Resources by Daniel McCoy:
Daniel McCoy
Daniel is happily married to Susanna, and they have 3 daughters and 2 sons. He has his bachelor’s in theology (Ozark Christian College), his master of arts in apologetics (Veritas International University), and his PhD in theology (North-West University, South Africa). His master’s thesis was on apologetics to atheists, and his doctoral dissertation was on apologetics to Buddhists. In 2014, he co-authored The Atheist’s Fatal Flaw with Norman Geisler. Daniel works as editorial director for the Renew Network. His passion is to help people understand that they can totally trust Jesus. He plays guitar and piano and occasionally enjoys writing songs.
daniel@renew.org
How to Botch a Baptism
I was baptizing a friend of mine who was literally twice my size. That in itself made me nervous. What made things instantly worse was that the moment I got him under, his feet floated up. So now I had to get one half (the half that needs to breathe) back up to the surface...
Daniel McCoy
Permission to Say No to a Fight
I’ve been a Phoenix Suns fan ever since the early 90s. And, yes, I’ve always been bitter that Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls beat them in the ’93 NBA Finals. This year, for the first time since ’93, the Suns returned to the Finals, this time to face the Milwaukee Bucks. In the middle of the...
Daniel McCoy
The Best Thing about Essential Beliefs
Let’s think through a couple phrases: essential oils and essential beliefs. As for essential oils, I bet each one of us has at least one essential oils enthusiast in our lives who has told us, “You have to try them out! They’re amazing!” As for essential beliefs (as in, the essential beliefs of Christianity), the...
Daniel McCoy
A Simple Definition of Grace? Yeah, About That…
We know grace is amazing, but what exactly is it? For starters, the Greek word translated “grace” is charis (it helps that the two words sound alike, doesn’t it?). Before Christians picked up charis and connected it to the gospel, the word was useful for describing the patron-client relationship (we’ll get to that in a...
Daniel McCoy
3 Stages in Our Fight against Sin (and How the Holy Spirit Wins It for Us)
There are three stages in a Christian’s fight against sin. They’ll be easy to remember since they all rhyme: Lust Disgust Trust Let’s go through them so you can ask where you are in your fight. #1 – Lust This first stage in the fight against sin is when you don’t put up any fight...
Daniel McCoy
How Pride Month Taught Me the Power of Spirituality
Since it was Pride Month, I googled the pride flag to explain to my eldest the meaning of the flags around town. I went with the traditional rainbow flag and explained the basics of the acronym LGBT. When the conversation was over, I decided to do some exploring, knowing that there was at least one...
Daniel McCoy
Why Did Jesus Pick Fishermen? Answer: The Gospel.
A good joke leads an audience down one path (the setup), but then jolts them with an unexpected turn at the end (the punchline). In the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, we may not read any jokes, but we experience an unexpected twist. Mark 1:15 gets us going down one path. Jesus begins his ministry...
Daniel McCoy
This Pastor Doesn’t Know the Sky Is Falling. Is He Right?
I recently took an afternoon to hang out with a pastor friend of mine. Nice guy. But the impression he left me with as I got on the highway to head back home was that his ministry, though effective, was missing something I had come to expect from conversations with other Christians in 2021. What...
Daniel McCoy
My Favorite Paragraph of Disciple Making: The Core Mission of the Church
Buried deep within my house is a treasure chest. By “deep,” I mean it’s in my office in the basement. By “treasure chest,” I mean exactly what it sounds like: it’s an antique, wooden treasure chest, maybe 10 inches long and 8 inches high. And what’s inside is a literal treasure. I feel safe putting...
Daniel McCoy
The Secret to Telling the World a Better Story
Although I enjoy writing songs from time to time, my recurring attitude toward my own songwriting could be summarized, “Andrew Peterson already exists. What’s the point?” We in the church could be tempted to have the same attitude toward telling stories. In order for our Western culture to stop and pay attention, we’re going to...
Daniel McCoy
We’re about to Make a Big Mistake – Reflections on Rebecca McLaughlin’s “The Secular Creed”
In describing the big mistake our culture is making, I’m going to point you to 2 resources. One is meant to make you say, “Eh.” (This first resource is not going to be super engaging—but hang on, because it makes an important point.) The other is meant to make you say, depending on where you’re...
Daniel McCoy
How to Read a Progressive like the Bible
*Editor’s Note: For Part 1 (“How to Read the Bible like a Progressive”), click here. In 2014, the late Rachel Held Evans wrote an autobiographical account called Faith Unraveled. It was her story of plunging from robust evangelicalism into cynical unbelief until she settled for a proud progressivism. Although progressivism is often not the ending...
Daniel McCoy
How to Read the Bible like a Progressive
How to read the Bible like a progressive—is that really a good idea? No, I’m not suggesting you try this. In fact, I’m going to suggest that you learn how progressive Christians read the Bible in order to keep yourself from doing it. What’s a “progressive”? I’m using “progressive” to refer to a person who rewrites important...
Daniel McCoy
3 Ways to Respond to Mass Shootings
Have you heard of the “Serenity Prayer”? Although the original prayer written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr is longer, here is the prayer as it is commonly quoted: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” It’s a popular...
Daniel McCoy