Daniel Darling's Blog, page 52

How to preach on race

Today, at the Lifeway Pastors blog, I have an article encouraging white pastors to preach on racial reconciliation. It’s not a subject we’ve often addressed from the pulpit, for a variety of reasons. I also give three ways to do this. The first is the most obvious: preach on race when the biblical text in front of you addresses it:

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 ingathering 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.

Read the rest of the article here:

Here We Stand: An Evangelical Statement on Marriage

Today the Supreme Court issued its ruling, making same-sex marriage legal in all fifty states. I am honored join a broad coalition of evangelicals to sign my name to this statement in dissent:

As evangelical Christians, we dissent from the court’s ruling that redefines marriage. The state did not create the family, and should not try to recreate the family in its own image. We will not capitulate on marriage because biblical authority requires that we cannot. The outcome of the Supreme Court’s ruling to redefine marriage represents what seems like the result of a half-century of witnessing marriage’s decline through divorce, cohabitation, and a worldview of almost limitless sexual freedom. The Supreme Court’s actions pose incalculable risks to an already volatile social fabric by alienating those whose beliefs about marriage are motivated by deep biblical convictions and concern for the common good.

The Bible clearly teaches the enduring truth that marriage consists of one man and one woman. From Genesis to Revelation, the authority of Scripture witnesses to the nature of biblical marriage as uniquely bound to the complementarity of man and woman. This truth is not negotiable. The Lord Jesus himself said that marriage is from the beginning (Matt. 19:4-6), so no human institution has the authority to redefine marriage any more than a human institution has the authority to redefine the gospel, which marriage mysteriously reflects (Eph. 5:32). The Supreme Court’s ruling to redefine marriage demonstrates mistaken judgment by disregarding what history and countless civilizations have passed on to us, but it also represents an aftermath that evangelicals themselves, sadly, are not guiltless in contributing to. Too often, professing evangelicals have failed to model the ideals we so dearly cherish and believe are central to gospel proclamation.

Evangelical churches must be faithful to the biblical witness on marriage regardless of the cultural shift. Evangelical churches in America now find themselves in a new moral landscape that calls us to minister in a context growing more hostile to a biblical sexual ethic. This is not new in the history of the church. From its earliest beginnings, whether on the margins of society or in a place of influence, the church is defined by the gospel. We insist that the gospel brings good news to all people, regardless of whether the culture considers the news good or not.

The gospel must inform our approach to public witness. As evangelicals animated by the good news that God offers reconciliation through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, we commit to:

Respect and pray for our governing authorities even as we work through the democratic process to rebuild a culture of marriage (Rom. 13:1-7);

teach the truth about biblical marriage in a way that brings healing to a sexually broken culture;

affirm the biblical mandate that all persons, including LGBT persons, are created in the image of God and deserve dignity and respect;

love our neighbors regardless of whatever disagreements arise as a result of conflicting beliefs about marriage;

live respectfully and civilly alongside those who may disagree with us for the sake of the common good;

cultivate a common culture of religious liberty that allows the freedom to live and believe differently to prosper.

The redefinition of marriage should not entail the erosion of religious liberty. In the coming years, evangelical institutions could be pressed to sacrifice their sacred beliefs about marriage and sexuality in order to accommodate whatever demands the culture and law require. We do not have the option to meet those demands without violating our consciences and surrendering the gospel. We will not allow the government to coerce or infringe upon the rights of institutions to live by the sacred belief that only men and women can enter into marriage.

The gospel of Jesus Christ determines the shape and tone of our ministry. Christian theology considers its teachings about marriage both timeless and unchanging, and therefore we must stand firm in this belief. Outrage and panic are not the responses of those confident in the promises of a reigning Christ Jesus. While we believe the Supreme Court has erred in its ruling, we pledge to stand steadfastly, faithfully witnessing to the biblical teaching that marriage is the chief cornerstone of society, designed to unite men, women, and children. We promise to proclaim and live this truth at all costs, with convictions that are communicated with kindness and love.

