How We Should Feel About Church Planters

Mars Hill Church’s Pastor Mark Driscoll recently gave us a great look at what a pastor’s attitude should be toward members of his church who feel called of God to plant new churches.  Start at the 3 minute mark.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/humble-pastors

Driscoll in Person

We unexpectedly met Pastor Mark Driscoll on the way to dinner at the Gospel Coalition.  It was a brief conversation, but I thought it might interest folks who follow him via podcast to hear some observations of the (often controversial) guy in person.

First, he was totally approachable. When I realized he was right there in front of me, I thought, “When will I get another chance to thank him personally for how much I’ve benefited from his teaching?” So I stuck my hand out and said, “Hi, Pastor Mark.”  When people live in the public eye and get shot at a lot, they tend to become guarded.  Not so Pastor Mark. He was reserved at first, for which I commend him, b/c he doesn’t know me, but he was cordial, friendly and gave no sign of not wanting to talk to people. And he has a dudely handshake.

Second, he was gracious. Sometimes when you thank people for having a big impact in the world, they give you the old, “It isn’t me, brother, it isn’t me; it’s the Lord,” false humility routine, a sort of self deprecation overkill in which they can’t just receive a compliment in proper perspective. Mark looked me right in the eye, said thank you and made no show of pretense.

Third, he was gentlemanly and courteous to my wife, which makes him go up in my estimation even further.

Fourth, he didn’t seem to be in any rush to move on. Probably he should have been, b/c the longer we talked, the bigger the mob of well-wishers became and finally I cut the conversation off since I didn’t want the guy to miss dinner. But we talked for a few minutes about his friend and ministry partner Pastor Tim Smith, a guy who, like myself, is too tall, plays the guitar, likes pipes and theology, is named Tim, and is into Johnny Cash. While the discussion went on, Mark was obviously in no hurry to go anywhere.

Fifth, I got zero vibe that he was into himself, arrogant, pretentious or anything of the sort. He seemed just like the guy in the podcasts, which is how it should be. Also, he had some very cool boots on.

So, for those who might be curious, there’s one guy’s observations of Pastor Mark Driscoll in person.

Driscoll’s Notes from Gospel Coalition

Here they are, available at Mike Anderson’s blog, The Resurgence.

http://theresurgence.com/gospel_coalition_2009_driscoll_outline

Gospel Coalition Chicago Geekfest

Gospel Coalition 2009 started with bang yesterday. The highlights:

• MARK DRISCOLL
• the exhibit hall

The exhibit hall is equally as packed as the speaker lineup: Resurgence, Logos Bible Software,  The City, Crossway, IVP, NavPress, Acts 29, Banner of Truth, etc.

After bringing in hundreds more chairs last night to alleviate the standing room only problem, the conference organizers closed registration.  Awesome.

Why Hawk Is So Cool

80s TV. Does it get any better? Magnum? Higgy Baby? The Equalizer? Those were characters you don’t forget. The cool factor was high on many shows, but nowhere more than Spenser For Hire, starring Robert Urich as the two-fisted Boston p.i. with a penchant for quoting Shakespeare.

But, all props to Urich, the main reason why the show was so cool — was Hawk. Spenser’s mysterious friend and sometime colleague, a force of nature with an ebony chrome dome, wraparound shades and a gun bigger than my car, Hawk was indelibly brought to life by Avery Brooks.  In a recent bout of musing, I tried to pin down exactly why Hawk was so awe-inspiring in his badness.

The threads? The shades? The aforementioned huge gun? Nah. Had to be something else. The awesome fight scenes? The sheer magnetism of Brooks, grinning while pounding someone’s head into a car door? Still no. It had to be something more. Something elusive, obviously.

At last I thought I had it. It was Brooks’ delivery. He had such a unique rhythm, his throwaways so smooth, his irony so dry, that hilariously cool thing he did with Hawk’s laugh — that had to be it. It was the writing plus the attitude, see for yourself:

But that wasn’t satisfactory either. And then — illumination. I knew in a flash exactly why it was that Hawk was so cool:

Hawk is so cool because he is who we want God to be.

A powerful and mysterious friend who leaves us alone, but never fails to show up in our lives and save our hides at just the right moment. He asks nothing in return, smiles knowingly, perhaps with a wry remark, then disappears to wherever he goes until the next time we need him.

A God much more in line with our self-centric view of the universe; a sort of Holy Intern with a pager on his belt, forever on call; a Divine Blue Line who exists To Protect and To Serve — that’s a God our egos could be smugly pleased with. Thankfully, no such god exists. Just an all-powerful Creator whose grace is bestowed on us because of nothing in ourselves. And who can therefore require of us anything. Including being conformed to the image of his son.  In a small way, and very slowly.

“Heh.” – Hawk

Jesus Loved Martha

Failing to Sabbath is a too frequent sin of omission in my world.  Busy-ness plagued Martha, and for that, some preachers like to beat up on her, though Scripture says Jesus loved her. Spurgeon weighed in with the sermon “One Thing Needful.” I hope this excerpt blesses you and encourages you to honor  God through intentional rest.

“Let me say, even to those of you who can honestly declare that Christ is your sole confidence, it is possible for you to forget the necessity of sitting at his feet. You, dear brethren, are looking to his precious blood alone for your salvation, and his name is sweet to you, and you desire all things to be conformed to his will. So far it is well with you, for in this you have a measure of sitting at his feet; but so had Martha; she loved her Lord, and she knew his word, and she was a saved soul, for “Jesus loved Mary, and Martha, and lazarus;” but you have not perhaps so much of this needful thing as Mary had, and as you ought to have. You have been very busy this week, and have been drifted from your moorings; you have not lived with your Lord in conscious fellowship; you have been full of care and empty of prayer; you have not committed your sorrows to your loving friend; you have blundered on in duty without asking his guidance or assistance, you have not maintained, in your Christian service, the communion of your spirit with the Well-Beloved, and, if such has been the case, let me say “but” to you, and ask you, as you sit here this morning, to make a little stop in your Sunday-school teaching or your street preaching, or whatever else it is that you are so laudably engaged in, and say to yourself: “To me, as a worker, the one thing needful is to keep near my Lord, and I must not so suffer the watering of others to occupy me, as to neglect my own heart, lest I should have to say ‘woe is me, they made me keeper in the vineyards, but my own vineyard have I not kept.’”

“To the saints, as well as to others, the one thing needful is to sit at Jesus’ feet. We are to be always learners and lovers of Jesus. Departure from him, and independence of him, let them not once be named among you. It is weakness, sickness, sin, and sorrow for a believer to leave his Lord and become either his own leader or reliance. We are only safe while we remain humbly and gladly subservient to him. You see, then, that this word “but” suggests a very useful and salutary pause to us all. May God help us to benefit thereby.”

Amen.