by Bret Capranica | Aug 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
Within only a few years of my conversion, I had an urgent drive to preach and teach the Bible. My thirst for the Bible grew every week and my longing to helpfully expound the Scriptures lengthened as well. Having been given a number of encouraging and growth inspiring opportunities to teach in limited settings at our church, and with the confirmation of a growing number of our church’s leadership, I publicly stated my desire to pursue the pastoral ministry, discerning my desires and others’ confirmation as the call of God on my life and ministry. Within the safe confines of my local church, I began to love the ministry of the word more and more. The deacons of the church recommended that I be licensed to preach and the congregation unanimously (odd for an SBC church) affirmed their recommendation. If only life and ministry remained within the realm of such limited bliss. It was only months after my licensing did the cauldron of my consternation begin to boil. I attended my first SBC annual meeting in 1988 in San Antonio, Texas, where I was deeply encouraged by the courageous stands of solid men standing for the inerrancy of Scripture. However, I was quickly put off by the helmet-haired, pot-bellied, slick-suited political mongering pastors positioning themselves through back-slapping politics for positions of public prominence. I witnessed this both locally and nationally and expressed my disdain to my pastor, who oddly enough, seemed to be enjoying a similar political engagement of his own. My consternation was fueled. The pastoral ministry began for me quite early. At age 18 I was called...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 6, 2005 | Southern Baptist Issues, Uncategorized
Challies.com reviews an article by Jim Ellif on the discrepancy in many Southern Baptist congregations (Southern Baptists, An Unregenerate Denomination): the number of members verses the number of attenders. This has always been an issue in my mind. Why do we allow hordes of non-attending members to remain members? Honestly, we are not the only denomination that does this, we just brag about our membership rolls more vociferously. In addition to Jim Ellif’s article, I would recommend reading Mark Dever’s article, “Why We Disciplined Half Our Church.” While we jump on Southern Baptist Churches who brag of meaninglessly high membership numbers, shouldn’t we also be wary of those who boast of large crowds but amazingly small membership in comparison? Is it a healthy church that has 15,000 in attendance on a weekend, yet has only 3,000 to 5,000 on the membership roll? If the crowd on Sunday is inordinately larger than the number who have officially joined themselves to the congregation, have we adequately communicated the necessity of the local church? Have we consistently and clearly communicated the responsibilities of Christians to one another? Just a...
