Tom  Brennan

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Bruce M...
272 books | 29 friends

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279 books | 9 friends

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167 books | 15 friends

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Tom Brennan

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Member Since
September 2011


After six years establishing a church in rural Pennsylvania and sixteen years revitalizing an inner-city church in Chicago, in 2019 Tom Brennan accepted the call to pastor the Bible Baptist Church of Dubuque, Iowa. He and his lovely wife, Mandy, have been married since 1999. They have three children. He is happiest at home, surrounded by his family, with a cup of tea to hand and a large stack of books within easy reach. Failing that, he can be found hiking one of the many beautiful trails in Dubuque or slowly barbecuing something on his smoker.

In addition to pastoring, the Lord has given him an active writing ministry. Birthed in 2014, Brennan's Pen includes a blog, daily emails designed for men in ministry, and five books to date. You can
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Average rating: 4.63 · 123 ratings · 45 reviews · 5 distinct worksSimilar authors
Schizophrenic: A Diagnosis ...

4.49 avg rating — 61 ratings5 editions
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Yes, It Matters: What the B...

4.68 avg rating — 19 ratings2 editions
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Freed From Sin: A Primer on...

4.94 avg rating — 16 ratings3 editions
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Next: A Manual for Pastoral...

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 15 ratings2 editions
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The Greatest Sermon Ever Pr...

4.50 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions
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The Law of Review

 The Sunday School Teacher 16


We turn now to the seventh law or principleof good teaching, namely, this: you must periodically remind them of what theyhave already learned.

Repetition is not review, though reviewoften includes repetition. Repetition is a helpful tool in teaching as itplaces an emphasis in a similar manner to bold or underlinedprint. But repetition alone risks becoming a mind

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Published on October 28, 2025 11:52

Tom’s Recent Updates

Mindwar by Andrew Klavan by Andrew Klavan
"Interesting enough to finish, but not to read again. "
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"I binge listened to this book as I was recovering from the flu. An interesting story. "
Memoirs of the Bastille by LATUDE AND LINGUET
"I read this book in prep to teach A Tale of Two Cities to my Lit class. The vocabulary was the best thing about this book. I had to look up several words. The toughest thing about reading it was the old English spellings, especially all the "s" that " Read more of this review »
North! or Be Eaten by Andrew       Peterson
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The Holy Bible by Anonymous
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The Story of the Irish Race by Seumas MacManus
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Mr. Churchill in the White House by Robert Schmuhl
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Kissinger by Walter Isaacson
Kissinger
by Walter Isaacson (Goodreads Author)
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Isaacson is a premier biographer. It shows even in his earlier works, like this one. Though diplomacy as a subject is not exactly scintillating, and Isaacson spends too much time on the minutia of the Vietnam War, the resulting lengthy work is still ...more
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Rubicon by Tom Holland
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Holland is an old friend at this point. Not quite up to par with the best of the modern historians, in my view, he is, nevertheless, quite adequate. The arc of the storytelling is logical, and the writing is clear if not quite compelling. Holland wou ...more
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Quotes by Tom Brennan  (?)
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“The Boston marathon bombings, which took place on April 15, 2013, resulted in injuries to 264 people and the deaths of 3 people. In the ensuing police chase, one of the perpetrators, Tamerian Tsarnaev, was shot several times and run over by his own brother Dzhokhar. When the dust finally settled, the Boston funeral home that had volunteered to care for Tamerian’s body required a round the clock police guard. However, no cemetery in New England would accept the body. Weeks later, in desperation, the Boston police department appealed to the public to help them find a cemetery. In rural Virginia, Martha Mullen, sipping coffee at Starbucks, heard that appeal and said to herself, “Somebody needs to do something about that.” She decided to be that somebody. Through her efforts, Tsarnaev’s body finally found a burial place at the end of a long, quiet gravel road off Sadie Lane in Doswell, Virginia. Needless to say, when this was discovered by the local community, all sorts of controversy arose. The people of her county were upset, and the family members of others buried in that cemetery rose up in anger. Reached by reporters from the AP by phone, she was asked what her response was to all of the hubbub. Her explanation was simple. Martha calmly said, “Jesus said love your enemies.” He did say precisely that, and that revolutionary call echoed through two millennia of time to minister to a dead Muslim’s grieving family in Boston. Is it ministering to anybody around you?”
Tom Brennan, The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached

“The knowledge of the will of God is to know what it is God wants you to do. Wisdom is to know how to do what it is God wants you to do. Understanding is to know why God wants you to do it and why you should do it how you should do it.”
Tom Brennan, Schizophrenic: A Diagnosis of the Independent Baptist Movement

“Goethe’s apt description applies here: “It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.”
Tom Brennan, Schizophrenic: A Diagnosis of the Independent Baptist Movement

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”
Alfred Tennyson

“Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.”
Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam

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