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

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.

http://theresurgence.com/gospel_coalition_2009_driscoll_outline

• 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.

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

“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.

The Band of Bloggers event will coincide with the Gospel Coalition conference. Featured speakers include Tim Challies, Owen Strachan, Steve McCoy and more. This looks to be one of the highlights of the whole shindig.

Band of Bloggers

As I watched the 2009 Super Bowl halftime show , the realization that the Boss’s performance was a crash course in branding landed like a Ken Shamrock hook. 

Quick review: the seven elements of primal branding are creation story, creed, icons, rituals, pagans/non-believers, sacred words, and leader. In a scant twelve minutes, Springsteen ran them all past us while simultaneously rocking Tampa stadium and 90 million viewers.

Icons: Springsteen and saxophonist Clarence Clemmons held a backlit pose that evoked the cover of the classic 1975 album “Born to Run.” Additional icons included omnipresent sideman Steven Van Zant, and Springsteen’s battle-scarred Fender Telecaster guitar, almost a symbol for the man himself: well-traveled and bearing the marks of his pilgrimage, but by no means ready for a museum yet.

Leader: In his opening monologue, Bruce cast himself as a rock’n'roll revival preacher firing up the crowd. Throughout the set he conducted audience sing-alongs, called audibles to the band, and roamed the stage with an energy that bordered on manic.

Creation story: How about a rendition of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” to open up with? The second track from “Born to Run”, the song tells the story of the formation of the E Street Band, centering on the characters “Bad Scooter” and “Big Man.”

Rituals: The raging physical displays of Springsteen’s arena shows and the sight of him, wife Patti Scialfa, and Van Zant singing into one microphone are on-stage rituals. No less dear to fans is the one which is our responsibility: keeping up the constant sound of a lowing cattle herd by calling out “Broooooooce!”

Sure, the 59-year old rock star was a little winded going into “Born to Run;” show me a 29-year old rock star who wouldn’t be. We won’t even discuss The Power Slide That Took Out the Camera Man. Just respect it, and move on.

Sacred words: In addition to the aforementioned shouting of “Bruce”, no word is as closely identified with this act as “Boss.” Springsteen’s nickname arose from his practice of collecting the band’s pay after nightly gigs and distributing it among the members. The moniker was neatly worked into the final moments of the performance.

Pagans, such as non-fans, other bands, or tv execs who limit a performance of this magnitude to twelve minutes, were represented by a referee who threw a flag on the band for exceeding their time limit. (Cheesy, but they got it in there.)

Creed:  The creed of the E Street Band has been, and hopefully ever shall be, spiritual hunger, the search for meaning, and authentic American rock and roll music. From the Stax-flavored, big horn section in the opening song, to the yearning for love and fulfillment in “Born to Run”, to the hopeful hard-work ethic in “Working on a Dream”, to the ubi sunt awareness in “Glory Days”, we got a whirlwind tour of the major themes in the E Street repertoire. Of all the elements in the creed, none shone as clearly as authenticity, exemplified by the performance being a live one.

No offense to Jennifer Hudson or the many other performers who have lip-synched at the Super Bowl, but for Bruce to have done it simply would have rung false. Because, like the hot rod muscle cars celebrated in “Born to Run”, Bruce’s gig has always been high-octane and V8 powered. Not the 6-highest-frets solos of metal, or the sawmill-in-the-garage distortion of grunge, or the I-wonder-whose-voice-that-really-is showmanship of techno pop, but Real Deal rock music. Heartfelt, handcrafted, and here to stay.

Many acts have experienced a boom in sales after playing the Super Bowl, and E Street may be no exception. With an album release in February and a tour in April, this was a timely appearance, one that presented a great opportunity to remind customers of a brand’s core values. I still can’t figure how it could have been done better.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get much cooler. All together, now…LO-GOS! LO-GOS! LO-GOS!

LOGOS Bible Software

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