Daniel Darling's Blog, page 52

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.

The Way Home Episode 20 – Chaplain (LTC) Derrick Riggs

Today my colleague Lindsay Swartz and I join, live from Afghanistan, Chaplain (LTC) Derrick Riggs. Chaplain Riggs is the Command Chaplain for Special Operations Joint Task Force and NATO Special Operations Component Command in Afghanistan. He is also a member of First Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

Chaplain Riggs shared the unique challenges of ministry on the battlefield, the toll that wars take on military families, and how the church can minister to the military community.

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.

Baptist Press story on Chaplain Riggs

Finding the Story Behind the Story

Every story, whether in movie or music, has a story behind the story. I’ve learned a lot about this from the work of my friend Mike Cosper, who I’ve interviewed several times. Another voice is Kevin Harvey, who has written a new book, All You Want to Know about The Bible in Pop Culture: helping Christians see gospel themes in pop culture. This doesn’t have to be in a ham-handed way, but in a redemptive way, tracing the thin lines of the big Gospel story in the stories we tell ourselves.

I had the chance to interview Kevin this week for Leadership Journal. Here is one of the questions I asked him:

Sometimes Christian themes are overt, sometimes they are subtle. What motivates otherwise secular artists, filmakers, and songwriters to include Christian themes?

Just like the psalmists in the Bible were simply communicating to God, sharing their hearts through their art, today’s writers are doing the same thing. If you want to know what is on someone’s mind, look at their art. Look for what they’re writing, not just saying. But beyond what they are intentionally communicating, a secular artist, whether he believes it or not, has been created by God, made in his image, and has a hole in his heart that can only be filled by a relationship with his creator. I believe that perhaps without being able to connect all the dots, a writer recognizes the need for redemption, grace, and forgiveness in each of our lives. He realizes that we cannot save ourselves and that some things in life can only be explained through supernatural means. Themes such as sacrificial love and forgiving the unforgivable hit home with everyone, because we were created with a need for them in our lives.

Read the rest of the interview here:

The Way Home – Episode 19 featuring Charles Stone

When you are thinking of Christian leadership, rarely does brain science come to mind, but my friend Charles Stone says it should. Charles, besides being a popular author and pastor, has done extensive research on neuroscience. His findings are interesting and affect the way we think about spiritual leadership. He joins me today on the podcast to talk about his book Brain-Savvy Leaders: The Science of Significant Ministry. You’ll enjoy this conversation. Charles Stone is an old friend who, like me, once pastored in the Chicago area. He’s currently the senior pastor of West Park Church in Ontario, Canada.

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: @charlesstone
Website: charlesstone.com
Book:  Brain-Savvy Leaders: The Science of Significant Ministry

What The Stories We Consume Say About Us

Have you ever watched a good movie, read a good book, or heard a popular song and wondered, “What is this saying?” This is the questions we should ask when we consume media. What questions are being asked by this particular piece of pop culture and what answers does the gospel offer?

One of the best discerners of culture is my friend Mike Cosper, pastor of Worship at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY. I had the chance recently to sit down for a video chat: