My Two Cents on Mark Driscoll
by Chris Anderson of My Two Cents Blog
Love him or loathe him, Mark Driscoll’s not a guy you can easily ignore. He’s everywhere. His books seem to come off the presses every few months, his church is booming even in the spiritual desert that is Seattle, and he’s the media’s favorite new spokesman for evangelicals. I feel like I have a fairly good understanding of Driscoll’s ministry, though I’ve only looked on from afar. I’ve listened to many of his sermons with profit. I’ve appreciated his bringing the gospel to bear on difficult issues in an insightful way inDeath by Love (which lacks most of the objectionable things for which Driscoll is infamous). I’ve enjoyed his teaching on parenting and been moved by illustrations of his interaction with his own children. I’ve appreciated his bold denunciations of the emergent church, and I’ve cited him as an authority on the movement. I’ve heard messages in which I was pleasantly surprised by his theological and biblical precision. I’ve even benefited from portions of his much-debated preaching on the Song of Solomon (such as his treatment of 8:8-9). I admire his burden for a wicked city and for people that don’t seem to “fit” into normal evangelical churches. All that to say that I’m not a Driscoll basher who is blind to his giftedness or contributions to the cause of Christ.
That said, I’ve also been turned off more than once, and more importantly, I have an enduring concern that Driscoll’s brand of Christianity has some serious downsides for those who follow him. I think there are important reasons for young pastors and students to avoid emulating his ministry and important reasons for men like John Piper, D. A. Carson, and C. J. Mahaney to avoid promoting him before young people until he matures. It’s not his militant non-cessationism that concerns me, though I disagree with him on that issue. Nor is it merely his fascination with unsavory elements of our culture, which I can get past. My concerns about Driscoll’s ministry—and especially his influence on young preachers—
are as follows:
