Mark Driscoll visiting Brisbane in August
Monday, June 23rd, 2008Mark 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.
Tags: Mark Driscoll, Presbyterian
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