The Cornerstone

Some people are deeply offended by Mark Driscoll. Others greatly appreciate his missional heart while steering away from his frank, sometimes raucous comments and humor. Then there are others who, upon noticing a chapter titled: “The sin of light beer..” and say, “Well, it’s about time!”

As for me, I tend to fellowship with folks who are closer to the latter camps. Having known about Mr. Driscoll for a while, I finally got around to reading two of his books. First I read “Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons From An Emerging Missional Church.” That book is about those lessons learned along the way of planting a church from a handful of folks to having thousands in attendance. As he chronicles the Mars Hill Fellowship’s trials, tribulations and growth, he lays out a practical biblical wisdom in how to model a biblical, but culturally relevant church in the 21^st century. (Please note that it is a church that is trying to reach out to Seattle and young people in particular, so it is a bit of a special case.) Those involved in church planting would particularly be blessed by his Confessions book, which is actually part of a leadership book series.

Many of his mistakes could have been avoided if he had more discerning in his choice of co-laborers. But then, Jesus’ disciples weren’t the most stellar examples initially, either. (And we assume He knew what he was doing!) The Apostle Paul also forewarned the Ephesian church that the enemy would bring heresy from within (Acts 20:28-31). One of insights from Driscoll, that I personally appreciated, was that “liberal theology” comes in both “Modern” and “Post-modern” sheep’s clothing. These kinds of distinctions help one to not make mistakes with sweeping generalizations about the so-called “emerging church” being “liberal,” etc. One of the mistakes that Mr. Driscoll made was assuming that some “postmodern Christians” were more Christian than they actually were.

Actually, it is the “Confessions” part of the book that also gets Mr. Driscoll in trouble. Since these “confessions” are frequently told in a very humorous, less than dignified manner, many do wonder if he really is repentant of his flaws. But I suspect his main point is still to take God very seriously and oneself much less seriously. There are times when he does speak pretty bluntly about the flaws of others, but frequently this is also a bit tongue in cheek, if you catch the humor.

I think many don’t understand this. And there are lengthy blogs on the internet debating some of the subjects which Mark “confesses”. (I guess some people have a lot of spare time.) By the way, I am not opposed to critiquing teachers. Even though I believe much of the critique over Driscoll and his ministry is perhaps the result of people being “overly righteous” (Eccl. 7:16), this doesn’t negate the fact that the pastor/elder does needs to be “above reproach” and teachers will rightfully be judged more strictly.

The other book, Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out was published first (2004) and sets out to be more instructional in tone, particularly on how to understand the gospel, the church & culture that you are in (or the culture you are most comfortable in) and then finally, the culture that you are trying to reach. That is one of the assumptions of the book - that we are actually trying to reach others beyond our church and perhaps beyond the culture we are in.

One of his main points is that we need to be aware of the interplay between the gospel, the church, and the surrounding culture. For example, in a somewhat simplistic manner, he says that when we neglect one of these three aspects, there will typically be some form of error creep in. for example:

The Church + The Culture - The Gospel = Liberalism
The Church + The Gospel - The Culture = Fundamentalism
The Gospel + The Culture - The Church = Parachurch

Obviously, these aren’t absolute categories, but they are recognizable tendencies which are pretty easy to see. Well, at least they are easy to see in other folks!

Later on, in the chapter that some people tend to read first (Chapter 6: The Sin of Light Beer), he brings up the New Testament religious/cultural groups known to us as the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots, and the Essenes. Each of these cultural sub-groups, living contemporary to each other, tended toward different expressions in their degrees of cultural syncretism, cultural separation and sectarianism.

From these illustrations, Driscoll moves on to something more tangible in modern times—the use and abuse of alcohol. In a brief, but relatively thorough treatment, he outlines the Scriptural teaching on alcohol-use and abuse, along with some history and compares people’s reactions to this subject in modern American Christianity. Again, for many, there is no “news” here, but for others, this window of thought, along with many others in the book, is very eye-opening.

To help illustrate his overall principles throughout the book, there are also small “Reformission Interview” chapters where some basic questions are asked of Christians whose current vocation is frequently sometimes considered “questionable” or at least “sub-Christian.” These people include folks who are “a film critic, a radio D.J., a pub owner/brewer, a rock band manager, a tattoo artist and even someone who came to Christ working as a exotic dancer. (Pub owner? Okay. Tattoo artist? Maybe. Exotic dancer? Just how does an exotic dancer apply Paul’s teaching about “remaining in their situation…” (1 Cor. 7:17-24)! I guess you’ll just have to read it to find out.)

In addition to the chapters and these interviews, there are also discussion questions at the end of each chapter, thus making it a good tool for small groups. Which is exactly one of the things we are planning to do at The Cornerstone. There will be some scheduled times when people will be getting together briefly to discuss a chapter and learn how they can be more “refor-missional” to their culture. If you are interested, give us a call or send an email. Or, read the book and discuss it with your own group of friends. We will have copies on sale for discount and even a few to borrow.

(*Just what is meant by “reformissional” anyway? Near as I can tell it is a term coined for a movement which has, among other things, the emphasis that Christians and churches should be faithful to the content of unchanging Biblical doctrine while believing that they should, at the same time, continually reform their ministry methods to most effectively reach the changing cultures(s) to which they are sent by God as missionaries, e.g.1 Cor. 9:19-23.)

Steve Barry