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Hometown: Memphis, TN
Spouse: Kathleen
Children: Colin, Corinne, Jordan, Kaitlin

Brief Biography


Dr. Bryan Chapell is president and professor of practical theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. His insightful Bible teaching can be heard daily via the Internet on Living Christ Today.

Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Chapell was a pastor for approximately ten years before joining the faculty of Covenant Seminary, the seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), in 1985. He served the Seminary for six years as vice president for academics and dean of faculty before becoming president in 1994. He has been active in a variety of leadership roles in the PCA and in cooperative ministries with numerous other national and international Christian ministries.

Dr. Chapell is a renowned preacher, teacher, and speaker who is much sought after by churches, colleges, seminaries, and conferences throughout this country and abroad. He is the author of many articles and numerous books, including Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus’ Name, Why Do We Baptize Infants?, Holiness by Grace, I’ll Love You Anyway&Always, Each for the Other, The Wonder of It All, and Christ-Centered Preaching, a preaching textbook now in multiple editions and many languages that has established him as one of the nation’s foremost teachers of homiletics.

While pastoring his first church, Dr. Chapell met his future wife, Kathy, who played piano for the congregation. Also an accomplished flutist and singer, Mrs. Chapell has used her gifts as a choir director for many years and often serves churches as a soloist and conference speaker. The Chapells have four children.

Thoughts From Dr. Bryan Chapell


The two words about which my ministry could be wrapped are authority and redemption.

In our day two opposing forces challenge the effective proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first well-documented foe of the Gospel is the erosion of authority. The philosophies of subjectivism have joined hands with the skeptics of transcendent truth to create a cultural climate antagonistic toward any authority. Yet as the apostle Paul saw long ago, this release from biblical standards inevitably makes persons slaves to their own passions and victims of each other's selfishness.

Our culture and the church are desperate for dependable truths that address the brokenness of the world that this loss of authority accentuates. Such dependable truth flows from the Word of God as it is searched for the timeless principles that address the issues of our day, the concerns of our lives, and the destinies of our souls. As obvious as this solution may seem, its widespread adoption faces large challenges. Over the last two generations seeking truth in Scripture has been stigmatized (not always unfairly) as a blind retreat behind dogmatic defenses of doctrinal distinctives removed from ordinary life. The time has come for the redemption of biblical expression from tradition-bound attitudes and communication-naive practices that needlessly burden God's people.

Simply reacting to the secularization of both church and culture with moral instruction and pleas for societal reform is not the answer. If we act as though the cure for our world's sickness is simply human character correction or cultural criticism, we inadvertently promote a message contrary to the gospel. Fundamentally and pervasively the Scriptures teach the inadequacy of any purely human effort to secure divine approval. We are entirely dependent upon the mercy of God to be what he desires and to do what he requires. Grace rules!

However well intended and biblically rooted may be our instruction, if our message does not incorporate the motivation and enablement inherent in a proper apprehension of the redeeming work of Christ, we pursue and promote mere Pharisaism. Being faithful to the whole of Scripture not only requires that we establish God's requirements, but also that we highlight the pervasive redemptive truths that make holiness possible. We must learn to see all of God's Word as a unified message of human need and divine provision. Harangues for human striving are futile. Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." True purity, spiritual confidence, and lasting joy flow from showing how his redeeming grace empowers all we must think and do. Consistent adulation of the mercy of God in Christ will produce the love for him that is the power of our lives. My desire and purpose are consistent adulation of the wonders of him.


Resources From Dr. Bryan Chapell

Books

You can purchase the following books by Bryan Chapell at the Covenant Seminary Bookstore online.

Other books by Bryan Chapell:

  • In the Grip of Grace
  • 1&2 Timothy: To Guard the Deposit (with R. Kent Hughes)

Study Guides

Study guides for books and lectures by Dr. Chapell are available in Adobe PDF format. In order to view PDF documents, you need Adobe Acrobat software. If you do not already have this software on your computer, visit the download page for this free software. [link to Adobe] All PDF documents will be displayed in a new browser window.


Sermons and Articles

Featured below are recent sermons by Bryan Chapell delivered during the chapel services at Covenant Theological Seminary as well as selected articles by Dr. Chapell.

Covenant Seminary's Resources for Life contains a wide selection of messages and articles by/from Bryan Chapell. Any of these resources may be downloaded free of charge.


Other Featured Resources by Dr. Chapell


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