A Primer on Southern Baptists

Just who are the Southern Baptists? When I did ministry in the Chicago area (not an SBC stronghold), I often heard evangelicals talk about Southern Baptists in ways that I knew were either caricatures or just plain wrong. This is why I was so glad my boss, Dr. Russell Moore, penned this great piece for OnFaith on 10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew about Southern Baptists. 

One of the things he wishes people knew (and I wish people knew) is about the growing diversity in the SBC. He says this:

We’re more ethnically diverse than you might think. Among the fastest growing demographics in the Southern Baptist life are African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American congregations. The most vibrant of our churches often include many languages and ethnic groups.Though positive steps have happened, it’s not good enough for many of us, since we believe the church is designed to be a preview of the coming kingdom of God, a kingdom that is made up of those from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. Most of the Body of Christ, on earth as well is in heaven, isn’t white and has never spoken English.We celebrate our growing diversity, including seminary programs intentionally training the next generation of ethnic minority leadership, even as we note that we have far yet to go. With every year that passes, we have more and more salsa at our church potlucks, and we like it that way.

Do yourself a favor and read this whole piece: 10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Southern Baptists – OnFaith

What Dad taught Me: 5 Invaluable Principles I Use Every Day

My dad is a quiet man, more comfortable working with his hands than delivering a speech or writing an essay. But this doesn’t mean Dad wasn’t a teacher. Dad’s life spoke to me in ways that I still think of today. Most of these lessons were simply by following his example.

My father grew up in a broken home. He didn’t know his real father until he was fourteen years old. He dealt with the devastating effects of alcoholism and was forced to grow up fast. While still in high-school, he got up early to work at a bakery, using this income to support his mother (my grandmother) as she helped raise six children with my father’s step-dad.

While in his late teens, my father came to faith in Christ through the ministry of Billy Graham. He later met my mother, a Jewish girl who converted to Christianity, and they got married. I’m the oldest of three children.

Dad was a blue-collar guy, a licensed plumber, who has always been known for the quality of his work. It wasn’t the specific job he did but the way Dad carried himself that taught me the most about life, about manhood, and about living out the gospel. These five lessons are ones I’ve adopted as I seek to honor the Lord with my life:

1. A real man acknowledges his dependence on God. Even though my father is a rugged, hardworking, “man’s man”, he has always been unafraid to admit his weakness and need for Christ. I remember getting up every morning and seeing my father, up early, reading his Bible.

Now to be sure, I’m not a morning person, so my kids don’t find me up early reading the Bible. I do my Bible reading at other times, mostly at night. But I have tried to carry Dad’s dependence on the Word with me. Dad taught me the value of making Scripture the center of a family’s life. I think this is why all three of his children are actively following Christ to this day.

2. A real man takes his family to church every week. I guess I didn’t realize the importance of this until I became a father and had my own children. It was just assumed that every Sunday we went to church. There was never a question. No matter what was going on that week, no matter how tired Dad was, no matter who was playing whom that Sunday, we were in church. Dad had a pretty iron-clad policy: if you stayed home sick, then you were sick that whole day. You didn’t play hooky, pretend to be sick, and then play outside on Sunday.

For a young man, this is an important visual statement. Kids need to see their fathers faithfully leading them to church every week. This tells the family that worship of the risen Christ matters so much so that we voluntarily set aside a day each week in worship. What’s more, a real man invests and is involved in the work of a Bible-believing church. Dad gave himself, his time, his money, and his talents to the work of the Kingdom. I hope that one day my kids will say the same thing about me.

3. A real man works hard to provide for his family. Again, I didn’t realize how rare this is until I grew older and observed the sad lack of purpose and vision among contemporary men. Dad modeled what it looks like to get up every day, whether he liked it or not, and go to work for the family. Plumbing is a hard job. It’s physically demanding and requires focus and discipline. But Dad never wavered in his commitment to provide for us.

