Mark Driscoll, the fearless and sometimes controversial founder and Pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle, writes books the way he preaches: . In fact, his recent books are transcribed from earlier sermon series’. Sure, there’s some editing and polishing, but if you’re familiar with his preaching, the content of his books is no surprise.

In Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods, Driscoll attempts in each chapter to address a question about the church, including what it is and how and by whom it should be led. (see table of contents below).

In all, the book is a great resource for church leaders and planters. Aside from the bits of humor, the book reads very much like a course text, with Driscoll, who has “been there and done that” and lived (barely) to tell about it, as it’s narrator. He is also aware of his church’s status as a “megachurch”, which puts it in a vast minority of churches on the planet. Rather than focusing too much on “here’s how we do it”, he focuses on “here’s why we did it this way”. His insights and recommendations are based on principles more than particulars.

Driscoll’s penchant for humor usually works well live from the stage, but in print it serves more as an annoyance than a useful distraction. In addition, he uses the same humorous anecdotes too often. New comedic material is the lifeblood of a good comedian and since he has studied the great comedians, he should see that his current crop of quips needs a makeover. (For example, the joke about Mars Hill starting “at about the size of Mormon family” is getting difficult to chuckle at.)

At one point he relates a story about someone giving him a sermon on tape, even though, as he points out, he has not seen a tape player since “the days when Michael Jackson was male.” While Jackson’s recent passing (after the book was published) makes this seem extra offensive, it is still unwarranted. The Gospel is often offensive by nature; comments like this, I would argue, offend people for the wrong reasons.

In one sense, you could say that Driscoll is trying to augment the offense of the Gospel with his own form of offensiveness. It requires no such assistance.

Whether speaking or writing he delivers a lot of facts – straight up. Delivered without humor, they lack life; delivered with the same tired anecdotes he’s been using for years, these facts become tiresome opportunities to take a jab at an easy target.

Those who have Driscoll pegged as simply an old-school pastor with a new-school mouth will find a few surprises here. For example, he endorses the active participation of non-believers in the life of the church.

As someone who is quite familiar with his writing and preaching, I have watched him mature as a leader, teacher, and preacher, increasing in humility along the way. Here’s hoping that trajectory continues so that more people will be drawn to his teaching than are repelled by his sometimes necessary crudeness. (Yes, that means that I believe that some of what he says that is counted as “crude” is actually appropriate.) If you can get by the instances of unnecessary crudeness – and you should be able to – there is much to be learned. At heart he is a caring and, according to current demographic data, young Pastor who, like the rest of us, is seeking to grow in godly maturity.

Driscoll’s passion for the local church – yours, mine, and his – is undeniable. His ability to accept criticism and wisdom is surprising for a man of his personality type, and this makes him rare. I have benefited greatly from his teaching in my own journey as a Pastor.

Vintage Church is a good read, packed with resources and wisdom. You will not agree with it entirely, but that’s true of any book. If you are a church leader of any kind who is concerned with both relevance and unchanging truth, I recommend you read this book.

You can read a sample chapter of Vintage Church here.

You can find previous posts at The Ascent to Truth about Mark Driscoll here.

John Piper has a handle on what these terms mean, and shows it in this post. I’m not in total agreement with his analysis but pretty close. The point is, he has taken the time to investigate and, as usual, comes out ahead of guys like MacArthur in showing some balance and compassion where its due.

Highlights:
Emergent seems to be a reaction—among younger believers primarily, 20- and 30-somethings—to several things. In my judgment it’s not a very healthy reaction, though I can understand why it might happen. [MK - in addition, Emergent is centered around a specific site/organization]

Emerging might be used by some people—like Mark Driscoll—to describe a proper reaction that is taking place against some of the negative things going on in the church, but a reaction that doesn’t throw away the doctrines.

So be careful, when you’re talking emerging or emergent, to know which group you’re talking about.

The word “missional” is kind of the “in” word today. And a church that is missional tends to be a church where everything is thought about in terms of making an impact on people around the church who are not Christians. You design everything to think that way. And I think that is a good thing.
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I’m working on a longer post of my own thoughts about this that I will try to get up later today.

Piper is not the only one defining the terms this way. I could have used various other modern church figures to make my point, but part of my current mission is to tear down people’s perceptions of Piper as cog in the old world who is interchangeable with the current crop of strident hyper-fundamentalists (not to mention any names – oops, I already did in the opening paragraph).

In my experience, having watched, engaged in, and written about the movement, this is the way the terms are defined and understood by others who have done the same.

Defined this way, I think we can all comfortably call ourselves emerging. Yes?

***You might find this post about a book being co-authored by Brian McLaren and John MacArthur of some interest as well. :-0

There will probably be a good discussion about this over at Justin Taylor’s blog.

