Driscoll just won't go away

That man Mark Driscoll seems to be everywhere. He was in London recently, but I didn't go and join the fans. Then I got this link to one of the most bizarre sites I've ever seen. I suppose there's no reason why the Song of Songs shouldn't be a cartoon, but ...

And then today, I got news (thanks Martin) of a talk he gave to the Sydney Anglicans, while he was down under recently. The Sydney Anglicans are not known for their relaxed, easy-going attitude, so I can only guess at the response: I guess the blogosphere would tell me if I searched ... the news reached me from a different (geographical and ideological) corner of Australia, so it is certainly travelling.

I would urge you to take a look, and even to listen, if you have time (it takes about an hour). Why? Well, what he says is by turns prophetic and inspirational, brash to the point of being arrogant, wise but hubristic, factually incorrect but searching, and above all entertaining if you can picture the audience. There's much of what he says that horrifies me (though his references to church leaders as "men" will doubtless go over well in Sydney). In general his reformed theology gives me nightmares, but there's not too much theology here. If you can get past the ranting about entrepreneurs, socialism, and the British, there are some nuggets of wisdom there, and, moreover, some good methodological challenges for us all.

In the background, there is much movement going on over the use of words ("emerging" is nearly gone, I think) -- more on that another time. Whatever words you want to use to describe Driscoll, he is a prophetic voice when it comes to making the news of the kingdom relevant today. And his influence seems to be becoming very great. If you pray about things, please pray for him: it would be too easy for his outspoken ways to come before a big fall. And that would hurt a lot of people as it fell. That would be a bad outcome. Pray that his ministry may continue to grow and thrive, all the while becoming more and more Christ-like.


Edit: I sound like a fan. I'm not (see some earlier blog posts). But we do need to listen to many challenging voices if we are better to grasp the truth.