Dane Hays

Biblical Counselor & Leadership Coach; North Alabama Biblical Counseling

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

@WillOsupurei Terrible ring psychology that ruined wrestling.

[Brian Croft @PastorCroft]

Generally speaking, it takes 5 years to earn the trust of a congregation and truly become the pastor.

It takes 10 years to make hard changes that moves the culture of a church to a greater place of health.

Pastors, this is not meant to discourage you, but a call to be patient.

[Diane Langberg, PhD @DianeLangberg]

"Spiritual" and "abuse” are two words that should never go together. It’s a diabolical pairing. The Spirit of God hates abuse, uncovers abuse, and cares for the abused. Yet we often see spirituality used destructively against those made in God's image. The damage runs deep.

[Jason Kovacs @jasonkovacs]

“For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ."

- Robert Murray McCheyne

[Brian Croft @PastorCroft]

After a full week of talking to pastors in crisis, I have a word of encouragement to every pastor…get a hobby.

Every pastor needs a fun, life-giving activity that has nothing to do with your ministry. This matters. It really does.

And do it often.

[Diane Langberg, PhD @DianeLangberg]

Know Christ so well you can discern what is unlike Him no matter the seductive or religious garb it wears. God is building His kingdom in the hearts of men and women, not in the externals we have come to love, protect, and praise.

[Jason Kovacs @jasonkovacs]

Lord, save me today from finding my identity in

what I do
what I have
or
what others think of me.

Hide me in Christ!

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

At Starbucks and overheard a lady say, "Your expresso is great! I'm an expresso snob."

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

Want to know the number one resource that we at NABC use outside of the Scriptures? The Heart of Jesus by @daneortlund.

Strugglers are desperate to know and delighted to find that God’s heart is drawn toward them in compassion when they sin.

I’ve never ever seen someone shamed or scolded into change. Only grace does that.

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

Want to know the number one resource that we at NABC use outside of the Scriptures? The Heart of Jesus by @daneortlund.

Strugglers are desperate to know and delighted to find that God’s heart is drawn toward them in compassion when they sin.

I’ve never ever seen someone shamed or scolded into change. Only grace does that.

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

@NoutheticC This is wild coming from a nameless and faceless X account. Just saying. 😁

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

@joethorn @joshlofthus At our church we affirm them as "members pending baptism" and schedule the baptism as soon as possible.

[Dane Ortlund @daneortlund]

My Lord wept so that now my tears might be wiped away.

Baxter

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

@mitchellchase Chernow’s biographies on Washington and Hamilton were a real treat that I read earlier this year.

Currently working on McCullough’s bio on Adams.

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

NABC celebrated graduation for our training program this past week. What a wonderful time of celebrating what God has done in and through these students this past year!

If you want to be equipped to counsel the Word to others in your small group, discipleship relationships, or your leadership role, we would love to have you train with us this fall.

Fill out this short form to be added to our waitlist:

https://t.co/y6feZxTtHv

[Christian Stegmaier @cstegmaier]

Assuming Ted Turner’s funeral will start at 7:05 pm.

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

I’m proud and honored to share that I have joined the executive team at North Alabama Biblical Counseling! God has been working in various ways over the last several years to bring me to this point, and he’s been so faithful.

Our board recently went on a strategic planning retreat to Lake Guntersville to pray and make plans for our future. We have a strong sense of unity and excitement about how we can advance God’s kingdom through biblical counseling and training.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for Audrey Henley who has led NABC so faithfully, and looking forward to continuing to work with her to ensure healthy leadership into the next generation. She is my friend, my mentor, and my co-laborer in the gospel!

It’s good to be home.

[Dane Hays @DaneHays]

@WesleyLHuff Wes, you are such a blessing to God’s kingdom, brother. Thank you.

