by Bret Capranica | Mar 23, 2010 | Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry
Brian Croft, a good friend and very faithful pastor in Louisville, KY, has started blogging. Another good friend, Stephen Jones, pointed out Brian’s latest foray into the blogosphere. Those of us ordinary pastors will be wonderfully helped and our souls ministered to through this faithful under-shepherd of Christ. Check out Practical Shepherding and read Brian’s books: Visiting the Sick Test, Train, Affirm and Send: Recovering the local church’s responsibility to the external...
![What Will I Preach? (part 1)]()
by Bret Capranica | Mar 23, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Preaching
In a recent conversation with a group of pastors, we were listening to each other discuss how we determine what we will preach. Here’s a few of the ideas that govern my sermon selection: 1. Annual Planning. In late fall each year, Kelly, the kids and I get away for about a half week. We each take turns watching the kids for half of a day to allow the other to spend some time alone to pray, think, and plan. This is the time that I normally plan out my preaching schedule for the following year. The details of this would comprise another blog post. Suffice it to say that after listing each week of the year, I think through how I plan to preach the major book I am expositing. I then plan out a number of topical messages, and think through calendar items such as vacation, holidays, and major church events that would effect my preaching schedule. Obviously, this annual calendar is interrupted by the unplanned issues like sickness, or events in church and family life that necessitate a change. But it is a helpful tool throughout the year that helps me provide some guidance to the Scriptural diet I provide the flock. 2. Every Genre. I heard from another pastor how he made it his aim to try and preach through each major genre of Scripture each year. I love the idea and have tried to follow it for a few years. So, I will plan a short series or one message here and there through the year from which I will cover an Old Testament...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 3, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, The Gospel
Last June, the Southern Baptist Convention authorized the President of the Convention to appoint a task force that would essentially re-imagine how we operate and function. Thus was born the Great Commission Task Force. Last week, the Task Force’s first report was given. Kelly and I watched it together just after it was released. I have yet to form significant opinions (significant as an ordinary pastor can have) worth public comment about it, and will be giving more time to reading the report and talking to some involved. I am excited for possible changes that will enhance our focus as a Convention, and concerned about how the implications of the Task Force will be applied. The Task force will present its final report in a few months and it will be considered at the June annual meeting in Orlando. Below is the video report of the Task force. GCR Progress Report from GCR on Vimeo. Here is the written report. Albert Mohler posted some thoughts on it today. Any thoughts from any of you as of...
by Bret Capranica | Jan 28, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
I’ve been waiting for something like this – a handheld device that I could consume information very easily and most comfortably. Apple may have done it and I think it will have a number of benefits for those in pastoral ministry. If you missed it, here’s the video of the new Apple iPad: Will/Should ordinary pastors and people use the newly unveiled Apple iPad? This pastor probably will, and I think many, many will also. The Kindle has been a big draw among many in ministry and I can’t help but think that the iPad will be another Apple technological game-changer. Here’s a few reasons why I think so: 1. Magazines/Newspapers can now survive. The only reason I subscribe to a print newspaper right now, is because my wife wants the coupons from the Sunday paper. I NEVER read the print paper. But I do subscribe to a number of newspaper and magazine RSS feeds. In fact, I can subscribe to the sections of the paper I want and skip the rest. I noticed that my wife was already starting to clip coupons from the internet. Outisde of my wife’s coupon newspaper, I no longer have any subscriptions to any print publications – and I don’t miss the mess. However, I would be interested in reading papers and magazines on an electronic device that I could hold in my hand and was bigger than my iPhone. Especially if I could cut and paste quotes and sections into Evernote and tag them. That would help me in quickly clipping, filing, and finding quotes and illustrations for sermons and doing so...
by Bret Capranica | Sep 19, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
In this post I want to review a few applications every ordinary pastor (or person) can readily make excellent use of – and the best news is that all of them are free. While the web can be a major distraction for productivity, it can also be an amazing tool for getting things done. Here are tools from the web I use every week (some almost every hour): Safari Web Browser: I have been a Firefox fan for a long time. I loved the various plugins available that gave me greater connection to social media like Twitter. However, I’ve found that having constant connection to social media while working on high priority tasks on the web is too distracting, so I really use few plugins on Firefox any longer. The new Safari 4.0 I have found to be faster than Firefox. It certainly loads faster and is speeder in browsing the web. It also has a cleaner interface than Firefox. I have gone back and forth with Firefox and Safari, but tend to find Safari to handle my needs more simply and faster than Firefox. Email. I have all of my e-mail accounts dumping into my Gmail system. Our church uses Gmail with our own domain name. We can have access to one another’s calendars on the web or on our iPhones. Gmail via the web has been my mail client of choice for months. It loads very quickly and I have instant access to all my mail. I can quickly mark all of my mail read and star those I want to follow up on. I have a general rule that I respond to...
by Bret Capranica | Sep 14, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology, Time/Life Management
[YouTube Video] Hey everyone, today’s blog post (and a few others this week) is a screen cast from my desktop in my study at home. I am currently using a 2.4 GHz iMac. I also have a MacBook Pro for portability (I’m hardly ever without my laptop) and its set up exactly like my iMac. What do I find to be some of the best applications I tend to use every week? Which are some of the most helpful to me as a pastor? This week I’ll be taking a look at my desktop and sharing with you the apps that find their way into my workweek. In general, just take a look at my doc (the bar of icons at the bottom of my screen). I don’t have any on there that I don’t regularly use. I’m going to give a quick overview today and then throughout the week, I’ll screen cast some details on those that I find most helpful. Finder. The way you find your way around the Mac environment is basically through the “Finder.” It’s comparable to Windows Explorer in the Windows environment. Pathfinder (instead of finder). It is much more versatile and worth the small amount it costs. It makes Windows Explorer and Mac Finder look useless. Safari (I’ve left Firefox behind for the most part). Google. For e-mail, calendar, contacts, chat, and tasks. Also Reader. Few Google docs. I will review a number of the web applications (WordPress, Picasa, etc.) that I use all the time. Dropbox. This is an excellent file sharing and synchronizing software. You can share any files with anyone,...
