Entries by timbrown

Patter vs. Style (or: Cheap Knock-Offs)

We’re smart enough to know that we shouldn’t style ourselves after the more popular preachers, but not wise enough to follow our own counsel!  It is one thing to pattern yourself after someone you admire and something else to slavishly copy their style.  Calvary Chapel has a pattern of ministry bequeathed to us by Pastor […]

Soap Operas Teach Biblical Morality

I was in a grocery store line many years ago and TV Guide’s cover advertised an article entitled, “Soap Operas Teach Biblical Morality.”  I thought that was about the dumbest thing I’d ever heard.  Soap Operas are all about prima donna drama, selfishness, fornication, adultery, lying, murder, cheating, greed, hatred, bitterness, personal revenge, and smoldering […]

The Prophetic Pastor

The prophet has a stern word, a severe word, a timely and tumultuous word which he speaks into spiritual confusion, moral compromise, and carnal indifference.   The pastor faithfully, systematically, and regularly expounds the timeless truths of the Bible week in and week out to a congregation of wheat and tares.  Are the roles of prophet […]

Toddler Worship

If you haven’t done it, you’ve seen it. Mom or dad can’t get one year old Billy to eat what’s good for him (strained carrots/baby cereal, etc.) and so they have to fake him out – they have to make him think that what he really hates is really good. And, of course, it is […]

The Indestructibility of Christian Marriage

DATA Quoting:  After months of revived debate over divorce and its increasing acceptance among Americans, a new study affirmed born-again Christians are just as likely as the average American couple to divorce. The Barna Group found in its latest study that born-again Christians who are not evangelical were indistinguishable from the national average on the […]