Book review
Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

Full description of book:
Mark Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev. — Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI, USA: Zondervan, 2006). ISBN 0-310-27016-2.

Review:

This book by Mark Driscoll is more of an autobiographical account of Driscoll's life journey and experiences in building up his church, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. The book is sub-divided into a prelude, 8 chapters and 2 appendices, which are as follows:

Prelude

0. Ten Curious Questions
1. Jesus, Our Offering was $137 and I want to use it to Buy Bullets — 0-45 people
2. Jesus, If Anyone Else Calls my House, I may be seeing You real soon — 45-75 people
3. Jesus, Satan showed up and I can't find my Cup — 75-130 people
4. Jesus, Could You please rapture the charismaniac lady who brings her tambourine to church?— 150-350 people
5. Jesus, Why am I getting fatter and meaner? — 350-1,000 people
6. Jesus, Today we voted to take a jackhammer to Your big church —1,000-4,000 people
7. Jesus, We're loading our squirt guns to charge hell again — 4,000-10,000 people

Appendix 1 — The Junk Drawer: Answers to Common Questions

Appendix 2 —Distinctives of Larger Churches

As it can be seen, the titles of the chapters are not exactly nice This however will be the least of problems faced by those who attempt to read through the book.

Critical element 1: Crass, irreverent and lewd language

Throughout the book, Driscoll uses crass language, admitting he cusses a lot (p. 130) and basically stated that he had only stopped cussing for 15 minutes after he got saved (p. 50). In addition to that, Driscoll uses irreverent language with respect to God, calling God the Holy Spirit "God the Ghost" (p. 7) or merely "the Ghost" (p. 47). People in a liberal congregation Driscoll visited were stated as "napp[ing] in Jesus' name" (p. 48). In an effort to show his disapproval for the idea of having a late church service at 9pm, Driscoll stated that doing such would be hosting a "Vampires for Christ meeting" (p. 100). In all this, Driscoll shows his irreverence for God and violates the third commandment in using God's name in vain.

More moral squalor can be seen in Driscoll's lewd remarks in his book. In page 39, Driscoll likened singles from college going to an event as "day care for twenty-one-year-old hormonally enraged porn addicts". Upon visiting a liberal congregation in proximity to his church, Driscoll found it odd that "a male greeter who had likely has sex with a man before church" chastised him for wearing a hat in church (p. 48), as if Driscoll had any right to judge any person as a homosexual merely because the church promoted homosexuality (cf Mt. 7:1). This lewd and judgmental remark was followed by another like it in likening the old people in the liberal congregation as "the equivalent of a Viagra before-photo of lifeless geriatrics" (p. 48), that trying to get total strangers to pray the sinner's prayer is "like a spiritual flasher" (p. 61), and that painting a mural collectively as a church is the "gayest thing" he has ever been a part of, which made him fear ending up with a church of "chickified arty dudes" (p. 71). In seeing people as he seems to see himself, Driscoll assumed that "the students and singles were all pretty horny" (p. 94), which even if true would not mean that we should pander to the debauchery in preaching titillating sermons "with a lot of information about sex and marriage" (p. 95), nevermind "R-rated" sermons (p. 134) and sermons extolling the virtues of "oral sex, sacred stripping, and sex outdoors" (p. 96).

As it can be seen, Driscoll uses crass, irreverent and lewd language in a supposedly "Christian" book. But the worst has yet to come.

Inappropriate counseling

On page 59-60, the most infamous episode of Mark Driscoll's life is described in all its graphic, "glorious" details:

... one night when the church phone in our house rang at some godforsaken hour [Note: taking the Lord's name in vain i.e. violating the 3rd commandment] when I'm not even a Christian, like 3:00 a.m. I answered it in a stupor, and on the other line was some college guy who was crying. I asked him what was wrong, and he said it was an emergency and he really needed to talk to me. Trying to muster up my inner pastor, I sat down and tried to pretend I was concerned. I asked him what was wrong, and he rambled for a while about nothing, which usually means that a guy has sinned and is wasting time with dumb chitchat because he's ashamed to just get to the point and confess. So I interrupted him blurting out, "It's three a.m., so stop jerking me around. What have you done?"

"I masturbated," he said.

"That's it?" I said.

