Darryl Dash's Blog, page 55
August 21, 2021
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
There’s No Such Thing as Virtual Church
Christian life and church life cannot finally be downloaded. They must be watched, heard, stepped into, and followed.
Honestly, there’s an action we’d invite you to take that’s more vital to your spiritual health than almost anything you could click on (including here). What’s the action I’m talking about?
Be committed to a church.
3 Ways to Live Out Low-stakes Hospitality
Whi...
August 17, 2021
Take Care About Talking About Things That Don’t Matter Here
In 1950, at the age of 94, playwright George Bernard Shaw broke his leg while pruning apple trees in his garden. The news shocked veterinarian James Alfred Wight, who wrote a series of books based on his life under the pen name James Herriot.
Wight happened to treat a calf at the time with a broken leg. He visited the farm, isolated the calf, and with the help of three farmers, toppled the calf on to its side. The farmers held the calf immobilized on the ground. With the vet, that meant f...
August 14, 2021
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
To stay with something takes long-term vision, the grace to stay put in order to get somewhere.
A Church Only Explained by the Gospel
The gospel must be true. Or else this family wouldn’t exist.
His heart was truly glad that his long-prayed-for desires had finally come to pass, even if God used another preacher.
Perfect Courtesy Toward All in the Worst of Times
Christians should be t...
August 10, 2021
The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative
I suspect that most preachers like preaching the epistles most. Most sermons I’ve heard, and (I expect) most sermons I’ve preached, are based on one of the New Testament epistles.
Generally speaking, preachers seem to struggle more to preach Old Testament narrative. How do you take a longer narrative and preach it? How do you even discern the message of the narrative, and how do you communicate the narrative and its point to your audience?
Steve Mathewson’s book The Art of Preaching Ol...
August 7, 2021
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
5 Foundations That Lead to Compromise on Sexual Ethics
From what I’ve observed, most deconstructing Christians who shift on sexual ethics come from a faith background that has one (or more) of these precarious foundations.
With This Much Rot, There’s No Choice but to Deconstruct
Yes, deconstruction is risky. It always entails the danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. And as a church body, during these messy processes, it is our jo...
August 3, 2021
Why I Wrote 8 Habits for Growth
My first book, How to Grow, was written primarily for individuals who want to grow in their walk with God. I know some churches used it, but my sense is that most readers picked it up and read it on their own.
8 Habits for Growth is different. You can buy it and read it alone, but my deepest desire is that churches use it as a discipleship tool to help their people build discipling relationships within the church.
In the book, I write:
A good way to use this book is to work through ...
July 31, 2021
Saturday Links
Countdown: 3 Days until the release of 8 Habits for Growth. Preorder now to get the bonuses. Pastors: Please consider a group order if you’re interested in using this book in your church.
Curated links for your weekend reading:
What If Christian Ministry Was Really Complex?
Rather than being intimidated or terrified by the challenges of our context, recognising the complexity of the system can be an exciting invitation to lean into the gifts of God that are ours in Christ by the Spirit....
July 27, 2021
Why Start With Rest?
Five years ago, I began to work with my wife on a disciple-making plan for our church plant. We were reaching people who’d never practiced spiritual disciplines before, and I wanted to think about how to lead them to build the essential habits of the Christian life into their lives.
We started with a surprising habit: rest.
Technically, it’s the second habit, following one that talks about making time. We started with making time to build habits and then resting for a practical reason ...
July 24, 2021
Saturday Links
Countdown: 9 Days until the release of 8 Habits for Growth. Preorder now to get the bonuses. Pastors: Please consider a group order if you’re interested in using this book in your church.
Podcast: I enjoyed talking to Bill Mowry about decluttering and de-professionalizing disciplemaking on Gospel for Life podcast.
Curated links for your weekend reading:
At church, we believe on each other’s behalf.
Christians are campers. At least they should be. T...
July 20, 2021
Surprised by Oxford
I started reading Surprised by Oxford, and I couldn’t put it down.
Surprised by Oxford is the story of Carolyn Weber. At the beginning of the book, Weber is an undergraduate student in Canada who knows only one evangelical, a professor who “would have annoyed me, except for the fact that I respected him so much.” Shortly before this professor dies, Weber has a conversation with him that unsettles her and gets her thinking.
Weber is granted a Commonwealth Scholarship and begins her ...
