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Steven Barrett
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 894 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Sat May 24th, 2008 03:12 pm |
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From time to time I like to troll the "competition" and see what its folks are thinking about. You might even be pleasantly surprised on occasion. Seems like one young and upcoming minister--Mark Driscoll--up in the Pacific NW coffee-holic area of Seattle is getting a little "antsy" with some of his fellow Protestant min's, especially the "post-moderns."
Can't blame the young rev'd. Imagine his nightmares of losing sheeple to a hybrid of UU'ism and nothing-left-ism? Well, we have a solution, of course. But I'm not going to push our luck and let him plead his case for what we've known to be a very successful tool in keeping the Church in one piece--despite all our humanly efforts to pull it apart like a kid working on his dad's transmission. In an article published yestereday and titled: "Preaching 'Sound Doctrine' in an Age that Avoids It" written by Christian Post Reporter Lillian Kwon: Mark Driscoll had these pointers for his fellow Protestants:
Mars Hill is now eight weeks into the 13-week series titled "Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe." Driscoll is taking a break from the pulpit this coming Sunday after having preached on one of the most important and challenged dogmas of the Christian faith – the crucifixion of Jesus and atonement for sins.
"Some are erroneously teaching that the cross should not be taught because it's 'divine child abuse,'" Driscoll told church attendants as he rejected claims that the cross contradicts God's love. "Others would say 'you can't teach the cross because God is love and how will people see the love of God at the cross of Jesus?'"
"My answer is 'the cross IS the love of God,'" he stressed. "Apart from the cross all we have is a sentimental understanding of love. God doesn't just send a greeting card. He goes to a cross and dies. He does something."
Driscoll, who recently opened a sixth Mars Hill Church campus, says he is not a fundamentalist, noting that he's okay with a believer smoking or getting a tattoo. His six churches are also largely adapted to the culture in Seattle in terms of worship style, casual dress and service times. But when a person, especially an influential Christian leader, questions or undermines the essential doctrines of Christianity, Driscoll "freaks out."
"I get a nervous eye twitch," he said this week while attending the Purpose Driven Network Summit at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.
He's also not pleased when preachers leave out doctrine and Jesus from sermons.
"So much preaching today is about seven steps to this, four steps to that, 13 steps to this. I'm totally fine if you want to have a great marriage [or] improve your business," Driscoll said. "But at the end of the day, are people learning about who Jesus is and what he's done?"
"Are we trying to give people principles without power, meaning follow [Jesus'] example but don't live in relationship with him?" he posed.
Do you get the impression he wants his fellow Protestant minister colleagues to ditch their "power point preachin'" and get back to the real basics? (Newman didn't need "power point" before he converted!)
Maybe so, but don't get your hopes up that Driscoll will come to his senses and cross a certain Italian river. After all, he's still running hard in a crowd that's forever trying to fill in and spice n' spike up what they lost thanks to their "reforming" forefathers; much in the same manner our diplomats are forever trying to get that "roadmap" straightened out while driving through Middle Eastern mine-laden roads for that other elusive goal: Peace in the Holy Land.
Some things are a lot to ask for, no matter how worthy! But at least we ought to give the young man credit for trying. A lot of credit! 
Last edited on Sat May 24th, 2008 03:15 pm by Steven Barrett
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For anybody interested in reading commentary from a Catholic's socially conservative/fiscally liberal viewpoint, go to my new blog at http://www.politicsramble.com/ .
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