One of the first people Lynette & I connected with when we moved to metro-Seattle (roughly eight years ago) was Mark Driscoll. Mark is the founding pastor of Marshill Fellowship, a dynamic communicator, intelligent, driven, and fiercely committed to the preservation of “truth” as he imagines it. His first book, The Radical Reformission : reaching out without selling out is scheduled to hit the stores in early September.
Mark and I pioneered our faith communities around the same time, and in the early years spent a considerable amount of time together. My, how our paths have taken us in different directions.
I’ve heard a lot of criticism of Mark over the years, in part I suppose, because he not only makes himself an easy target, he often – at least as I experience him – expresses himself violently. What I mean by that, is he forcefully and passionately lays out what he believes, seemingly without care for how those who may see things differently from him might respond. He even seems to delight in shaming those who dare raise questions about what he says or how he says it. Mark seems to simply believe he has it figured out, and that his presumed “rightness” is justification for being nasty. He has engineered a reputation for being an in-your-face proclaimer of Christian orthodoxy (or at least his version of orthodoxy), and for being a no-compromise leader – willing to even fire “his” worship team moments before a church service if needed.
I am not on the same page as Mark on many things. I do appreciate Marks’s emphasis on encouraging men to own what is theirs to own… like responsible fathering, providing for their families… but he seems to use the strategies of an abuser to end abuse… didn’t I hear something about the medium is the message, somewhere?
I’m actually looking forward to reading his book. I imagine I will be arguing with Mark in the margins throughout his book – arguing for a more receptive stance to people, to pursue relationships as truth, to die to my right to be right, etc. But I will read and as best as I can, open myself to his thoughtful teaching.
I love, pray for and very often disagree with my brother Mark – after all, we both pastor in Cascadia – and I am thankful for certain roles Mark briefly plays in my life but… I’ll put it this way, Mark is daring me to enlarge my understanding and practice of love.
After all, at the end of the day, it’s not about agreement or disagreement, or even about being right… but together discovering a way of Christ-like love.
Peace, dwight