I remember asking Dad, “Dad, do you ever get tired of doing this every single day?” His reply, “Son, yes. I do. But then I remember that I don’t get tired of eating. I don’t get tired of having a house. I don’t get tired of seeing my kids’ needs taken care of. So I quickly get ‘untired’ of working.”

Great answer. Not every day at work, even in your chosen vocation where you are working in your giftedness, is a day at the beach. Many days are mundane. Some are frustrating. Some days you want to quit, even in the best of jobs. But a real man, a man of God, labors to provide for the ones God has called him to love and serve. By God’s grace, I’ve tried to carry on this work ethic, and it will benefit me my entire life.

4. A real man loves his wife unconditionally, in good times and bad. My parents have been married for thirty eight years. There have been many hardships along the way. My mother endured seven miscarriages. She’s been afflicted by illness. Dad has seen his own share of health challenges and, lately, unemployment struggles as the housing industry in the Chicago area has suffered. Dad has taught me, through it all, the value of simple, everyday faithfulness. Not all of life is easy. Many seasons are hard and difficult and make you want to get up and walk away. Dad’s faithfulness in good and bad seasons has shown me what a real man does: he endures.

I pray it’s said of me that I have the same character and faithfulness Dad exhibited. He isn’t perfect and neither am I. We are both in need of God’s amazing grace to cover our many sins. But if I could be half the man Dad has been in his life, that would be enough for me.

5. A real man is a living witness of the gospel in the daily grind of life. This is related to point #3. Dad not only worked hard, he took pride in his work. I remember asking Dad when I was working alongside him at 14 years old why he cared that the drain pipes we were installing inside the walls had to be so straight. “Nobody will see them,” I said. “But, Son, I will see them. God sees them. That matters.” Dad did his work with excellence, even staying an extra hour to get that one thing right that didn’t much matter to me. But it does matter, because the work we do with our hands reflects the Creator. He’s given us a job to do, and we should do it well–to His glory.

Dad’s work was his witness to an unsaved and watching world. The construction trades are not exactly a haven of clean-living. Dad never heard of the words missional and incarnational. He just got up every day and did the very best job he could. And this work was a witness. He was unafraid to vocally share his faith on the job, even though those opportunities were rare. I can tell you, however, that everyone who worked with my father knew he was a Christian, mostly because of the quality work he did.

Too many people in our day and age don’t know the treasure of a great father. I’m grateful, by God’s grace, that I do. In fact, my father is one of my heroes because he showed me what it looks like for a Christian man to live out his faith in the nitty-gritty, daily grind of life, among a lost and sinful people. And I’ll never, ever forget it.

Originally published on June 13th, 2014

The Way Home – Episode 23 featuring Kathy Koch

Dr. Kathy Koch joins the podcast to talk about her book Screens and Teens: Connecting with Our Kids in a Wireless World. Dr. Koch is the founder and president of Celebrate Kids, Inc.

Listen to this week’s episode of The Way Home

 
Show Notes

August 5 is our second annual National Conference. Our theme this year will be “The Gospel and Politics” Dr. Russell Moore and other evangelical leaders such as Samuel Rodriguez, Ross Douthat, Michael Gerson, David Platt and others will be discussing what Christian cultural engagement should look like especially as we head into another heated Presidential election. When you register put the coupon code: WAYHOME and get a special 15% discount.

Twitter: @drkathykoch
Website: drkathykoch.com
Book: Screens and Teens: Connecting with Our Kids in a Wireless World

George Yancey on the Rise of Anti-Christian Bias

There has been a lot of recent debate over the shape of Christianity in the West and how it will cause the Church to rethink it’s posture. What nobody is debating is the increasing antagonism toward evangelical faith, both in the West and, in violent and murderous form, overseas.

I had the chance to speak with George Yancey, who has a new book, Hostile Environment. Yancey is a professor of sociology at the University of North Texas. Here is one of the questions I asked him:

You coin the term, “Christianophobia” to describe the increasing hostility toward Christianity in the world. Why this term as oppose to “persecution” or some other common term?

