Brother, can you spare 2-million dimes?
After a year of trials (aka The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill and various Trinity Church former members, etc.), Brother Driscoll and his Real Faith has a NEED!
“As we approach the end of the year, RealFaith must meet a $200,000 need to finish strong and step into 2022 ready to tell more people all about Jesus.”
You can sing a nice tune with $200k in a month. My church budget for the whole year is less than that (admittedly, it is a small church).
Brother Driscoll doesn’t tell us what the need is for, just that he believes next year is going to be bigger than this year. Huge, I tell ya, it’s going to be huge.
Mars Hill All Over Again?
This appeal reminded me of the Mars Hill Church year end giving campaigns. Former Mars Hill Church executive pastor Sutton Turner wrote about the Mars Hill pattern of running up deficits during the year and then throwing a “Hail Mary” year end giving appeal to make up for the deficit spending. Here is the relevant part of that 2012 memo to fellow executive elders Mark Driscoll and Dave Bruskas.
From what I can tell by this past year’s budget, we have had a strategy of completing a Hail Mary every December with a big giving campaign. This has allowed the negative monthly financial performance to continue while we count on a Hail Mary giving push in December to make up for the annual deficit. Givers are giving to grow the body and plant more churches, but given our spending habits, their gifts just help us catch up. With the growth ofthe church, the 2011 version only allows for enough cash to run through June 2012 and is not a sustainable plan for December 2012.
Smells similar.
Here is one difference. Driscoll is writing potential donors in 2021 from his personal ministry – Real Faith — and not from The Trinity Church. He is personally asking people give him $200,000 so he can do something with it. It is hard to tell what is his church work and what is him doing stuff apart from the church. Seems like most pastors would be funded by their church to do the things he is talking about doing through Real Faith with all that “outpouring of support.” Makes me wonder what is the main thing and what is the side hustle.
Who Needs $200,000?
In any case, I am going to go out on a limb and say that this guy right here doesn’t need your $200,000 as much as your local food pantry.
Nothing but need as far as the eye can see.
Brothers and sisters, if you can spare some dimes, I humbly suggest two or three alternatives.
Smile Train – This charity provides cleft lip and palate surgeries for needy children where it is difficult to obtain such care. The charity has a perfect accountability rating from Charity Navigator.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Foundation (SCI) – This charity is a top-rated organization that fights the spread of development-killing parasitic worms in children world-wide.
Closer to home: I am sure Mark Driscoll would understand if you made a year end donation to your local church or food pantry with him in mind. If you don’t have one to donate to and want a suggestion, here is the link to Mercer County, PA’s food network. I just made a year end donation and I hope you will consider it as well.
Brother, Can You Spare 2-Million Dimes? (to the tune of the George Michael version)
Once I built a megachurch, made it run
Made it grow and it was mine
Once I built a megachurch, now it’s done
Brother can you spare 2-million dimes?
Once I built a tower, made it run
Brick and money and time
Once I built a tower, now it’s done
Brother can you spare 2-million dimes?
Apparently, Driscoll is just phoning it in (from poolside) for this money. He had no church service on xmas or the sunday the day after xmas.
he’s lounging in front of a fancy pool in the sun but he’s like “give me money” yeah, that’ll go over well! He’s just espousing the prosperity theology of American evangelicalism.
Does MD truly have any REAL relationships with Family and Friends that aren’t rooted in fear and abuse?
I’ve thought that for a while now. If he is so abusive to people who work for him how is his home life not also in shambles? Is he a good husband & father or is he abusive to them too?
Somewhere read his horrific abusive tirade to or on his wife it wasn’t good at all. Shows MD has NO love in heart, obviously doesn’t truly understand First Corinthians 13: just look at the fruit or lack of what did to MHC and all the people that will take a LIFETIME to recover. How can you teach God’s LOVE, Grace and Mercy when your NOT healed up yourself; which is much of our false church leaders!
agreed. And, fruit and successes were probably confused for one another. Just b/c something is “successful” by a human metric were they actually fruitful in the biblical sense? If your church has 10,000s of people but they’re all just pawns in the big game of MD’s Ego, then it’s not fruit even if it’s successful in a numerical sense.