Emboldened by the added attention of a liberal-leaning audience since he moved his blog to Beliefnet, Tony Jones today announced a plan to review the Apostles’ Creed and put forward a controversial position on each one.

Since blog posts questioning gender roles and the doctrine of original sin have been so popular, Jones has decided it’s time to “question everything.”

“I mean, some of that stuff in the Apostles’ Creed looks a little outdated to 21st century eyes. What I’ll write in these posts may or may not represent my actual opinions, but depending on the comments for each post, you may or may not find out,” he clarified in a press release and email sent out last night.

“The change in the demographic of my audience has allowed me to explore just how deep the rabbit hole goes,” Jones said this morning when interviewed on the front steps of Solomon’s Porch, the “church” whose “pastor” is Doug Pagitt, a co-Emergent and close friend of Jones.  Pagitt’s take on Jones’ plan was predictably affirmative: “Listen, all Tony and I are trying to do is show people what A Christianity Worth Believing looks like.”

“In addition,” says Jones, “since shedding my role as National Coordinator I’ve felt less obligated to appear ‘orthodox’ on at least a few of the big issues in order to maintain loose ties to less progressive evangelicals like Scot McKnight and Dan Kimball.  With my new, larger audience at Beliefnet, that kind of catering is no longer necessary.  And besides, Kimball has the most un-Emergent hairstyle I’ve ever seen.”

Jones, a pioneer and central figure in what is known as the “Emerging Church” movement, stepped down as National Coordinator of Emergent Village late last year amid fears that one person coordinating a national organization might lead to too much organization – a predicament those in the Emerging Church movement are keen on avoiding.

“You can expect more huge announcements from me in the next few months,” Jones continued, “with my newfound freedom and a growing Beliefnet audience, who knows where this could go! I consider my blog posts Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and I plan on making a lot of New Christians as a result,” Jones added with a wink and a nod to his latest book.

“Mark Driscoll can have the New York Times and Nightline – I’ll take Beliefnet over those shows any day!” Jones added with some swagger, making reference to former Emerging Church kingpin Mark Driscoll, who has made two high-profile appearances in the national media in the last month.

(FYI – this is a satirical examination of events, some of which are fictional…)

A couple of weeks ago, Driscoll was in the New York Times, now it’s ABC’s Nightline. (*UPDATE: here is a direct link to the segment or watch below)

Driscoll is getting a lot of attention because of his recent sermon series on The Song of Solomon called “The Peasant Princess” (see series website)  in which he preaches on and discusses issues of sexuality.

The characterizations in the recent wave of media attention are somewhat dated in that they focus on Mark’s reputation as a punchline-loving jock. This is still true to an extent, but if you are a member of Driscoll’s church or a regular listener you know that such characterizations are more representative of an earlier version of Driscoll.

Unfortunately, the old title “Cussing Pastor”, made famous in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, still gets thrown around, even though what may have led to this title happened a decade or more ago and no audio of Driscoll actually cussing has been delivered. His language can be harsh, and has occasionally been unnecessarily offensive, but a label such as “Cussing Pastor” is misleading.

Driscoll has repented of things he’s said before,  and he’ll probably give himself occasion to do so again. But listen to a more recent sermon – you’ll hear the heart of a young, fiery, maturing pastor who is more concerned with evangelization and tending his flock than with delivering punchlines.

Download and listen to a recent Driscoll sermon called “Trial: Trial and Sin” or listen to it below.

Download audio file (20090111_trial-and-sin_audio.mp3)

The ABC writeup does include this quote from Driscoll at the end of it:

“I think, to be honest with you, humility is something that, by God’s grace, I’m learning,” he said. “I would not pretend to be an expert in humility.”

For those familiar with Driscoll, this quote is where the real story is.

For those of you who don’t know, Rick Warren was asked to pray at Barack Obama’s inauguration. He closed his prayer “I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, ‘Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:” followed by The Lord’s Prayer.

Contrary to this report by Daniel Cordell which seems to be making the rounds, I spoke to a Muslim immigrant friend this morning and posed the question “Who is Isa?” Without hesitation, his immediate response was “That’s Jesus in Arabic. That’s the word used for Jesus in Arabic countries.”

This deserves more research, but one to one I think I’ll take the word of an observant Muslim immigrant on the issue.

In Arabic countries, Isa is the name for Jesus and Allah is the name for God. Without prompting, my Muslim friend also said that Christian preachers in the mid-east commonly use Isa and Allah to refer to Jesus and God, and when they do this their meaning is clear to both Christians and Muslims.
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Here is Mark Driscoll’s take on Warren’s Prayer.

