Daniel Darling's Blog, page 49
October 15, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 39 featuring Alan Cross
How should Christians think about immigration, the refugee crisis, and race? Today, my friend Alan Cross joins me to discuss these important issues. Alan is a Southern Baptist pastor in Montgomery AL, an author, blogger. He’s the author of a great book When Heaven and Earth Collide.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Twitter: @alanlcross
Website: alancrosswrites.com
Book: When Heaven and Earth Collide
October 8, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 38 featuring Jonathan Howe
How should pastors conduct themselves on social media? Should pastors blog and if so, why? And what does it take to get a good podcast off the ground? These are questions I posted to Jonathan Howe, a very good friend and an expert on creating, publishing, and posting digital content. Jonathan is Director of Strategic Initiatives for Lifeway Christian Resources. He’s the creator and cohost of the popular Christian podcast, Rainer on Leadership and the host of the new and popular, SBC This Week podcast.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Twitter: @Jonathan_Howe; @sbcthisweek
Rainer on Leadership website and podcast: thomrainer.com
SBC This Week: sbcthisweek.com
Jonathan’s Website: howeoriginal.com
October 3, 2015
The Great Commission Versus the Church Calendar
From my latest piece for In Touch:
“It’s not simply the pastor’s job to make disciples, it’s the job of the whole church,” I had said for the umpteenth time in a message on discipleship. When my sermon was finished, I headed to the back of the auditorium, as I’ve always done, to shake hands with people as they left.
I’ll never forget the look of one faithful church member. It was that of ministry fatigue. We had just finished a series of weeklong ministry projects—a monumental undertaking at our church—and this lady was reflecting the exhaustion that our people felt. She didn’t say anything to me, but the combination of seeing her tired face and the words I’d just preached were used by God to speak powerfully to my soul. Perhaps the reason your people aren’t making disciples is because you have kept them too busy with church activities.
It’s a hard pill for most pastors to swallow. This especially for leaders like myself, who like to plan and dream. My intentions had been sincere: I wanted to do all I could to equip the people of God through training, small groups, and Sunday school. My desire was to facilitate times of fellowship and togetherness through dinners and potlucks and shared experiences. And I hoped to conduct attractive events that would draw the community in order to gain an audience for the gospel.
What I hadn’t realized, till this point, was just how taxing my overambitious schedule was for already-busy people. Not only was it sapping away their joy and robbing them of needed spiritual rhythms of rest and meditation, it was stealing away precious time—time that could be spent pursuing relationships in the community.
Read the whole thing here
photo credit: studio curve
October 1, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 37 featuring Courtney Reissig
Courtney Reissig is the author of The Accidental Feminist: Restoring Our Delight in God’s Good Design
.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Book: The Accidental Feminist
Twitter: @courtneyreissig
Website: cdtarter.blogspot.com
September 25, 2015
ICYMI: Trust, Engagement, Mission
In case you missed it: some of my latest articles:
Three Important Ways to Build Trust – Lifeway Pastors
What is the most important character trait for a pastor? A preaching gift? Theological education? Leadership skills? Vision? Communication saavy? A shepherd’s heart?
All of these things are important and essential for the ministry, but none of them will be used effectively if the pastor doesn’t possess the one thing that will determine the rise or fall of his ministry: trust.
Trust matters. When people first walk through the doors of a church, they enter with a bit of fear. Most likely they have had a stressful, busy, difficult week. As pastor Mike Glenn once said, “People use up all of their faith just getting to church on Sunday.”
They want to know: Can I trust the pastor? Can he lead me well? This is especially important in an age of distrust. In the last several decades we’ve seen our venerable institutions fail us: our banks, our government, our religious organizations, our sports leagues, our schools, our media. People are skeptical of leaders at all levels.
Ironically, I think pastors have a unique opportunity to lead in this environment by demonstrating the unique kind of shepherding, nurturing, winsome leadership so absent from all other institutions. But trust can’t be learned in a book. It can’t be taught. It has to be both earned and then practiced.
Read the rest here
How Christians Should Engage This Election – Relevant Magazine
Whether we like it or not, the 2016 U.S. Presidential election cycle is upon us. Some greet this with a weary sigh while others, like me, love the drama of another historic moment in America’s story.
Regardless of where you fall on the scale of interest, the most important question is how Christians should conduct themselves during this election season. The world is watching God’s people, not just for how they vote, but for how they act both online and in conversations with family and friends.
Read the rest here:
Your Neighbors Are Not Who You Think They Are – Lookout Magazine
“We are Muslims,” my neighbor told me after I knocked on his door to greet him a few days after his family moved into our neighborhood. “There are some things we hold dear to us,” he explained. “I hope you understand.”
