Charis

About Dan

I’m a writer and teacher living in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.

As an instructor in the Department of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), I teach first-year composition and sophomore-level literature surveys. I also serve as webmaster for the department’s site.

More importantly, I’m the husband of Teddie Wall Butcher and the father of three children: Zachary, Isaac, and Anna. Teddie and I met and married (1988) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where we lived until August 2001, when we moved to Birmingham to be a part of Church of the Highlands.

I grew up in the Churches of Christ, and I value the solid foundation this heritage provided. I learned early that the Bible is the word of God and that it has absolute authority in my life. I learned that doctrine matters and that it is my responsibility to study the Bible for myself. Less importantly, I also learned to read music and sing bass—when all the songs are a capella, being able to sing parts and carry a tune takes on a greater emphasis.

In 1997, Teddie and I started attending Bethany World Prayer Center, a mega-church in Baton Rouge (you may have seen Bethany on the national news after Katrina; they housed and fed hundreds of displaced people). If the Church of Christ taught me to read Scripture for doctrine and commands, Bethany taught me to read for God’s character and His promises. Our four years at Bethany were truly life-changing as we moved from rules to relationship. When Chris Hodges, one of the pastors there, decided to plant a church in Birmingham, we followed; it was time for something new.

Bethany was very charismatic—about as far from the Churches of Christ as possible; Highlands is different from both. I spent a long time believing a very narrow theology; when the Holy Spirit broadened my perspective, I realized there was a whole world of faith that I knew little about. It’s amazing to me that on Sunday morning in any given community, thousands of people gather in churches to honor the same God and read the same Bible yet have such varied expressions of faith and experiences of worship. I don’t think any one group has a corner on the truth, and I believe that I can benefit from many different approaches.

About the blog

This diversity is—I hope—reflected here in my posts. In addition to the Bible, you’ll find me reading and responding to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, Oswald Chambers, Joyce Meyer, Andrew Murray, Neil Anderson, Beth Moore, Madeleine L’Engle, Martin Luther, Anne Graham Lotz, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, George Barna—you get the idea. I also comment from time to time on TV, movies, and other aspects of our culture.

My goal, always, is to be practical, to seek application, to make myself—and you—think. How does this apply to my life, my situation? How does that fit with the way I see God? What do I need to change? I don’t want to present ideas, to write, simply for the sake of seeing words on the screen. I have too little time, and I imagine you do, also, to ponder “angels on the head of a pin” kinds of questions.

Finally, a note about the title: why charis? As a writer and reader, I love words, and one of the pleasures of Bible study for me is learning about the richness of the original languages behind our modern translations of Scripture. As you’ll see at the bottom of every page, the Greek word charis can be translated grace, favor, gift, blessing, and gratitude. Thus, Luke tells us that Mary had found favor with God (1:30) and John tells us that we have grace and truth through Jesus Christ (1:17). Paul blesses his readers with grace at the beginning and end of almost every letter, and he tells the Romans that we are justified as a gift by God’s grace (3:24). And, of course, we have the related words charisma and Eucharist—there’s a wealth of meaning. I want my life to be characterized by grace, by charis, giving and receiving blessing and favor, having a heart of gratitude, walking in my giftings. This blog is a reflection of that desire and a way for me to think through how to do this practically.

My prayer is that you will be blessed by what you find here, and I invite you to participate in the reflection and thinking by adding your comments to the posts that you read. I look forward to hearing from you!