Daniel Darling's Blog, page 59

Civil Rights and the Gospel

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. To commemorate this landmark event and to discuss the Church’s role in working toward racial reconciliation, I had the opportunity to engage in a discussion with my ERLC colleague, Trillia Newbell, author of the new book, United. 

We filmed this in the Civil Rights Room at the historic Nashville Library, built on the spot of one of the key demonstrations of the Civil Rights movement. I’m grateful to my incredibly gifted team, led by Thomas Willis, who produced this special video:

 

Potshots Are Not a Spiritual Gift

It’s a bit morose and probably an exercise in ego-massaging to consider what one would wanted inscribed on his tombstone (if indeed one has left his family enough money to buy a tombstone). But indulge me for a moment. This can be a good exercise for us in that it requires us to think through just what our lives are made of–what will the one or two sentences in the first lines of our obituaries say when we pass? I’m not sure what that would be for me, but I can tell you what I wouldn’t want it to be.

I don’t want to be known as the guy who takes potshots at other people.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but in our social media age, it’s not a given. In fact, I think if more people considered their reputations, the weight of their words, the impact they are having on the people who follow their activity, they’d reconsider what they type or tap into the blank spaces on Twitter.

Twitter makes taking potshots pretty easy. It’s not that it’s Twitter’s fault. It’s that this medium–instant, fast, and rewarding of sharp wit–dredges up from the heart the worst kinds of things. What’s more, the safe distance it gives you from keyboard to flesh-and-blood gives the illusion of courage behind a veil of insecurity.

I say all that to say this: a lifetime of worthy work can be erased in a short amount of time if you’re someone who uses Twitter to continually sound off, take potshots, and be the self-appointed watchdog for the masses you think have made you their leader. This is especially true and sadly prevalent in the evangelical world. You can easily take potshots–that have all of your tribe saying comatose amens–pretty easily. You can skewer the theological tribes with whom you disagree and make a living pointing out their blind spots, hash tagging their crimes, and gathering a willing lynch mob. You can create narratives, half-true, half-false, about movements you despise and be successful, even drawing in the news media and other organizations interested mainly in eyeballs on their web ads. You can be an online bully, going after people with relentlessness and fake courage because you don’t have to see them in person, shake their hand, and realize they are humans and not avatars. You can do all of this and do it well.

But again, is this what you want said about you at your funeral? Is this what you want inscribed on your tombstone? Is the thing, the one thing, you want your children to say is your most significant contribution during the years you were given, as a stewardship, by God?

This is the conversation we have to have with ourselves almost daily as we fight the carnal tendencies to react and overreact. I certainly haven’t always gotten it right. I’ve made mistakes, said things, tweeted things, blogged things that I regret. But lately it’s been this long view of life that has held me back. Because when I look at the list of spiritual gifts in the Bible, I see a lot of things, but I don’t see a ministry of potshots as one of them.

Jim Daly on Fatherhood

One of my favorite Christian leaders is Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family. If you’ve not read Jim’s powerful story of brokeness and redemption, you should really read Finding Home. Jim is the most unlikely candidate to lead a pro-family organization like Focus because his upbringing was unstable, chaotic, and broken. And yet it is out of this experience and God’s amazing work in his life that has not only led him to this place as a well-respected Christian leader, but as a father to his own children.

I had the chance to interview him for Christianity Today about fatherhood and his new book, The Good Dad, Becoming the Father You Were Meant to Be. One of the questions I asked him was this:

Many men will find solace in knowing that someone who grew up in your circumstances can become not only be an effective parent, but also the leader of a pro-family organization. Was that part of your motivation in writing the book?

Absolutely. I believe with all my heart that to be in Christ is to be a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Among other things, this suggests that followers of Jesus are not defined by their past. They don’t have to be locked into or held down by the sins of their fathers. Christ has set them free from slavery to the “same old same old” of previous generations. I’m convinced that, in God, all things are possible. This has huge implications for marriage, parenting, and family life.

I find it encouraging that God can use us, where we are, to be good dads to our kids. You can read the rest of the interview with Jim Daly here.

What The Church Needs

This week I had the privilege of interviewing the new President of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, Ronnie Floyd, the Senior Pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve had the chance to meet Dr. Floyd and am inspired by his heart for evangelism and his desire to the Church awakened with revival and prayer. One of the questions I asked him was: What is your vision for the next two years of Southern Baptist life. In the first part of his answer, he said this:

I will call upon us to cry out to God in extraordinary prayer for the next great spiritual awakening in America. No great movement of God ever occurs without being preceded by the extraordinary prayer of God’s people.

You can read the rest of his interview here.

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 sons 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.

Psalm 139 and The Miracle of Life

If you’ve followed my writing and speaking and blogging, you’ll know that one of my passions is the sanctity of life. When I pastored, I was proud to set aside a Sunday in January for the sanctity of life. We had the privilege of cooperating with a local Pregnancy Resource Center in our town. We raised money, volunteered, and championed the heroic work of the center. In my book, Activist Faith, I detail the amazing, effective, gospel-motivated work of these types of centers all across America. In my view, this is the front lines of the prolife cause. This is where faithful followers of Jesus apply the gospel to young women in crisis.

