Drew Dyck on Real
May 31, 2012I was honored to receive this endorsement of REAL by Drew Dyck, editor of Leadership Journal: “Second generation faith can be a little like next day pizza—cold, stale, and tough to swallow. Darling’s book is for those weary of subsisting on spiritual leftovers. He understands the sometimes stultifying effect of the evangelical subculture on spirituality and sees what it takes to thrive as a second generation Christian. The writing here is lively and the reflections—interspersed with interviews with top ministry thinkers—are fresh. The perfect read to send fresh wind through your spiritual life.” Drew Dyck is the managing editor of Leadership Journal and…
Continue ReadingReal Book Trailer
May 31, 2012Here is the book trailer for my new book, REAL, Owning Your Christian Faith. Many thanks to my brother, Tim Darling, who worked long and hard on this:
Continue Reading10 Things Nobody Tells You About Being a Dad
May 30, 2012Before I became a dad, I thought I would be a pretty good dad. After all I grew up in a nice, Christian home, I read parenting books, and heard quite a few conference messages and radio programs on biblical parenting. I was set. The kids I would raise would be fortunate to have me as their father. Right? Then, a funny thing happened. I actually became a dad for the first time. First came Grace, then Daniel Jr, then Emma, and finally Lily. I’m now a father of four and I know much less about parenting than I did…
Continue ReadingWill We Sing or Will We Whine?
May 29, 2012What will Christian witness look like in a society that affirms gay marriage? After President Obama’s expression of support, Christian reaction was all over the map, from the usual apocalyptic doomsday stuff to serious and thoughtful biblical opposition to progressive evangelical acceptance. As a committed evangelical committed to the historic Christian teaching of the Scriptures, I am opposed to gay marriage. But I’ve been thinking about what we do next. Despite the success of ballot initiatives in various states, this is clearly a battle we are losing in the culture. It won’t be long before gay marriage is a widely accepted and legal…
Continue ReadingFriday Five: Steve Laube
May 25, 2012Steve Laube is respected, longtime veteran of the Christian publishing industry, having served as a bookstore owner, an acquisitions editor for Bethany House, and in his current role, as a literary agent. Few professionals understand books and publishing like Steve Laube. On a personal level, my agent, Tamela Hancock Murray serves with the Steve Laube Agency. I have enjoyed my interactions with Steve and especially enjoy reading his observations on books and publishing. I highly recommend you subscribe to his blog. Steve was kind enough to stop by and chat for today’s Friday Five: How did you get started in Christian Publishing? Have…
Continue ReadingGo to Exponential for Free
May 23, 2012If you’re a church leader chances are you are inundated with opportunities to go to conferences. The problem is that there are so many outstanding opportunities, but not enough time or resources. So thankfully, these conferences post their audio, either free or for a small fee. Well today I’m giving you the opportunity to attend the Exponential Conference online, from home, for free. This is an annual conference held in Orlando and regularly features outstanding preachers of the gospel. These are some of the most influential church planting leaders in the country, and I want to give away a free simulcast…
Continue Reading5 Inconvenient Truths about the Writing Life
May 22, 2012I get a lot of questions about the writing life from very interested folks. Some romanticize it as if its an easy, dreamy career filled only with paychecks and fame and unicorns. But there are inconvenient truths about writing that nobody tells you until you actually step into it. I don’t write these to discourage you, if God has called you to nurture your gift, but simply to give a realistic view of what to expect: 1) You will not get famous. The truth is that most writers are not bestsellers. And even of those who make the New York…
Continue ReadingWe are Believers Instead of Disciples
May 17, 2012I’m currently reading Your Church is Too Safe by Mark Buchanan. I was deeply, deeply convicted by this section: At some point we stopped calling Christians disciples and started calling them believers. A disciple is one who follows and imitates Jesus. She loses her life in order to find it. She steeps in the language and culture of Christ until His Word and his world reshape hers, redefine her, change inside out how she sees and thinks and dreams and, finally, lives. Whatever values she brought into his realm are reordered, ofttimes laid waste, and kingdom values take their place. Friends…
Continue ReadingWhy They Dislike Us: Christians and “Branding.”
May 16, 2012“and this is why so many people reject the church . . .” How often have you read this in the last year? In the last month? In the last week? It’s a premise for a wide variety of ideas about the Church, a repeated refrain that has almost become a cliche. It goes something like this. The church has a bad public image because it is too narrow-minded, too political, too legalistic, too patriarcal, and too a lot of bad things. And there seems to be research to bolster these arguments. Seems every day, some organization is releasing a…
Continue ReadingWhy Mother’s Day Will Be Harder for Us This Year
May 11, 2012I’m thirty-four and so Mother’s Day has endured several new seasons for me. There was the season of my birth, which I don’t remember of course. Then there was the seasons of childhood where I came home from church on Mother’s Day with hand-made cards, where I partnered with my dad and siblings to make meals, create artwork, and honor my wonderful mom. There was the season of junior high and into high-school where I offered the obligatory thanks to Mom, but didn’t fully appreciate her investment in my life. And then of course there is college years where I’m…
Continue ReadingEndorsements for Real
May 11, 2012I’m humbled and honored to received these endorsements for my upcoming release: Real. “Daniel Darling knows that faith cannot be inherited; it must be owned. In REAL, he shows us exactly how to develop an organic and authentic faith. This compact but powerful book will revitalize the spiritually bored and burned out by helping them glimpse Jesus in fresh ways.” Jonathan Merritt, author of A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars “Dan Darling’s spot-on perceptions, honesty, and gentle kindness permeate this insightful book for understanding and helping today’s generation. I found various emotions welling up inside…
Continue Reading5 Great Reads on Gay Marriage
May 10, 2012Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that gay marriage has been at the top of the news headlines. On Tuesday, voters in North Carolina overwhelmingly approved an amendment to their constitution affirming traditional marriage. And on Wednesday, President Obama, somewhat reluctantly, affirmed the right of homosexuals to get married. This is a tough, sensitive issue that didn’t begin with President Obama, but bubbled up from the culture. In my view, this was a battle that the church lost years ago, the product of a pragmatic evangelicalism that offered a “lowest common denominator” Christianity heavy on personal happiness and short on…
Continue ReadingWho Are You Calling a Culture Warrior?
