Tag: Mark Driscoll

Top Ten Rejected Titles for Mark Driscoll’s Sunday Sermon at James River Church

TopTenIntell is getting out of Ozark, MO. In the Show Me State, Mark Driscoll is going to show up at James River Church with news of some kind on this Sunday, June 7. My sources are at work again and have learned the top ten rejected sermon titles for this weekend’s appearance.

Without fanfare, here they are:
10. A Nobody Wanting to Tell Anybody About Everybody I Need to Forgive
9. How to Fund Your Church Plant Through Global Missions
8. William Wallace Was Right
7 I Know Who the Anti-Christ is and He Lives in Pennsylvania
6. Be the Brand!
5. How to Turn Any Sin Into a Mistake
4. America Really Is a Pussified Nation!
3. How to Implode a Megachurch in One Year
2. Elders Schmelders and Other Insights on Biblical Leadership.
…and the number one rejected sermon title is:
1. The Gospel of Mark: Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Alas, we don’t know what the actual title is yet, but the day is young.

With all appropriate apologies for this lame spoof.

Mark Driscoll to Speak at James River Assembly of God in Ozark, MO Next Sunday

JamesRivLogoJust confirmed it with the church; Mark Driscoll is set to speak at James River Church (Assembly of God) in Ozark, MO this coming Sunday, June 7. His topic was not disclosed.  The church is pastored by John and Debbie Lindell.
You can read more about James River in this description by Ed Stetzer. Their Wednesday night service offers opportunities to get baptized in the Spirit.
There are some additional wrinkles to this event which I am working to confirm. In particular, one report is that one of the pastors of the church told some of the congregation that Driscoll had been acquitted of the charges against him via a church investigation. If that is true, there is some misinformation being shared.
Driscoll has spoken before at James River, during the Real Marriage tour.
The Seattle Times focused on Driscoll’s comeback in the May 30 edition.

You will not want to miss this Sunday’s guest speaker, @markdriscoll

A photo posted by James River Church (@jamesriver) on

Protest of Mark Driscoll Planned at Hillsong Church in Sydney on May 31

QuestionMarkA group called “People Against Fundamentalism” plans to protest Brian Houston’s decision to bring Mark Driscoll to the Sydney Hillsong Conference this summer.
According to the group’s website, the protest will take place on May 31 at the Sydney church’s Waterloo campus.
Protests may also occur in London where Driscoll is slated to speak in July. A petition asking Hillsong to remove Driscoll as a speaker has garnered nearly 1,000 signature on Change.org. Pastor Houston issued a statement indicating that Driscoll is not going to speak but share what he has learned in an interview with Houston.
Driscoll’s recent activities may signal his stance at Hillsong. At Bayside Church two weeks ago, Driscoll spoke about forgiving those who wrong him but said next to nothing about his part in the demise of Mars Hill Church. Then, just this past weekend, Driscoll failed to correct Gold Creek Community Church pastor Dan Kellogg when Kellogg claimed that Driscoll’s was “completely mistreated by former staff people.”

Sutton Turner: Leaving a Big Church is Selfish

Just when I thought we were getting somewhere…
Today, Sutton Turner posted an apologetic of sorts* (pdf of the post) for separation of pastors from pews in big churches. Turner seems convinced that the corporate world is a good analogy for a church leadership.
This quote seems to capture the mood:

When an organization grows and people lose access to the senior leader, many will take the selfish route and leave. They look back on the smaller, familial organization as the golden days, but Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NIV) reads, “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.”

Call me crazy but I doubt the Ecclesiastes verse means I am selfish to prefer a small, familial church.  Furthermore, I doubt it is a prohibition on leaving a church when you believe the governance structure is more aligned with big business than the New Testament.
I don’t think Turner meant this as an explanation for Mars Hill demise but in light of what has happened, it is an interesting statement:

Unfettered access to the senior leader will damage if not destroy the organization.

In contrast, very few people had access to the executive elders at Mars Hill. At least some of staffers who reported to the executive elders felt far removed from influence and access. Probably a little more access would have helped.
Some people like a megachurch and some don’t. My personal view is that large churches bring pressures to bear on pastors and members that compete with the mission of the church. On the other hand, very small churches can burn out the few faithful volunteers. Somewhere in the middle seems about right but even that is a matter of preference.
The relevance of this to Mars Hill is that the events of 2007 continue to reverberate even after Mars Hill Church is no more.
On another note, I just couldn’t get this song out of my mind…
[youtube]https://youtu.be/RUP4dCucVnY[/youtube]
 
*The post seems to be down now. To read it, click the pdf link

Grading Pastor Dan Kellogg's Mark Driscoll Homework

In a blog post yesterday, Gold Creek Community Church pastor Dan Kellogg said he did his homework before asking Mark Driscoll to speak at his church on Sunday. According to that blog entry, Kellogg said he spoke with Driscoll’s “accountability board.”  The unnamed member or members of that board said: “There is nothing Mark has done that disqualifies him from ministry”.  
That was enough for Kellogg, but was it enough homework? Kellogg reminds me of the student who attacks a complex subject by looking it up on Wikipedia.
Kellogg’s reference to Mars Hill Church Board of Advisors and Accountability brings to mind the unfinished business of Mars Hill. If Kellogg wanted to do some homework, he should have read what one former BoAA member, Paul Tripp told then current elders of Mars Hill Church: “This is without a doubt, the most abusive, coercive ministry culture I’ve ever been involved with.”
Kellogg could have read the letter from the 21 elders who brought charges and the letter from nine additional elders who wanted Driscoll to enter a restoration process. Then he could have heard from the elders who actually investigated the charges (the BoAA did not do the investigation but delegated it) who said Driscoll resigned instead of entering an elder directed restoration process.
Then he could have read the report from the elders who investigated the charges. Oh wait. No, he can’t because the members of that group never released the report. Although they publicly disagreed with the BoAA’s description of their investigation, they never released a report of their findings. However, those elders did agree about this:

The investigation of formal charges against Mark Driscoll has revealed patterns of persistent sin in the three areas disclosed in the previous letter by the Board of Overseers. In I Tim 5:20, it requires that an elder be rebuked for persistent sin. Our intention was to do this while providing a plan for his eventual restoration to leadership. The Board of Elders in agreement with the Board of Overseers are grieved, deeply grieved, that any process like that was lost to us when Mark Driscoll resigned in position and left the church.

Some of the investigation team are still around Seattle pastoring at various Mars Hill legacy churches. You can find a list of them here.
After reviewing the available primary sources, Kellogg could have looked at an analysis of the four narratives of Mark Driscoll’s resignation/release from ministry examined by Wenatchee the Hatchet. Perhaps he could have called up Paul Petry or read what Steve Tompkins wrote after he left Mars Hill.  Kellogg could have checked out the Repentant Pastor website where former Mars Hill pastors recount their experiences and remorse. He could have read an exit interview from a former staffer which likened Mars Hill to a place where Driscoll wielded total control.
Instead he used just one source.
There is little doubt that evangelicals in Seattle have been divided over Mars Hill’s demise and legacy. I suspect the situation is worse now than before Sunday.