Tim Ross is a rising star in megachurchianity. He is the current pastor of Embassy City, a church in Irving, Texas. He has guest spoken at Transformation Church and Life Dot Church, the context for this article and video. In this sermon, he gives an anecdote about a time he preached in Australia and eight men approached him after the sermon to tell him they did not think he was even in the Bible nor believed that the people who went up to the alter call had a genuine profession of faith.
Tim Ross used the words comedy show to describe the criticism. In truth, Ross delivers a message as though he is a standup comedian. This anecdote is delivered as if part of the routine, thus proving the criticism to be credible. Tim Ross said that his response was centered around focusing on delivery. But the Australian said that he doubted the faith profession of the alter call people because Ross never preached about sin. Jokingly, Ross says to his audience, if he were to preach against every sin it would be the credits of a movie. According to Tim Ross, the Australian quoted “four chapters” of the Bible form memory to which Tim Ross looked to solidify unity by asking to pray. This is a rather manipulative tactic to get people to accept unity and brotherhood under the guise of the gospel by using prayer. After all, how could a Christian refuse to pray on command? The Australians were not as resolved to oppose this tactic, Ross describes.
One of the evidences that someone is a false teacher is a sense of being beyond correction. False teachers generally hate criticism of their message, so you get someone like a Rick Warren who desperately needs to defend his reputation by responding to a four year old tweet at odd hours in the morning. In this case, Tim Ross is making a giant joke of this (and if he did it right he would have gone for an accent). Preaching at Life Dot Church is a major red flag for a pastor, as it is on the level of Lakewood Church, but an inability to accept correction is likewise a major red flag.
