Darryl Dash's Blog, page 86
September 1, 2018
Saturday Links
Links for your weekend reading:
Pastors & Suicide: What Pastors and Congregations Need to Know
How could a pastor commit suicide? Why are pastors committing suicide at increasing rates? What can you do if you are a pastor to help yourself? What can you do as a congregation to help your pastor?
Can Someone Be Spiritually Healthy and Still Experience Mental Health Challenges?
We should expect to find the same variance in mental health expressions amongst Christians that we find in physical heal...
August 30, 2018
Top Quotes and Takeaways From Encountering God Through Expository Preaching
As part of A Year of Books on Preaching, I’m posting a review a month of a preaching book, and then a list of quotes and takeaways.
I posted a review of Encountering God Through Expository Preaching earlier this week. Here are some of the top quotes and takeaways from this book.
Top Ten QuotesPreaching occurs when a holy man of God opens the Word of God and says to the people of God, “Come and experience God with me in this text.” (Kindle Locations 231-232)
Like a chef knows knives, and a...
August 28, 2018
Encountering God Through Expository Preaching
“Preaching occurs when a holy man of God opens the Word of God and says to the people of God, ‘Come and experience God with me in this text.’”
It’s rare for one sentence to sell me on a book, but this one did. Encountering God Through Expository Preaching explains this single sentence in three sections:
Part One: The Holy Man, the Holy Text, and the Holy Spirit Part Two: Preparing to Lead the People of God to Experience God: Early Preparation Part Three: “Come and Experience God with Me in T...August 25, 2018
Saturday Links
Links for your weekend reading:
It seems to me that the model was always doomed to fail for at least these 7 simple reasons.
Be a Missionary, Not a Marketer
We have shifted from a call for the church to “go” to a call for the world to “come.”
How Evangelistically Effective is Church Planting?
Church planting is evangelistically effective only to the degree that it is evangelistically focused from the beginning.
August 23, 2018
Come, Pursue God With Me
This month’s book in A Year of Books on Preaching is Encountering God through Expository Preaching. I’ll post more about it next week.
One thing I really like about this book is how they define expository preaching. “Preaching occurs when a holy man of God opens the Word of God and says to the people of God, ‘Come and experience God with me in this text.’”
So good. The best preaching I’ve heard isn’t necessarily the most eloquent. It’s when a holy person stands and speaks, rooted in the text,...
August 21, 2018
It's Finished, So Work Hard at Resting
Char and I finished a sprint triathlon on Sunday: a 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike ride, and 5-kilometer run. Don’t be impressed. First: we did it mostly for fun (meaning we were underprepared). Second: I’m really impressed by those who completed Ironman triathlons (a 3.86-kilometer swim, 180-kilometer bike ride, followed by a full marathon). That’s crazy.
I had the strangest feeling when I was done. First, relief of course. But then I experienced an overwhelming feeling: it’s finished. On...
August 18, 2018
Saturday Links
Links for your weekend reading:
Don’t Overcomplicate Evangelism
I want to highlight another approach that has historic precedent—one that is both culturally appropriate and personally achievable: network evangelism.
3 Reasons Every Church Service Doesn’t Need to Be Epic
There’s no need for an epic moment every Sunday.
What is the difference, and does it matter?
The Church Needs Fewer Men Who Feel “Called” to Ministry
We need fewer men who feel “called to ministry...
August 16, 2018
Attempt Great Things for God?
Very few of us enter the ministry with a desire to be famous. But the heart is deceitful, and it’s easy for our hearts to become proud.
I thought of this recently as I preached from Mark 3:13-19. Jesus calls twelve disciples; seven of the twelve make their only appearance in Mark’s gospel in this passage. What a bummer. Jesus chooses you out of the crowds to be one of his twelve. You enter the stage and exit just as quickly. No fuss, no great stories, no fame. Fame and applause is not what fo...
August 14, 2018
Your Life Matters
I don’t know if I’m allowed to have a favorite chapter in How to Grow. I guess it doesn’t matter, because I do. My favorite chapters is the last one, called “Pursue Growth Together: Our Call to Disciple Others.”
In this chapter I rehearse some of the people who have influenced my life most: my Sunday School teacher, Don Taylor, and my childhood pastor Denis Gibson, for instance.
I suspect that they both questioned the value of what they accomplished. They both served in a small church. There...
August 11, 2018
Saturday Links
Links for your weekend reading:
Bill Hybels and the Future of the Church After #ChurchToo
Our addiction to success, to grandiosity, to winning has gone unchecked. We forgot that we were followers of a suffering servant, bearers of the Cross, participants in a cruciform story.
Church Planting Is a Roller Coaster
Some days, the joyous thrill will make you want to scream ecstatically from the top of your lungs. Other days, you’ll be so low that you’d rather just stagger off and puke.