[Wes Huff @WesleyLHuff]

So apparently I’m embroiled in some sort of controversy. Let me set a few things strait:

1. I don’t know Sam Allberry personally. We've met in-person a total of once — back in January while I was in Nashville when I did the Shawn Ryan Podcast, where I ran into and took a picture with Sam. When I saw the news initially about his removal from leadership I took that picture down. I had already started to see people commenting that by keeping it up I was implicating myself in his sin. I do not think they were correct. But ironically, said comments were then replaced with ones telling me that by taking it down… I was hiding something and implicating myself in his sin. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

2. I believe the language in the current public statements to be potentially unhelpfully vague. From my (brief though not uninformed) understanding of the details of the situation, what Sam did that disqualified him from leadership was not due to sexual or even a romantic impropriety, but what could best be described as a sinful emotional attachment. This is not to justify it or say that it wasn't disqualifying (I think it probably was). But the lack of clarity has left room for those who desire to gossip, defame, and sinfully speculate online to run wild — which they have.

3. I am genuinely saddened with the internet’s desire to tear down and jump to harsh judgements regarding another Christian’s failing. When someone falls into sin, those who are spiritually mature should work toward their restoration, approaching them with a spirit of gentleness (Gal. 6:1-2). The motivation for restoration carries spiritual weight. Bringing someone back who has wandered from truth saves their soul from death and covers a multitude of sins (James 5:19–20). This isn’t merely about correcting behaviour, it’s about spiritual rescue. The desire to gossip and breed quarrels, which is so obviously warned against in scripture (Proverbs 17:19; 26:17; 2 Timothy 2:14, 23-24; Titus 3:9-11; James 4:1-2) is, to say the least, lamentable and disappointing to see.

4. Sam Allberry is being labelled as “Side B,” this is genuinely confusing to me. To quote Sam in his own words: “Same sex attraction is not a good thing. It is... a consequence of the fall. ...This kind of attraction is not something God designed for us, and it contradicts his design” (Is God Anti Gay, 63). Sam has expressed in multiple places throughout his written work and public talks that he holds to the biblical position of marriage, that homosexual relationships are sinful, and that identifying as a “gay Christian” is incompatible with scripture. To be clear, I don't agree with Sam on all the nuances of how he discusses the issue. But I can only conclude that this attempt to make him into an LBGT advocate comes from either shear ignorance of his public work or some sort of internet-level frothing of the mouth to jump on whoever “we don’t like this week.”

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. - Heb 3:13.

[Robert A. J. Gagnon @RobertAJGagnon1]

In the wake of the news about Sam Allberry's "inappropriate relationship with another man a few years ago," let us be clear about the following since I see much confusion on the matter by dear Christians who comment on it:

1. A desire to do what God forbids is (by definition) a sinful desire. Were it not a sinful desire, the desire could be gratified in appropriate measure.

2. The experience of a sinful desire is a sign and warning to us of an effort on the part of sin that resides within to create or exploit a possible disconnect in our relationship with God or Christ, which requires conscious care on our part.

3. The mere experience of sinful desire is not a defeat. It is the start of a battle that can be won by a renewal of the mind regarding the love of God in Christ, an examination of the reasons behind the possible frailty, and mortifying the flesh.

To repeat: Temptation to sin, even internal temptation, is not an act of culpable sinning. The fact of warfare between flesh and Spirit as we await reception of a resurrection body is not, in and of itself, a victory for sin operating in the flesh.

It is merely a fact of human existence so long as our spirit, infused by Christ's Spirit, is tethered to this "body of sin" (which is not of course to say that bodies are sinful qua bodies since we will one day be given a sinless resurrection body and indeed, per Gen 2-3, started with a body without sin). Through the sin of the first humans, sin entered human flesh or "adamic" bodies and dwells therein.

4. Guilty culpability for sinning first occurs when one acquiesces to a sinful desire, not at the point of initial experience and subsequent struggle. This acquiescence can occur in thought or in thought and deed.

5. Prior to any acquiescence to sinful desire, reflection (mind-renewal) and action (mortification, or putting to death, sinful fleshly desire) is required. But it is only when acquiescence takes place that repentance is required. This entails an admission of culpable defeat, an expression of regret, and a renewal of the mind that receives cleansing, empowerment, and a realization of God's loving embrace.

6. The goal of the church is restoration of the offender. That restoration can include even restoration to leadership after grievous sinful acts, properly repented, of which we have many examples in both Testaments.