>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello, and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck. Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day in the afternoon, getting to spend time with you, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And we are in need of that. We need that. And I'm excited to be here with you today to really be talking about something that is is very important. You may have heard the phrase all politics is local. And for me, as a policy professor, as someone who grew up with grandparents in community service, in service to their city, I can tell you that is there is a lot of truth in that statement. Many of us may feel like we are not going to walk into the office, the Oval Office of the President of the United States and say, hey, we'd like to share a few things that are on our mind. But you can do that many times with your local government, with your local officials. Many times they are shopping in the same grocery store as you. They're sitting in the same school performance that you are. They're playing with their families in the community park. And those local policies, I, from my perspective as a policy professor, I can tell you they really impact our families so much. And I find when I have students who are coming into my policy class, many times I survey them and ask them kind of take their temperature, gauge their attitude before they come in. And there is one word that they use to describe their feelings about this class. When I do a word cloud, this one word comes up more than any other word. And can you guess what in the world that word might be? Well, it's not too great for my ego. That word is dread. They think I dread this class. I don't want to learn about policy. It's dry, it's boring. It doesn't impact me. But I can tell you that right here, right now, today, there is someone in a room somewhere at this very moment while we are speaking who is discussing a policy that will deeply impact your daily life. Whether that's insurance reimbursement, whether that's a local law, a state law, a federal law. There are so many policies that govern our life. And policies represent people. And we do care deeply about people. And especially as people of faith, we. We are called to care for our community. So I'm really excited to talk to someone today who is living this journey, who is walking the walk and talking the talk. And so we have a mayor joining us today. Mayor Dan Davis from, Manvel Texas. And he and his wife have been married, they have two kids. He's going to tell us a lot about his story, but he is someone who is living and leading where he lives. That is a courageous thing to do. It requires sacrifice, and it's a calling. So, Dan, we are so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
>> Dan Davis: Thank you for having me.
Jessica: I've heard great things about the show
Dr. Jessica I've heard great things about the show. I've listened to the show when I made the announcement that I was going to be on, heard from people all over that were excited and love what you guys do here. So thank you for being a blessing and following the calling that God has for your life. It's really making an impact in the world around us.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, thank you so much. That means so much. And I know that you have a busy day and you have speaking engagement even after, you finish with us. And so I'm so grateful for some of your time today.
Tell us a little bit about who you are, your life story
So let's just start at the beginning. Just tell us a little bit about who you are, your life story, how you came to know the Lord and how you came to be called to a life of public service.
>> Dan Davis: Absolutely. So my story starts with my, my parents. Just like everybody's story, it starts when your mom meets your dad. And, they both grew up in very difficult situations. And whenever they got married, they decided to move cross country. They were both born and raised in the Boston, Massachusetts. my dad, right out of high school, joined the military. He was in the Coast Guard for a while. And when they got married, they wanted to start a new life just for them themselves. So they moved all the way from Boston, Massachusetts to San Mateo, California. That's ultimately where I was born. I lived my first nine months there of being, being alive. And it was, after I was born, my parents, they had decided, you know what? We want a different life for our son and any future kids that we have than what we did growing up. But they know how to do that themselves. because of the situations that they had been raised in, they decided, well, let's go to church. Let's give church a try. So it was February that, I was born, and come that April, they decided to go to church on Easter Sunday. And it was at church that they both gave their lives to Christ. And they just completely changed the trajectory of the life for my family and I. So it was a very, beautiful situation. It was a very beautiful thing that, that, that happened. And, that led us to Moving around a lot, moved 20 different times in my life. Never went to the same school for more than two years. Went to three different high schools in my four year high school career. but ultimately it led us to Kingwood, Texas, which is where I graduated from high school. And I started working at a job there. And that's where I met my wife. And my, wife was my boss at this job at the ymca. She's still my boss to this day.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Is what I like.