In my new role with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, I am so excited to be a part of one of our long-standing initiatives: The Psalm 139 Project. This is a program that grants an ultrasound machine to a pregnancy resource center. Every year pro-life advocates donate money to Psalm 139, enough to place an ultrasound machine.

This year we are placing our ninth machine, to the CareNet clinics in northern Virginia. I’ve had the chance to meet with the executive director of CareNet, Karen Snuffer and was impressed by the professionalism, grace, and heart of her and her entire team. There is much need for this kind of ministry in the Washington DC area and it’s encouraging to see CareNet fill this need and to see the nearly 200 area evangelical churches who support and champion this work.

This Sunday I will be speaking at the First Baptist Church of Woodbridge as we make this presentation to CareNet. My prayer is that God will use this partnership to save many unborn lives and to bring many young girls from the edge of despair to hope in Christ.

What Do Do With the Nones?

What will ministry look like in an increasingly post-Christian age? James Emery White, a pastor and researcher, joins the fray with a fascinating new book, The Rise of the Nones. If you are not familiar, “Nones” describe the increasing number people refusing to affiliate themselves with any faith group. There is a lot of conjecture about how big this group is, what the date says, etc. James has a very thoughtful perspective. I had the chance to interview him this week for Parse, the Leadership Journal ministry blog. I asked him what Christian leaders should do with all of this data:

As pastors and church leaders survey the data on “nones,” how would you counsel them to approach their ministries in this new era?

Too many churches are taking an Acts 2 approach in an Acts 17 world.

Well, the entire second half of the book delves into this question, but here’s an overarching theme: I would suggest they move from an Acts 2 model to an Acts 17 model. By that I mean that in Acts 2, you had Peter addressing the God-fearing Jews of Jerusalem. On a spiritual scale from one to ten, they were probably on an eight. They believing in God, the Old Testament Scriptures, heaven and hell, and a promised Messiah. That’s a lot to begin with! And Peter fashioned his approach accordingly. Fast forward to Paul in Acts 17. On our imaginary scale, they were probably about a two. Paul didn’t approach them as God-fearing Jews, but as the (at best) agnostics that they were. He had to start with creation and work his way forward. He understood that evangelism, for that group, would involve both process and event. Too many churches are taking an Acts 2 approach in an Acts 17 world.

You can read the rest of the interview here:

The Four Types of Media: How Christians Should View Them

A few weeks ago we finished a major event at ERLC for pastors and church leaders. We invited in the media to cover the event for a couple of reasons: a) the media were going to cover it anyways, so we wanted to allow them the most context to cover it fairly and well b) we want to establish good relationships with the media and giving them access to our events is one way to help them do their jobs and allow us to do ours.

In my few months in this communications roll, I’ve made some observations about the media that I thought might be helpful as Christians think thru their attitudes about media and as organizations think thru their strategies. I hope this is helpful to you.

We tend to look at “the media” as one amorphous whole. While mainstream news organizations can often be slanted one way or another, I’ve found that there is much diversity in media in terms of type, motivation, and tasks. Instead, we might break down media professionals into four categories:

1) News Journalists  - These are straight-up journalists who will report what they see. It’s important to develop good relationships with key journalists and provide access to them when they need it, mainly so the story at least gets your point of view included. The thing you need to understand about journalists is that if there is a story, they will report it regardless of whether or not you talk to them. So if you’d like your perspective to get attention, it’s best to answer their questions. It’s also important to realize that journalists are not your advocates. It is not their job to speak for your organization or distribute your press releases. So expect from a journalist reporting, not advocacy, and you won’t be disappointed. If some key fact or perspective was excluded, it’s fair to bring this up with them in a good spirit of cooperation (instead of belligerence). The best journalists know how to cover a story fairly and accurately without betraying a particular slant. They don’t always get it right, but maintain a high batting average.

2) Favorable advocates -  Advocates may do some journalistic work, but don’t pretend to call it “down the middle.” These types of media are a bit hard to pin down–they are often bloggers, activists, and sometimes advocacy journalists. I think it’s important to engage these types as well, so you can help push your message out to a wider audience. It’s important to “flood the zone” with positive information about your organization or effort. This often comes in the form of blogs, some opinion (but respectful) journalism, and social media reporting. It’s important to understand that advocates are not independent journalists.

3) Unfavorable advocates - Like the group above, with this type of media is no pretense of being unbiased. There are advocacy media types ideologically opposed to your worldview. Sometimes you will find fair-minded folks in this camp, who will occasionally offer an “I’m surprised at how ____ these guys were” type piece, but don’t count on it. It’s important to handle these types of media well by a) recognizing your inability to move them off of entrenched positions and b) treating them fairly and establishing a respectful relationship. It’s also very important to understand that this type of media is not interested in fairness, but in finding any advantage to advance their arguments and likely embarrass you. It’s important to do your homework here. Smart organizations learn who the main players are here and anticipate, as best they can, to avoid unforced errors that give those predisposed to not like you unnecessary wins. You should also expect opposition from this kind of media and not be surprised when it happens.

