Mark Driscoll, known for his role as pastor at Mars Hill Church, Seattle, is visiting Brisbane in August. He’s speaking at Burn Your Plastic Jesus, a men-only event being run by 300 Men for Jesus. He’ll also be speaking on Biblical Theology of Mission at Queensland Theological College, the Presbyterian theological college in Brisbane.
Mark is described in the promotional material as a “theologically conservative and culturally liberal” pastor, holding Scripture firmly in two hands, while grounding two feet firmly in his culture.
Driscoll is disturbed by those who view Jesus as a “limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes.†Mark’s keen on cultural relevance and clearly has a commitment to reaching the “man’s man” culture by using strong language, wearing trousers (as do most men I know), using firm handshakes, using just shampoo, and drinking strong coffee.
“In Revelation, Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity”. (Relevant Magazine)
The open agenda here is that Mark is distancing himself from his earlier emerging church days hanging around with the likes of Doug Pagitt and Brian McLaren in the Young Leader Network (now known as Emergent).
Mark is known for his complementarian views. He teaches that men should practice headship and women should practice submission. Mars Hill Church has a policy of having only men in positions of authority or leadership. That’s a policy consistent with the Presbyterian Church of Australia. What concerns me is that this view is presented as the norm for the Reformed tradition. Most denominations within that tradition have moved on in more recent times – as can be explored in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches site.
The Burn Your Plastic Jesus event is being run by Mitchelton Presbyterian Church on Thursday, 28 August at Northside Auditorium, 151 Flockton St, Everton Park. See the 300 Men For Jesus site for more details. See Mark’s Wikipedia article and Resurgence Blog.
Driscoll preaches a different Jesus, for sure.
http://prayingheart.wordpress.com
When Mark Driscoll is described as a theologian ‘holding Scripture firmly in two hands, while grounding two feet firmly in his culture’ I’m left wondering about exactly what culture his feet are firmly grounded in? His statement that ‘I cannot worship a guy I can beat up’ seems to answer my question – the culture that makes the mistake of thinking that ‘real men’ are men of violence, authority and macho with an attitude that justifies the belief that ‘women should practice submission’ (and if they don’t maybe walking into a door may help them). Does being culturally relevant necessarily mean that we do not challenge that culture? What exactly is a ‘man’s man’? The irony is that Jesus was exactly what Mark is suggesting he was not – a man he could beat up – in fact, a man who was beaten up – badly – but didn’t retaliate (and told his followers to do the same). This approach to trying to reach men for Christ will not do. Jesus was the kind of man who would not have been ashamed of looking another man in the eye and asking just what gave him the right to assume he could lob the first brick at a woman he deemed as unsuitable whilst refusing to own up to his own faults. But then I guess Mark would just write me off as a being ‘a limp wristed hippie’. I find it ironic that he is afraid that ‘some are becoming more cultural than Christian’ as if ‘Christian’ was somehow outside of being cultural – in the UK we have a saying which speaks of a kettle calling a pot black . . .