» Pastor Provocateur
Love him or hate him, Mark Driscoll is helping people meet Jesus in one of America's least-churched cities.
Great story over at CT about Pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hill Church (or, as I tend to think of it ... the non-Rob Bell Mars Hill Church). Driscoll's got his detractors as well as his diehards. I lean somewhat toward the latter. Haven't worked his messages into my rotation at home. But when I do catch up with one, it's always as engaging as it is instructive. The excerpt below might illuminate why that is ...
"I'm playing hurt right now," Driscoll confesses to prospective church planters at a March meeting of Acts 29, his network of 170 churches around the world. "I wore out my adrenal glands at the end of last year, just living off adrenaline too much. My sleep has been really jacked up for some months."Those glands must have a little something left in the tank, because Driscoll warms up when he recounts the history of Mars Hill.
"My first core group was single indie and punk rockers committed to anarchy," he says. "Needless to say, they didn't naturally organize themselves or give generously. If I would have said, 'Everybody tithe,' it would have been in cigarettes."
Read the rest. Driscoll is a gold mine. If you're needing a little visualization here, Mark does a decent riff on being a cheerful giver here on YouTube.
3 Comments
"If I would have said, 'Everybody tithe,' it would have been in cigarettes."
:-).
Well, it's start. They give what they have. It's one of God's steps in renewing their hearts.
Mark Driscoll is not more than an egocentric, chauvanistic dictator who choose to ignore Jesus' and God's central message of LOVE, FORGIVENESS and SALVATION. Mark Driscoll interpretation of the Holy Text, the Bible is narrow minded and filtered. He chooses to ignore the parts of the Bible that disagree and may threaten the strength of his power base.
I heard a story about him SHUNNING and getting his congregation to SHUN a member of the congregation who asked a question. In the Bible we are told as Christians we should "Above all, love eachother deeply, because love covers a multiple of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). Also if questioning the pastor is a SIN, Mark Driscoll should remember he is the equal to his congregation as he too is a sinner in need of salvation and there for not a deity.
Mark Driscoll you cannot deny that Jesus was the love of God personifieda and not a macho, militant rejector of sinners otherwise why did he come down from heaven to become man ? If our lives are predetermined there was no need for him to be persecuted and killed. Answer me this and I will be open to your opinion but before then I'll keep my faith exactly they way I believe it was meant to be, the way it was preached in the Bible by the only truly DIVINE human preacher.
God bless you with compassion and love for others.
Dear Concerned Irish Girl,
While your point may or may not be valid, you completely negated your argument in your opening sentence...
QUOTE: Mark Driscoll is not more than an egocentric, chauvanistic dictator who choose to ignore Jesus' and God's central message...
Remember what your core beliefs are before you begin to argue with other.
-Dan