Christus Victor, The Sense of Challenge

Mark Driscoll, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has hit the emerging church blogosphere this week, with a video clip he provided for the National New Church Conference Church Planting conference in Miami last week. Mark wasn’t able to get to the conference and so sent a videotape of him speaking.

Mark focuses on 2 Timothy 2, the passage in which church planter Timothy is encouraged to be focused, hardworking and able to endure hardship.

“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.”

Mark delivers his rant from a military cemetery, with a video closeup to the firm-wristed gun-toting soldier statue. He paints the church planting scene in terms of battleground and body count. He believes that selecting the ‘right man’ is critical to the success of a church plant. He suggests that the core mission is to find men to serve, put them through boot camp, instruct them, and through God’s grace force them to be people who will live as God’s people....

Clearly the soldier image does it for some men. And some women. However the writer of 2 Timothy goes on to use the image of athlete and farmer as well. The early church would have had a healthy percentage of pacifists for whom the military connotations would have been repugnant.

I don’t agree with Mark’s commitment to use only men in church leadership roles. But I can sympathise with his efforts to develop a concept of church that will equip and inspire people with the Y chromosome. So are there models and metaphors that provide the sense of challenge and focus needed by men today?

Denny Weaver, in his book, Nonviolent Atonement, works with the Christus Victor concept in a way that clearly portrays Jesus as an alternative to the stereotypes of ‘macho marine’ and ‘gay hippie’.

[via Pacific Highlander]

So Many Women, So Much Overcompensating

How effective is someone as a model for church planting when he alienates so many women in our culture?

[via Faith Dance]

Two Ms Are Missing?

Misogynist Pastors

[via aaron ghiloni]

Lonely Leaders?

Mark Driscoll is a Seattle mega church leader in the US who started in 1996, now his church has around 2 thousand members and 40 thousand square feet of church space. He has gotten some attention for rudeness in an online debate at the Christianity Today Leadership blog (he apologized) then scurrilous remarks about women and ministers wife’s when the Ted Haggard scandal came to light. He said he didn’t mean what people heard....

His seminars pack in pastors willing to pay a lot of money to learn how to succeed with their church growth. Driscoll has written a couple of books, says he is a charismatic Calvinist, and along with his myriad responsibilities is attempting a masters degree. He is not ordained. Mars Hill in none denominational.

While there is a sprinkling of biblical truth in his speech..., and while I personally have no emotional attachment to where he chooses to tape it, I don’t see his video symbolism making sense to the speech subject.
The video is called Good Soldiers.

His ideas on church planting are like a CEO expounding a US business/ expansion/culture war model, but thousands of pastors and seminary students fans would disagree and correct me....

What is foreign to you as a minster, church attendee or follower of Jesus Christ in this video?
What are you hearing overtly or covertly?
What do you agree and disagree with?
Is Driscoll correct that this how/what church planters and pastors are called to be?

[via connexions]

Open Hand, Closed Fist

I realize that for Mars Hill Church in Seattle, women in elder/pastoral ministry (or more precisely, not being in elder/pastoral ministry) is in the "closed hand" of issues/doctrines not up for questioning or reconsidering, as opposed to the "open hand" of things over which Mars Hill people can disagree without disengaging. I get that.

I also get that the last time we were together, I heard Mark say specifically that when it comes to relationships/fellowship outside of Mars Hill, women in ministry is an "open hand issue."

What I don't get is Mark's tone-deafness when speaking to a huge group of people that he knows are all over the map on this issue, including a number of women pastors and church planters. I realize he has his opinions. Boy, does he.
I also know he's smart... and I really don't want to believe that Mark would intentionally poke a stick into a bee hive every few months just to draw some attention. I really don't.

So we're going to go with option 2- He forgets that in terms of relationship with other churches and the Body of Christ as a whole, he's trying to see this issue as an open hand thing about which good Christian people can disagree. And in forgetting, he speaks with perhaps less grace, less care than he should to people who he knows feel very strongly and very differently than him about the issue. In fact, the more he talks about this issue, the more he pushes and pounds it, the more that open hand feels like a closed fist.

[via bob.blog]

Daily Sex With Pastor Mark

[via internetmonk.com]

Trading One Caricature for Another

[via The Thinklings]

Thoughts on Mark Driscoll and Tony Soprano

[via Philosophy Over Coffee]

If this is a good soldier count me out of the war

[via The Heresy]

Starting tomorrow, must reduce blood pressure. Uncharted territory for me. New meds, daily BP readings, more exercise and stress reduction. May be good; may be bad; may be both.

Blogging may or may not be consistent. If you pray, go ahead. If you know me, check in. This month may be awkward or antsy for me.

[Plus, this month I normally prepare to assist or support my friend Warren Romancia (and Kathy Stickel) with his annual get-together/networking celebration. This year it's on Saturday, June 9, 2pm-midnight, come-and-go, Fuddruckers. Reminder on sidebar. There usually are door prizes and specials throughout the day.]

Deep breath. Again. Again...