Maybe you remember my stated intention to read Mark Driscoll’s new book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev. (among other things). My Summer Reading Plan encountered an unexpected setback when several massive books fell on my head (about 1500 pages at last count). I’ve been nursing my wounds for the past week, and I’m not back to full health yet.
During this fiasco, Christianity Today featured an interview with Driscoll that upped my interest in his book still more. Here are some juicy excerpts.
>> The major blind spot of megachurches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms. Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types to sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a seafoam green chair drinking herbal tea—the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons...
>> The two hot theologies today are Reformed and emerging. Reformed theology offers certainty, with a masculine God who names our sin, crushes Jesus on the Cross for it, and sends us to hell if we fail to repent. Emerging theology offers obscurity, with a neutered God who would not say an unkind word to us, did not crush Jesus for our sins, and would not send anyone to hell.
And my personal favorite:
>> I have thousands of books in my library and lean most heavily on dead guys for theology and modern stand-up comedians for preaching tips. In the end, I am an old-school, Jesus-loving Bible-thumper with a penchant for the portrait of Jesus in Revelation as an ultimate fighter with a tattoo down his leg.
The interview points up Driscoll’s aggressive approach to theology and doing church. He doesn’t pull any punches, and people will tend to love him or hate him for it. There is probably room for some nuanced differences, but I am liking this guy.
Thoughts?
12 comments:
Hey man, I'm reading the book right now, are you still up for blogging through it with me and Matt Christenot the Incredible? It's a great read, you will definately enjoy it.
I like the tone of what he says but I get all uppitty when he talks about effeminate tones in church. I find that generally (I know not about Driscoll) the "effeminate" is more of a cultural than biological or biblical sensibility.
I am immediately skeptical of "manly" men and I am far from effeminate by most standards (Full Disclosure:I do like some herbal teas).
Nonetheless, the definitiveness is striking and refreshing and that deserves underscoring. If you like him for that reason then I think your instincts are on the mark.
Also, I don't know if its me but your commenting section gave me some problems. Its kind of annoying to post one.
I have not read the book yet, but you have peaked my interest. Definitely grabbing a copy.
I've not read the book yet (but I will). I'll read the CT article too, thanks. We've visited Mars Hill Church several times with our grown daughter who attends there. Mark Driscoll is definitely a "manly man" and in no uncertain terms, calls he men to step up to the plate. This is unusual and refreshing in liberal, urban Seattle. Mark's sermons are long and he preaches straight out of Scripture. There is definitely a Reformed tone to the church's theology, with a "once saved always saved" orientation spelled out quite clearly in the church literature. (Graphically stunning, right here on my desk).
Driscoll has attracted a diverse but highly educated group of very "hip" people, (4000, at 3 locations). Feminist women tend NOT to like Mars Hill. Feminine women really do. One of the reason's for Mars Hill's success is due to the 100-plus community (small) groups that are planted all over the city. Our daughter is actively involved in one and coincidently, I've been planning to post on the subject. Yesterday I e-mailed some interview questions to her group leader. I hope you visit my blog to read the results. (Sometime next week, Lord willing!) Thanks for bringing up this topic.
Hey Adam, I'm really looking forward to getting into this book. It's probably a couple weeks out at this point, due to a minor inconvenience called a summer class, but I have the feeling that Confessions will be a provocative, gritty read. I'm up for blogging it, too.
Andrew, alarm bells can go off for me as well when I hear people self-consciously talking about "manly men." Hopefully Driscoll isn't too self-conscious about it, and hopefully it's not a drum he feels obligated to beat all the time. I think your read on effeminate church "culture" is accurate, in which case, Driscoll has some kind of a point.
" the definitiveness is striking and refreshing and that deserves underscoring. If you like him for that reason then I think your instincts are on the mark."
The striking and refreshing definitiveness is precisely what I like about him. Nice read. ;)
Could you elaborate on The Comment Problem? I'll want to fix that ASAP.
Thanks for the exclusive coverage, e-mom. It's cool to hear from someone who has some experience with Driscoll's church - fascinating. I'll be checking your blog for the upcoming post...also feel free to come back hear and post a link.
Thanks for stopping by, Massivetruth. With a tag like that, I'll also have to give your blog a look.
After I hit publish comment, it then moves me to another comment page where I need to type in the scrambled letters. The first time I lost the post on this blog but it appeared in my Cocomments page, then I had to repost it.
It seems to me that if you want to leave the comment options the way they are, you should turn off the spam filter. The problem with that is obvious.
Either way I will continue commenting but I just fear it might confuse people which would detract from comments. I could be wrong.
Let's see if it happens again.
It seems a bit better now, but I still have an error and it places the standard blogger comment field and I need to sign in again.
This could be a problem on my end, I have a pretty lousy connection (wifi and all that jazz).
*I lost my orginal post before the one I am posting, so here it is*
After I hit publish comment, it then moves me to another comment page where I need to type in the scrambled letters. The first time I lost the post on this blog but it appeared in my Cocomments page, then I had to repost it.
It seems to me that if you want to leave the comment options the way they are, you should turn off the spam filter. The problem with that is obvious.
Either way I will continue commenting but I just fear it might confuse people which would detract from comments. I could be wrong.
Let's see if it happens again.
I love the idea of preachers taking their speaking cues from stand-up comedians!
I read the book a while back, it's not too bad. I find him funny, so that is helpful when reading the book (you will definitely love or hate him on that count).
I'll be interested to read your take when you finally get through it.
Good luck with the summer class. Every summer up there I would start with 2 summer classes and by the end of the first I would drop the second. It can be brutal.
"Every summer up there I would start with 2 summer classes and by the end of the first I would drop the second. It can be brutal."
Believe me, it has been. Can't wait to get to Driscoll.
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