Rev. Dalton Rushing
Denomination: United Methodist Church (UMC)
Organization: Decatur First United Methodist Church, Decatur, GA
The Rev. Dalton Rushing is Senior Pastor of Decatur First United Methodist Church, where he has served since 2017. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Dalton holds degrees from Memphis University School, Birmingham-Southern College, and the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
In addition to his service at Decatur First, Dalton serves as an ordination candidacy mentor, an associate secretary of the annual conference, a teaching supervisor in the Contextual Education program at the Candler School of Theology, and a member of the executive committee of the North Georgia Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, where he supervises the interview process. Dalton is 3 Practice Circle Referee, a member of the North Georgia delegation to the General and Jurisdictional Conferences of the United Methodist Church, and a contributor to the Methodist Book of Daily Prayer and the Abingdon Preaching Annual 2025.
He is a past member of the board of directors for Decatur Cooperative Ministry and the former interim host of the nationally syndicated Day1 weekly radio program. Dalton is passionate about helping people find their calling from God, a calling which the theologian Frederick Buechner describes as "the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
Dalton’s wife Stacey is also an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, serving as executive director of the Housing and Homeless Council of the North Georgia Conference. They have two daughters who keep them busy and happy.
Day1 Weekly Programs by Rev. Dalton Rushing
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Connected to the Depths of God - Episode #4220
Tuesday February 03, 2026
Join us for Day1 Episode 4220 as Rev. Dalton Rushing, Senior Pastor of Decatur First United Methodist Church in Decatur, Georgia, proclaims “Connected to the Depths of God,” a sermon grounded in 1 Corinthians 2:1–12. Preaching for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Rev. Rushing reflects on faith when God feels distant, the limits of human wisdom, and the gift of intimacy with God through the Holy Spirit. This thoughtful and accessible message invites listeners to release the need for polish and rediscover deep connection.
Respectability or Faithfulness?
Tuesday October 31, 2023
But not only do I think this moment presents an opportunity to refocus. I suspect that this moment in which the trappings of the church have disappeared like the emperor’s new clothes in the old fairy tale, I suspect this moment in which our extra wide prayer bands have been removed and our assumption of respectability discarded, I suspect this moment presents an opportunity for Christian people to more effectively reach out to those who have felt that the church makes no difference in their lives or in the world, an opportunity to have us be the kind of people Jesus would have us to be.
Dalton Rushing: The Anger Test
Tuesday August 24, 2021
Explaining that anger is made manifest most often when what is does not line up with what ought to be, the Rev. Dalton Rushing says James provides a helpful Anger Test each of us should take.