But Driscoll just won't shut up and go away. Not only has he know produced a "soft-core porn" sounding book on marriage and intimacy - which I fully admit I haven't read (and don't intend to - Tim Challies fair review was enough) but apparently he has also written off most of the United Kingdom evangelical preachers!
Here;
“Let’s just say this: right now, name for me the one young, good Bible teacher that is known across Great Britain. You don’t have one – that’s the problem. There are a bunch of cowards who aren't telling the truth.”
It doesn't bother me personally. I'm not "young" or a "Bible teacher". But I wonder how the many fans that Driscoll has over here in the United Kingdom will feel about being assessed as "cowards who aren't telling the truth". I wonder about Joel Virgo at CCK who I think is a fan, or Adrian Warnock or the many other Newfrontiers preachers who got excited about Driscoll's visit to the Newfrontiers Brighton conference recently? I wonder about the SGM young excellent preachers in both Bristol and Newport who would surely fit closely theologically with him as Calvinist and Reformed? Or as Krish Kandiah (who reviewed Driscoll's comments) also notes;
"It doesn’t sound like Driscoll is rejoicing the ministry of Mike Pilavaci, Andy Croft, Jo Saxton and the impact these preachers are having on tens of thousands of young people each summer at Soul Survivor. Doesn’t sound like he’s particularly appreciative of Rico Tice coming from the other end of the theological spectrum whose course is being used by hundreds of churches. We can’t call Nicky Gumbel young anymore but I haven’t heard a lot of love coming from Mars Hill for Alpha either. Apparently he hasn’t got anything good to say about Karl Martin in Edinburgh nor Pete Greig at HTB or Ness Wilson in Loughborough".
Oh Driscoll has begun to try and retract his words already apparently (as he does quite frequently when he mouths off and then realises he has put his big size 10's in it). I was more interested in the fact that he and his wife have a degree in communications rather than his "words of context" - that accuse the Christianity Today reporter of seeking to "inflame" his more controversial aspects to his ministry.
This hasn't really helped my attempts to see the good in Mark Driscoll's ministry. I don't think we even bother wondering whether John Piper and C J Mahaney (who has far too many of his own troubles to be reigning in Driscoll) help "father" and "pastor" him anymore. I am sad to say that all I see is an arrogant chauvinist who is working the media well (through his degree in communications) to stay famous, sell books and create newspaper headlines. Maybe he's a potential candidate for next year's "Celebrity Big Brother".
However I will try not to huff off - offended for my country - but end with a fair review assessment;
"There is lots to commend about Pastor Mark’s ministry – there is an evangelistic fervour, a cultural connectedness to their praise and worship that i have not seen anywhere else and passion for church planting which I can rejoice in. But please Mr Driscoll its time not just to “Man up” but “Grace up” your brothers and sisters in the UK need less judgmentalism and more encouragement".
3 comments:
12 tribes is one Huuuuuuge amount of material. While a 300 million population in USA might be big enough, in reality it only contains these tribes in any force:
sons of issachar...people who see the signs of the times...Grant Jeffrey, John Hagee,Perry Stone.
dunno what you'd call the Calvinist Sovereignty of God bunch, whichErn Baxter straddled but was way to big for,(perhaps the teaching tribe)
the healing/ miraculous tribe : Bill Johnson, TV evangelists etc.
The prophetic tribe Rick Joyner,John Paul Jackson
The beginnings of a Tribe of Judah.
i say beginnings...because until a tribe can regularly access the realm entered into in 1975 in Kansas City Shepherds conference...it's still largely grown kids playing rockn roll.
The tribe that deal with helps/care/addiction ministries etc...
The tribe that actually are Messianic Jews, and therefore better than all Gentiles understand the Covenants, and roots from where we have come...
The tribe that concerns itself with intercession on a grand scale
Am I missing people out?
But what I'm saying is Germany have some of the other tribes already in force. The UK too.
Australia too.
I know Argentina do, because ever since the appearance of the angel at City Bell in 1949 who warned specifically and by name about the move at Fort Lauderdale, kind of indicating what kind of apostolic pyramid fiasco was going to come, they actually have a realm called "adoration" which is possibly different as yet from any other people on the earth, and makes use of their character as an opera nation. Songs of piercing love and brokenness for Jesus.
Mark is still a very young Christian. He has reproduced after his own kind. But like many "big names" who are extremely good at what they do....dazzlingly good actually.... they themselves still fall into the category of my recent post on 1 Corinthians 12.
UK, because you are....
fill in the gaps
moving in Alpha, and learning Holy Spirit sensitivity...
I have no need of you.
Which is foolish really, because only spending one week amongst Terry's church he was blitzed by things Coastlands had in the Spirit, that were n't yet a feature where he was in the USA.
Mark is indeed a young Christian, but I cannot afford him that excuse Chris.
In nursing, we are under expectation from the public as to the "expertise to which we profess". I.e. in intensive care nursing, if we "talk the talk" - the public rightly expect us to "walk the walk".
Mark has unwittingly built up a huge following among young male pastors, who enjoy his "humour" and his mannerisms. Therefore he must take responsibility for the actions and the words he speaks. He cannot excuse a misguided word in an interview!
Because surely any interview must be carefully thought out. To make a cutting, throw away comment about a universal lack of "good men" in the UK is foolish and untrue and insulting to those preachers such as Joel Virgo, and others who admire and attempt to follow him.
If he writes books - he is professing to be an expert on what he writes. That's why it so concerns me, that he can write a book on sex with his wife and be so explicit and so crude on sexual practices that we must question, whether should play a part in many Christian marriages. Fine - if Driscoll's conscience allows it in his - but he must remember - because he writes it, many young men will know feel obliged or allowed to demand such practices in theirs. And their wives may not feel quite the same!
Words = matter.
I have read your next post and your reply here, and it makes good sense.
You know i dont even take Rob Rufus, Terry Virgo or much else out there seriously. I say they are all growing.
Ern Baxter wasn't brilliant at explaining "separation" and "union",but then many "broken" saints from the past weren't very good at explaining what just happened to them. From Jacob and Job onwards, right through Andrew Murray. Indeed Ed Miller's daughter Annie Schissler seems to imply in her vision "the Wave of Light" 2006, that it is only in this day and age that we are being granted such a clear revelation about how God's life works day in, day out.
But however clear at staing "the doctrine of brokenness", Ern sure imparted it in everything he said, whatever the subject matter. His voice was like roasted coals, in a similar way to Isaiah who said in the year that Uzzah died I saw the Lord."
But I guess you are right, and Mark should be held accountable for making slurs about the people God is raising up here.
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