Darryl Dash's Blog, page 77
May 18, 2019
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
How We Treat the Church Is How We Treat Christ
What does your love for the church say about your love for Christ?
How do we learn to lead meetings in ways that help us relinquish and resist the temptations we face?
4 Questions to Ask the Pastoral Search Team — If You Dare
There are questions every pastoral candidate ought to ask a search committee or hiring team when evaluating possible relocation, and then there are the que...
May 14, 2019
Surprised by Paradox
Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian, believed in paradox. He believed that in God we see many traits that don’t seem to belong together: infinite greatness and infinite care, infinite justice and infinite mercy, and infinite majesty displaying itself as stunning meekness. So did G.K. Chesterton, who said, “An element of paradox runs through the whole of existence itself.”
I confess I’m not always comfortable with paradox. I like my theology neatly defined. I understand and accept...
May 11, 2019
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
I’m telling you this because I think Jesus needs less empty suits and more Wiersbes. Warren wasn’t flashy, and he wasn’t about himself. He was real—what the kids call “authentic”—and he was funny. He knew who he was, and he loved Jesus in his normal, ordinary way. Warren was a very human saint, which is the best kind of saint. I didn’t appreciate that enough when I first met him, but I do now.
May 7, 2019
In Defense of Funerals
I’ve wanted to write a defense of funerals for a while now.
I notice a trend to call services “celebrations of life” instead of funerals. I understand why. We like to focus on the positive, and many of us — all of us, actually — are uncomfortable with grief.
To be sure, Scripture doesn’t prescribe whether we should call a service a funeral or a celebration of life or anything else, nor does it prescribe exactly what we should do during the service. And I don’t want to make anyone feel bad who...
May 4, 2019
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Be Remembered: My Grandpa, the Bridge Builder
A few hours ago, my grandfather, Dr. Warren Wiersbe, breathed his last breath in his earthly body and took his first breath in glory.
I don’t think we can really argue against the claim that we are praying less. So what should we do?
Four Creative Ways to be Generous
Perhaps, like me, you wonder if it’s possible to be generous when finances are tight.
Looking...
April 30, 2019
The Long Haul
In 1991, at the age of 24, I became pastor of a small church in southwest Toronto. I thought I had arrived. I threw myself into the work with everything I had — everything meaning energy more than wisdom.
After seven years I’d had enough. I loved the people, but I wondered if I should move on to another ministry venture. Perhaps my gifts would be better used in a larger context, I thought.
I wish I had read Francis Schaeffer back then. “We should consciously take the lowest place unless the L...
April 27, 2019
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
Pastoring the One When You’d Rather Pastor the Ninety-Nine
One-on-one pastoral care is every pastor’s inefficient imperative.
Simple Suggestions for a Successful Church Business Meeting
While business meetings can be a great cause for anxiety, they need not be. Here are some ideas for avoiding acrimonious business meetings in a local church.
Why I Changed My Mind About Fundraising for Our Church Plant
I no longer view this part of ministry as a distract...
April 23, 2019
The Reformed Pastor
The Reformed Pastor is not really the name of this book by Richard Baxter. The original name was a little longer: Gildas Salvianus: “The Reformed Pastor, showing the nature of the Pastoral work; especially in Private Instruction and Catechizing; with an open CONFESSION of our too open SINS: Prepared for a Day of Humiliation kept at Worcester, December 4, 1655, by the Ministers of that County, who subscribed the Agreement for Catechizing and Personal Instruction at their entrance upon that wor...
April 20, 2019
Saturday Links
Curated links for your weekend reading:
The Devil Didn’t Think He Won on Good Friday (Sorry, Preachers)
It’s that time of year when you hear preachers say, “The Devil thought he won on Friday, but he didn’t know about Sunday!”
It preaches well. But I don’t think it’s true.
It’s Time To Break Free From the Algorithm-Driven Life
It’s time to escape from the algorithm, at least in those areas that matter most to the good life and the Christian faith.
The Brave New World of Bible Reading
As Bible...
April 16, 2019
The One-Straw Revolution
Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and author of The One-Straw Revolution. As a young man he studied agriculture and worked as an inspector studying diseases and pests on imported plants. He was amazed at the “world of nature as revealed through the eyepiece of a microscope.”
[image error]Fukuoka is famous for his approach to farming. He saw nature as ideally arranged and abundant. When we try to improve on nature, we inevitably introduce adverse side effects. Then we take additional action to counte...
