, but it’s another altogether to incorporate it into our leadership. Leadership books often coach readers to evaluate all of life through the grid of “How does this activity contribute to our five- and ten-year goals?” Instead, try accepting that all of life doesn’t have to be driven by the next big moment. Enjoy this present ministry.

We do this in a few ways. First, model in your schedule the kind of healthy spiritual rhythms you’d like others to develop. Second, take the long view of church ministry, where the Spirit of God slowly changes the hearts of his people, rather than making every Sunday “the big Sunday.” Third, work to balance your desire for growth with a commitment to pastor the people in front of us, rather than the people we wish we had.

The mundane isn’t meaningless

Sometimes our well-meaning impulse toward missions and evangelism reduces the mundane to meaningless. We need to recall that God’s Kingdom means he rules over all the earth, not just over what happens on Sunday. It isn’t always the big moments—the dramatic altar calls, the big donations to fund a project, the talented new hire on the church staff—where God is working. The daily, obscure work that fills ministry life matters too. Painting a nursery wall, stuffing bulletins, conversations with neighbors, cleaning up after a potluck—this too is Kingdom work.

For years as a staff member of a big and influential church, I would drive past small churches and think to myself: What even happens there? As if God is only present in mega-ministries.

Pastoring a small church changed that for me. Early on, a young person wrote me a heartfelt note about how my recent sermon series helped them understand the power of forgiveness. I remember thinking, Those sermons, at a church nobody has ever heard of, were somehow used by God in that young person’s life. On another occasion, a confused and recently divorced man stumbled into our tiny church parking lot to speak with one of our elders after everyone had left church on Sunday. That conversation led to this man’s conversion.

God is at work in all kinds of churches in all kinds of different ways. The spirit of Christ is drawing people to himself and changing lives through the church of 100 just as he is in the church of 10,000. He is working in the mundane, the everyday life of the church, even when it seems nothing is happening but an occasional whisper.

This article was originally published here.

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