Darryl Dash's Blog, page 58
June 19, 2021
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
It fatigues me.
The latest example of the attempt to erase native people and their culture from the Canadian experience is the recent discovery of two-hundred and fifteen graves of native children on the property of a residential school run by Canadian governments and churches.
Pastors: Why Your Local Influence is More Essential than a National Platform
what is the difference between local influence and national prominence? Why would local ...
June 15, 2021
More Than a Battle
According to Christianity Today, sexual ethics among Christians are changing. “Evangelicals, especially those under 40, increasingly see cohabitation as morally acceptable. Most young evangelicals have engaged in it or expect to.”
Not only that, but many younger evangelicals seem to be adopting progressive views of sexuality. Purity culture and the Billy Graham rule are out. Determining your own sexual boundaries is in. Opportunities for sexual sin are everywhere.
That’s why I’m gr...
June 12, 2021
Saturday Links
Podcast: I enjoyed talking to Gregg Allison about his book Embodied on the Gospel for Life podcast.
Curated links for your weekend reading:
We are no different from our forebears, at least not in any substantive way. Our manners and methods may have changed, but we are not wiser, more moral, more faithful, or less naive.
The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism
As I have surveyed the evangelical landscape and discussed with pastors all around the country...
June 8, 2021
Help Others Build Onramps for Spiritual Habits
We should all be concerned.
It’s important for every believer to read Scripture regularly and well, to allow God’s Word to shape their hearts and minds so that they live according to Scripture’s story rather than lesser stories peddled by the Word. It’s important that every believer live in prayerful dependence on God and participate in the life of the church.
But the evidence shows it’s not happening as much as we’d like. “I don’t want to sound alarmist, critical, or preachy,” writes ...
June 5, 2021
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
There he now sits, a glutton for interruptions, spending hours on his phone — and countless hours on other distractions. He no longer possesses the power of fixed attention (so vital in the Enemy’s service).
It is not enough to possess a leadership position. We ought to embody the kind of leaders that God desires: “faithful, reliable, caring shepherds.”
June 1, 2021
Why Habits Are Important When Talking About Spiritual Disciplines
I have books on my shelf about spiritual disciplines: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney, A Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard, and more. They’re good and worth reading.
But I also own books about habits, including A Habit Called Faith by Jen Pollock Michel, Habits of Grace by David Mathis, and Your Future Self Will Thank You by Drew Dyck. I’ve even written a couple: How to Grow and 8 Habits for Growth.
...May 29, 2021
Saturday Links
Podcast: I enjoyed talking to Rich Villodas about his book The Deeply Formed Life on the Gospel for Life podcast.
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Make This Your General Rule of Thumb When Binding the Conscience of Others
Could every believer, in every place, across all time, people’s and cultures, both now and forever, do this thing?
Manners for Social Media in Polarized Times
Describing others with demeaning epithets is arrogant and unbecoming. Let’s run as far from it as...
May 25, 2021
The Double Danger of Scorn
In the Canadian TV comedy series Corner Gas, residents of Dog River hate neighboring town Wullerton so much that they spit on the ground whenever the town is mentioned. The local newspaper refers to the town as “Wullerton (SPIT).”
Their spitting is a form of scorn, “the feeling or belief that someone or something is worthless or despicable.” Scorn reveals itself through mockery and contempt for others, and a sense of one’s own superiority to the other group.
It’s funny on Corner Gas,...
May 22, 2021
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
In a World of Narratives, Be Radically Committed to Reality
I’m convinced that the biggest emerging fissure in Western culture is not necessarily between political left and right as much as those fiercely committed to reality (even when it goes against the narrative) and those who elevate the narrative (whether left or right) above reality.
Progressive Christians: Where and How They Differ with Jesus
Spending time at a theologically liberal Chr...
May 18, 2021
High Conflict in the Canadian Church
Conflict is good. Actually, the right kind of conflict is good. As Amanda Ripley writes in her new book High Conflict, healthy conflict “can be serious and intense but leads somewhere useful.” It “does not collapse into dehumanization.”
High conflict, though, is bad. It “becomes self-perpetuating and all-consuming, in which almost everyone ends up worse off.” It’s “typically an us-versus-them conflict.”
Ripley’s book tells stories of high conflict: a town council in California, a gang ...
