Pastor?

Driscoll pokes fun at what the office of "pastor" has become in many churches. Here.

spiritual warfare and demonic activity

In my classes, we are discussing these issues right now. Some of my students get a little freaked out about it. James' command [echoed by Peter in 1 Pe 5.7-9] to "resist the devil" in Js 4.7 is not a theoretical, spiritual antidote for tough times. James wants believers to actually do it.

So, how does that work? What does it look like to "resist the devil"?

I'm showing them this lecture/talk that I think helps to biblically answer the how-to question when dealing with demonic activity. Some of the stories are intense and downright crazy, but Driscoll's thoroughly biblical approach is what must be noted.

Why I Still Appreciate Mark Driscoll

church membership?

There has to be some sort of mutual "membership-ish" understanding in the background of 1 Corinthians or else Paul couldn't tell them to "expel the immoral brother" [5.13].

So, what should church membership look like today? Did the Corinthians make each other sign a church covenant? How did they have a mutual and clear understanding of local church unity? It was there somehow.

Here are a few different church membership vows or church covenants that I've been reading over. Some are really incredible. I looked at Joel Osteen's church. Couldn't find one?

• The Village Church, Matt Chandler... here.
• Bethlehem Baptist, Dr John Piper... here.
• Mars Hill Bible Church, Rob Bell... here.
• Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll... here.

The straightforward membership summary of Mars Hill Bible Church is really beautiful:

BACKWARD, embracing the roots of our faith.
FORWARD, because the life of faith is a journey.
INWARD, because we want to be whole people.
WITHWARD, because we were made to live in community.
OUTWARD, because Jesus calls us to serve the world.
UPWARD, celebrating God's redemption of all things.

GOSPEL COALiTiON

I just went to Chicago for a pastor's conference - The Gospel Coalition. It was a really sweet time. A few of my seminary pals and I try to go to one every year for good fellowship and encouragement. The Spirit really challenged me to "fan into flame the gift of God" [2 Tim 1.6] and "fight the good fight" [2 Tim 4.7].

The conference theme was "Entrusted with the Gospel: Living the Vision of 2 Timothy."

One thing I absolutely detest about these conferences is that usually it feels like Calvinists patting other Calvinists on the back for being Calvinists. How utterly stupid. I usually walk into the huge conference hall and am immediately drenched with pride. I feel like I know more than at least 80% of these yahoos, who have only read every John Piper book and can give you 8 proof texts for each point in TULIP.

I was talking to this one guy who was probably about my age. I asked him what had encouraged him the most thus far. He mumbled off something vague and then jokingly said that he wasn't going to wash his hand because he shook Mark Driscoll's. I wanted to equally throw up, cry, and kick him in the face.

But our God is good and wise. The way that He humbled me in all of this, which was almost worth the trip itself, was through music. On one side you have the older pastors with their high-water pleated pants, braided belts, and "casual" Sunday morning blazers. On the other hand you have your late 20s/early 30s, black rimmed glasses, bed-headed [or faux hawk] church planters who are going to change the world because they have a tattoo.

BUT...

When all 4,000 of us came together to sing, those oddities didn't mean a thing. I just can't have pride in my heart at the Mark Driscoll-look-alike seven seats down when we're all belting out "He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me."

Slowly, my arrogance was shot down. And it was not only shot down, but transformed. By the end of our time, I didn't look at those different from me and think, "What the heck? Are you kidding me?!" I was able to look them eye-to-eye, smile, and ask our Father in my heart to mold them, use them, and humble them.

Lastly, the reason that guys like Tim Keller, John Piper, and Mark Driscoll are loved is because they DO love Jesus and the Spirit has empowered them for kingdom work. So, it was a great blessing to sit under their teaching and wisdom. Did I agree with every small detail they said? No. Am I still a young idealist? Yes. Was I hugely convicted and prodded to more diligently put my hands to the plow and plead for grace in the journey? Absolutely.

Go listen and read [also here and here]. Good times.

Mark Driscoll should really stop candy-coating what he believes

My desire as a Christian pastor is to see Christians raised up as communities of grace ruled by Jesus and led by his gloriously masculine men who work their jobs, eat their meat, drink their beer, romance their wives, study their Bible, and raise their kids in glory and joy.

NEW CALViNiSM?

What an odd designation for anything. Well, like it or not, it is what Time Magazine calls the third most important idea that is changing the Western world right now.



Mark Driscoll and his trendy pals have some thoughts on it here. I thank God for the work being done through Mars Hill Church in Seattle even if it is not always your cup of tea. They would be "pro-New Calvinism."

He might not say that he is "anti-New Calvinism" because that might be too mean, but Scot McKnight gives his opinions here and here. McKnight is likewise an excellent and aware thinker of culture and theology.

