Why Leaders Fail
September 12, 2014Recently I had a discussion with some friends about some public leadership fails in the news. I could name them, but you likely already know who they are. Our conversation turned to a general topic of leadership and things we’ve observed. What struck us was how these things evolve from little, seemingly insignificant decisions that form the culture out of which unhealthy leadership grows. In other words, nobody wakes up one day and says to himself, “I’m going to strive to be an authoritarian leader who wreaks havoc on the people I serve.” It just doesn’t happen that way. Leaders…
Continue ReadingVictoria Osteen and Our Conservative Prosperity Gospel
August 29, 2014Last night, Christian Twitter was alive with the ridiculous and sad clip of Victoria Osteen’s blatant prosperity gospel declaration. “We go to church, not for God, but for us.” I especially liked the enterprising blogger who affixed Bill Cosby’s “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard” to the end of the clip. Well done. But before we conservatives get too cocky in our outrage, we’d we wise to admit to our own version of the prosperity gospel, a kind of false message that creeps into our gospel proclamation. None of us are offering people paradise like the Osteens, especially those…
Continue ReadingTwo Things We Need: Comedy and Rest
August 29, 2014I want to highlight two recent articles that are related to each other, I think. First, I wrote a column for Christianity.com about the need for comedy. I thought of this in light of the death of Robin Williams. Here’s an excerpt: The Scriptures tell us that laughter is a kind of medicine for the soul (Proverbs 17:22). The very fact that God made us as creatures who have the capacity for laughter, who instilled in us the very desire for joy should tell us that laughter matters and matters more than we might think it does. This is why,…
Continue ReadingOn Losing a Close Friend
August 23, 2014I just found out that my close friend and mentor, Bill Swanger, went to be with the Lord this morning at around 6:00 am. It’s really hard to put into words how much I loved Bill and how much he helped me in my ministry and in growing as a husband and father. I met Bill almost by chance. In 2007, I accepted a volunteer position as a youth pastor at Gages Lake Bible Church, a small church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The church was in a transition. It’s last -full-time pastor had retired a few years earlier…
Continue ReadingWhy Pastors Should Pause
August 22, 2014Pausing is one of the hardest things for me to do and it seemed even harder when I was a pastor. I think this was for two reasons: a) I loved the work of pastoring: studying, writing, counseling, leading, visioneering, etc b) I have a hard time pausing and reflecting. But I was always convicted by the model of Jesus, who took time to get away. So by not every pausing, I was basically saying I’m better than Jesus. That’s never a good position to be in. So we made sure, every year, to go on vacation and get away…
Continue ReadingShould Christian Writers Try to Be Popular?
August 12, 2014Recent controversies in the evangelical world have caused many people to rethink the idea of “platform-building” and “celebrity”, two buzzwords that are often misunderstood. I had the chance to discuss this with two friends of mine, Justin Taylor, popular blogger at Between Two Worlds, vice-president of book publishing at Crossway and Collin Hansen, editorial director at The Gospel Coalition. This was a fun and insightful conversation.
Continue ReadingMy Favorite Podcasts
August 12, 2014I’ve got about a 20 minute (sometimes 30 during school season) commute to work. I like to redeem my commute by listening to podcasts. I generally subscribe to about ten or twelve of them so I have a wide range of options when I get in the car. My moods change and my needs change and my interests change, so I like to have some variety. Currently this are the podcasts on my iPhone: Fresh Air (NPR). Yes, I’m a conservative who loves NPR. I love Fresh Air because there is such a variety of interesting content. Terri Gross interviews…
Continue ReadingJob Opening at ERLC
August 6, 2014Know someone interested in joining the ERLC team in Nashville? We are hiring a new Interactive Media Manager to join our communications team. This is creative role specializing in video and audio production, technical and logistical support for ERLC events, and social media engagement. This is a great opportunity to join a fun and dynamic environment, helping to shape the conversation on Christianity and culture. Anyone that is interested can contact me directly at ddarling [at] erlc.com. A job description is available with more details about the position. The window to express interest in the role is limited so applicants should contact me…
Continue ReadingSome recent interviews
August 1, 2014I had the privilege of interviewing a few church leaders on a variety of issues: Here I interview pastor David Platt of Brook Hills Church in Birmingham, Alabama and author of Radical and Multiply on the need for Christians in the West to speak up about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere: Here I interviewed Dr. David Uth of First Baptist Church Orlando on ethnic diversity in the local church: Here is a print interview with Jen Pollack Michel on her new book, Teach Me to Want about the reorienting of our desires. It’s a fascinating book. One the questions…
Continue ReadingSome Recent Articles
July 25, 2014Here are some links to my latest articles: “Applying our Pro-Life Convictions to the Border Crisis” at Huffington Post: Well-meaning Americans will continue to disagree on the exact policy prescriptions for the border. But hopefully we can all agree to see each in each undocumented child, the image of the Creator. My hope is that followers of Jesus begin to see immigrants as less of a threat to their way of life and more of an opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission and be a part of God’s sovereign plan to gather a people from every nation, tribe, and tongue…
Continue ReadingBarnabas Piper on Life in the Fishbowl
July 7, 2014There are a lot of pastor’s kids out there, but few who grew up like my friend Barnabas Piper, the son of popular pastor and author, John Piper. That’s why I’m excited about Barnabas’ new book, The Pastor’s Kid. What is refreshing about this book, unlike so many other books in this genre, is that its not another angst-ridden, ex-evangelical memoir that hates on the Church. Barnabas writes this book from an honest, but honoring position. He loves the Church and wants to help pastors kids work through their unique struggles. I have a feeling this book will help a lot of pastor’s kids. I…
Continue ReadingCivil Rights and the Gospel
July 2, 2014Today 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:
Continue ReadingPotshots Are Not a Spiritual Gift
June 24, 2014It’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…
Continue ReadingJim Daly on Fatherhood
June 23, 2014One 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…
Continue ReadingWhat The Church Needs
June 21, 2014This 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…
Continue ReadingPsalm 139 and The Miracle of Life
June 5, 2014If 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…
Continue ReadingWhat Do Do With the Nones?
May 31, 2014What 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:…
Continue ReadingA 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…
Continue ReadingMisunderstanding Forgiveness
May 23, 2014Leslie 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…
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