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Mark Driscoll (born October 11, 1970 in Grand Forks, ND) is an American minister and author. The co-founder and preaching pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, he also co-founded the Acts 29 Network, and has contributed to the "Faith and Values" section of the Seattle Times. He also recently helped to start The Resurgence, a repository of missional theology resources. Mars Hill Church is rated as the 8th most influential church in America by The Church Report. Mars Hill is the youngest church in the top ten of the 50 Most Influential Churches.

Driscoll graduated in 1989 from Highline High School, where he served as student body president and editor of the school newspaper. He earned a Bachelor's degree in communications from Washington State University with a minor in philosophy. Currently, he is completing a Master of Arts degree in exegetical theology at Western Seminary, a school affiliated with the Conservative Baptist Association.

Contents 1 Theology 1.1 Complementarianism 1.2 Controversial remarks 1.3 Emergent Church movement 2 Quotations 3 See also 4 Notes 5 Bibliography 6 External links

[edit] Theology

Driscoll has not published a comprehensive outline of his theological beliefs (such as a systematic theology), but his sermons, lectures, and books provide a good understanding of what he believes. Furthermore, it can be inferred that the doctrinal statement of the church planting network he co-founded, [1], is a reliable overview of his beliefs. In summary, he has described himself as (in order of importance) "first Christian, second Evangelical, third Missional, and fourth Reformed." ^[1]

In a certain pastor's conference in August, 2005, Driscoll characterized himself as a "charismatic Calvinist" (audio, quote starts at 53 minutes in). This is sometimes described as a reformed charismatic. He believes that all of the spiritual gifts are active today (but only by God's divine intervention; he is not a cessationist) and is a five-point Calvinist (or as he describes a 'four-and-a-half point' Calvinist, see Sermon: Unlimited-Limited Atonement).

According to a July 4, 2006, interview in Christianity Today, Driscoll described the church he leads as "theologically conservative and culturally liberal".^[2] He is best-known for his views on missiology and on gender issues.

[edit] Complementarianism

Driscoll is a strong advocate of complementarianism -- a view of gender that says that men and women are equal in value and personhood, and that each gender has unique, complementary roles in the home and in the church, such that the man should practice headship, and the woman submission.^[3]

[edit] Controversial remarks

Driscoll caused controversy following revelations that mega-church pastor Ted Haggard used the services of a gay prostitute by remarking on his blog that many pastors fall into sexual sin because their wives let themselves go.^[4] In his post, Driscoll wrote, "Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors' wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband's sin, but she may not be helping him either." He later posted an apology and explanation after widespread protests. ^[5]

Driscoll has also been quoted as implying that non-Christian cultures practice cannibalism, and that cannibalism was stopped only by the spread of Christianity. "After church tonight you will go home and you will eat chicken, not human, because of the spread of Christianity," Driscoll said. "... go to a country where there hasn't been the spread of Christianity and they're having human for dinner."^[6]

In a Relevant Magazine^[7] article on The Emergent Church, Mark Driscoll was quoted as saying, "There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity."

[edit] Emergent Church movement

Mark Driscoll describes his association with, and eventual distancing from the Emergent Church movement in his blog

"In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples 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 which is one hell of a mistake."

Driscoll, along with Leif Moi, Mike Gun, and the Acts 29 community, is part of the missional theology community that adheres closely to classical Calvinist, or Reformed, theology and views their mission as communicating this school of theology to modern people. This contrasts with the Emergent Church movement, influenced by individuals like Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, and Rob Bell, which is more willing to re-examine and re-interpret traditional beliefs.

On Friday September 21st, 2007 whilst speaking at the Convergent Conference of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Driscoll publicly warned the attendees about the teachings of Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell. Expressing concern for the views of his contemporaries, Driscoll cited many of their spoken and published views on the atonement, homosexuality, rabbinical authority, new age influences, mystic theology and their mutual affirmation/endorsement of books such as Ken Wilber's A Brief History of Everything. ^[8]

[edit] Quotations

• After church tonight you will go home and you will eat chicken, not human, because of the spread of Christianity... go to a country where there hasn’t been the spread of Christianity and they’re having human for dinner.

• It is imperative that Christians be like Jesus, by living freely within the culture as missionaries who are as faithful to the Father and His gospel as Jesus was in His own time and place. ^[9]

• You have been told that God is a loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, wonderful, and good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we're all good people. That is a lie... God looks down and says 'I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you,' and we say that is deserved, right and just, and then God says 'Because of Jesus I will love you and forgive you.' This is a miracle. ^[10]
• I study the Bible all week, pray to the Lord, and then I speak from my heart. It's all about brutal honesty. ^[11]

• A pacifist has a lot of difficulty reconciling pacifism with scripture. ^[12]

• ..the truths of Christianity are constant, unchanging, and meant for all people, times, and places. But the methods by which truth is articulated and practiced must be culturally appropriated, and therefore constantly translated ()...if doctrine is constant and practice is constantly changing, the result is living orthodoxy. ^[13]

[edit] See also

• Charismatic
• Calvinism
• Emerging Church
• Missiology
• Missional
• Missional Quotes

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives (Zondervan, 2007)
• Confessions of a Reformission Rev. : Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Zondervan, 2006)
• The Radical Reformission (Zondervan, 2004)
• The Relevant Church: A New Vision For Communities Of Faith (Relevant Books, 2004)

[edit] External links

• The Resurgence hosts Mark Driscoll's blog.
• Pastor Mark packs 'em in An article on Driscoll and Mars Hill Church from the Seattle Times: Pacific Northwest Magazine.
• Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question 3: A Prologue and Rant by Mark Driscoll a 'rant' by Driscoll against McLaren. Note that Driscoll later apologized for this 'rant' on his blog.
• Acts 29 Network
• Blog interview with Mark Driscoll
• Article in Christianity Today