Dale Ralph Davis
Easter convention speaker Dale Ralph Davis is the author of 'The Word Became Flesh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts.' He was until recently the Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi and pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church.
You're referred to by your middle name. Were you named after anyone?
That was because my brothers used my middle name when I was growing up. I've got four older brothers. But it's kind of confusing because you've got to use your first name for ID
What does life involve for you?
Right now we just recently moved. So we left Woodland in Mississippi which is in the deep south and moved up to the middle south here in Tennessee. So left our last pastorate, or I'm assuming it's our last one. So technically as far as paid work goes, retired, but working on a writing project I haven't been able to get to. So I make out my schedule for every week and morning and afternoons are usually taken up with study and writing work until I get that project done.
And what's that project you're working on?
It's an expository commentary on Daniel. I've got a long way to go with it yet. I've preached through the book and I've taught through it, but I have to beef up the exegesis a bit more. I have a good bit of work still to do on it.
Have you finished your time at the seminary you were (teaching) at?
I was at Reformed Seminary two different times. We've had four pastorates and three different teaching appointments. Two of those teaching appointment were at Reformed Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. I'd teach for a while and then we'd go back to the pastorate, then I came back and taught again and then we went back to the pastorate. Sort of a confusing kind of thing, I haven't decided what to be when I grow up. So now I've finally given up.
Back to Tennessee. Is Tennessee just a place to get some peace and quiet and write? Have any of the past pastorates been in Tennessee?
No, we just thought it would be a milder climate than where we were and not quite as viciously hot and humid, so decided we'd just try to settle up here.
Are you at retirement age?
You would say so probably, about 66, which would probably be about normal retirement age in the states.
And do your children and grandchildren come and visit you in Tennessee, do they live nearby?
Our nearest one is probably 400 miles away, so they're all between 400 and 800 miles away, so we're not real close to them geographically. We have 3 sons and their families and probably they'll make it this way in the near future.
What do you like in Tennessee? I hear country music is big in some parts of Tennessee, but what do you like about it?
I'm not really a country music buff at all, but we just thought we'd like the country so we scoped it out a few years back so just decided to settle here. We have no family in the area and so on, so just decided to carve a niche out here if we good?
What do you like to do with yourself? What does a day off consist of? What are your hobbies?
Oh no big deal? I like to read history and biography and that sort of thing, and we shoot a little basketball or something like that when we have a chance but I have no big hobbies or anything like that.
Can you tell us a bit about Woodland Presbyterian and its size and what the people there were like and how church life worked?
Probably about 200 people more or less and when we would have new members join us we would tell them it's sort of a vanilla type church, as we called it. We didn't try to do anything super duper. We didn't have fancy programs or something for everybody and our view was that as far as families went (we had a number of single people in the church too) they were better served by trying to practice godliness in their own home rather than dragging themselves off to church all the time for some activity. So, because of that we put the emphasis on the preaching and teaching of the Word, so we had morning and evening services on the Lord's day. But we didn't have a whole lot of other stuff. Various people in the church would have Bible studies, there was a women's bible study, there was a men's Bible study and so on, but we didn't push people, we didn't say you need to be involved in this and this and this. We placed the emphasis on preaching and teaching and public worship and then let the other things fall where they might, and according to people's time and so on. But we didn't try to press a great degree of them needing to be hyper involved in church activities. Sometimes, at least in American situations it can break up families and divide families, by just being too busy with the church. So we didn't try to hyper program anything and that sort of thing. So that's kind of what it was, it was just kind of a 'Plain Jane' congregation and if you didn't like the preaching and teaching of the Word well you should go somewhere else.
Can you tell us a bit more about practicing godliness in the household? Were there specific ways you encouraged families to relate to one another?