>> Dan Davis: And God just started to arrange things from there. We got married whenever I was 18 and she was 20. Five days After getting married, we moved to Dallas where we attended seminary school at Christ for the Nations Institute. at the age of 21, our son was born. And when my wife was four months pregnant, we actually moved to Japan where we became missionaries for a year. my daughter, our daughter was born there. And moving back to America, we moved back in 2016. And I never had any aspirations to be involved in politics. We grew up in a very apolitical family. But, this was the first time in my adult life in 2016, that I was aware of what was happening politically in our nation. And I started to grow this passion in my heart for politics. And I really saw how political leaders have an opportunity to lift people up, not just through what they say, but through what they do. And so starting to study it out and get involved and go back to school to study it more. I really came under the belief that we need good people in elected office that aren't going to make the popular decisions, but they're going to make the right decisions. And upon buying our home in Manvel we bought our first home in Manvel in, 2017 at the age of 24 years old. Like what you said in the opening, I just wanted to start attending the meetings because it's your local government that makes the decisions that the very next day impact your life. So going to the meeting, seeing what was going on, seeing how they drastically raised the tax rate on us, the decisions that they were, were making, when an opportunity came for me to get involved in an elected capacity, it's the mindset of if not me, then then who? And you know, God has a story written for all of our lives. It's just up to us to turn the page of the story that he's written. So I was elected to serve on city council at the age of 26, youngest ever in the history of Manvel. I served for three years and then at the age of 30, I was elected to serve as mayor. And so I've been serving now for two years. And my mission, my number one goal, is at the end of my life to stand before my Creator and to hear him say, well done, my good and faithful servant. I want to make a difference. I want to bring his kingdom down to Earth. And I want people, when they come into the city of Manful, they feel something different, they see something different. That we truly embody what President Abraham Lincoln said, which is government is to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Dan, I think we're done here. I think we can just end the show like that. That was great. That was wonderful. I need to go because I need to put my house up for sale. I'll be moving to Manvel because that is a fantastic invitation.
Dan: God is central part of your story all the way through
Wow, Dan. I mean, really, truly, I'm saying this so sincerely from the bottom of my heart. How inspired that is, how inspiring that is, and how God is just such the central part of your story all the way through. And I'm sure that as you were growing up, moving from Boston to San Mateo to Texas, to Japan, and then back to Texas, which I have to point out here as the obnoxious native, Texan, you came back to Texas. So welcome back. We are glad that you did. But God was part of that all the way. And I'm sure you didn't think, oh, this is going to be my story. He's just writing your story as you go, and you are just stepping forward in obedience. Well, there's so much to unpack, Dan.
Manvel has experienced public school, private school, homeschooling
So let's start with education, because education is something that is impacted by policy. And you, I think, have experienced public school, private school, homeschooling. What was that journey like for you, and how did it give you perspective on education and now your role in elected office, in interacting with education in your city?
>> Dan Davis: There's. There's a lot to unpack there. As we know, Texas has been in the. The national news because of decisions being made in regards to public education and school vouchers and school choice. For. For me, as I mentioned, growing up, I never went to the same school for more than two years. Most, of my, life in school was through public education and public schools. there were portions of times where I went to private school. My brothers and I went to private school because of the situations that we experienced in public school. And then there was a period of time where we were actually homeschooled. And I'm sure we'll dive into this a little bit. But it was in 2007, my dad's kidneys failed and, his brother was a match to give donate to him one of his kidneys. And so during that time, we had to live up in Boston in my uncle's basement while my dad went through the surgery and recovery process. So my mom really had to step up. Three young boys, I have two younger brothers, and she had to be a teacher for us. but it's in those moments when you're thrown into uncomfortable situations, unfamiliar situations, that when you look to God, he's going to direct your steps. And, you know, narrow is the way that leads to life. And the narrow way is not always the easiest way. Sometimes it's difficult, but it pays off in the, in the long run. So my, my wife and I, we've chosen to homeschool our kids primarily. My wife carries a lot of that load. You know, mother, wife, teacher, community member. It's, it's a tough balancing act. And she does, an incredible job with that. I am blessed to not. People like to say, oh, I have my wife that supports me. No, my wife is right alongside me, and it is a blessing to have her there with me. our decision to homeschool our kids was not from a place of being anti public education, but I believe that, as a society, we should come together and say, every child deserves a quality education. Regardless of what that journey looks like. As we pour into students, as we invest into our families, our society will be better off for it. And when my son was born, my wife and I prayed and we felt peace about homeschooling our children. And each step of the way, we've, we've