"Yes," he replied. "Tonight I watched a porno and I masturbated."

"Is the porno over?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Was it a good porno?" I asked.

He did not reply.

"Well, you've already watched the porno and tugged your tool, so what am I supposed to do?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "You are my pastor, so I thought that maybe you could pray for me."

To be honest, I did not want to pray, so I just said the first thing that came to mind. "Jesus, thank you for not killing him for being a pervert. Amen," I prayed.

"Alright, well you should sleep good now, so go to bed and don't call me again tonight because I'm sleeping and you are making me angry," I said.

"Well, what I am [sic] supposed to do now?" he asked.

"You need to stop watching porno and crying like a baby afterward and grow up, man. I don't have time to be your accountability partner, so you need to be a man and nut up and take care of this yourself. A naked lady is good to look at, so get a job, get a wife, ask her to get naked, and look at her instead. Alright?" I said.

"Alright. Thanks, Pastor Mark," he said as I hung up the phone and walked back to bed shaking my head.

Even without the other errors (inner pastor, time when he is not a Christian?!), this counseling account has got to be the worst counseling session I have ever read about, as Driscoll is not even trying to help his sheep but instead castigate him for calling him in the night. The irreverence and lewdness of speech can both be seen here also.

In Scripture, it is written:

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. ... Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. (Eph. 5:3-4, 11-12)

For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. (Rom. 16:19)

Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thess. 5:22)

The Apostle Paul clearly held up certain standards for Christian conduct. Pertinent for this issue is that foolish talk or crude joking are out of place among Christians (Eph. 5:3-4). Rom. 16:19 tells us to be innocent of evil while 1 Thess. 5:22 asks us to abstain from every form of evil. We are not just to abstain from evil, but every form of evil. The issue therefore is not how close to crudeness or foolishness we could go before actually sinning in this regard, but that we should flee from any conversation which is crude and foolish. When in doubt, don't do it! The goal is towards holiness, and our desire should be to act as antithecal as possible from such behavior.

In this regard, Driscoll is in violation of Scripture, especially since the lewdness and irreverent language is so blatant. Scripture simply does not give one a license to sin in the name of contextualization or reaching our audience, as if God would overlook an offence out of a desire to serve Him. Even if such language were milder, the standard of Scripture is not that we can get away with borderline cases of probable or relative lewdness, but that we should abstain from every form of it.

Critical element 2: Market-driven church techniques

Throughout the book, Driscoll proves himself to be an apt student of the market-driven church^[1]. Barna surveys play a huge part in his church building and church growth strategies, as it can be seen in various parts of the book whereby Driscoll tailored his ministry according to such market research (p. 28-32, 93, 135, 142-147), even to gleaned "insights from observing larger churches" (p. 147), and consulting pastors of large churches (p. 150).

This is not to give the impression that Driscoll does not change. After attempting to be like most "evangelical" mega-churches who target Generation X like how businesses courting consumers, Driscoll repented of such market-driven techniques (p. 66) and decided to reach out to all people. This is certainly a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, this comes off more as a concession to the needs of the congregation (p. 65) and the failure of the generational theory (p. 64) rather than conviction of biblical truth that such targeting is wrong, as it can be seen in his continual usage of market research and techniques later on (p. 135, 142-147).

Perhaps the climax of Driscoll's capitulation to the market-driven church can be seen in his bid to create publicity for his church through engaging the media. This is not the case of the media merely interviewing the church and her leaders, which is perfectly fine, but the church actively marketing itself through the media. As Driscoll wrote:

Over the years, we have found that by making friendly relationships with various media gatekeepers and sending out press releases for story and photo opportunities, we have received an overwhelming amount of positive local media coverage in every medium from television to audio, magazines, and newspapers, including some of the most extreme alternative-lifestyle and militant liberal publications. (p. 154)

Notice that there is an intentional making of "friendly relationships to media gatekeepers" and sending out press releases through such avenues, thus showing forth the active marketing techniques Driscoll and Mars Hill Church utilizes.

The usage of market-driven church techniques is not dictated by Scripture. Since the Church is the bride of Christ, she is to be governed and is to minister according to the Word of God, not the wisdom of Man. Such usage of market-driven church techniques and sheer pragmatism is of the world, and violates a central doctrine of Christianity: the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, which we shall look at further.