We struggled to find the best term for the type of anti-Christian hostility and bigotry we documented in our work. We finally settled on “Christianophobia,” not because it is a perfect term but because it is the best one we could come up with.

Clearly what is happening with some Christians in oppressive regimes would qualify as persecution. Those Christians are being killed or jailed specifically for their faith. The way anti-Christian hostility plays out in the United States is different.

Christianophobia, or the irrational hatred and/or fear of Christians, is the basic way to describe the perspectives of those in our society that Christians have to address. These individuals do not want Christians to have power in the public square, as they believe that Christians are not to be trusted with social power.

The Way Home – Episode 22 featuring Collin Hansen

What are the major blind spots of the evangelical movement? How should Christians read the latest Pew Report on Religion? Collin Hansen serves as editorial director for The Gospel Coalition. Hansen is the author of the seminal book on the young reformed movement, Young, Restless, and Reformed, and the coauthor of a terrific book on revival, A God-Sized Vision. We will discuss his latest work, Blind Spots, Becoming a Courageous, Compassionate, and Commissioned Church. 

Listen to this week’s episode of The Way Home

 
Show Notes

If you are planning on being at the Southern Baptist Convention in Columbus, I want to encourage you to stop by our booth where we will have many free resources to give away. You will also want to make plans to attend a special FREE event we are doing on Monday, June 15th at the convention with 9 Marks Ministries on Connecting Church and Culture. This will be a really cool event, with Dr. Mark Dever and Dr. Russell Moore taking questions on church and culture.

August 5 is our second annual National Conference. Our theme this year will be “The Gospel and Politics” Dr. Russell Moore and other evangelical leaders such as Samuel Rodriguez, Ross Douthat, Michael Gerson, David Platt and others will be discussing what Christian cultural engagement should look like especially as we head into another heated Presidential election. When you register put the coupon code: WAYHOME and get a special 15% discount.

Twitter: @collinhansen
Website: thegospelcoalition.org/author/Collin-Hansen
Book: Blind Spots: Becoming a Courageous, Compassionate, and Commissioned Church

The Way Home – Episode 21 featuring Barnabas Piper

Barnabas Piper joins me to talk about his new book Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith, which comes out July 1.

Listen to this week’s episode of The Way Home

 
Show Notes

If you are planning on being at the Southern Baptist Convention in Columbus, I want to encourage you to stop by our booth where we will have many free resources to give away. You will also want to make plans to attend a special FREE event we are doing on Monday, June 15th at the convention with 9 Marks Ministries on Connecting Church and Culture. This will be a really cool event, with Dr. Mark Dever and Dr. Russell Moore taking questions on church and culture.

August 5 is our second annual National Conference. Our theme this year will be “The Gospel and Politics” Dr. Russell Moore and other evangelical leaders such as Samuel Rodriguez, Ross Douthat, Michael Gerson, David Platt and others will be discussing what Christian cultural engagement should look like especially as we head into another heated Presidential election. When you register put the coupon code: WAYHOME and get a special 15% discount.

Twitter: @barnabaspiper
Website: barnabaspiper.com
Book: Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith

Where the Next Great Christian Apologist Might Come From

Luke describes a poignant scene or series of scenes in Acts 9:19-21:

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

For those of us who read these words, 2,000 years later, as we are making our way through the book of Acts they seem, well, somewhat anticlimactic. After all, we know well the story of the conversion of Saul described earlier in Acts 9. After hundreds of flannel graphs and illustrated videos and sermons and lectures and commentaries and books, this scene of Paul in the synagogues saying, “Jesus is the Son of God!” has become rather passé.

Yeah, yeah, we say, just tell me what it means for me today. How will I get through my next week. How will I pay the bills at the end of the month. What nugget can the preacher give me so I can help my 14-year old stay out of trouble? 

There is a reason this story should not be just passed over when we read the book of Acts. Not simply because Luke’s narrative is the breathed-out Word of God to us but because Paul’s conversion is powerful and pivotal to the story Luke is telling. The book of Acts is the story of Christ building His Church, the fulfillment of God’s promise to call out a people from every nation, tribe and tongue.