Ok. That's enough. I feel ridiculous writing as much as I have. I'll stop now.

driscoll on gospel, church, and culture

I love these little paradigms Driscoll has. They're helpful when attempting to synthesize American Christianity. He explains them all in further detail in his books, but you should get the picture.

Gospel + Church - Culture = Fundamentalism

Culture + Gospel - Church = Parachurch

Church + Culture - Gospel = Liberalism

Of course, the conclusion to these is that Gospel + Church + Culture = the Kingdom [or biblical Christianity or whatever you'd like to call it]. Read his "Confessions" book. It's insightful and hilarious.

cutting words, controversy, and CHRiST

One of the funniest, longest, best, and most debatable talks I've ever heard. Enjoy either the audio or the video. Reading it wouldn't be as fun and would take too long. Here. 

blessed

My wife had game night with the ladies tonight. So, I went to the Silver Chair, thinking I was going to be able to hit the books and study some. Fat chance. But it's ok. I was radically blessed. I got to sit and chat with some brothers for a while. The following is a non-exhaustive list of what our conversation included:

• how most modern music is dumb
  
• how music serves as one one of the greatest proofs for the existence of God [read more here]
  
• rabbinical and traditional Jewish interpretations of the OT and how unique they often are
  
• Paul's hermeneutic of creation
  
• how to diminish and augment chords
  
• how Jesus was known for drinking in Matthew 11 and why people are so afraid of that
  
• why old hymns are so dang good and pregnant with glorious truths
  
• men's and women's roles in the church and Deborah as a judge in the OT
• how cool it was to wear nasty hair and paint your finger-nails black and try to be punk rock when you were in college [this probably subconsciously made us think that we are really punk rock b/c we talked about the old days when we tried to be punk rock]
  
• how Mark Driscoll is often tact-less and right
  
• how the Gamecocks are the greatest
  
• about the false dichotomy between love and truth [1 Cor 13 says they're a happily married couple, ya know]
  
• about the stench that comes from theoretically upright, yet lifeless orthodoxy [and how we crave to be snapshots of love AND truth like Jesus was]
  
• about how youth ministers and worship leaders are not biblical/NT church offices
  
• and a bunch more

There are several great things about all that we discussed. First, cigars were present. It made it a bit sweeter. Second, the soft crispness of October's first Friday was light years past satisfying. Third, and most import, there was a near-tangible feeling of the Holy Spirit's presence when I got up to leave. He is there and He is not silent.

Listening to Him, learning from Him, and walking with Him are not easy, but indescribably fulfilling when they are experienced. He is faithful and good.

church planting and male leadership

good article

A recent USA Today article is entitled "Has the 'notion of sin' been lost?" Among those quoted are Al Mohler, Joel Osteen, Pope Benedict XVI, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, and others. It begins by asking,

"Is sin dead? No, not by a long shot. Yet as Easter approaches, some pastors and theologians worry: How can Christians celebrate Jesus' atonement for their sins and the promise of eternal life in his resurrection if they don't recognize themselves as sinners?"

Read the rest here.

welcome to Sodom

Swiped from a Driscoll sermon.

• More money is spent on pornography every year than on every professional sport combined [pro baseball, basketball, football, etc].
• Adult videos/dvds are sold at a rate of $4 billion per year.
• America makes 11,000 adult movies every year. This is 20x the amount of movies put forth by main stream Hollywood.
• There are about 2,500 strip clubs in America [close to 50 per state].
• The word “sex” is the number one searched word on search engines on the internet.
• 70% of all internet porn traffic occurs between 9am – 5pm. This means that people use their company’s high speed internet to feed their addiction away from home.
• 61% of high school seniors had sex. 50% are currently sexually active. 21% have had 4 or more partners.
• The average high school graduate will watch 15,000 hours of television in comparison to being in the classroom for 12,000.
• These high school students will have viewed 14,000 sexual acts and references on TV, only a handful of which are associated with a faithful monogamous relationship.
• Between 6–8% of Americans are sexually addictive [this is somewhere between 16 and 22 million people].

RELiGiON SAVES

[and nine other misconceptions]

Mark Driscoll is usually pretty faithful and culturally astute in walking through books of the Bible in his preaching and teaching. This time, however, he's taking another approach.



He let people ask questions online and then vote for the nine they wanted to hear him preach on. Because of who and where he is, both the questions and his answers are fun to listen to. Give it a listen here or here. The issues are:

1. birth control, etc
2. humor & how he makes fun of people
3. predestination & the problem of evil
4. what he struggles with the most
5. dealing with sexual sin
6. understanding faith & works
7. Christian dating & courting
8. learning form "emerging" churches?
9. the Scriptures, theology, & methodology