by Bret Capranica | Apr 4, 2009 | Pastoral Ministry
C.J. Mahaney recently posted some excellent interviews with some well-known Christian personalities. But now, he’s about to open the door on some very ordinary guys. This ordinary pastor here at THE CAPRANICA, is looking forward to this series. “Ordinary”...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 31, 2009 | Pastoral Ministry, Preaching, Presidential History
Josh Harris posts some good food for thought for preachers in light of Michael Gerson’s recent article on President’s, teleprompters, and well-crafted words. Gerson argues that teleprompters have increased a President’s disciplined thought and communication. Josh Harris says preachers should learn from this and pursue a more disciplined approach to communicating Scripture. I don’t think we’ll see teleprompter preachers any time soon (nor should we), but we should be thinking and crafting our gospel communication more carefully. Gerson’s article is a good read. What the Teleprompter Teaches Preachers (Josh...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 30, 2009 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Technology, Time/Life Management
I’m seriously considering leaving the world of Microsoft behind and going for something less expensive, easier to use, and more portable? Does anything out there exist like this? And if I leave my Office 2007 behind, will I be left behind in a whirlwind of little productivity? I really do enjoy using Microsoft Office 2007. It has been a very helpful system for me since the day it came out. They’ve really done a bang-up job on the bells and whistles. I love being able to post blog entries from Word. The visual enhancements to pictures, charts, and graphs are so far beyond previous versions of Office (not near the quality of the Mac world, but then again, few ordinary pastors can afford to live in the Mac world). I’m addicted to Outlook. I’ve never quite understood why people are down on Outlook. It’s been my right hand man for years. Outlook is one of the best organizational tools I have employed in ministry. I could go on. I really enjoy Office. But there is one thing I do not like about it. It is expensive. Whether the Mac version or the PC version, it is simply downright expensive. Until recently, Microsoft had us right where they wanted us. There were no other truly inexpensive options. True, Word Perfect was out there, but then again, you were stuck in the Corel Corral and could not interact with the rest of the world who was using and sharing Word docs. That may not be so now. Google is hot on their trail. Calendar is excellent and now boasts of offline...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 23, 2009 | Blogging, Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry
Wouldn’t blogging be persona non grata in the life of the truly ordinary pastor? Maybe a few years ago, but no longer. I would suspect that the majority of pastors blogging today are among the ordinary variety. It helps that more than 99% of the pastors in our country are ordinarily flavored, so you would expect that the same percentage of pastors blogging will be ordinary pastors. With that in mind, why should a pastor blog? I wish more extraordinary pastors blogged ““ I mean really blogged. Not like those guys who have their staff post excerpts from the books. I wish they would actually take a half-hour a day and write something about their life, ministry, personal discipline, reading habits, family life, and the very unique experiences they have in ministry. It’s good to hear from some of the extraordinary guys who share from the overflow of their vast amount of time in the Scriptures and years of experience. But I also like hearing from the average Joe. In fact, I think there are a host of reasons why an ordinary pastor should blog (I have a few pastors in mind and would love to get them started – I may publicly expose them if they continue to resist). Here’s my list. It humanizes the ministry, allowing people to see the past the ivory tower facade. It allows you to speak to issues you could not cover in your sermon (even though your sermon was too long already). It gives another opportunity to write ““ and writing helps a pastor to be more clear and concrete with histhoughts....
by Bret Capranica | Mar 18, 2009 | Miscellaneous, Pastoral Ministry
Well, at least the recent package they sent to me advertising Sunday School stuff does. I suppose their target group is people who like instant feminized Hazelnut coffee. Their marketing scheme is built around a cup of coffee and they included a little card that is supposed to smell like the aroma of coffee. It simply makes me want to hurl. Since opening the package in my office, I’ve washed my hands multiple times and showered a few times, and took my trash out. I can’t get the smell off my hands. I cannot get the smell out of my office. Needless to say, I am NOT more likely to purchase their latest Sunday School offerings. I don’t want our Sunday School classes to smell like this. Now, maybe if they had used a Starbucks Italian Roast . ....
by Bret Capranica | Mar 17, 2009 | Featured Articles, Humor, Pastoral Ministry, Seeker-Sensitive
This speaks for itself and makes me thankful for the people God has given our church in student ministries. Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo. HT: ...