prayed. We said, God, what do you want us to do? How can these, how can our kids be, arrows in the quiver that we can use to advance your, your kingdom? And when we focus as a society on understanding that every kid has their own educational journey, for some kids that's in public school, for some kids that's in private school, for some kids that's charter, for some, that's, that's homeschool. Then we take out the heated rhetoric, the politic, the politicalization of the, the topic, and we can come together as a community to, to help those kids succeed in life and really set them up for future success. And my own experience taught me that, life is to be a journey of education. It doesn't matter how young you are, how old you are, there's always new things to, to learn. There's always new experience to Glean wisdom from. There's people that have been there and done that, and you can learn from their successes and their failures. And it doesn't matter if you're in your uncle's basement, if you're in a school setting, if you're in a job, if you're in your community, there's always. There's always something to. To learn. So my job as mayor is to be a cheerleader for every, every student, every child, every family in Manvel Regardless of what journey that you're on, I'm there to help you and, and support you and. And to shout your successes from the. From the rooftop to be your biggest cheerleader.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm so glad that you said what you said about praying about your children's education choices God has entrusted, and they are such a precious treasure. Just like you talk about arrow in the hands of a warrior. And we have to be intentional about what God is calling us to do and step in obedience. And I do see so many families with so many different circumstances, like you talked about you moving all of the time, having that military connection, and different things are going to look different for different seasons. But I think every Christian parent should absolutely spend so much time in prayer and asking God to lead and guide that education. You know, this is something I actually was just talking about the other day, Dan, because looking at the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, when we went into Covid and we saw all of the lockdowns, and we saw kids who didn't just have a lockdown, really, they had a loss of their social networks, they had a loss of interactions, they had a loss of, interaction with caring adults. There was so much panic about people losing, about kids losing their mathematics skills or their reading skills or their science skills. And to some extent that did happen. But what we discovered, what we know, is that we can catch up on those a lot more quickly than we can catch up on that loss of connection, that loss of relationship, that loss of social, emotional learning. And somehow I think, most adults would say, yeah, I agree with that. And yet our priorities don't reflect that because we're putting all of our efforts into making sure our kids get in the right school, go to the right college, get the right athletic opportunities, and those things have their place. And they are not inherently bad, bad. But are we putting as much effort into praying over their academic journey and making sure that we're teaching them the basic building blocks of character as much as we're teaching them arithmetic and science and all of those things. That's just my little soapbox for that. Well, listen, we'll be right back with Mayor Dan Davis. He is currently serving in his position at mayor and just a little past the middle of his term. And when we come back, Dan, I've got more questions about that kidney transplant, and there's so much more to talk about. We'll talk about your time in Japan, and you will not want to miss it, so don't go away. We'll be right back with more on the other side of this break.
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>> Jesus Is My Healer by Jessie Harris featuring Gateway Worship: Jesus is my healer. He's everything I need. He alone has triumphed over sickness and disease fear. Where is your power? The cross is your defeat. Jesus is my healer He has won the.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That song is Jesus is my healer by Jessie Harris, featuring Gateway worship. And I love that song. I know my kids continue to give me a hard time about the. I don't know, I must be up to about 1247 songs in my top 10. But music is such a great way to direct your mind and your attitudes and to reinforce your thoughts with, with scripture and with, messages that God loves you, he cares about you. And today we're talking about someone who's sharing that message with his city. We're talking to Mayor Dan Davis. He's the mayor of Manvel Texas. And listen, Dan, my husband is so sweet, just like you were talking about your wife just being everything my husband Is my everything. He. My, life would just be impossible without his support. And he listens every day. And so, honey, I just want to tell you, by the time you get home from work, we might have a for sale sign in our front yard. Because I kind of want to move, move to the city. Because I just learned, Dan, that you've done a lot of great things for the city of Manvel but you, have brought in the first h e b and the first whataburger. Now, if you're from Texas, you know that's a really big deal. Isn't.
>> Dan Davis: Is it is. We just need a BUC EE's now, and then we've. And then we've made it. That's the trifecta.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Trifecta. I love it.
Your family was traveling for your father's kidney transplant
Well, Dan has been sharing his journey, just going from Boston to San Mateo to Texas, to Japan, back to Texas. And now serving in elected office and talking about your experience, education. And you mentioned being homeschooled during a time that your family was traveling for your father's kidney transplant. Let's go back and unpack that a little bit. Tell us about how that season of life shaped your perspective on education and family resilience and your faith.
