The latest furor on the blogs is the controversial video by Mark Driscoll, (Find it yourself, I'm not going to post it), and Bill Hybels supposed opposition to it. Several blogs have made reference to it, Jenn, Scott and Emerging Grace, to name a few that I track. Lily says it all very eloquently. I wasn't going to post on it except that I have an opinion about it that I haven't seen yet on the posts that are out there.
Please understand first of all that my opinion does not come out of inexperience or naivete. I have been involved in the replanting of one church and the new church plant of another. I've been active in both, taking on leadership wherever it was needed. In our second plant, (notice that I say 'our' because anyone who has successfully planted a church knows that it is never the work of one person that makes it happen) we had both a male and a female pastor. Although if your name is Mark Driscoll that may not be of any credit to me.
My problem with Mark Driscoll is not so much what he says but his attitude; he believes that he can say what he wants, and won't take much correction on it. I'm afraid for him that he's begun to believe his own hype.
Hype is the persona that some church planters will take on. They need to appeal to the culture that they are targeting and so they sport tattoos and piercings, you may find them in the bar on a Friday night maybe even drinking a beer. They look at mainline Christians and say 'you are so far removed from the culture that you are no use to God in reaching it.' They go where the people are, rightly so, it's exactly what Jesus did. Eating with prostitutes and tax collectors. (btw, I've had prostitutes in recovery scared to death on Sunday morning by the fact that they were required to attend church who were blown away by the reality of God's love the moment they walked in the door at New Heights). By using language, sometimes what Christians consider foul, and saying outrageous things they attract the attention of those who would not give the preacher in the 3 piece suit handing out bibles on the corner, the time of day. You can't tell people about God if they won't even listen to you. You have to be relevant to them, not necessarily to Christians. So a church planter often gets a bad rap simply for that reason. I'm not going to give the same grief to Mark for that, it obviously works for him.
My concern lies with what happens when they go too far and misrepresent Christians and their lifestyle? Does Mark take correction from anyone? What happens now, when Mark has made yet another comment that is offensive to women? (I have this mental picture of his wife shaking her head as she drops her forehead into her hands.) Does he apologize or recant his statement, does he clarify his position? Is his position really made clear in the offensive statement that he made?
There is a danger when you have a powerful voice that is listened to by many. If you have believed your own hype you may think that you are justified in saying or doing what you want. If you look around you there will be many who support what you say or do. They are easy to find. They're the ones standing right in your front of you. The groupies who say 'amen' and 'right on' to whatever you utter. But if you look further away you will see the faithful who are doing the work to make relationships with those you have drawn in. Who in your life do you let hold you accountable? Is it only the yes men? Are there any yes women?
You are human, you cannot possibly be right all the time. You will fail. You will say or do the wrong thing and you will do it in a very public way. It's humiliating, if you actually come to the place of seeing your error. If there is someone in your life that you listen to, who can and will correct you, then your ministry will continue to reach the many that it has. If you don't your ministry will fall, it is inevitable. That's not prophecy, it's common sense.
I don't say that because I have it out for Mark. The loss of someone who is as effective as Mark is a sad thing for the ministry but the reality is if you cannot be accountable then God will remove you, and that's nothing to rejoice over. What good is your calling then?
4 comments:
great post sushi ....
Yes great post. There is an arrogant, bullying attitude evident in everything that I've heard from Mark that will eventually have to be repented of or will lead to his downfall. I take no delight in saying it, but it is true for all of us.
The rough edges will be smoothed, our pride will be taken down, and one way or another we learn the walk of love and humility if we are to continue following our Lord.
Very well said! Bravo I agree with you and Lily and Grace :)
Well, I'm visiting your blog for the first time and I've never heard of Mark Driscoll before. So you know I had to go watch that video . . .
I really found it jarring in its offensiveness and repulsiveness. He kept using the term "the man" like it was some kind of badge of honor. I found it very insulting and, as you suggest, hope his wife has her face in her hands in shame. More importantly, I agree with you that he needs to make amends.
However, while looking at his site, I noted their beliefs and was pretty appalled by their comments are why they are not "feminists." Sadly, they do not appear to be the least bit progressive or open to reasoned debate as evidenced by the fact that I couldn't even figure out how to register in order to leave a comment.
Really, I found myself snickering at his whining about his associates schlepping off to Florida with a bunch of DVD's they couldn't pawn off on the crowd. I heard the Holy Spirit laughing, as if to say, "What did you expect when you diss at least half of the Divine Creator's people?"
Nice blog. Great post. I'll be back.
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