When Relevance becomes Irreverence - The curious case of Mark Driscoll

Here is an interesting video program on the controversial person of Mark Driscoll. Cathy Mickels has written a very interesting article entitled Mark Driscoll: Is he qualified to lead? here:

This memo is written to Christian leaders detailing my concerns regarding the ministry of Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. His church has grown to 6,000 members in 11 years and is also described as one of the fastest growing, innovative churches in America.

Because this ministry is characterized by so many examples of the trivialization of Scripture, crudeness, foolish talk and vulgarity it will be a challenge to keep my correspondence as brief as possible.

Research leads me to concur with Pastor John MacArthur, who has also said, “I have a great concern about him. [Mark Driscoll.]”

In fact, in a radio interview with Todd Friel on the April 7, 2008, edition of Way of the Master, referring to Mark Driscoll’s book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Pastor MacArthur said, “…there are statements in that book that are so sexually explicit and unnecessary and purely gratuitous humor at the basest kind of level; I saw a video from a service in the church in January in which comments were made from his pulpit, which were then put…. on the website, which again, were sexually explicit and gratuitous and unnecessary…in which he referred to a certain sin and actually twisted out-of-context a Bible verse as a kind of way to mock that sin. You know ….there was a time when we worried about the church adjusting itself to accommodate the peoples’ social expectations, and then their psychological expectations, and now the latest wave of this let’s identify with them at their sensual level. And I think that baser approach - that’s something I’ve never heard of in my life — I’ve never, ever, in the name of ministry heard anyone who would speak at that level of explicit language with regard to things sexual… I just think there is a dignity, there’s a maturity, there’s a holiness, a virtue, a fear of God that belongs with the pastorate, …there’s a refinement that belongs in the ministry. The Bible talks about that ; being ’sober-minded’ - the pursuit of godliness,…Speech that comes out of your mouth, no filthy communication, only that which ministers grace to the hearer ….you can’t put one thought in their mind and then try to transition them to something holy…it’s a new kind of thing that I never, ever, imagined would happen…”

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