by Bret Capranica | Feb 27, 2007 | Evangelism, Reading
From the Deisring God Pastors’ Conference Booklet – 50 Ways to Give Away a Christian Book: Give one to a believer to encourage them Give one to your neighbor Give one at the local store Give one to everyone in your study group Give one to a Jehovah’s Witness Give one to the next visitor at your office Give one instead of a Christmas card Give one to the new person at church Give one to the gas station attendant Give one to the sales assistant Give one to the car mechanic Give one to the cashier at the garden center Give one to your pastor Give one to the person next to you in the elevator Give one to your dentist Give one to your doctor Give one to your child’s teacher at school Give one to the paperboy Give one to each child in Sunday School Give one to someone who is hurting Give one to the next charity collector you see Give one out at the retirement party Give one to your bank manager Give one to your work mate Give one to the receptionist Give one to your child’s friend Give one to your boss Give one to the salesman Give one to the community gardener Give one to your secretary Give one to the policeman Give one to someone who is ill Give one to your accountant Give one to the postman Give one to the waitress Give one to your weight watchers class Give one to your missionary friend Give one to a teenager Give one to a parent Give one to your...
by Bret Capranica | Oct 27, 2006 | Ecclesiology, Evangelism, Seeker-Sensitive
Great comments quoted by Ligon Duncan. Together for the Gospel
by Bret Capranica | Sep 7, 2006 | Bookreviews, Ecclesiology, Evangelism
Pastor Jerry Cook has a passion to see the church be more effective Monday through Saturday in the world in which she lives. Such is the stated theme of his book, The Monday Morning Church. Cook defines “the church on Monday” as “the body of Christ at work in the world” (3). This work is a sequel to Cook’s earlier book, Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness (9). Here, in The Monday Morning Church (MMC), Cook wants to call Christians to “make Jesus accessible to people, right where they live” (4), by being “incarnational” in our communities (5). MMC is a book centered on a devotional look at the book of Ephesians, where the author wants to use Ephesians “as an illustration and dramatic guide to becoming the church on Monday” (10). If we understand who we are in Christ and what we possess as believers, we will be more effective in our witness of Christ to the world. I applaud this idea and passion presented by Pastor Cook. Thus, MMC is arranged into four different sections, “Where Is God on Monday,” “Who You Are,” “What You Have” and “How You Live.” The opening section provides the author’s argument for why we need to be more intentional and aware of our Christian witness to the watching world. The majority of the book is a devotional exposition of the book of Ephesians. I would readily commend Pastor Cook for his passion and desire to see Christians and the church to be fervent, intentional and aware of the way we live out our life in Christ before a watching and needy world. His...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 25, 2006 | Culture, Evangelism
Rednecks, Turnbuckles, and the Lord Jesus Christ | Resurgence Christians egaging the culture – o.k. Christians linking Christ to professional wrestling? Hmmm. Where will this lead? I really don’t have any problems with professional wrestling. What kid didn’t watch it growing up? Who hasn’t ateempted to send your best friend to purgatory through a pile driver? I also don’t have a problem with using various popular means of making the gospel known, as long as it is in fact the gospel that is up front and not the means. I’m simply afraid in our attempts to be relevant to the culture with our preaching the gospel, we’ve emphasized the culture to the minimizing of the gospel. Mark Driscoll’s suggestion, “We may end up with a whole new denomination of preachers in spandex pants with mullets doing a lot of Old Testament exegesis followed by heavy metal worship and Wonder bread for communion. But as long as they love Jesus, it’s all good,” seems to pin the gospel underneath medium. I suppose this kind of missional thinking would use Acts 17 as a model? Is this what the apostles did – they took whatever was popular and created a Christian version, tacking a few words about Jesus, sin, heaven and hell on the end? If that is missional, I think I’ll stick to biblical. Christians engaging their culture with Christ is one thing. This looks more like clothing a mimimalist version of Christ with the...
