Letter from America

‘Cussing’ is American slang for swearing and — yes — there is a preacher who has been given that nickname.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has lots that would commend him to EN readers. He is theologically conservative. He is Reformed. He has grown a church from a plant in 1996 to around 5,000 or so today. And all this in Seattle, after New England the least churched and most secular region of America.

Colourful language

None of this is to be sneezed at.

On the other hand, Driscoll also has a reputation that would unnerve many EN readers. Colourful language in sermons is repeatedly reported (I heard something described as ‘B.S.’). He is, we are told, also the founder of a ministry called The Paradox Theatre, a host for secular rock concerts. About this ministry, Driscoll has said, ‘We had only a few minor problems, like the Japanese punk band that got naked during their set for no apparent reason’.

Then again, Driscoll has distanced himself from the left-wing of the emergent church movement. His concerns include, ‘referring to God as a chick, questioning God’s sovereignty over — and knowledge of — the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell…’.

What do you do?

What do you do with someone who appears to be in some sense, as he says, ‘theologically conservative and culturally liberal’. Do you cheer when he says, ‘my Bible study convicted me of my sin of abstinence from alcohol’? The church website says, ‘Mars Hill Church is in favour of good beer (in moderation), great sex (in marriage), and even tattoos (Jesus has one). But our goal must always be love and concern for our friends so that we don’t enjoy our freedom at the expense of their faith.’

Perhaps harder, what do you do with the claim that some of the Acts 29 church plants coming out of Mars Hill use R-rated movies in discussion nights? Or that Driscoll is supposed to have admitted that ‘some of his sermons on sex were R-rated’ with ‘warnings to parents and sometimes saw whole visiting youth groups walk out blushing halfway through the sermon’? Or that, apparently, another Acts 29 church plant advertises ‘Men’s Poker Night’ with gambling?

Two possibilities

There seem to be two possible approaches. We could say that the fruit will discern the matter. Not the fruit of numbers of attendees at the church, but the moral fruit — we could say that any of these more colourful cultural facets of his ministry fatally undermine his reliability. Or, we could say that we are dealing with the equivalent of a precocious teenager who needs mentoring. Yes, there are rough edges. Yes, swearing in sermons is wrong. But the cultural insights and ability to reach postmodern Seattle is stunning. The doctrine is sound. And therefore we count him a mixed blessing.

Dangers

Either approach has its dangers. The appeal to fruit is likely to feel moralistic, and perhaps unknowingly culturally fuddy-duddy. The mixed blessing approach has hazards too. I, and others no doubt, remember the Nine O’clock Service (NOS), which had culturally edgy components, was certainly different theologically, and at last ended disastrously.

I suspect we have something to learn from Driscoll. And we may also need someone to mentor him. After all, Jesus may (to quote Driscoll) have begun his public ministry at a wedding where ‘He kicks things off as a bartender’, but I’m not sure that way of looking at the ministry of Christ (refreshing/humorous/ edgy as it may be) is quite the model we’re looking to replicate.

The Cussing Preacher

Colourful language

What do you do?

Two possibilities

Dangers

Josh Moody

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