Our families have since become friends, and he and I have engaged in some meaningful conversations about religion. His presence in our Bible-belt city, bursting with immigrant growth from several countries, is a reminder that our communities look vastly different, in every way, from the communities of our parents. Some followers of Christ see this new reality—what some are calling a post-Christian era—as a threat to our way of life. But seen through Great Commission lenses, the rising opposition to Christianity and the influx of other religions presents us with a fresh opportunity to do what we should have been doing all along: sharing the gospel story with new audiences.
What does evangelism look like for Christians in the West in the 21st century? The gospel message is still the same. The mandate to make Jesus known hasn’t changed. And the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives hasn’t abated.
What must change is the way Christians apply the gospel to the culture to which we are called. This means we not only must reconcile ourselves to our new status as a minority, we must embrace the people God is sending into our spheres of influence, forging deep and lasting relationships that allow gospel opportunities. But what does this look like?
Read the rest here
September 24, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 36 featuring Laura Story
What happens when God doesn’t fix what you want him to fix? This is the question Laura Story faced recently. Laura Story is an award-winning Christian singer and songwriter. She has written some of the most beautiful songs for worship: “Blessings”, “Indescribable” “Mighty to Save”, “Friend of Sinners.” She recently wrote a book: When God Doesn’t Fix It.
We had a chance to talk to Laura about her journey with God and finding faith when God doesn’t answer in the way you’d like. I was joined on this podcast by my colleague, Lindsay Swartz.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Book: When God Doesn’t Fix It
Music: laurastorymusic.com/music
Twitter: @laurastorymusic
Website: laurastorymusic.com
September 17, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 35 featuring Matt Lewis
Today on the podcast I’m joined by my friend Matt Lewis. Matt is a popular columnist, author, and political pundit. His work is featured regularly in The Week and The Daily Beast.He is also a senior contributor for The Daily Caller. Matt Lewis is the author of a new book on conservatism called Too Dumb to Fail
.
Matt and I discuss politics, conservatism, writing, blogging, and baseball.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Book: Too Dumb to Fail
Twitter: @mattklewis
Websites: mattklewis.com; The Week, The Daily Caller
September 10, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 34 featuring Vincent DiCaro
Today I am glad to be joined by my friend Vincent DiCaro, Chief Outreach Officer for Carenet. Prior to that Vincent worked at The National Fatherhood Initiative. Carenet is a national organization with over 1,100 crisis pregnancy centers. Vincent is going to talk to us about the effectiveness of Pregnancy Resource Centers, particularly in light of a new impact report that came out talking about how many lives Care Net Centers have saved.
Care-Net is a major sponsor of an event we are hosting with Focus on the Family, next year, around the March for Life: Evangelicals for Life. Registration for this important event in Washington, D.C. is open.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Twitter: @vindicaro
Website: care-net.org
PRC Impact Report
Outraged at Planned Parenthood? Here Are Six Things You Can Do.
September 3, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 33 with Lisa Anderson
Today I am glad to be joined by my friend Lisa Anderson. Lisa is the director of Boundless and young adults at Focus on the Family and hosts The Boundless Show, a national radio program and podcast.. Lisa is a longtime friend and a terrific voice on singleness, dating, theology and other issues that affect young Christian adults.
Today we are going to talk about her new book, The Dating Manifesto. There is a lot of confusion in the church about dating, courtship, etc. She helps clear some of this up and offers a Biblical way for Christian singles to live out the gospel and pursue marriage.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Book: The Dating Manifesto: A Drama-Free Plan for Pursuing Marriage with Purpose
Twitter: @LisaCAnderson
Websites: lisacanderson.com; boundless.org; Focus on the Family
On the podcast I mentioned the release of my new book, The Original Jesus, which releases September 1st.
August 27, 2015
The Way Home: Episode 32 with Phillip Bethancourt
What does strategic and visionary leadership look like for Christian organizations? This is the topic of today’s podcast where I’m joined by my colleague, Phillip Bethancourt. Phillip is the executive vice-president of ERLC. He previously served as Vice President for Enrollment Management and Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Seminary. He completed an MDiv and PhD in Systematic Theology at Southern after attending Texas A&M University.
Phililp and I talk about creating healthy organizational cultures, anticipating crisis, and how Texas A&M will fare in this upcoming college football season.
Listen to this week’s episode
Show Notes:
Twitter: @pbethancourt
Website: phillipbethancourt.com
On the podcast I mentioned the release of my new book, The Original Jesus, which releases September 1st.
