by Bret Capranica | Apr 9, 2010 | Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, The Gospel
This is well worth your time to watch: Jesus + Nothing = Everything (Part 5) from Coral Ridge on Vimeo. HT: Justin...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 8, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management
So what are the potential pitfalls every pastor (really anyone) will face as soon as he is committed to becoming more productive? Here are a few suggestions: Strangling Sovereignty. As one who believes in, values, and enjoys a robust understanding of God’s sovereginty, I understand the tension that can often be felt when trying to become more focused and productive. I understand that God guides every step despite by best intentions. As someone (I can’t remember who) has said, we write our plans in pencil and understand God owns the eraser. Never think that our goals, plans, projects, tasks, and ultimately our productivity is either up to us or accomplished in our own ingenuity. Furthermore, when providence destroys the perfectly planned productive week you sketched out, rejoice! Don’t fret or sweat in frustration. God is sovereign. Our productive desires can never strangle his perfect providential plans. Frustrating Friends. Another pitfall when we aim to be productive is that we will inevitably frustrate some of our friends; especially those not given to our bent for greater productivity. I do this to the best of my friends. I need to be less self-focused and considerate of others. Yet, I can plan my work and work my plan, running right over those I consider ministry partners and friends. Be careful of this. Neither frustrating them by our precise planning, nor succumbing to other’s lack of planning needs to cause us any lack in being effective at what we do. Flexibility is required – but not so flexible that we are useless. Projects Above People. Sometimes this is a false dichotomy. Often times...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 7, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management
So, this series is all about the negative side of pastoral productivity. Next week, I plan to say more about the more productive side of pastoral productivity – the positive stuff. But, before we move to the positive, let’s be a bit more negative (why do the negative articles always get more press?). Here’s a few thoughts on unproductive approaches in addressing productivity: Goals without Strategy. Goals are great and I have them – I have some for myself, my family, and my ministry. But if you have no practical way to apply them, remind yourself of them, or even hold yourself somewhat accountable to them, goals are useless. Goals without a strategy are a strategic way to become more depressed and obviously unproductive. If you are going to set some goals, you will also need to think through a process by which those goals are continually evaluated, regularly reviewed, and practically applied to how you work week to week. Strategy without Goals. Many people fall into this trap. These are those who are mesmerized by the latest time management tool, whether electronic or paper, or those who are continually looking for a new productivity system. They love to think about how to be productive and are always shifting systems, but their day-to-day functions are never tied to any long-term, higher altitude goals. Strategy without goals is a good way to feel productive, but not necessarily be productive in the long run. Time-Driven Tasks. It really is a myth that you can manage your time. It marches on despite our goals and management plans. I do agree with David...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 1, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry
Based on my previous post on this subject, here’s a few video’s on my present office/study set-up. I am very blessed. My church graciously provides me a place to use as an office, and I have an extra room at home from where I also work. I use my church office mostly for administrative tasks and meetings. For sermon preparation, significant reading, writing, and thinking projects, I use my home study. My office study contains the majority of my books, while my home study contains the books that I am currently reading or using for various projects. Monday and Tuesday’s are the days I primarily give to ministry administration, shepherding, meetings, etc. Wednesday and Saturday are my primary days for sermon preparation. Thursday I spend half of the day at my home study writing and half of the day at my office study (or out in the community). Here’s the video tour of both my church office and home...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 30, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry
Pastors (well, many if not most of them) do love to study, read, write, and pray. The location and set-up of their space for such ministries becomes a fairly important issue, the longer ministries goes on. What goes in to making a pastor’s study an effective place to work? A place that is relatively quiet. I don’t know any ordinary pastors who can have a completely quiet place to study or work, but relative quiet is something essential for considerable thought and consistency of work. I don’t study at my church office because it is rarely quiet and not the best set-up for significant study. You would think that a house of two toddlers and two infants might be more noisy, but in reality, it’s not really all that bad, so at this time my home office is the best place for me to do significant study. My church office is set up and designed more for administration and meetings. My home study, however, was put together with reading and study in mind. The furniture and arrangement are all set up for study. A desk that you can spread out on. I have a desk in my home study that I’ve had for over twenty years. It is very large, allowing me to stack books, spread out papers, and arrange my study tools exactly how I desire them. I use two flat screen computer monitors for my virtual desktop giving me a significant amount of screen surface area. I keep a coaster, a phone connected to my office system (VoIP), and a small lamp. That’s it. The space is...
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by Bret Capranica | Mar 25, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Preaching
Here the rest of the mess I started on Tuesday – how do I determine what I will preach? 4. Topical Periods. I do recognize that the summer months and holiday seasons in American ministry bring great challenges to successive exposition. I do generally plan to preach through shorter series during these periods, addressing a number of topics that I feel are critical for the congregation’s understanding – issues of which we believe exhortation and action are needed. I generally preach a message on the importance of preaching at the beginning of every year. I try to address the subject of the Lord’s Supper (what, why, how, etc.) every year. I make it my aim every year to preach a message on how to listen to a sermon. This summer I plan to preach through some of the distinctive convictions we have as Baptists. There is a waning understanding and commitment to these convictions blowing in the wind, and I want to show from God’s word why they are significant. Sometimes, a passage will lend itself to a break from the exposition so we can focus on a subject. For example, I paused the series in Revelation after preaching chapters 4 and 5 to take 4 weeks and preach a series on corporate worship. 5. Preach the Paragraph. As a general rule, a paragraph tends to reveal a significant thought, or comprise a single argument, press an important emphases. I don’t stress peaching one verse at a time as much as I want to stress showing the main idea revealed in a pericope. So, I tend to want to...
