Sanctification beyond Standards—Three Elements to Growth in Grace
Perhaps you have heard the statement, “Jesus loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to allow you to stay that way.” It’s true. God loves us unconditionally, and He doesn’t love us more or less based on if we are currently growing or backsliding. But He...
Five Overlooked Benefits of Faithfulness
This January marks Terrie’s and my thirty-third New Year at Lancaster Baptist Church. A few weeks ago, we were able to have over several families from our church who were here when we came or who we were able to lead to the Lord in those first couple years. Their...
Six Helpful Books I Read Last Year
Over the years, I have found consistent reading to be an invaluable resource for personal and leadership growth. Each year, I try to read books on a variety of subjects, including spiritual growth, leadership, history, and more. (I add these titles to my list of...
How I Match My Responsibilities to My To-Do List
I hope you’ve made time over the past week or so to prayerfully evaluate needed areas of growth in your life and set some goals for this New Year. Setting goals, however, is the easy part; living them out in day-sized pieces over the coming year is the challenge. ...
Twelve Areas to Evaluate as You Begin a New Year
There’s nothing like a new year to renew our passion for growth and excellence. I think, however, that in our haste to set new goals sometimes we miss careful evaluation of where we’re really at currently in some of the key areas of life. Before you decide what...
What Jesus Gave Us at Christmas
At Lancaster Baptist Church, we give “Christmas gifts to Jesus.” It’s an opportunity for us as a church to tangibly give to the Lord whose birthday we celebrate, and it’s a great way for children to be reminded of the real purpose of Christmas. But the truth is,...
Mentoring and Modeling in the Home
One of our annual traditions is taking a family picture to send out with our Christmas cards. For our picture this year (above), we went up to the Tehachapi mountains. I couldn’t help but remember that it was in a room located in these very mountains where twenty-five...
Four Steps to Developing an Annual Church-Wide Theme
I love the New Year for the sense of freshness and potential it brings. I write new year’s goals, and I take time to do personal inventory and planning for the year. (The Stewarding Life Planner is the resource I developed for myself and our staff along these lines....
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Like most people, I love the Christmas season. Terrie and I have been playing Christmas music since before Thanksgiving. We look forward to some time with all our family around later this month as we celebrate Christ’s coming. One of the songs I enjoy listening to is...
The Resilient Life
Overcome the Crises and Anxieties of Life through Christ
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Pastor Paul Chappell
Dr. Paul Chappell is the senior pastor of the Lancaster Baptist Church and president of West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster, California. His biblical vision has led the church to become one of the most dynamic independent Baptist churches in the nation. He has been married to his wife, Terrie, for over forty years and is the father of four married children all serving in Christian ministry.