>> Dan Davis: My. My dad is. Whenever I get asked the question, who is your hero? Authentically, from the heart, I always say my dad, knowing that the life situations that my dad grew up in, the youngest of six kids, sometimes coming home and they're not being enough for him at dinner and having to eat a bowl of cereal with. With powdered milk, to the situations that he grew up in, seeing how he truly embodied Christ. To my family, he was a faithful husband. He was a loving, loving father, and he was a dedicated worker. It's inspired me and my brothers to be the men that we are today. To our wives and to our kids. All of us as parents, we have responsibility to blaze the trail, and we're only going as far as we can. And then that way the next generation can quickly get to where we're at, and then they start blazing their trail for the next generation. That's what my, My dad has done. I, played football growing up. Actually all sports, but football was my. My favorite sport. It let me get out some of my anger and frustration in life and. And my dad, every day when he would come home from work, regardless of it was stressful or not, he would come home and throw the football with me. We'd spend 30, 45 minutes to an hour running routes, throwing the football, practicing. And it was during that time probably about the fifth, sixth and seventh grade, where we didn't realize it yet, but his, both his kidneys were failing. We noticed some changes in his body where his legs were retaining more fluid than what they should. You could imprint on it and that impression would stay longer than what was expected. later I found out that when he would come and throw the football with me, it got to the point where it was so bad he felt like his, his muscles were being ripped apart because of the pain. But not once did he ever indicate that to my brothers and I. He still showed up each and every day because of the love that Christ had for him, that he embodied to, to us. And ah, we went back up to the northeast to celebrate, celebrate Christmas with my family, my grandparents, all my aunts and uncles, they, they live up there. I've been in Texas now since the since the second grade, so. And I say yes sir, no sir, yes ma' am, no ma' am. And my grandparents would always correct me and say, oh, you don't say that. I'm not my mom. so it's always, always funny. And we're up there and he was in bed deathly sick. And his sisters finally convinced him to go to the, to the hospital. He went in, they said both of your kidneys are failing and we can't let you leave because if you leave you're most likely going to have a heart attack. That's how bad it was. After running tests, thankfully his brother, my uncle, was a match. So he's on dialysis for a little bit as things prepared. Back here in Texas, we lived at that time in Moss Hill, Texas, small little country town north of Liberty. We were attending a small private Christian school at that point. It was my freshman year of high school and we needed to move back up to the Boston area to go to Mass General so that way my dad could go through the transplant process as well as the recovery process. So it was about a four to six month period that we lived up there, that we took our materials from school and we were able to apply them here at home. And when you talk about family resiliency, that was a tough time in our life. My dad wasn't able to work. people, graciously and generously gave money to our family to provide for us. It was a strain on my parents relationship, on our relationship with our dad because of everything that was happening. But no matter how difficult times get, there's always that light at the end of the tunnel and you always keep working. You always keep pushing. You never, never give up. Nine months from the day that my dad and uncle went through the kidney transplant, they ran the Boston Marathon together. Not nine months. In fact, not only is that a huge accomplishment for them, but that taught me so many things in life about never giving up, never, never quitting, going one more and continuing to push and applying that in my own life. Being married young and doing everything that we've done in life at such a young age, to being in politics, that you can never give up on your community, never give up on what God has, called you to do. And that also gave me the perspective from an educational standpoint that learning, as I mentioned earlier, can happen, can happen everywhere. And it's important that we find ways to continue to invest in students wherever they are, whatever God has going on in their life to help them succeed.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Dan, you just keep delivering blessing upon blessing upon blessing. Wow, that is such an amazing story and so encouraging, because in today's world, we do see kids increasingly exposed to trauma and to trials. There are some things kids experience that are beyond our control. Your dad's sickness was something that was completely beyond any human control. Sometimes those things are within our control, but kids are going to experience things that are difficult. God told us that in his word, that in this world we would have trouble, but we could take heart. We have gooey could be of good cheer because he's already overcome the world. And what we know from research is that the number one predictor of resistan resilience in a kid is meaningful connection to an invested adult in their life in the context of a healthy relationship. And you did such a beautiful job and describing how you had that with your dad and then being able to see him overcome that, I am sure it has really shaped who you are today and shown you what God can do. And also, as you said, is such a great example of it's such a blessing that you had education to meet you where you were in that different way, different stage, so that you could be with your family, you could have those relationships and connections that were so important and have some of that reassurance. And I'm sure that seeing that impacted the way that you went out into the world.
You talked about being in Japan, serving with your wife as a missionary
You talked about being in Japan, serving with your wife as a missionary. What led you from that? Dan, I'm feeling like you had to have not told the truth about your age. You've got to be at least about 76 with as much life as you have lived so far. But going from all of those places in the world. How did that, how did that journey do you see lead you to Japan? And how did that experience impact your worldview?