What do you think?

For those of you who don’t care to register at the NYT in order to see the article, you can get a PDF of it by clicking here.

*Update: Driscoll was also recently featured on ABC’s Nightline.

Ok, I’m done now… I told Anne Marie not to let me go out again.

Here’s the academic stack:

…and the other stack. You’ll notice I out the Bell and Pagitt books between some more solid theological works.  I tried to put them closer to MacArthur but there were sparks.

By the way, we’re going Rob Bell’s church (Mars Hill) tomorrow morning. I’ll put up a post about that sometime next week.

Here area few of the blogs I read regularly.

John Piper / Desiring God
The online home of Pastor John Piper, author of Desiring God and A Hunger for God and numerous other books

Mark Driscoll
Driscoll is founder and teaching Pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington and the author of Vintage Jesus

Tim Challies
Challies is a blogger and author from Oakville, Ontario whom Albert Mohler Jr. (President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) describes as “one of the finest young evangelical thinkers of our day”

Justin Taylor
Taylor is the ESV Study Bible project director and associate publisher at Crossway Books.

Michael Kruse
Kruse offers a unique perspective on information and statistics about topics ranging from economics to emerging church forms

From a two-part interview with Darryl Dash:

How do we change in order to contextualize without changing the gospel?

That is the practical question in ministry. If you under-contextualize your ministry and message, no one’s life will be changed because they’ll be too confused about what you are saying. But if you over-contextualize your ministry and your message, no one’s life will be changed because you won’t really be confronting them and calling them to make deep change.

If this scares you and you say, “Well then let’s not even try it,” then you have to remember something: to over-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from. So there’s no avoiding it.

There’s far more to say about this subject, but I’ll just give you one bit of advice. The gospel is the key. If you don’t have a deep grasp on the gospel of grace, you will either over-contextualize because you want so desperately to be liked and popular, or you will under-contextualize because you are self-righteous and proud and so sure you are right about everything. The gospel makes you humble enough to listen and adapt to non-believers, but confident and happy enough that you don’t need their approval.

In no particular order

1. Puts most of his content online for free (http://www.desiringgod.org)

2. Focuses on the all of God’s attributes, not just wrath and not just love

3. Judges people not by where they are but where he sees them going

Unlike so many older men who are threatened by, competitive with, or critical of young men, I have repeatedly seen Dr. Piper have a father’s heart to encourage, exhort, and empower young men. The few times we’ve been able to sit down together have been incredibly transforming. On a few occasions he has been gracious enough to sit down with the young church planters in our Acts 29 Network with no microphones and very honestly answer the painful questions about life, ministry, and family. (Driscoll – source)

4. Not afraid to admit his own struggles and shortcomings (see interview with Mark Driscoll)

5. Not afraid to admit he doesn’t know it all

6. Doesn’t attempt to solve every mystery

You don’t have to understand the fullness of this mystery, you just need to say Biblical truths about it and therefore guard the mystery.  That’s one of the things doctrine does; it protects mysteries.  If you don’t hold doctrine in right biblical proportion, mysteries become stripped to pieces by sectarian explanations, which are almost always wrong.
sermon:We Beheld His Glory, Full of Grace and Truth (11/02/2008)

7. Has at least one son with a sharp wit and a sense of humor

8. Can be dead serious but also has a sense of humor

9. Not afraid to quote Catholic theologians or recommend their books

10. Unlike many (most?) prominent American pastors,  he avoids “culture war” rhetoric

11. Doesn’t own a TV but uses the internet a lot

Do you have any to add?

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When I find a worthy author I engage that author intensely and exhaustively until I can articulate what they are and are not about.  I’ve done this with CS Lewis, Thomas Merton, Marshall McLuhan, Mark Driscoll, Douglas Coupland, Madeleine L’engle, and I am now doing it with John Piper.  Many people sip on these authors and then quote them out of context to make a point that the authors themselves never would have made.  So you end up with people who are vehemently anti-Catholic quoting a high Anglican like Lewis, or more absurdly, they’ll quote GK Chesterton, who was a convert and great champion of Catholicism.  But quote Thomas Merton to them and they’ll point and cry “Anathema!” in your direction and then leave the room.

At any rate, Piper is the stream or phase you’ll find me in now, but by phase I do not mean fad.  None of the people I mention have been fads for me; they have been extended engagements that have turned into my foundations.

In time my focus on Piper will subside because he will take his place in my foundation, along with seemingly disparate others like Merton and L’engle.  How is this possible?  It’s not supposed to be… I guess that’s what makes me Emerging/Emergent to the extent that I am – I can live with the paradox and invite others to join me there..