4) Ordinary citizen journalists - With the advent of social media platforms and smart phones, everyone today is a reporter. Live-tweeting events has become a regular habit, making attendees journalists. So people who attend your event for their own education or fulfillment will also let the world know of their experience. Of course untrained attendees can’t provide the nuance of a trained journalist, but their observations can shape the narrative of your organization, for good or for ill. It’s important to monitor the online conversation about your organizations, reward (with retweets, shares, and personal affirmation) those who positively report. It’s also good to gracefully clarify if any unintentionally misleading facts.

Misunderstanding Forgiveness

Leslie Leyland Fields had a painful relationship with her father, a journey of pain, healing, and forgiveness she outlined in a beautiful piece for Christianity Today. This was part of a brand new book, Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers, Finding Healing from Hurt and Hate. This is such an important book for many who endure difficult relationships with their parents.

I had the chance to interview Leslie for Leadership Journal about her own story and about forgiveness. Here is one of my questions:

Do you think many of us have a misunderstanding of what forgiveness is?

Yeah, there are a lot of misconceptions out there. Here are two of the biggest I see: People expect forgiveness to be a one-time event rather than a process and rather than a daily practice I think there’s a reason Jesus teaches us to pray “And forgive us our debts as we forgive out debtors” right after “give us this day our daily bread.” And people expect forgiveness to take away all the pain. It doesn’t. If your father didn’t show up for your graduation or your mother just kicked you out of her house, you’re going to feel hurt, no matter how forgiving you are. And you should feel hurt! Forgiveness is not about being pain-free; it’s about being like Christ, pouring out the mercy we received—undeservedly—to the ones like us, who don’t deserve it either. It’s not a bullet-proof vest. In some ways it even makes us more vulnerable.

You can read the entire interview here:

Our Snarky Eye-Rolling Might Actually Be Sinful

My pastor has been preaching thru 1 Corinthians. He’s a terrific expositor, always providing the nuance and thrust of the text at hand. Lately we’ve come upon 1 Corinthians 8, the well-known “meat offered to idols” text that helps inform the way we treat each other when disagreeing over the gray areas of the Christian life. (By gray areas, I mean areas of liberty not clearly outlined in the text of Scripture, not fake gray areas brought about about newer, suspect interpretations of Scripture).

Andy took this in three installments, first giving an overview of this and what it is saying. This series of messages ministered to my soul in so many ways, but I learned three important things:

Legalism and self-righteousness is not a sign of holiness, but a sign of weak faith. 

Flaunting freedom and wounding consciences of our brothers and sisters in the Lord is a sin. 

We shouldn’t value our preferences or our spiritual freedom more than we value our fellow believers. 

It’s this last one that really got to me. You see, I’ve been in both extremely legalistic environments and I’ve been in extremely permissive environments. One thing that is identical to both is a kind of Phariseeism that sees one’s own view of the gray areas as sacrosanct and the biblical position.

Today there are many addressing legalism and the way it suffocates the soul. Even for those who don’t have this biography need to be reminded of John Newton’s words, “Grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.” For the recovering legalist, there are few passages better than 1 Corinthians 8.

And yet, Paul doesn’t end this chapter with his rebuke to legalists. He then turns toward those who delight in their spiritual freedom. There is, among those who understand the freedom found in the gospel, an easy temptation to wound the consciences of our brothers and sisters by mocking their choices in the gray areas. Paul said that to compel someone to violate conscience, to belittle the rules they have set for themselves, is to sin, against Christ. 

As I sat hearing this sermon, my heart was convicted. I wonder if this is the sin of our generation of evangelicals. We are more enlightened than our parents, we’ve thrown off the shackles of their legalism. We can now feel the freedom to engage in activities they considered sinful. In many of these cases, most of these cases, we’re probably right. A previous generation may have erred on the side of rules, equating preference with orthodoxy and making it seem that the Bible said things it didn’t say.

But our sins may be an eye-rolling, snickering, elitism. I see it every day online and offline. There is a whole cottage industry within evangelicalism that exists to mock their fellow believers. Over the last year I’ve had numerous conversations with youngish Christian leaders who are so proud of their Christian liberty, they used it as a cudgel against someone who disagreed with them. This, Paul says, is a sin. To value our freedom so much so, to hang on to our right to indulge certain activities so much so that we offend and wound others who don’t see it our way–this is not the way of love.

Paul thought eating meat offered to idols was no big deal. But Paul also said he’d never eat another piece of meat for the sake of loving his brothers and sisters in the Lord. Paul would put down his steak for unity and gospel advance. And so should we.

Let’s not be so quick to identify as “not that kind of Christian who is legalistic” that we sin by not loving our brothers and sisters, fellow believers for whom Christ died. Let’s not let our zeal to love the world in which we serve, the lost neighbors and friends and coworkers that we end up not loving the Bride of Christ. After all, we are called to “do good, especially to the household of faith (Galatians 6:10).”