Darryl Dash's Blog, page 5

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

Scroll Less, Stroll More: A Summer Challenge to Leave Your Phone at Home

For your spiritual, relational, physical, and mental health, get off your phone and go for a walk. Give your fidgety fingers a break and let your feet get some movement in. Give your overstimulated mind a chance to make sense of things. Get far enough from your phone that you can pray, praise, and ponder.

Four Good Questions To Ask Your Tech

Here are four questions I propose we ask of any...

Build On-ramps, but Help People Learn to Drive on the Highway Too

We have an on-ramp to a major highway near my house. It used to be awful. It was short, and you had to immediately merge into speeding traffic. It's since been improved. You no longer have to merge; you're just fed onto the highway in your own lane. It makes it so much easier for drivers to get up to speed safely and easily.

But it's not foolproof. Sometimes I see drivers merge slowly or enter the on-ramp slowly, and then continue on the highway slowly. This creates a hazard for them and unsafe c...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

Why I Don’t Read Through the Bible Every Year

A reading plan, even one that doesn’t take you through the whole Bible in 12 months, isn’t less than. It’s a good way to keep you listening for God’s voice as you read his inspired Word.

Not Every Sermon Is a Challenge

Unless your church is uniquely bad at everything all the time, there must be some room for some encouragement somewhere.

7 Secular Sermons You Might Have Heard This Week

A pastor may speak for an hour ...

Advice for New and Stuck Christians

If you are a new Christian or a stuck Christian trying to get back on track, I have some advice for you.

My advice doesn't come from being an expert. I'm a fellow struggler myself, and I’ve had to learn these lessons the hard way. I've guided new believers and those who feel stuck, and I've found two pieces of advice particularly helpful. They're simple, and I hope they won't be too overwhelming for you.

Get in the Bible

First, and most importantly, get in the Bible. I can't emphasize this enough. ...

The End of Satan, Sin, and Death (Revelation 20)

Big Idea: God will ultimately defeat Satan, restore his people, and destroy evil and death.

When I went to seminary, I studied under a brilliant professor who originally lived in Indiana. As I got to know him, I found out the story of how he ended up teaching in Canada. He was part of a denomination that held a particular view of the chapter we just read. To pastor in that denomination, you had to agree with their view. The professor accepted a ministry assignment in Toronto, which let him adopt ...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

The Destructive Power of Porn (and How to Break Free)

If you’re struggling with pornography, here’s the good news. Jesus came to forgive you and set you free. Here’s where to begin.

People Expect It to Be Churchy

It seems the churches that are attracting people at the moment are the, well, fairly churchy ones.

Could Scrolling Become the New Smoking?

We’re humans, not robots—no matter how impressive artificial intelligence becomes. We possess agency. We can cours...

Essential Lessons for Young (and Old) Pastors

I'm used to reading blog posts with titles like “What They Didn't Teach Me in Seminary.” Usually, the goal is to create buzz or sell a course or book. I don't want to add to that noise, but I'm going to write about a few things they didn't teach me in seminary that I think are important for a young pastor to know.

First, aim to be boring.

I don't mean your preaching should be boring, but your ministry should largely be pretty ordinary. Ministry involves doing a few things well over a long period o...

Saturday Links

Curated links for your weekend reading:

Outbuild the Critics

Here’s my challenge for pastors and leaders who want to reinforce the gospel’s centrality and renew the center: Outbuild the critics.

Your Pastor Isn't Your Therapist...And Your Therapist Isn't Your Pastor

If you need therapy, get it. Some of us need it (I do), and many of us don’t. All of us need a pastor. All of us need a community of people who can be honest with us.

Back-to-Back Meetings Harm You, Your Effectiveness, and Your Team

Even i...

Three Ways Weakness is a Gift

In 2 Corinthians 12:10, the Apostle Paul wrote one of the most counter-intuitive sentences ever:

“So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

This sentence makes absolutely no sense. Who takes pleasure in things like weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, even if they’re for Jesus? We normally try to avoid these things, and if we end up suffering them, we don’t usually...

The Marriage You Were Made For (Revelation 19:1-10)

Big Idea: Rejoice because of the marriage you were made for.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a friend who got engaged. You met this person’s future husband or wife, and you thought, “What in the world have they done?” It’s really awkward because you want to support your friend, but you have serious doubts about their decision.

We know that getting married is serious. We know that getting married is about much more than the wedding. It’s about the start of a new life together. When you get married,...