Darryl Dash's Blog, page 49
July 12, 2022
You Too?
I had lunch with a friend last week who’d been a church planter too. He’s now in a very different ministry context, but he’s experienced what it’s like to plant a church, although in a different cultural context.
At one point he asked, “Do you ever feel like…?” He then began to describe my exact experience. I looked him and said, “Yes! Every day.”
The conversation progressed from there. The entire conversation was encouraging, but part of what made it so encouraging is the sense of being s...
July 9, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
How to Avoid Teaching an Unchristian Message From the Bible
Let me offer four questions to ask any time you prepare a talk whether it’s for a youth group, a Sunday School class, or even your own kids.
Help! I’ve Been Asked to Deliver the Announcements
What makes for good announcements? In four words, they should be specific, worshipful, credible, and brief.
If You Find Listening to Sermons Boring, Try This
How do we stop sermons from bein...
July 5, 2022
A Nobody in One Country, Famous in the Next
Sixto Rodriguez was a nobody.
He’d tried to establish a career as a musician, but it went nowhere. He showed lots of promise and had sold a handful of records, but his record label dropped him and then closed. He was working on a third album at the time, but it was never released.
Rodriguez quit his music career in 1976, bought a derelict Detroit house from the government for $50, and got a job in demolition. He never made much money. He ran for public office a couple of times but lost.
...July 2, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Five Priorities for the Local Pastor-Theologian
In what follows, I would like to offer five priorities for the local theological life.
In the end, an unbalanced ministry will lead to an unbalance, unhealthy church.
Who’s in Charge at Church? 3 Ways the Answer Is You
Who’s in charge at church? The answer is the whole church. The whole congregation has the responsibility for its health, its preaching, and its membersh...
June 28, 2022
The More Things Change
Imagine it’s 1980.
You’re 22 years old, newly graduated from college. You’ve just started at General Motors. You walk into your office and find a steel desk with a typewriter, a rotary phone, and a physical inbox and outbox.
You work hard. After twenty years, you’ve made the jump to computers. You’re laid off in the 2001 recession, but find work with automotive parts suppliers. In 2010, you join a company that’s working on building self-driving cars. In 2015, you rejoin General Motors.
...June 25, 2022
Saturday Links
Podcast: I enjoyed talking to my wife Charlene about the importance of the body in the Christian life on the Gospel for Life podcast.
Course: My “Helping Others Grow” course is on sale on Udemy for the next 5 days using this link.
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Why Is Praying so Hard for Pastors?
Prayer is part of the spiritual battle in which pastors are involved. As they engage in this spiritual activity, three things often keep them from praying.
June 21, 2022
The Moments that Matter
In 1998, I traveled to Israel. I don’t remember much. I saw most of it through the lens of a video camera. I have a file on my computer — painful to watch now — of almost the entire experience. I wish I’d put the video camera down and just paid attention.
I was ahead of my time. We pull out our cameras, anxious to capture fleeting memories before they disappear. But we’re buried in videos and pictures that we’ll probably never watch again. Sometimes we don’t even mean to capture what’s happen...
June 18, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Maybe I can say something here that, by God’s grace, will strengthen a brother’s weary hands.
Productivity Without Burnout: 8 Lessons from John Gill
How does a productive pastor not burn out? I didn’t expect to find the answer from John Gill.
A benediction chiefly functions not as a prayer, but as a pronouncement of God’s minister about God’s disposition toward His people.
June 14, 2022
Letter to a Wounded Pastor
Dear wounded pastor,
You’re not alone.
I want you to consider for a moment the company you keep. It’s pretty amazing. They locked Charles Simeon out of his own church. They fired Jonathan Edwards. When you are attacked by the people you pastor, you join the ranks of countless pastors who’ve gone before you.
You face two great challenges right now.
One is how you react. When people sin against you, decide now that you won’t respond in kind. Marshall Shelley’s counsel is wise: “When at...
June 11, 2022
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Pastor, Jesus Doesn’t Care How Big Your Church Is
As you toil and trust, you can learn to cast this earthly care onto him. He can be trusted with the attendance of your church.
Why the Promise that Jesus Will Build His Church Does Not Mean He Will Necessarily Build My Church
The promise that Jesus will build his church cannot mean that every individual church will remain prosperous.
Faithfulness is not all that is requ...