Critical element 3: Divorce of doctrine and praxis

Moving hand in hand with the techniques of the marketplace is the divorce of doctrine and praxis or works. In fact, it is only in this light that Driscoll's boast of having a "cultural liberal but theological conservative" church can stand, of which the process is dubbed "reformission" (p. 16). Mars Hill Church is supposedly "emerging and missional in its practice", and "evangelical and biblical in its theology" (p. 23), which shows the divorce of doctrine and praxis in at least Driscoll's eyes. Together with the evidence of the embrace of market-driven ministry philosophy, this shows that Driscoll and Mars Hill Church have divorced doctrine from praxis; having or at least striving to have biblical preaching on the one hand while practicing another thing altogether.

One aspect of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura is that of the sufficiency of Scripture for all of life, which includes ALL of life, including ministry praxis. A divorce of doctrine from praxis denies that the Scriptures have any place at all on the issue of praxis, while market-driven ministry philosophy fills in the void to dictate praxis. Driscoll and Mars Hill Church are therefore guilty of practically denying Sola Scriptura in their praxis, similar to the Purpose-driven philosophy which utilizes a similar approach^[2].

Critical element 4: Categorizing people and attacking the sheep

Like the Purpose Driven paradigm before it^[3], the paradigm adopted by Driscoll serves to divide and harass the flock of God. While it cannot be denied that Driscoll to a certain extent loves people, the ministry philosophy he adopts necessitates attacking of the sheep, instead of caring for them.

The embrace of market-driven ministry philosophy formulates the church into something more akin to a business corporation rather than an organism. Businesses exists to be productive, and in the case of the market-driven church, productivity is measured based on reaching the (mostly numerical) goals set by the leadership team, be it Driscoll alone or him together with the other elders. Very early on in page 35, Chapter zero, Driscoll had already stated that it is right to "shoot their dogs", one example of which are "pathetic people". Later on, Driscoll states that people who come into a church are to be assessed so that the church leaders "can identify who they are and what they need". (p. 79). This is fine until one reads the accompanying texts of what to do with such people, and then one finds language such as these:

Cows are selfish people who wander from church to church, chewing up resources without ever giving back to the church until they kill it. A fence needs to be built around the church to keep the cows out.

Duck are disgruntled people who continually quack about whatever they are unhappy about. Ducks need to stop quacking, or the pastor(s) must go duck hunting before the ducks drown out everyone and everything else in the church

(p. 79-80, Bold added)

As it can be seen, militant language is here used against God's people, and is in violation of Christ's commands to feed His lambs (Jn. 21:15). There is only one type of behavior that may warrant such harsh behavior according to the Scripture, and that is Church discipline which can only be practiced on those living in unrepentant sin in life and doctrine, not on people impeding the pastor(s)' vision! Christ's command is to feed his sheep and lambs, and if any behave similar to those two example above, they are to be loved and cared for. The pastor does not have to order their lives and ministries around such people, but that is a far cry from plotting their removal from the church based upon their impediment to the pastor's vision for the church.

Conclusion

Driscoll's book is a good window into the worldview of the conservative "calvinist" emerging church. What it shows is indeed rather alarming, and serves to perpetuate and accentuate the problems in the churches. What is the point of having solid doctrine when such doctrines have no bearing whatsoever on life and ministry? What is the point of becoming a Calvinist when the most fundamental point of Calvinism — the Sovereignty of God — is denied over and over again through the incessant need to be relevant, "missional" and adopting the methodologies of the world? It is not enough to profess sound doctrine, but that such profession must be a true confession from the heart which will manifest itself in proper Christian living and fidelity to Scripture alone for all of life. May God show Driscoll his errors so that he may repent and obey God 's Word fully and not partially. Amen.

References:

[1] Udo W. Middelmann, The Market Driven Church — The Wordily Influence of Modern Culture on the Church in America (Wheaton, IL, USA: Crossway, 2004)

[2] See Bob DeWaay, Redefining Christianity: Understanding the Purpose Driven Movement (Springfield, MO, USA: 21st Century Press, 2006)

[3] See Dan Southerland, Transitioning — Leading Your Church through Change (Grand Rapids, MI, USA: Zondervan, 1999)