Prior to Acts 9, the Jesus movement had grown exponentially. The message about the man from Nazareth, unjustly put to death by Roman crucifixion, buried, and risen again–this message had been preached throughout Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit had come in power to Jesus’ disciples. They preached with boldness the message that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God, Savior of the World, Lord and King.

But the miracle of Acts 9 was a miracle nobody saw coming. The disciples. The enemies of Jesus. Even Saul himself.

When Steven was being stoned to death by the religious leaders, nobody knew that the man holding the garments of the persecutors, who approved the stoning of Steven, the most vociferous opponent of Christianity–this man would soon become the first-century’s vocal apologist for the Christian faith.

The conversion of Saul was important for the early church because it emphasized two important aspects of the gospel. First, it told them that nobody, even the most entrenched enemy of the gospel, is outside of God’s saving power. Second, it was a powerful reminder that Christ is triumphant over his enemies.

Luke’s narrative in Acts 9 is just as important for believers today because Christ is still in the business of converting Sauls to Pauls. Its easy for us to despair, especially when we see Christianity lose its influence in the culture in the West. If we’re not careful, we’ll look at history through the lens of our own experience and only see doom and gloom ahead. We might assume that the flesh and blood opponents of the gospel are fixed in their spiritual blindness, as if they too can’t have their own road to Damascus. As if the gospel power so evident in Acts 9 can’t happen in the 21st century, right here, in our midst.

The next great Christian apologist may today be preparing briefs for the Supreme Court, teaching young college students the absurdity of the Virgin Birth, or operating his own meth lab. If Acts 9 tells us anything it tells us that Christ will build His Church, despite HIs enemies, and call the unlikeliest of servants to do it.

This has been the pattern of church history. Augustine, Newton, Lewis, Wallace, Strobel, McDowell, Bignon. The list keeps growing because Christ keeps pursuing those far from him. Every day we hear more stories from closed countries about miraculous conversions to Christianity.

You and I are on this list too, because our conversions were no less miraculous. There is only one kind of people Christ saves: enemies of God.

So let’s relish the story of Saul-turned-Paul. Let’s not despair the enemies of the gospel. Instead, let’s love them. Because in our loving, we are not only showing the world what it looks like for Jesus to love His enemies, we might also be befriending a future brother or sister in Christ.

If Christians are to obey the Great Commission in his generation, we need to stop seeing the people who don’t agree with us as our enemies but as future Pauls. That Muslim neighbor. That atheist coworker. That obnoxiously anti-Christian TV host. Where we often see Saul, God sees Paul.

Today a conversion like this might seem as absurd as the conversion of an influential Pharisee and chief prosecutor of the first-century Jesus cult. But if Acts 9 is true–and you and I are testimony that it is–then don’t be surprised if one day you wake up to see former enemies of Christ declaring, “Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Short-Term Missions Trips: Good or Bad?

There has been a lot of discussion and debate among missiologists about the validity of short-term mission trips. Some view them as an impediment to long-term, rooted gospel work in cross-cultural contexts and others still see mission trips, used well, as a great tool to engage God’s people in His work in different cultures. I posed this question to Tony Myles, the author of a new book, Flipping Missions. Like me, he feels that short term missions is still a good thing and he gives great tips on how to do them well. Here is one of the questions I asked him:

Do you still think short term trips are valid?

Absolutely, but they can’t just become a calendar event or an annual thing we do. Mission trips are like “date nights” for married couples. They aren’t meant to replace the relationship, but provide space and investment to figure out what’s even happening in the relationship.

Any time we spend in a cross-cultural community is meant to let God cross into the community and culture of our souls. We sign up for a mission trip thinking it will be a meaningful experience, but God wants to give each of us a meaningful life. It’s good to go “somewhere else” to serve, but it’s better to use that to then start living as a missionary right where you are.

You can read the rest of the interview here, including practical ways pastors can prepare their people for maximum gospel impact while they are overseas.