>> Dan Davis: That, that's a great question. I heard a quote once, which I love and it's, you know, it was the ironic tragedy of life is that life has to be living, moving forward, but only makes sense looking in reverse. And that's so true. Growing up M. Moving 20 different times in my life, never attending the same school more than two years was tough. It, it brought me to a place of being an introvert because why would I want to have connections and build friendships with people that I'm just going to be moving away from in a year or two years time? Now looking back on that, being a missionary in Japan and being in politics, it taught me a lot about adaptability, about resiliency and about understanding that different cultures and different people have all these experiences that make up who they are. I like to say a lot that our, our diversity is our strength. And recognizing that when we bring together different cultures and different ideas and different perspectives and, and we look at the things that unite us, not divide us, it helps us make a difference in our society and in our, in our communities. And for us, my wife and I, you know, we never had any plans as you were asking about, to become missionaries in Japan. That wasn't parts we were, we thought going to Bible college, you know what we'll be pastors or youth pastors. Didn't want to be children's pastors. that wasn't a heart passion of ours. But while we were there, Christ for the Nations Institute was this melting pot of all of these different nations and cultures and styles and perspectives. And God really grew this passion in us organically and naturally for missions, for outreach. And one thing led to another where God put in our hearts to become missionaries to Japan. I was working a full time job in Dallas. My wife was home with our, our son. And God said, I want you to go. Now's the time to, to go. So we sold everything that we had here in here in America and we moved to Japan. We had made a connection with people from Bible college that was there. We helped start a church in a town called Asahikawa, Japan. And taught English at an international school. And it, I'll tell you what it was, it was tough. My wife was four months pregnant when we moved there. It's one of the coldest places in Japan, so we could never find clothes big enough to fit around her belly when she was nine months. Nine months pregnant. But looking back on it, it was such a beautiful life experience for us. It's opened up so many doors, of connecting with other cultures here in America. All you have to do, you don't have to go overseas. You just have to step outside your door. And you're all around these different nations and cultures, and it's an incredible thing to see. Being there really taught us and opened our eyes to how different cultures and how different people do things and why they. Why they do things. It's so easy to judge a book by its cover, but when you pull back that cover and you start to dive into it, you realize that there's so much more depth that's there. And so we shouldn't, if there's things that are different or various perspectives, not retreat from that to our echo chambers or to people that just think the way that we think. But let's spend time connecting. And more importantly than that, let's be the light to the darkness. Let's represent Christ. The people that we meet, this world. So many people experience tragic events and hurt and pain when you greet them with a smile, when you're intentional about your interactions, when you show people that you actually care, it means the world to them. I'll share this story. We invited a couple over to our house in Japan, and that's not a common thing to do in the Japanese culture. We invited them over for. For dinner, spent time with them, played a game with them, and they said at the end that that was the first time and they were in their mid-20s, that they had ever been invited into somebody's home, especially into a foreigner's home, to have dinner at their table. And they felt so honored that we would do that and that we cared for them in that way. I think the world needs more people that are out there that. That take that step of faith, that stretch themselves a little bit and just do more acts of kindness and to show more love. Because love is what breaks down so many different walls.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I could not agree more. Man, you're just preaching sermon after sermon today, Dan, and I am here for it. I'm in the choir singing all the hallelujahs and all the amens.
Sometimes we view life through the lens of accomplishments and events
And as I struck, as I'm thinking, thinking and reflecting on you, sharing your journey is that often we view our life in terms of accomplishments and events, things that happen, places we went, things that we did, awards that we got, things that happened. and really, it is so much more than that. When we View life through the lens of calling and God calling us to different things in different seasons to refine our character. I feel like it really changes the way that I look at life because I look at even, you know, my own journey. I never expected to be sitting here. We were just talking about this during the break. I never expected to be a radio host, not on my radar, not even in the slightest. But God. And I looked back and saw all of the things that I've done, some things that seem really disconnected. But I look back and I can see God called me to this because I needed this particular character trait refined. I needed this particular lesson taught. And those things transcend circumstance, even if you're using them in a completely different way.
Texas and Japan are pretty different. And so what are those lessons that you brought back from Japan
So when I look at your journey, here you are with your wife in Japan as a missionary, just, just describing exactly like you did, and you come back to this town in Texas. Texas and Japan are pretty different. But I'm sure that there are life lessons that you brought that there were character traits that God honed in you. And so what are those lessons that you brought back from Japan? And how did you come back from Japan to Texas to be in public office?
>> Dan Davis: I would say one of the lessons. And you're right, Texas, is very different than Japan. we had beautiful mountains and forests and greenery. And, where we live in Texas, it's pretty. It's pretty flat. We have a ton of beautiful historic trees. We actually just passed a tree preservation ordinance in Manvel to protect our historic trees. Very proud of that. but definitely different. And when we moved back, to Texas, it was a culture shock for a little bit. The Japanese culture was very clean about and meticulous and organized about everything that they did. we'll just say America is not very much that, that same. That same way. I was very comfortable using a public restroom in Japan. Very clean and tidy. I'm not going to stop at the 711 in America and do that same thing. Some of the life lessons that we learned is that a, simple gesture goes, a far way. that when you show people that you care, it opens their hearts to the words that you say. And many times people, they want to see you be the hands and feet of Jesus, because the hands and the feet will lead to his, lead to his face. So many times people feel judged and critiqued because of their life choices and the decisions that they, they make. And they don't feel. They don't feel loved and embraced. There's a, there's an old saying that you can, you can love the sinner but hate the sin. And that's very true. And sadly, I think that's something that the church has missed. And people feel like that the church doesn't love them because we don't agree with the sin. And if we reorient ourselves and say, look at what Jesus did. Jesus ate with the sinners. Jesus took care of the widows and the orphans. You know, church in America, sadly, has become this, this enterprise. But when you look at it in, in Japan and how small the church is in the big scheme of, religiosity in, in Japan, in which Shintoism is their biggest religion, you see that it's much more organic and it's, and it's relational. And I love what you said, Dr. Jessica, about many times we can look at our accomplishments and the resumes and the pedigree that, that we have, and all of that's great. That's a testimony of God's goodness in our lives. What it really comes down to is what difference do we make in the people around us? I care more about people's internal salvation than what I might have as, as a check mark on my, My resume now. Resumes are good.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Exactly it. I'm going to hold you right there. I'm going to hold you right there because we're already our second break. I do not want to interrupt this sermon. We have more to talk about and we'll continue that conversation. Mayor Dan when we come back and talk about the separation of church and government, you won't want to miss it. We'll be right back.