May 10, 2012“People are tired of the culture war.” “The culture war is over.” “Christians need to stop being so political.” “Christians are damaging the brand with their involvement in politics.” Have you heard any of these statements lately? I have. And I’ve made these statements. Our generation is in the midst of a good discussion on the connection between faith and politics. We’re a bit weary of a previous generation’s highly partisan nature. We feel the Christian brand has been badly damaged. We’re not culture warriors. Or so we think. Except isn’t interesting how hypocritical we actually are. I was thinking…
Continue ReadingMini-Reviews #12
May 9, 2012Okay, I’m back with mini-reviews, this time with three books I thoroughly enjoyed: Loving the Way Jesus Loved by Phillip Ryken I’ve heard many sermons on the famous “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13. It’s often read at weddings, quoted by people of all persuasions and motivations, and often misunderstood. But Phil Ryken, President of Wheaton College, approaches this chapter in a fresh new way. Taken from a series of message he preached while pastor of Philadelphia’s famed Tenth Presbyterian Church, Loving the Way Jesus Loves adds the life of Jesus as the backdrop to this chapter. And so with each characteristic…
Continue ReadingImmigration Policy and Ministry
May 9, 2012The Gospel Coalition is running a two-part blog series I coauthored with Matthew Soerens of World Relief on the sensitive subject of gospel ministry and immigration policy. In the first part we concentrated on a pastor’s role in shaping the attitudes of Christians toward immigrants, both legal and illegal. In the second part, we dived into specifics in terms of legality, laws, and advocacy for a more updated system. This is an important conversation for the Church and something many ministries are wrestling with. I appreciate The Gospel Coalition’s willingness to engage this issue.
Continue ReadingHere is a guest post by my good friend, Dave Jenkins, director of Servants of Grace, a great website full of gospel-centered articles and materials: On April 26th, 2012, I had the opportunity to teach at the small group I attend through my local church Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Nampa, Idaho. The teaching went well and the Lord blessed our time in the Word of God. As I was reflecting on this event, I wanted to share some thoughts from this experience with you. While I realize some people take a full manuscript with them when they preach, I am not one of those…
Continue ReadingFriday Five Interview – Russell Moore
May 4, 2012Today I’d like to repost an interview I did in 2010 with one of my favorite contemporary Christian leaders, Dr. Russell Moore. Russell D. Moore is the Senior Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The grandson of a Mississippi Baptist preacher, Dr. Moore is also a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, where he ministers weekly. Dr. Moore is a thoughtful writer whose columns always spark introspection and discussion. He is a senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity and also blogs…
Continue ReadingGod’s Favor Versus God’s Love
May 3, 2012I think the current “gospel-centered” movement is one of the best things to happen to the church in a long time. The push for more expository preaching that grounds every imperative in the indicatives of the gospel–this is important. For too long the Church has preached a gospel of moralism, of legalism, of do-it-yourself lite Christianity. However, if there is one concern I have with the movement, I might say that there is a danger of a pendulum swing. As a reactive measure against the idea that you must work really hard to earn God’s love (a frustrating and often…
Continue ReadingConverting Sermons into Books
May 2, 2012Phil Johnson, proprietor of the Team Pyro blog and the executive editor of Grace to You Ministries (John McArthur) has a terrific post on converting sermon series into books. I have experience doing this. For nearly a decade I worked for a Christian ministry as an editor and writer and it was my job to turn sermons into readable print. It’s an enormously difficult job, simply because the spoken word and the written word are vastly different. Phil explains: Sermons lose something important in the process, and even the greatest preaching in the world doesnt easily translate into great writing.…
Continue ReadingFriday Five: Bob Waliszewski
April 27, 2012If you’re a concerned mom or dad, then certainly you’ve made good use of Plugged-In Online. It’s a terrific resource from Focus on the Family featuring detailed and up to date entertainment reviews. Today I have the privilege of interviewing Bob Waliszewski, Plugged In director. Waliszewski reaches a large radio audience weekly with his syndicated “Plugged In Movie Reviews.” Waliszewski has been interviewed extensively by media outlets such as CNN, CNBC, Daystar Television, MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” Fox News Radio Network’s “The Alan Colmes Show,” the Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times and The New York Times in which he most often tackles the…
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