Not necessary specific ways although there might be something like an adult Sunday School or something like that, or in the modeling of the elders and that sort of thing. I think what came across was it will vary in different homes but we view the husband and father as having the primary initiating responsibility for that. And whatever is age appropriate and so on in his own home, it varied, but there should be family worship in the home, it didn't have to be extensive, it didn't have to be long, but the home itself should be a kind of little church and to try to inculcate that. I think we had a number of our people that did do that and not necessarily elders and deacons but just people who were trying to walk with the Lord, practiced private worship in their homes and so on. But we didn't do a lot of 'how to' stuff. Some of that came across in preaching and teaching but we never held seminars on it or something like that. We never did that on for instance giving either. People gave and they gave well but we unless we touched on it in the Scripture being preached or taught on, we didn't harangue or beat on giving or something like that. I guess all we tried to do, and we would be in the minority in American circles to think this way, but in our situation now, (I can't speak for Australia or anywhere else) but I think in our America culture, there's a mentality in the church that people think we need to provide people with this and this and this. If they think there's a need for something, then somehow the officers or the eldership of the church has to provide them with something, they have to start a program, they have to start a small group, they have to do this or that. Our view was if you feel the need for something like that, and it's not there, then go start it. 'You want a small group Bible study?' 'You want some help with it?' well holler at us 'You think there ought to be prison ministry?' then check out what options there are, then start one or get involved in one but don't necessarily expect the 'government', don't expect the church to level something down from on high on you. I guess it's trying to put responsibility on the initiative of the believers that feel the need and say use your own ingenuity and initiative about some of these things and don't expect some program, we're a church of two hundred people, we just can't do everything. And it was a little bit of a struggle, because people aren't geared to think that way, they're a bunch of socialists, and to get them to think that way sometimes is a little bit of a trick.
At Easter convention 2011 the theme is based on the idea of disposable love. Are there times were you would see that culture of disposable love in the church?
We had that kind of thing. On the whole if I could just generalise, I don't think we had it as severely as some congregations might, we had some, and we had to deal with that. We tried not to go to situations where we carried them out to a point of formal discipline, we tried to handle it informally, but sometimes I think people knew if there wasn't a proper response to things and if they continued in an unbiblical mode, like walking away without justification from a marriage relationship or something, I think they knew that they would face a disciplinary procedure from the church. I think that was in the background. We weren't severe, we weren't going around looking around for offenders, but this comes up in your lap, those things take place. But I do think our people knew that if something like that happens, and if they didn't make a biblical response then they would be subject to discipline from the elders. I think that doesn't deter people, I mean they're going to do what they're going to do, but I do think that was in the background, and sometimes I think some of that helps. We would even have people who might come to the elders and ask them about some situation and ask them if we were dealing with it or not. So there was a sort of an expectation that there would be a certain level of discipline if there some kind of public sin or that sort of thing. So that was in the air. And I think that was one thing in place. But yeah, we had the same kinds of things, but I don't think we had it as severely as our culture at large here in our congregation. But, a bunch of sinners, you do have that sort of thing rearing its head.
What characterised the good, strong, thriving Christian friendships and relationships?
I don't know, I have no magic answer there. I think probably the mutual caring and the kinds of things that we would see in our congregation. For all the warts and all the sinfulness there was still underneath a deep, abiding, mutual caring and praying for one another and I think that's what you would see. Just as you would see in a Christian marriage that's often not necessarily always on a high emotional intensity, but always a deep rooted, deep caring for the other person that's far deeper than you often times realise. I think that came through, in our congregation and other congregations where I've been pastor; it's just that sometimes it's not an apparent as you would sometimes think. Often there's a deep unseen element of Christian love that is expressed in prayer for one another, but it's not necessarily a gushy, mushy, huggy obvious sort of thing.
You were the Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary but also wrote the book, The Word Became Flesh: How to Preach from the Old Testament Narrative Texts. For people who are coming to Easter convention could you tell us how you think about preaching from the Old Testament and what principles you use?
The basic thing is that you try to show people … let me put it this way … Since God has given us the Old Testament revelation it comes to us in the form of literature. And that literature in whatever form it came God intended as a revelation of himself. So whether I have song or whether I have narrative, or whether I have prophecy or so on, I'm being most faithful to whatever text I have if I show God's people what God's revealing about himself in that text. Which means that if it's a narrative passage will it involve some historical background? Yes it may. But if that's all I do I'm not being faithful to that text. I need to show them what that's declaring about God. For instance if I'm in 1 Samuel or something, you don't just explain how David escaped from the people of Keilah and the Ziphites etcetera, in First Samuel 23, but you need to show how God was at work there, and how God in his gracious providence, for instance, provided Jonathan as a means to encourage David.
You've been to Australia before I take it?
One time. I think in 07.