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by Bret Capranica | Feb 24, 2009 | Featured Articles, Preaching
Biblical preaching must not be less than central in the ministry of a local church. That was the theme of my sermon this past Sunday evening. By “biblical preaching,” I mean the sort of preaching that is often called expository preaching. It is that sermon that takes a portion of the Bible and reveals the God-intended meaning of that portion of Scripture in such a way that the audience comprehends God’s expectations for their thinking and behavior. It is that sort of preaching that systematically moves through books of the Bible in such a way that the text of Scripture determines the theme of the sermon as well as the sermon’s major structure. In essence it exposes the congregation to the intended meaning of the stated biblical text. When Paul told Timothy to “preach the word,” I believe this sort of preaching is what he had in mind. Timothy was to explicate the meaning of Scripture (3:15-17). He was not called to creatively wow the crowd with slick presentations and stunning oratory (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). He was called to carefully, authoritatively, regularly, publicly expose his audience to the written word of God as it had been delivered to him. The Scriptures were the focus. When systematic preaching through Scriptures is the priority, God and Christ will become the focus. We do have a long rash of preaching that sprinkles the Bible into secular messages, rather than submersing our society into Bible drenched sermons. If Pastors rarely hemorrhage Scripture our congregations will rarely bleed the Bible when cut by the circumstances of life. In other words, I think we should...
by Bret Capranica | Feb 23, 2009 | Culture, Ecclesiology, Preaching
Pastor Matt Chandler talks here about silly, Christless ways as well as Christ saturated ways for Pastors to preach and respond to the recession. HT: Justin Taylor more about “Preaching on the Recession-Do’s and D…“, posted with...
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by Bret Capranica | Feb 21, 2009 | Blogging, Featured Articles
Well, no sooner had I made a post about sticking with the same ‘ole theme (which I still really like), I just happened across one that really caught my eye. Yes, perhaps a waste of some time, but, I’ve neglected the blog for some time and have really wanted a major change. This one is major ““ and is another major reason why I really love WordPress. THE CAPRANICA is transformed ““ not merely tweaked. It allows me to mark a number of articles as “features” and highlight them in a big way at the top. I love the format and have more options than ever to tweak it. There are three different layouts I could choose from ““ I picked one that gives more of a web-site feel than merely a blog look. Now, as for that new and improved content. . . . It should well be on its...
by Bret Capranica | Feb 21, 2009 | Blogging, Featured Articles
As Kelly and Brie were under the weather yesterday, I took some time (more than a human should) to scour the World Wide Web for a new blog design. There are tons out there, but to be honest, I really didn’t find any that were free, easily customizable, and better-looking (IMHO) than the one I have. I was a bit disappointed. While the guys at Glued Ideas no longer seem to do much for the Subtle theme, It is still one of my favorites. It’s free, simple, professional, clean, easily customizable and personable. Above all that, my wife likes it best and has threatened me if I changed it much. How intimate that all sounds ““ especially for a blog that is really rarely updated, especially with much meaningful content. So, I’ve decided to stick with Subtle. I did change from the “Subvert” (darkish) feel to the default, brighter feel ““ just for a change of pace. But really, now, who cares? In the next few days, I’ll be updating my blogroll as well as a few other overdue updates. I did add a new feature: “GReader-Cap.” Ever since I happily converted to Google Reader as my feed reader, and since I use the beautiful iPhone web-app for Google Reader, I find myself sharing a number of articles from my reading via Google Reader. It is actually easier to share an article from GReader than to go in and put up a “Short Cap” post of it. So, watch the GReader section to see the articles across the web I’m following and think are interested, but don’t really want...
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by Bret Capranica | Feb 21, 2009 | Twitter
About to puke. Wish it would just happen-I’m sure the stomach would settle then. # Stomach finally settled-time to pray and prepare for the day. Looking forward to being back at FBCSJ. # Pastor Stacy and Mrs. Theresa-swapping hats at church http://twitpic.com/1imoc # Just made it home from the day at church-great time if worship-thoroughly loved the fellowship with God’s people. # Off to the office. Pastors’ meeting then a funeral. Rain, rain, rain-you would think this was Oregon-I’m already getting depressed. # Watching ‘i think my wife’s a calvinist’ at Vodpod http://tinyurl.com/bdhslz # Drinking hot coco with Brie-soooo fun http://twitpic.com/1j45l # Playing with Brie. She is sliding the daddy off the doll house roof-this is supposed to be funny: http://twitpic.com/1j4qg # Good night. # Doing some personal and ministry planning. # Home with a prescious little girl while mom is at Bible study-sad thing is that Brie has the flu-so sad when little ones are sick. # Preparing my heart and mind for the day-prayer, Scripture, my schedule and task list. # Due to the crush of ministry projects, sermon prep is being pushed back-so…a few hours of project work now. # 1st project up-prep for a seminar I’m leading in April on “Planning the Work of Your Church.” # About to have a phone meeting about a conference coming to SoCal in November this year. # Long day, but a very productive one for the most part. Had a good time teaching Isaiah and Jeremiah. Can’t rest yet-a lot on the mind. # Waiting for the coffee to brew-then to think on the word and pray. #...
