Thursday 4 September 2008

Mark Driscoll talks about us

Gordon helpfully posted the summary notes of Mark's talk.
Three things that caught my eyes:

1) One generation preaches, next generation assumes, third generation denies.
4 horsemen of the evangelical apocalypse = Jim Packer, John Stott, Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer. They preached the message of the gospel with great effect.
Next generation after these men assumes this and has its basic message not the gospel (which is assumed) but rather “you can have your best life now.”
Now, there is a whole generation who deny. Sin, Jesus, hell, preaching, penal substitionary atonement. They are only doing contextualization.
We should be Seeker-sensible, not seeker-sensitive. Our doctrine is not flexible, our methods are. You need to explain what you are talking about, and assume nothing.

I think I'm in a complete agreement with him here. We must preach the gospel all the time, never assume that the hearers heard the gospel message enough and need to move on to some other topic. We need sermons that touch on various topics, but they must connect the topics to the gospel and the hearers brought back to and grounded firmly on the gospel.

2) Point 18. Movements have become institutions and museums. A movement is where God does what he always does, only more so. Greater sense of urgency. Puritans. Methodists. Charismatics. Not all movements are good. Every movement has its strengths and weaknesses. Young people are the key. I’m an old guy, but around here I’m a young guy. The puritans were roundly criticized for just being children. Jonathon Edwards, 19 years old. D.L. Moody was 21. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was 19. Billy Graham was 19. Statistically it takes 25 years or more to build a megachurch. If you don’t even give the leader the keys until he’s 40, he’ll run out of gas before he gets there.

I think we really need to think differently about our youth. Young men and women can be mature and strong in the Lord. We often dismiss even the possibility of them being so and enforce their immaturity.

3) It is suicide for a single man to plant a church. In the US, I can’t remember a single case where they haven’t fornicated and gotten fired. Single people, like Jesus and Paul, should be in high-risk of death ministry.

Funny, yet, I think it's probably wise to listen to his opinion here.

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