Leslie Stahl says legacy media credibility is down because of Elon Musk
>> Mark Oss: You may have noticed it's become hard to trust the media. Casual observers know it. Newshounds have noticed it. Even members of the media are talking about it. I'm very worried about the press, extremely worried about the press.
>> Mark Oss: Seasoned mainstream media pro Leslie Stahl says legacy media credibility is down because of people like Elon Musk and President Trump. If the President of the United States is going to say legacy media is dead, well, I guess Musk said that legacy media is dead.
>> Mark Oss: What she doesn't get is that the media's lack of credibility has followed years of biased reporting. On the other hand, you can trust American Family News. AFN presents the facts in an unbiased way so you can draw your own conclusions. American Family News also provides news of interest to Christians, which you won't hear from the mainstream at the top of the hour or at afn.net, you can trust American Family News.
>> That's My King by CeCe Winans: Wonderful and beautiful and glorious and holy he is merciful and powerful who we talking about? That's my king we declare the glory Give him all the honor all together worthy who we talking about? That's my king there's no one before you yes, we will adore you all of this is for you.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That song is That's My King by CeCe Winans. And anytime cece Winans comes on, there's a praise party in my house.
All politics is local. That is something I share with my policy students
But we live in a world where here in America, we do not have a king. And when we're living in cities, we have mayors. All politics is local. That is something I share with my policy students. And it is true. Our local officials are making decisions that impact your daily life. And it's so important for us to engage, whether that's praying for the people who are leading, whether that is getting engaged yourself. And we're talking to someone who's done just that. Today we're talking to Mayor Dan Davis. He is mayor of Manvel Texas, and he's been sharing his journey and his calling into public service that's gone all the way from Boston to California to Texas to Japan.
One of the things challenging for churches in America is that pull towards commercialization
And before the break, Dan, you said something that was a little uncomfortable, but it needs to be said. And one of the things that is really challenging, I think, for churches in America is that pull towards commercialization. I've talked with other guests about that where you just don't even intend to, but all of a sudden you're drifting and you're prioritizing programming over people. I saw this happen after Covid, where people started to. To stream their services online, which is great to have church services accessible. But all of a sudden we had this unprecedented look into everyone's church. And you think like, oh, you have these lights. Oh, you have this fancy technology. Oh, you have a professional sounding praise team, you know, and all of a sudden there's this pressure to perform, which is so. I mean, really, there's no other word I can use for it, but. But icky. And you were talking about that, and I think it is important to bring that lesson. Like you talked about the churches in Japan, where they were more organic. And we can't forget what that is all about. So how do you see the role of church in your local community? What is the importance of that?
>> Dan Davis: It's. It's extremely important. And it's, what we were mentioning before the break and what you discovered, the simplicity of the gospel gets, gets lost by the commercialization of church. it's the Same thing. What we've talked about, so far today about education, we see in the state of Texas that, the state dictates a lot of what happens within public schools. And there's so much of a burden placed on teachers and placed on administration that pulls dollars and focus out of the classroom and out of the students. Our local school district, Alvin isd, does a phenomenal job where they say we want to meet each student where they're at that connecting with them individually. And I love that. My, my brother, my youngest brother is a public educator working for another school district, ninth grade. And hearing from him about the frustrations and the challenges, it breaks my heart because we need to do something different and it's the same thing. For, for church, the simplicity of the gospel is that, Jesus came, he was buried, he rose three days later. So that way we might spend eternity with him. And the lights, the smoke machines, the, the streaming online, those things are, are great, but those are just tools. They should not distract and replace the message. When a pastor gets too focused on keeping butts in the seats instead of changing lives, at that point you lose the mission of what Jesus came and bore those stripes on his back for.
