Darryl Dash's Blog, page 24

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

Gen Z and the Draw to Serious Faith

Today, if you want to attract young people, lead with the fine print. Shock them with the seriousness of a faith that requires rigor, a rule of life that brings structure for spirituality, grounded in the grace of the gospel.

“Brace Yourselves!“: The Reduction of Public Bible Reading

We need to renew our focus on the public reading of the Bible.

The Church Should Mind Its Spiritual Business

A variety of competing claims threat...

You Don't Need a Bucket List

While in Belgrade, Serbia visiting missionaries, we figured we had time for one side-trip. After looking at the options, we picked Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki was a great pick. It’s not only a bustling city with great food with a great waterfront, but it’s packed with history. We walked where Paul walked. At the archaeological museum, we saw unbelievable artifacts, not only from Greco-Roman times but from before.

After two days, we boarded the plane back to Belgrade via Zurich. After leaving Zurich...

A Personal Gospel Blessing (Hebrews 13:18-25)

Big Idea: We need a personal blessing based on the gospel.

Out of all the beginnings of books of the Bible, I think Hebrews may be my favorite. I admit it’s close. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). That’s really good. Or John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life wa...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

Don’t Confuse Secondary or Tertiary With Unimportant

The truth is, there are lots of tertiary things that will have a significant impact on your church.

Your Elders Will Fail You

My elders have fumbled and failed at times. Your elders will too. That does not mean we sweep things under the rug or excuse sin. But we can show grace.

25 Questions a Christian Woman Should Ask Herself When a Man Starts to Show Interest

Here’s a list of 25 questions we sometimes share ...

The First Step to Sin

Researchers invited one hundred people to participate in a study. They put participants in pairs. The task: to guess how many coins were in a series of jars. One participant would be shown large images, while the other would see only small, fuzzy images. The person who’d seen the large images would help the person who saw the small, fuzzy images to make good guesses.

The more accurate the guess by the person who had seen only the small, fuzzy image, the more both participants would receive.

They p...

The Greatness of Jesus Applied at Church (Hebrews 13:7-19)

Big Idea: Jesus calls churches to follow godly leaders, guard their teaching, and suffer like Jesus.

What is the greatest threat to this church?

Years ago, Francis Schaeffer said:

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the churc...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

The Case for Holy Obstinacy

An often overlooked element of Christian witness is holy stubbornness—the unbending refusal to go along with what the world says, no matter the cultural pressures or ramifications.

7 Tips for Reading the Book of Revelation

As I’ve grown as a reader of Revelation, I’ve found the seven suggestions below invaluable.

In a Scrolling World, Are We Numb to the Resurrection’s Shock?

Why are we numb to the resurrection’s shock and seemingly bo...

A Jewish Rabbi, Emotional Sabotage, and Non-Anxious Pastoral Ministry

I met with a friend for lunch. When I mentioned the difficulties I encountered in ministry, he emphasized the significance of maintaining a non-anxious presence.

"What does it mean to have a non-anxious presence?" I asked. “Tell me more.”

It turns out he’d been reading Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. In fact, he said it was the best leadership book he’d read. I picked up the book too and found it to be a helpful resource for pastoral ministry.

The B...

Suffering Leads to Glory (Psalm 22:22-31)

Big Idea: The resurrection means that Jesus is vindicated, you are included, and that God’s church will keep growing.

If you were here last week, you know that the first part of Psalm 22 is anything but happy. Psalm 22 is the cry of a righteous person who is suffering for no fault of their own. It is intense. The psalmist feels abandoned and ignored by God, and taunted and despised by people. It’s a heartbreaking cry for God to listen. After describing his anguish, the psalmist cries out:

But you,...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

The Christian’s Hope Isn’t Complete without a Bodily Resurrection

The future will be bodily glory. Our future will be bodily life. And therefore, Christians have this kind of hope to help them persevere.

How (and How Not) to Fight Sin

How should we fight sin and temptation?

An Open Letter to the Church Member Hurt by Their Local Church

Every church family hurts people one way or another. What the Lord has done is to arm us with wise, Christ-honoring habits of re...