So I don’t know what you’ve heard about Piper but I’ll vouch for him as one of the keenest expositors of scripture who also has a loving heart and a truth-hungry mind.  I don’t agree with everything he says but he has the following in common with all the other authors I mentioned: he lights up my brain, helps me to understand things I’ve struggled to understand for years.  He is far more compatible with my brand of Emergence than most suspect. He is sure of many things but unlike your typical American Baptist pastor he doesn’t attempt to snow you if he doesn’t know the answer.

This is a different conversation altogether, but I’ve come to believe that much of the Emergent movement grows not out of having read the Bible and found it lacking, but from not having read the Bible at all, or at least picking and choosing the passages that fit – which we all do, but I don’t see why it should be sanctioned in one movement and not the other.  The same goes for politics… Donald Miller stumps for Obama, and today Tony Jones (former national coordinator for Emergent Village) did a national interview promoting Obama.  I say that’s a double standard.

Anyway, I am not someone who buys someone else’s systematic theology and then tries to force it down other people’s throats.  I believe in reading widely and stopping for an extended examination of ideas when I come across something compelling.

Here’s a 5-minute Piper segment that illustrates my point.  The format is a daily Q&A podcast : audio or text transcript

Available here.

I am way backed up on writing… I have a lot of hand written notes and some audio from the Why Everything Must Change conference and Desiring God 2008 conference.

It will all make it here eventually, but for now enjoy the DG08 audio and video.

In his latest podcast, The Internet Monk (Michael Spencer) talks about Mark Driscoll’s talk at last week’s Desiring God National Convention.  Spencer mentions a few things that I feel exactly the same way about, most notably Driscoll’s public confessions about how he has erred in the past.

Check it out here (Driscoll section runs approximately  8:40-11:45 but the whole podcast is worth a listen)

You can watch, listen to, or read Driscoll’s talk here.

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Tim Challies:

What makes Death by Love so different from his other books is what makes it good. Driscoll holds his tongue, refusing to bring his trademark humor to this book. In this case it is a very good thing as the subject demands a serious tone. Driscoll looks at real-life crises and offers biblical wisdom and hope. While I have struggled in the past to recommend Driscoll’s books, I have little hesitation in recommending this one.

(read the full review)

Tim Challies:

The Peasant Princess Here is a micro-site for Mark Driscoll’s new sermon series on Song of Solomon. Love it or hate it, you can’t argue with the skill and creativity of Mars Hill’s creative department.

I agree.  Mark Driscoll talking about sex… I’m sure the series will be interesting to say the least.

A quote from Driscoll’s blog:

“And, I learned a lot watching Rick Warren behind the scenes and over meals. Not being part of the Purpose Driven Network, I was humbled by how eager he was to bring in leaders from many networks and denominations to share ideas and help influence in his Purpose Driven Network pastors for the cause of Jesus Christ. After spending some time with Rick I am convinced for four things. One, a lot of Christians are jealous of his success and they account for a good percentage of his critics. Two, he really loves the Jesus of the Bible. Three, he really loves pastors. Four, he really loves the church of Jesus in all of it’s expressions, even those who are not doing the Purpose Driven methods he extols.

To be honest, Rick has a brilliant mind that shines even when he sits down and simply lectures from a chair for an hour as he did at the conference. But, what really struck me is how much he loves pastors and churches and how much he wants to serve pastors and their churches by giving away resources and encouragement lavishly. And, it is his affection for Jesus, pastors, and churches that has in my observation endeared him to so many Christian leaders. For those who criticize his methods, it would behoove them to also share in his effort to do something to help pastors other than criticize those who are trying to help. I do not agree with him on everything. But, I also find him to be a servant leader who is willing to learn which is rare among those who are very successful and in that I rejoice.”

via Resurgence featured audio

On Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at the Resurgence National Conference, Pastor Mark Driscoll spent sometime answering questions from audience. Please listen as Mark explains how he structures his schedule in order manage his role has father, husband and preacher including sermon preparation, how his role at Mars Hill has changed over the years, how he interacts with other pastors and staff at Mars Hill, his plans for eventually passing the torch, cultivating a humble response to the pressures in his life and dealing with personal struggle.

Click here to listen

Here’s a rough outline (by time in audio file)

6mins – 16:45 – daily schedule
to 21:00 – Sermon prep
to 27:00 – How many books do you read?
to 36:00 – How does the role of a founding pastor change?
to 43:45 – How do you lead staff that are your best friends?
to 47:45 – How will you pass on the leadership of Mars Hill?
to 51:45 – How do you deal with critics in a biblical and humble way?
to 56:00 – What are some tangible steps to pursuing humility in the pulpit?
to 1:04 – How do you deal with discouragement?
to 1:06 – closing