Mark Driscoll is the Preaching Pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle and is known as the "cussing pastor", "cussing calvinist", "Ex-Emergent-but-still-emerging" "hip" and "scatalogical" brain-trust at Mars Hill. If you listen to Mark any, or read his books then you will know that the terms that I have used are not off the mark. (Pun-intendend). He graduated from Washington State with a BA in Communications, (my kind of man!). He does not have a theology degree although he is working on one from Western Theological Seminary. He pastors a large Church that states that they have a goal of 10,000 members by the end of 2008. He has one of the fastest growing churches in America and currently has six campuses (some of them video campuses) with a seventh on the way. He is also the founder of the Acts 29 Network, a church planting and training network of over 100 churches that spans across denominational lines including the PCA (my denomination). Mark is an influential guy, an interesting guy to listen to and is extremely controversial. It's the controversy that I want to look at and examine.

Warning

The rest of this post is probably Rated "R". Not because I am trying to shock anyone, but some may be offended. Consider yourself warned.

Mark's books get a lot of buzz, so I read them. To be honest they usually have some good stuff, some weird and some crude stuff. You be the judge.

This quote is from Mark Driscoll’s book, Vintage Jesus and appears on the book’s first page:

Roughly two thousand years ago, Jesus was born in a dumpy, rural, hick town, not unlike those today where guys change their own oil, think pro wrestling is real, find women who chew tobacco sexy, and eat a lot of Hot Pockets with their uncle-daddy. Jesus’ mom was a poor, unwed teenage girl who was mocked for claiming she conceived via the Holy Spirit. Most people thought she concocted a crazy story to cover the “fact” she was knocking boots with some guy in the backseat of a car at the prom. Jesus was adopted by a simple carpenter named Joseph and spent the first thirty years of his life in obscurity, swinging a hammer with his dad.

-You know I just can't stand this idea of being cute, corny or crude about life of Christ and his earthly parents. The story is enough. The Bible is a good enough story. You don't have to trick it up, and you don't have to be cute about it or crude with it. Mark claims strong adherance to the sufficiency of scripture. Why then must he use such language and “culturally relevant” scatology? This is one aspect of his preaching that doesn't match his (supposed) theology in my opinion.

Piper even warned Driscoll a couple of years ago when he said, “No man can show himself to be clever and Jesus mighty to save at the same time.” (Paraphrase) -

From Confessions of a Reformission Rev

I was wrestling through some theological issues, such as election, predestination, and other matters generally known as reformed theology. So I taught through the book of Romans on Sunday nights, which helped to clarify our doctrinal convictions as a church and cemented us as a church with a reformed view of God and salvation. If you don’t know what that means, the gist is that you people (stink- but Mark uses a crude word for stink) and God saves us from ourselves. For more details, you can read the book I’ll write on it in the future or just accept a plain, literal reading of Romans, particular Romans 9-11” (85).

Not that I disagree with the overall sentiment Mark was getting across here, but it's just not language that is beneficial. In one of his sermons I listened to recently on "predestination" he described many Calvinists views of "predestination" as "Duck-duck-damn"... a cute way of saying that we Calvinists view predestination in a way that is so silly, its like the Duck-duck-goose" game. Again- it's not appropriate, and not even accurate. I've never met a Calvinist who treated "predestination" in that haphazard way. There may be some, but I denounce and reject them as Senator Obama would say. The Calvinists I know cry and beg sinners to turn to Christ. The attitude of most of the Calvinists I know is that of Paul: “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.”

"God had spoken to me in one of those weird charismatic moments and told me to start a church " (p 39). Driscoll also describes how he had a "prophetic dream" that told him to fire a man who was going to try to take over as pastor. Driscoll describes coming to church and finding that man in the exact same circumstance as his dream, so he fired him before the first service began. He also describes "words of knowledge" and some weird instances in confrontation w/ demon possessed folks. I'll just let his words stand on their own here and simply say, he may have a different view than me on the gifts and the will of God.   Is his view here a little strange?

He is also not one to use the best words to describe the best situations. He says for instance- “Every one of them was older than me, a chronic masturbator, a porn addict, and (he uses slang here about intercourse and I can’t even bring myself to type it )…” (128).

I can't think of anyplace, or anytime where this type of language to describe behavior is ever good or even Christian. I've heard this stuff in locker-rooms and sales conventions. We don't need a Pastor to talk this way do we?

My first inclination is to say what I heard R. Scott Clark say (I think) and that is when a preacher is handling the very oracles of God, he must do so with reverence and awe.  

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

Last night Fox News reported that two credible sources confirm that Cyd Mizell a relief worker and Muhammad Hadi, a driver for the organization  ARLDF are dead.  The ARLDF, Cyd's organization announced that they are working with the Red Cross to receive confirmation of their deaths.

"ARLDF is a humanitarian development organization that works throughout Asia helping to provide a better quality of life for the poorest of the poor, mainly through community development projects. We work in about 12 Asian countries, with most of our programs focusing on small-scale efforts. In the Kandahar area, our personnel work in education and projects that help people learn skills to better their lives and the lives of their families. " - ARLDF

"Mizell was aware of the risks of working in Kandahar. A few months after her arrival in 2005, Mizell wrote: “(T)he security situation here has been steadily getting worse …. One thing that has become very clear in recent days is that we have no guarantee of how long we will be able to remain in our city. So, I want to make the most of the time.”  She was able to remain for almost three years. Just a few weeks before she was kidnapped, she wrote:  “I would just like to say that I am very much at peace in being here. I have no desire to go anywhere else.” - ARLDF

Cyd used to work for my Dad as his secretary at a bookstore chain.  She was also his friend.  PTL will update as the news comes in.

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

I saw these  and thought they were priceless... (Click Here)

You do have to admit he has great hair! 

