A La Carte (08/24)

  • Tim Challies
  • 08/24/06
  • 4

Thursday August 24, 2006

Theology: Nathan Busenitz quotes John MacArthur who says that everyone is a dispensationalist. “Everybody is a dispensationalist, everybody. I dont care who they are in theology, theyre dispensational. It’s only a question of how many you have. Let me show you why.”

Feminism: I remember wannabe feminists in my high school trumpeting the annual “Take Back The Night” marches. Well, now apparently these marches are being geared for men as well since men are even more likely to be victimes of nighttime violence. Fox reports.

Children: “Christianity Today” has a list of suggestions for helping children sit through a church service. Some of them are quite good and are surely better than the oft-used tactic of brute force.

Church: And speaking of CT, it has an article about America’s youngest megachurch pastor. “With a Matt Damon smile, short-sleeve button-up shirts — no tie — and an aw-shucks demeanor, Platt seems to put an audience at ease, then stuns them with his apparent near-memorization of the New Testament.”

Comments (4)

1
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Flawedcricket • 08/24 @ 9:24am

CT also has a great article in it’s September issue (not on the web) entitled, “Young, Restless and Reformed.” It’s worth the read.

2
Anonymous's picture
a comment from mpethe • 08/24 @ 9:46am

My parents used the following when we were young and going to an Anglican church…

Front row seating.Harder to misbehave when the minister is keeping an eye on you as well. Not to mention, with the whole church behind you there’s no one in front to distract.

Dogma for donuts.My parent would take us to Tim Horton’s afterwards if my sister and I could each answer some questions about the sermon.

———————————

Brute Force.My wife tells me that in her childhood it was the dreaded leg-pinch used by her mother (who has long nails btw) that got her to behave.

3
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Leslie • 08/24 @ 9:51am
› visit my web site.

We have four children and employ almost all of CT’s suggestions for wiggle-worms. I posted a bit about it on my blog:

We keep a stack of Bibles on our dresser or the school-table (we insist on all kids using a Bible at church whether he or she can read it or not). Near the door, I hang a bag with pens and notebooks for drawing/note-taking. It has been my habit since high school (I don’t know why, I just did. In fact, until a couple of years ago, I still had 10 year-old sermon notes on old bulletins) to take notes for personal review later in the week. I am trying to teach our kids to do the same, but in their own way. For example, the last sermon we heard was on creation. While my notes were words and sentences and bullet points, Hannah’s were pictures of the earth, sun, moon, etc. Eventually, her notes will look like mine (I pray better than mine).

Note-taking has proven to help our kids know that what is being said is for them, too, not just for the adults. We also have good discussions during lunch about what they remember and something new they learned.

Of course, with the popular trend of many parents to send their kids to their own “worship service,” I am surprised CT took the time to write about this.

Leslie

4
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Leslie • 08/24 @ 9:57am

My husband always says he knew he was in trouble when he got the “hot whisper” from his mom. As the pastors son, there was ONE instance, and only one, when his father declared from the pulpit that he would be receiving a “wearing out” when they got home! Ha ha!