Many times people look to government as their church, Dan says
In regards to the role of church within society, I think in a community, many times people look to government as their church. They believe that government should have all the answers and fix everything. And that's not the, that's not the case. Government has a very essential role to play, has critical services to provide, but it must come in partnership with the church, with the community, with non profits to do that. In Manvel I love the fact that we have unity amongst our pastors in our churches. Every year, the week of Holy Week, they come together and they put on a Jesus, Jesus, Jesus event. every single night we have outdoor concerts and messages and testimonies and baptisms and lives are changed. This past Holy Week, over 100 people in Manvel were baptized and gave their life to Christ. Because you can go fishing yourself and catch so many fish, but when you teach others how to fish and when you cast the net together, you can catch so many more fish. churches are a fantastic volunteer organization too, that if you partner with the churches in times of needs and when disasters come, when hurricanes come through, which is very common in our, in our area, the churches are there to lift each other up and to partner with you to make a difference in the community, in the community. Community.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You're echoing the message of one of our good friends of the show, Nick Vujicic. Nick V Ministries, is a man born in Australia with no hands or legs, no arms or legs. And only God could make him the hands and feet of the gospel. And he would be the first one to tell you that. And he has been talking on our show a lot about that, Dan, about talking about how the. The role of church and the role of government and looking to government as church and looking to government to fill all of your needs. But the church is. Is so unique in the way that it is adaptable, it is flexible, it is responsive, it can. It knows its members. Because he talked about how when you walk in, like, you know, how is Johnny surgery? How is Mary doing? How, you know, how are things going? How are the kids? Like, how's the dog? They know all of those things. And when you do life together, it's really easy to step into those needs. And, and you're right, Dan. I think there's one thing to be said for excellence. We can have excellence in the ministries that we deliver. And there are definitely large churches that are doing really great things. But it's interesting to me, as a student of culture and of young people's culture in particular, and to look at them and they do want something sacred. They crave that. And when they go to a church service that has smoke machines and strobe lights and just feels like any other concert, if there's the lack of something sacred there. And so just, I, I love what you said about the simplicity of the gospel. Just, just, we don't need. There's. That. We don't. That. That's power on its own. It has endured for 2,000 years. That message has endured. The church has persisted and prevailed.
How do faith and public service coexist in a healthy democracy
And I think it can be really, this is something that people, argue about at Thanksgiving, about the role of church and the role of government. But how do you see faith and public service coexisting in a healthy democracy?
>> Dan Davis: Oh, and to speak to your point, Dr. Jessica, if people want authenticity, especially my generation, the next generation, and I believe one of the reasons, why God has put me in the position that I am and has equipped me with the skills that he has, is to show people that they can trust their elected officials, that not every politician is a dirty, nasty or mean politician, that you can put. Elect people into office and put people in these positions that truly care and are going to be authentic and accessible. What I always like to say is, I'm not elected to serve, the city of Manvel I'm elected to serve the people of Manvel And that's the, the key thing to remember, to your question about the separation of church and government, it very much nowadays gets misconstrued that there's not supposed to be any interaction between church and government. The phrase actually was coined from Thomas Jefferson when he wrote a letter to a Baptist association and he said that government is never going to force a specific religion upon you. But our Founding Fathers very much believed about a combination and a unison between church and government. That faith was very much the guiding motivation and factor for a lot of the decisions that they made. I believe that when there's unity between the church and government, that's when we will see sustaining revival in our lands. When you look at the Founding fathers and you look at the founding of America, we were 13 individual colonies, all 13 state constitutions. The original ones, if you read them, had a requirement that to be a citizen you had to have a declaration of faith. Nine of, the thirteen colonies said that you had to be a Protestant. One, which was Maryland, said that you had to be Catholic. But they were okay if you were another denomination within the church. Our Declaration of Independence says that our rights are not granted to us by government. They are protected by government. They are granted to us by our Creator. Our motto is In God we Trust. And when you look at the Bible, the Bible very much is a political text. Moses wrote an entire book in the Bible about how to govern a nation. You have Esther and Mordecai and Daniel and Joseph. You see these interactions between God's people, which the church is not a building. The church is the people. You see interactions with the people and the government, and that's when you see nations change. And so in America, we have a lot of different religious beliefs. And, and I am not there to judge you or critique you because you might have a different religious belief. I, I am there to love you regardless of what you've been through, where you come from, or who you are are today. But my faith guides the decisions that I make. And, my goal is to represent Christ in everything that I do, to treat others as they want to be treated to, to take care of the widows and the orphans. And hopefully through my actions and my words, got to talk the talking walk the walk that people will come to know Christ and enter eternity with him.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, as I grew up, I saw my Paw Paw was a mayor for a long time, served on city council, served in the city. And you know what I saw, Dan, is that. And he was a man of faith, and that cost him something. At certain times. And I know that public service is difficult these days. Just exactly like you talked about. The perception of the public is, you know, politicians are very, very low on the public opinion meter. And and it can be really challenging. What are ways that, that constituents can support that good leadership? When we had it, I think I shared with you earlier, I'm doing a Bible study on judges and thinking about, you know, in those days Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And then you look at the progression of good leaders and really terrible leaders. But when you have a good leader, what are practical ways that the city can engage with them, can support them, can make it easier for people of faith, people of good character to, to step up and to lead? Because I think there's a lot of really good people who think, I don't know if I'm willing to give what that would cost.