If you are one of those  this is going to make mad...lighten up.

Or as my bumper sticker in High School said ..."Chill Babe"

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

Beware... of sacrificing truth and holiness on the altar of what seems to work. - John Piper

It's hard not to be sensitive to the needs of an ever growing church.  What does a body of Elders do when they have 3-4 services on one Sunday Morning and they cannot accommodate everyone wanting to come?  The answer used to be:  Plant a church.  That answer is a little fuzzier these days.  Now the idea of planting a church, with a Pastor who also does the preaching is now passé.  Now we do things instead that work.  What would you do if your church was growing so fast it couldn't accommodate everyone?  You would do what worked wouldn't you?  Instead of planting churches and planting pastors (who preach) it's much easier to plant a video church isn't it?  We can still take advantage of our preacher's popularity.  We can still rule the congregation (we'll call it a campus) as if it were part of our main campus.  The folks are ruled by one body of elders, the needs are met by one body of deacons, and the money goes into one account.  We don't have to train other preachers, we have our own celebrity preacher right here, and he is so popular we can't stop the folks from coming in (can we?)  So let's do what is easy, let's plant a video church campus! 

A little pessimistic?  Maybe.  A little harsh?  Maybe.  One of the things I realized in studying what other churches are doing in terms of their "video" church campuses is they are not all doing it for the same reasons.  Some of them are not telling us why they are doing it.  Some folks like Mark Driscoll just say Video churches are here to stay so "get over it".  Over at multisitechurchrevolution.com in their faq's section the reason they gave for why multisite church was: "The purpose of becoming a multi-site church is to make more and better disciples by bringing the church closer to where people are. The motivation is to do a better job of loving people, including different types of people, with an outcome of making significant advances in obeying Jesus’ Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40) and Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). Churches report that conversion growth is greater on their extension campuses than at the original campus." 
Now that sounds to me like pure pragmatism:  more and better - by bringing closer for evangelism purposes.  Oh and yea, more people get saved doing it this way.  That seems to be the easiest way to go about evangelism is what I'm hearing. 

Now when I read John Piper's reasoning’s they were different than the multisitechurchrevolution.com cause.  My friend Bob over at Fundamentally Reformed sent me some links where Bethlehem Baptist Church explains what and why they have multisite campuses with video. I want to say first that I think John Piper is a great man of faith, a man of great passion for Christ, and a mighty man of valor in the cause of Christ and His Cross.  That's what I think of John Piper.  In terms of giftedness, maturity, honor, and Christ likeness he transcends me like a Tiger transcends a brand new kitten.  He is a great speaker, preacher and wonderful expositor. 
But I do also think he can be wrong.  He is Baptist of course.  He is wrong about that. He is also I believe, a non-cessationist on the gifts.  He is wrong about that.  He may also be wrong on the video church/multiple site thing, but I'm not sure.  His reasons for doing it seem valid and even good.  His church is experiencing great growth.  They can't fill the needs of those wanting to come to the main campus downtown.  They can't build anymore.  So they build out.  They plant video churches and Piper visits these campuses on rotation.  Sometimes he'll be at the main campus, sometimes at one of the other sites.  He preaches a Saturday Night service, they record it and that is the sermon on video for the other campuses that Sunday.  Am I the only bothered by this new influx of Saturday Night services?  Why not Thursday?  Is the Lord's day something that can be skipped for pragmatic reasons?  Anyway- The thing I guess that bothers me most is:  where is the next Piper going to come from?  Will these multiple sites close when Piper's gone?  I think they probably would.  He is the drawing force and that is not a bad thing.  He's a great and passionate preacher!  But what about Paul's admonition to Young Timothy in 2nd Timothy 2:2?   Is the VOD Pastor replacing intentional disciplemaking.
In No Place for Truth David Wells hit the nail on the head in regards to what I think is the central issue. He said (p. 13) “the central function of the pastor has changed from that of a truth broker to manager of the small enterprise we call churches.”  So what is the central issue?  The central issue is the role of the pastor.  What is the role supposed to be?

Gage Browning
Post Tenebras Lux

Got a "VOD" Pastor?

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.  (2nd Timothy 2:2)

I am struck by the way people, (good people) seem to use church growth as proof that they are doing what is right.  I'm also struck by the ways many churches today seem to facilitate growth, or try to attempt to control growth by the use of simple pragmatism.   (We don't have enough seats...so let's rent a building and buy a big screen t.v.) mentality.  Should "church" be done by any means necessary?  Is there a biblical way to handle church growth and church planting?  Are all those involved in this new phenomena called "multiple site" churches just simply part of a new era of seeker sensitivity or the emergent movement?  Is the "multiple site" church simply a product of some weird "christianized" form of the cult of personality?  These are the types of questions I am asking myself.  This will be a series focusing on a few of the characters in our play.  We will answer the questions as they come. 

But we are starting with one main concept.  Multiple site churches fail to recognize the biblical mandate of the pastor.   That mandate as I see it is in their neglect to train, disciple, and raise up other pastors.  Paul wrote to young Timothy..."and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."  (2nd Timothy 2:2).  Paul wrote to Timothy and told him...make more of yourself!  Duplicate yourself Timothy!  How a Vod pastor does that is the crux of the issue.  In my opinion they can't.  I think that is why many of the men we are going to talk about have the title's of "Pastor of Preaching" or something like that.  Their titles allude to the fact that they are merely "preachers", and some of them good ones.  It does also portray the fact that they are not "pastors" in the strict sense of the word. Multiple site chuches seem to be the easiest thing to do.  (If you have have a popular pastor) all you have to do is have several big screens in several locations.  No doubt people will come to hear him.  But that is the easiest thing to do.  The hard thing is to train young men, who will be able to teach others also.  More to come.

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux