Posted at: 29 December 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 0 Comments

DBA churches serve their neighbors faithfully and creatively in the name of Jesus every day.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from those ministries in 2011.  Email me your favorite community ministry photos, and I'll add them to our album.

Posted at: 15 December 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 3 Comments

Our vet makes house calls.  When he visits our Labrador Retriever mix, Diva, he gets down on his hands and knees on our living room floor, coaxing Diva to play with him. While he’s down there, he gradually gains her trust so he can check her teeth, her ears, and sometimes even give her a [...]

Posted at: 01 December 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 2 Comments

According to revised census data released in November, 16 percent of the United States population (49,000,000 people) lives in poverty .  The news is worse in Dallas County, where almost 19 percent of residents live below the poverty level, which is $24,343 annually for a family of 4. Psalm 140:12 says, "I know that the [...]

Posted at: 17 November 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 0 Comments

(This post is an adaptation of a devotional given by my husband, Roger Jackson, at a recent DBA staff meeting. Roger is the director of Mt. Lebanon Camp.) My wife and I are part of a Bible study at Cliff Manor, a public housing community for formerly homeless persons and persons with permanent disabilities. During [...]

Posted at: 03 November 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 0 Comments

I've just finished reading Robert Lupton's newest book, Toxic Charity (Harper Collins., Inc., Kindle Edition, 2011). It's a unapologetic indictment of the failure of churches', NGOs' and governments' responses to poverty. Early in the book the author states that "[g]iving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well [...]

Posted at: 20 October 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 0 Comments

Last Sunday morning my pastor preached from Ephesians 4:1: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”  He asked several people in the congregation to share a few words about what they believed to be God’s calling for their lives.  As they [...]

Posted at: 06 October 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 1 Comment

A young single mom drove down the street, literally headed nowhere.  As she passed Eastern Hills Baptist Church, she read the sign: “AWANA, ESL, SINGLE MOM’S JOURNEY.”  The sign spoke to her loneliness and desire for community.  So, she pulled into the church parking lot and went inside the building.  She found the ESL class [...]

Posted at: 22 September 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 1 Comment

Have you been to an annual meeting lately?  If not, try it again, and bring the kids. Four years ago DBA retired its traditional annual meeting format and started over. We truncated the business to about 30 minutes and pared down the sermons from 3 to 1.  We expanded and diversified the worship.  To encourage [...]

Posted at: 08 September 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 1 Comment

One of DBA’s Lifechangers summer missionaries, Bill Barrera, was licensed to the ministry a few Sundays ago at Grace Temple Baptist Church.  I attended the inspirational service led by pastor Ryan Jespersen.  As Bill shared his testimony about his calling to the ministry, God reminded me of the mysterious ways He works. Bill said that [...]

Posted at: 25 August 2011 | By: DBA Staff | 3 Comments

I attended Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit last week for the first time, via video-conferencing at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall.  Although the darkened auditorium with multiple screens made me feel a little like I was spending the day at the movies, it was an incredible opportunity to hear from some of the best thinkers [...]