Book Review: Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons From an Emerging Missional Church – Mark Driscoll

Yesterday, my friend Jono lent me three Mark Driscoll books. I’ve listened to a lot of Driscoll’s sermons, but never read any of his books, and I decided to go with this one first.

It’s a very easy book to read, roughly 200 pages, but with quite large print. It’s not a book on theology (Driscoll’s Reformed theology gets about two paragraphs), nor is it anything of a devotional nature. Instead, this is a book of memoirs, recounting the victories and many mistakes that Driscoll experienced as a church planter.

The chapters are organised according to how many people were at Mars Hill Church at the time, starting with 0-45, and ending with 4,000-10,000. Each growth stage brought it’s challenges for Driscoll and his team, and he is brutally honest about them.

The tone of the book is light, rapid-fire and very funny. Sometimes Driscoll does get very close to the line, and I can imagine many people being offended by some of what he says. However (and I don’t know if this is good or bad), I didn’t really bat an eyelid.

Driscoll gives some good practical tips on missiology, so I think this could be a valuable book for strategic church planners or planters. Especially if you want to learn from another’s mistakes! But what I liked most about ‘Confessions of a Reformission Rev’ was simply Driscoll’s story. There are surprises… he is far more Charismatic than I had imagined. Another surprise; he even mentions how he wrote an email to Rick Warren once asking for advice. But overall this book makes Mark Driscoll seem human, aware of his flaws, and reliant on God.

Not everyone is going to like it, for sure, but it’s an entertaining read nonetheless. Four quotes which stuck out to me…

U2 360

U2 are touring again, kicking things off with two shows in Barcelona. The stage they are using is one of the biggest in the world. It looks like a spaceship and it rotates!

No New Zealand dates announced as yet, but we can hope.

And if you are interested, here are the setlists for the first two shows…

The Best Sermons I’ve Heard in 2009

I listen to a lot of sermons.

I download them for free on iTunes, and listen to them in the car (on the way to picking people up from the airport), or while playing Call of Duty in the evening (I’m not even kidding). I reckon I’ve gotten through an average of 3 or 4 sermons a week since the beginning of the year.

So, since I love sermons, and since I also love lists, I thought I’d go ahead and make a list of the best sermons I’ve heard this year.

…By the way, you can get all of these yourself for free by seraching for them on iTunes.

Euangelion

So, today I felt compelled to leave my first comment at Christianity Today’s Out of Ur blog.

The article they posted there attempts to critique the movement known as The Gospel Coalition. To be sure, that group has it’s issues, depending on where you stand. They don’t, for instance, support women in the pastorate… I do. Maybe they focus a little bit too much on Reformed hobby-horses, and in so doing erect a few extra barriers that don’t need to be there.

But for all of that, I can think of nothing more important being done right now in the Christian marketplace of ideas.

I almost feel like I need to apologise, or at least explain that sentence. When it comes to things like the doctrines of the cross, I’m aware most people would perceive me as a ‘conservative’ Christian. I don’t like that label, but I understand it. And, I know that Christians of that kind – you know, the young, theologically-inclined, John Piper-listening types – often come across in a storm of flaming hyperbole and vitriol. And so I am worried that as soon as I even mention something like the Gospel Coalition, everything else I have to say will get missed amidst the mass skyward rolling of eyes.

Leaving on a Jet Plane (At Some Point)

The big question for me and Sarah since I started the three year pastoral leadership diploma at Carey has been this: what are we going to do when I’m finished?

For the most part, that was a decision that seemed far away, so we didn’t rush to make it. Besides, we’ve been happy in our church, Cession, and I’ve spent three quarters of each of the last few years there.

Of course, this year we had to start considering the question in earnest. One of the options was to stay on at Cession, giving 20 hours a week, while working the other 20 hours in some kind of part time employment. In February of this year though, as Sarah and I talked about it (and particularly as we enter a stage of life where the prospect of having kids starts to loom larger) we couldn’t really see how one of us working half-time was going to be enough to support a family. Now, that doesn’t mean we threw that idea out the window; we both believe God can provide. But the result of that was that we committed to spend some months praying and seeking God’s will, as well as talking to whoever we could find about it.

And so, from late February through until late May, we did just that.

Book Review: Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision – Tom Wright

Grab a coffee people, this is a long one…

You can find my review of John Piper’s response to N.T. Wright (The Future of Justification) here.

I’ll start by putting all my cards on the table.

I have read two previous books by Tom Wright (Simply Christian and Surprised By Hope). I thought Surprised By Hope was a great book. Wright’s views on eschatology and life after death are very helpful. I also have reason to believe his writing on the resurrection is almost unparalleled.

However, I’ve never felt comfortable about his views on justification. I suppose I fall comfortably under the umbrella of what he calls the “old perspective”. So, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision was Wright’s chance to bring me over to his side.

But before I talk about any of that, I’ll say this: Wright is not a heretic. He is not promoting a false gospel. And he is not under the curse of Galatians 1. I might have said some of these things myself before I read John Piper’s book. But Piper himself does not think any of these things of Wright. So, lay down the pitchforks (and take it from me), this is an interesting debate between Protestants – and an important one – but Wright is not the antichrist, nor the biggest threat to Orthodoxy since [insert name here].

Favourite U2 Songs

U2 will shortly be starting another world tour, a time when my U2 fandom once again comes to the fore. I’ll be checking the setlists for every show between now and the end of the year.

With that in mind…

Where Do the De-Churched Come From?

Yeah, Matt Chandler is my favourite preacher. I have 39 of his sermons on my iPod. So, I’m pretty much going to like anything he says. But, I really think he hits the nail on the head with this one. It made me think about how a focus on the full weight of God’s glory can make a real difference for people.