Darryl Dash's Blog, page 71
March 7, 2020
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Leading as If You’re Already Gone
I remember someone telling me when I was a young leader. “You won’t really know the impact you’ve made on a group of people or a ministry you lead until at least 5 years after you’re gone.”
Brothers, Preach Your Heart Out — No Matter How Few People Are in the Room
To the glory of God, study and pray and preach with all your strength—no matter how many people are in the room.
The Folly of ‘Looking for Community’
One...
March 3, 2020
The Unseen Realm: A Review
A guest post by Ashley Hibbard
Michael Heiser’s documentary The Unseen Realm, based on his 2015 book of the same name, is a fascinating examination of the Old Testament’s approach to the spiritual world. He masterfully explains how the Ancient Near East understood God or the gods to operate, and how that is reflected in the pages of the Old Testament. Heiser finds himself in murkier waters, however, when he proceeds to apply these findings theologically.
There is much to appreciate in Heiser’...
February 29, 2020
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Building a Culture of Evangelism Takes Time, So Be Patient and Get to Work
Every church ought to cultivate a robust “culture of evangelism.” Programs are events. A culture is a way of life. Programs come and go. A culture endures.
Here are two descriptions of the ideal candidate for the office of Pastor. The first is taken from a large and well-known church in the West; the second is taken from Gregory the Great’s Book of...
February 25, 2020
The Abiding Value of Pastoral Friends
In my first church, a deacon began a meeting by yelling at me. He stood inches from my face before storming out. Nobody in the meeting knew what to do.
I called a friend of mine — a pastor — for lunch the next day. He cleared his schedule and took me to a nice lunch. He was older than me, and he’d been there. He offered me little advice but lots of understanding, and I remember that lunch to this day.
That’s the last time I had a deacon yell at me. But I’ve experienced all kinds of pastoral...
February 22, 2020
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Here are 11 questions I’ve been asking myself as I think about improving as a preacher.
When Calamity Strikes, Pastors & Missionaries Are ”Essential Personnel”
Be encouraged, brother pastors, you are essential personnel.
5 Reasons Pastors Ought to Pray for Slow Growth
We live in a world that idolizes speed, size, and flash. This isn’t the Christ I worship, and I’m not sure it’s the church I want to worship in.
February 18, 2020
The Hole-in-the-Wall Church
“Guess where I’m eating?”
I attached a photo of my dinner, ramen from a restaurant near us, and sent it to my wife. I’d wanted to eat there for a while, and I thought she’d be jealous.
She soon replied with a picture of her own dinner, on her way to her destination just outside Phoenix. She’d discovered an authentic Mexican restaurant, a hole-in-the-wall, and the food was delicious.
She’d won the contest.
Small, Unnoticed, ExcellentI love playing that game: finding a restaurant or coffee...
February 15, 2020
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
When the Church Apologizes for Its Beliefs
In recent years, it’s become commonplace to see Christian leaders take an apologetic stand on a controversial issue. Not apologetic in the “defend the faith” sense of the word, but “apologetic” as if to say, I wish this was different, but here’s what we believe.
Looking For a Church? Here’s What to Look For
My list doesn’t include a gymnasium or a youth group that does a lot of fun things, since the Bible doesn...
February 11, 2020
Feels Like Home
When I leave a hotel — not a budget hotel, but a place where I’ve found some rest and renewal — I feel like I’m being uprooted. “I’ll never be back here again,” I think to myself. “I liked it here.”
Crazy. I have a home. I don’t need to feel homesick when I’m leaving a temporary abode to return to where I live.
But I get it. In Keeping Place, Jen Pollock Michel writes about our longing for home. Home is our most fundamental longing, she writes. And for many of us, homesickness is a nagging...
February 8, 2020
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Subversive Habits and Your Primary Story
We do well to consider what regular practices will best help us resist conformity with the world, keep the Scriptural Story at the forefront, and chip away at the lesser stories that would capture our imaginations.
Whenever I see pole dancing in movies and when I saw yours in the clips that I watched of your performance, I am always taken back to a young lady I once had the privilege of meeting who...
February 4, 2020
On Obstacles and the Weight of Leadership
It’s a passage that’s bothered, even troubled me for years.
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” (Joshua 5:13-14)
I would have expected the man — the commander of the LORD’s army — to answer, “Of course I’m on your side!” After...