>> Dan Davis: That's, that's exactly it. You see a lot of good natured and good hearted people that want to get involved, that don't because of the fears of the, the pushback and the ridicule and the criticism that they might get.
Manvel has little under a 10% voter turnout of registered voters
So I'll rapid fire a few things for you here. I know we're coming up to the end of the show but, but I think don't rush the judgment. Ask, ask questions, pray for the elected leaders that you want to see. Get involved in their, in their campaigns, lock, walk for them, make calls, show up to vote, vote. We have little under a 10% voter turnout of registered voters in Manvel And I know that's something that we see nationwide. So get involved to elect, the people that you want to see. Show up at meetings, engage online, volunteer at events and sign up to serve on committees and boards. By doing those things and by coming together as a community, we can make a difference. But many people feel like their voices isn't heard and your voice is very much heard. What we need you to do is to step up and to walk in faith and God will take care of the rest.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, it's almost like you've given that some thought. You were able to answer that so easily, I'm sure. But you know, you're so right and especially even voting. I remember when I was dating my husband and my grandfather, had just recently been reelected as mayor and we went to the city council and they announced that he won. 70 something, 30 something. And my husband, my fiance at the time, he looked at me and he said, wow, that's a Pretty good percentage. And I said, yeah, it's also the actual number of votes, like, less than a hundred people have voted in a town of more than 10,000. And that is definitely true. And. But I think you're right, Dan. Sometimes people feel like their voice doesn't matter, but that's where we just have to be obedient, to be good citizens, to engage with our community, and to trust God with the outcomes. And so that is so very important.
Jessica: Mayor Dan, any last words of encouragement for anyone listening
Well, I'll give you the final word here, Dan. Any last words of encouragement that you would like to give to anyone listening and. And, anything that we didn't cover that you'd like to say?
>> Dan Davis: Absolutely. Well, Dr. Jessica, thank you to you and your team for. For having me on. It's been a blessing. Love what you guys do, and I really appreciate you opening up your platform to allow me to share some of what's been in my heart and what God's done in my life. What, I'll just say to those that are listening is, it doesn't matter what circumstance that brought you into this world. It doesn't matter what you went through as a child. It doesn't matter what you're going through now. God created you in a purpose. He knew you before time began. He knit you together in your mother's womb. He has called you to this earth for a purpose here and now. So walk into that calling. be bold, be courageous, walk out in faith, and God will. God will use you. If you operate out of an overflow of spending time with him in your relationship with him, he'll take care of the rest. So as, an elected leader, as somebody that's involved in government, we need you. We need you to be involved. You have valuable insights and perspective and a voice and God gifting giftings and skills. So use those and let's work together to make a difference in the world around us.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Amen. Amen. And amen. Thank you so much, Mayor Dan. I think in today's day and age. Amen. You're so right. There are so many people who think so poorly of elected officials. And to be fair, there are a lot of examples to choose from. But we are grateful today to have been able to, just talk with you to see that, hey, there is hope in the world. God is at work in the world. So many times we think all is lost and the world's bad news comes to us at the speed of a smartphone. And we just think, is there anything good going on? It just seems like everything is chaos. Everything is tragedy, everything is awful. But that is not the case. God is at work and God is on the move. And maybe, maybe there's someone out there who's thinking, you know, I feel the call to step up and to serve in some public capacity. God has been speaking. That voice that I've heard that voice, the voice of God telling me that, well, if that is you, then this is your sign. Maybe now is the time to step up with courage and clarity, just like you've seen Dan do. Because we need people who are leading us, who are praying for us, who are caring for us, who are serving the people of the city, not the city in the city's best interest. And so we're so grateful for that. I really encourage you, wherever you are, to. To lead where you live, wherever you're living. It's so important just to lead where you are, even if that's just as important. Citizen model, being a good citizen. Because I'll tell you, kids are watching you. Your neighbors are watching you, and you never know that positive influence that you might be. Well, wherever you are, if you're in Texas or Japan or Boston or California or wherever, I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you as you are leading where you live. I will see you right back here tomorrow. We've got to ask Dr. Nurse mama Friday. And we are kicking off all things tech. I'll be talking about social media. You won't want to miss it. I'll see you then.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
