by Bret Capranica | Jul 2, 2005 | Pastoral Ministry
Challies.com posts a great review of the ministry of Philip Ryken. Ryken is the Senior Pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA. I recently noticed not only his recent publications, but also a few auido clips on sermonaudio.com. Many of these clips are short applications of theology to every area of life, much like Challies notes on his blog. Listen for yourself to see if you believe that Dr. Ryken is one of the world’s foremost preachers of our...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 2, 2005 | Southern Baptist Issues
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate-liberal breakaway group from the Southern Baptist Convention, is beginning to show its face more clearly with every passing year. At this year’s convention, the Fellowship revised its constitution and bylaws, removing from their purpose statement clauses that directly referred to Jesus Christ. Interestingly, the news report from CBF’s web-site gives little detail regarding the changes. Baptist Press (the SBC new organization) provides quotations of the past and new article’s wording: Under Article II of the CBF’s previous constitution, the purpose of the Fellowship was described as that of bringing together Baptists who desire to call out God’s gifts in each person in order that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the Great Commission. The revised article in the constitution describes the Fellowship’s purpose as that of serving Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission. Further, the CBF has removed language that formerly referred to the authority of the Scriptures. Again, the CBF report does not mention this. Baptist Press notes: The revised article also does not reference the authority of the Bible without the aid of creeds, as did the original. Instead, the revised article cites the CBF’s belief in soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom and religious freedom. Freedom to believe anything one desires. Freedom to think anything you would like regarding the Bible and regarding Jesus or the lack of Jesus’ necessity. The CBF is finally beginning to become more open about its liberal lean. The CBF will be a good fit for the modern drift toward pluralism...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 1, 2005 | Personal
Our Mt. Sinai in San Jacinto: Ok. I’m starting to get the hang of this picture thing (I know, it’s not that hard). Anyway, this was the scene from our office as the fire season kicked off. See the post from Thursday, June 23. Here’s what it looked like close up. Ok – one...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 1, 2005 | Politics
Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard predicted that Sandra O’Connor would be the first to resign from the Supreme Court. He also suggests that the Chief Justice will NOT resign and that Albert Gonzales will be O’Connor’s replacement. Kristol’s conjecture has begun to become reality. We shall see about the rest. Here are President Bush’s comments and his phone conversation with outgoing Associate Justice O’Connor. War for the Court...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 30, 2005 | Culture
Our local paper notes today that there was an arrest spree held yesterday in the city of San Jacinto. Now we know what was going on when eleven police cars and officers in full-blown military garb descended on the house across from our church offices (this is the second time). Our church sits in a very interesting location. The south sides of our property is surrounded by new homes and a middle class neighborhood. The north side of the property (where our office is) is surrounded by crime infested homes and lower income families. We enjoy the ministry position God has providentially provided. Before the church bought the property to the north, the home that now houses our office was frequented by police drug raids. The gospel knows no limits in who it can reach. And we value reaching out with its liberating power to those who have been enslaved by materialism and those who are chained by drugs and gangs. May God grant us compassionate hearts and ready tongues to spread the Word of Truth in our very needy...