For some reason Driscoll’s tweet and photo reminded me of the famous lines from Conan the Barbarian:
“Mongol General: What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”
And to sit poolside while doing so…..
The question I would put to you all, who have far more knowledge of this world than I (who merely stumbled across the CT podcast) is this: To what degree are Driscoll’s views, culturally, not theologically, in line with the rest of the evangelical world? Is he an outlier solely because of his authoritarian personality or, to put it another way, if you had seen Driscoll refuse to answer a social media question because the questioner was a woman would you have walked away from his ministry right at that point? (And yes, given Driscoll’s sense of humor I’m sure he would say he said this to bait and entertain but the joke isn’t funny.)
I would never have been in Mark Driscoll’s ministry to begin with, but I don’t see him and his authoritarian personality as an outlier, at all. Scratch an Evangelical pastor, and you will find an authoritarian. Many times, the scratching isn’t necessary–it’s all right there, front and center.
His views of the roles of men and women are pretty well in line with much (but by no means all) of US Evangelical culture. The recent excellent but depressing book Jesus and John Wayne traces that influential movement within evangelicalism (and some of the way it seeps into American culture and politics).
Yes, I just finished her book. I enjoyed it but I wish she had dealt with class issues a bit more. The displacement of working class men as breadwinners is an ongoing wound that hasn’t received the attention it deserves. I think it’s central to this rift.
BTW, I also read Jessica Johnson’s book about Mars Hill, “Biblical Porn.” A tough slog if you’re not an academic and I’m not. It’s unfortunate that Ms Johnson lacked an editor to make her book more accessible to a wider audience because she does have a good story to tell. It’s just buried in de-constructionist jargon.
How convenient when your victims and your enemies are the same people. Rebranding FTW.
Wow… he is so open about his gleeful unrepentance… posting posh poolside photos and gloating?
Boy, can wealth/power + unresolved psychological issues & unrepentance ever create a sad human being…
This is a late comment, but seeing the picture of his pool, it occurs to me that getting run out of gray, cloudy Seattle might have been the best thing that ever happened to him.
I suppose if one believes that supporting Driscoll’s lifestyle is more important than welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, comforting the sick, visiting those in prison, then one must donate to Driscoll. I don’t understand it, but apparently it happens.
“It is hard to tell what is his church work and what is him doing stuff apart from the church. Seems like most pastors would be funded by their church to do the things he is talking about doing through Real Faith with all that “outpouring of support.” Makes me wonder what is the main thing and what is the side hustle.”
The main thing is Mark A. Driscoll. Always has been, always will be.
it is a family business after all – https://julieroys.com/mark-driscoll-cult-like-actions-24-7-surveillance-loyalty/
“Brother Driscoll doesn’t tell us what the need is for”
that’s because if Driscoll tells you your donation is for one thing then spends it on something else, he could get into a lot of trouble for that. And if he tells you what he really wants it for, you might not be as willing to donate.
yeah, that’s one lesson he learned from Mars Hill at least.
I wish more people had learned lessons from Mars Hill. If they did I doubt Warren would still be posting about Driscoll.
Hey, his pool maintenance doesn’t come cheap, you know. Look at that place!
“new content”
“Hail Mary!” But this time goes directly to the Driscoll’s pockets!
Here’s another worthy ngo-Compassion International. I sponsor several children with them-schooling, medical care, the Gospel. They’re great!
A while back I researched this Mega Organization and found troubling signs in reviews from employees at their headquarters. Lots of concerns about the org turning into a kind of scam, AKA Gospel for Asia. At this point I consider giving any money to a big non-profit to be simply stupid. Con men are out there and they are fishing for this kind of thing. As always, donors beware of what you cannot clearly see for yourself.