Mark Driscoll

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Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll (born October 11, 1970 in Grand Forks, ND) is an American minister and author. The co-founder and teaching pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, he also co-founded the Acts 29 Network, and has contributed to the "Faith and Values" section of the Seattle Times. He also recently helped to start The Resurgence, a repository of missional theology resources.

Driscoll graduated in 1989 from Highline High School, where he served as student body president and editor of the school newspaper. He earned a Bachelor's degree in communications from Washington State University with a minor in philosophy. Currently, he is completing a Master of Arts degree in exegetical theology at Western Seminary, a school affiliated with the Conservative Baptist Association.

Contents

[edit] Theology

Driscoll has not published a comprehensive outline of his theological beliefs (such as a systematic theology), but his sermons, lectures, and books provide a good understanding of what he believes. Furthermore, it can be inferred that the doctrinal statement of the church planting network he co-founded, [2], is a reliable overview of his beliefs. In summary, he has described himself as (in order of importance) "first Christian, second Evangelical, third Missional, and fourth Reformed." [1]

In a certain pastor's conference in August, 2005, Driscoll characterized himself as a "charismatic Calvinist" (audio, quote starts at 53 minutes in). This is sometimes described as a reformed charismatic. He believes that all of the spiritual gifts are active today (but only by God's divine intervention; he is not a cessationist) and is a five-point Calvinist (or as he describes a 'four-and-a-half point' Calvinist, see Sermon: Unlimited-Limited Atonement).

According to a July 4, 2006, interview in Christianity Today, Driscoll described the church he leads as "theologically conservative and culturally liberal".[2] He is best-known for his views on missiology.

[edit] Complementarianism

Driscoll is a strong advocate of complementarianism -- a view of gender that says that men and women are equal in value and personhood, and that each gender has unique, complementary roles in the home and in the church.[3]

In the wake of the Ted Haggard scandal, Driscoll posted to his blog regarding pastors and their susceptibility to sexual immorality, and gave suggestions as to how this comes about and how it can be avoided. One of his thirteen such points in this post was a suggestion that pastor's wives, while not responsible for their husbands' straying, can increase their husbands' susceptibility to temptation by making themselves sexually unavailable and/or undesirable ("let[ting] themselves go").[4] Some found this point tantamount to blaming Haggard's infidelity on his wife, Gayle. Driscoll later clarified his statement, saying "[c]ontrary to some who misrepresented my prior blog, Gayle is in no way responsible for the sin of her husband and by all accounts seems to have been a lovely and devoted wife."[5]

[edit] Brief association with Emerging Church movement

Mark Driscoll describes his association with, and eventual distancing from the Emerging Church movement in his blog

"In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake."

[edit] Quotations

  • It is imperative that Christians be like Jesus, by living freely within the culture as missionaries who are as faithful to the Father and his gospel as Jesus was in his own time and place. [6]
  • I study the Bible all week, pray to the Lord, and then I speak from my heart. It's all about brutal honesty. [7]
  • You have been told that God is loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, wonderful, and good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we're all good people. That is a lie... God looks down and says 'I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you,' and we say that is deserved, right and just, and then God says 'Because of Jesus I will love you and forgive you.' This is a miracle. [8]
  • The Emerging Church movement is a bunch of disgruntled liberal evangelicals who gather together to complain about the megachurches of their parents. [9]
  • A pacifist has a lot of difficulty reconciling pacifism with scripture. [10]
  • ..the truths of Christianity are constant, unchanging, and meant for all people, times, and places. But the methods by which truth is articulated and practiced must be culturally appropriated, and therefore constantly translated ()...if doctrine is constant and practice is constantly changing, the result is living orthodoxy. [11]
  • [P]eople don't like hell!! They're not supposed to! [12]
  • So the question is if you want to be innovative: How do you get young men? All this nonsense on how to grow the church. One issue: young men. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. They’re going to get married, make money, make babies, build companies, buy real estate. They’re going to make the culture of the future. If you get the young men you win the war, you get everything. You get the families, the women, the children, the money, the business, you get everything. If you don’t get the young men you get nothing. You get nothing. [13]
  • Yes Jesus did both number one and number two - perfectly apparently! [14]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Acts 29 Network: Doctrine
  2. ^ Bailey, Jason: Men Are From Mars Hill, Christianity Today, July 4, 2006.
  3. ^ Driscoll, Mark: It's Always Something at Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll's blog, September 19, 2006. Retrived November 15, 2006.
  4. ^ Driscoll, Mark: Evangelical Leader Quits Amid Allegations of Gay Sex and Drug Use, Mark Driscoll's blog, November 3, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2006.
  5. ^ Driscoll, Mark: Ted Haggard Scandal 2.0, Mark Driscoll's blog, November 6, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2006.
  6. ^ Driscoll, Mark: The Radical Reformission (Zondervan, 2004, p. 40)
  7. ^ Tu, Janet I.: Pastor Mark Packs 'em In, Seattle Times, November 30, 2003.
  8. ^ Driscoll, Mark: Jesus Took Our Wrath (Propitiation), Sermon preached November 6, 2005 at Mars Hill Church.
  9. ^ Lanham, Robert: Mark Driscoll: "Meek. Mild. As If", Evangelical Right blog, October 3, 2006.
  10. ^ Lanham, Robert: Mark Driscoll: "Meek. Mild. As If", Evangelical Right blog, October 3, 2006.
  11. ^ Warnock, Adrian: Interview with Mark Driscoll, Adrian's Blog, April 2, 2006.
  12. ^ The Supremacy of Christ in a postmodern world
  13. ^ Church Planting, Innovation, and Male Leadership
  14. ^ [1]

[edit] See also

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