He’s been called the “cussing pastor,” (although I have never heard him swear in a sermon) Pastor Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington and is one of the world’s most-downloaded and quoted pastors. His audience—fans and critics alike—spans the theological and cultural left and right. He was also named one of the “25 Most Influential Pastors of the Past 25 Years” by Preaching magazine, and his sermons are consistently #1 on iTunes each week for Religion & Spirituality with over 10 million of downloads each year.
I’ve listened to a few of his sermons on podcast, and they have been pretty good although I have never read any of his books. Personally for me he has always been a little “sexist” for my taste, my wife is an ordained pastor and so his message of women as the “weaker” sex doesn’t really fly with me (or scripture).
Recently, I was listening to a podcast that shared the following story about a recent event at Mars Hill and I felt that this story had to be told and made (more) public.
Here is the story: Mars Hill Church Discipline Contract (part 1) (part 2) from Matthew Paul Turner
In a nutshell the story is about a young man who has some inappropriate sexual contact with a girl at church, he feels poorly afterwards and confesses to his fiance and his small group. What follows is a series of phone calls and meetings with Church leaders until he his handed a “discipline contact” that the church wants him to sign and adhere to.
After feeling a little beat up, he decides to leave his church only to find out that Mars Hill has no intent on letting him go without shoving a few more knives in his back – one of which is a public notice to the entire church detailing what he has done, calling him “unrepentant” and advising church members to sever all ties from him.
To be fair, the article and story are not specifically about Mark Driscoll although his name and picture are in the banner, and in all honesty if this story picks up, I would not be surprised if Mark tries to distance himself from this story.
And like all stories I am sure there are people grieving on the Mars Hill leadership team that it has gone this far, and I am sure there is more to the story than just the story of the victim. (read Mars Hill’s statement on Church Discipline)
But I have preached sermons on church discipline and Matthew 18 and yes, it can be very heavy handed… but I can’t for the life of me believe it was meant to be carried to this extreme.
Can you?
The Mars Hill website calls Church discipline a sword to wield!
I’m sure Mark would call me a “wimp” at this point, but I would never treat someone like this, or make their sin public, or demand that they jump through hoops to find forgiveness and restoration.
The gospel is good news, Jesus brought Good News that flew in the face of the current message of the Pharisees. The Pharisees and the temple system were built around penance and sacrifice, and they did their best to create a chasm between the “godly” and the “ungodly.” Jesus fought that corrupt system and invited that…
Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Who wants a heavy faith? Who wants their faith to be a burden to bear?
Martin Luther fought a corrupt church system that insisted that sinners had to “buy their freedom” and that salvation wasn’t free; and when he didn’t retract his statement he was banned from the church and labeled an outlaw.
Martin Luther taught that salvation is not earned by “good deeds” but received only as a free gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Luther’s theology challenged the authority of the Pope and the Catholic church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge and strongly opposed elected church leadership by claiming that all Christians were a holy priesthood.
Am I saying that this kid at Mars Hill is the next Martin Luther? Of course not, but I am saying that I think this kid has both Jesus and Martin Luther on his side.
As soon as we set “church leaders” up to be holier than thou, or the medium between forgiveness and God, then we pull Christ out of the picture. Forgiveness and grace and love is free and Christ is the only medium you need between you and God.
Yes, we should absolutely confess our sins, but we can do that with any believer, it doesn’t have to be a pastor or church leader.
Remember, it’s Christ’s church.. it’s His bride. Don’t allow your church leaders to make it about their doctrine of their vision. If someone is ruling with an iron fist in your church then just remember that iron isn’t light or easy – and if it isn’t light or easy, it’s not from Christ.
They say in the contract that he was very connected. I wonder what the church did prior to this as part of his sanctification…other than preaching….how were they connected to him? I’m not asking in judgement, but sincerely wondering.
They want him to take responsibility for his sin, but how do we, as a community, take responsibility for each other- not just generic accountability either. I’m talking about investing in lives so genuinely that we lovingly see the patterns of weakness and are so connected that we want to receive correction from one another.
That’s what I long for. People to not just build me up or tear me down, but who recognize my struggles and draw me away from them with biblical intentionality.
So, I went and read the chapter they posted explaining their philosophy of church discipline. I was bothered by the extreme lack of scriptural references to validate the pedagogy. And one of my biggest pet peeves is taking a phrase or idea from the Bible and twisting it to suit your ideology.
For example:
“In the days of Nehemiah, God’s people rebuilt the wall encircling their city with a trowel in one hand and a sword in another. With the trowel they built, and with the sword they defended.”
The images of the sword and the trowel are incredibly important because they show that anything we build for God (e.g., spiritual life, marriage, children, business, ministry) requires carefully undertaken, painstaking work as typified by the bricklayer’s trowel.
Yet, building alone is insufficient because what is built can and will be destroyed unless it is also defended and protected. Subsequently, the ability to wield a sword in our other hand is a noble and godly skill to be mastered. In keeping with this analogy, formative discipline is trowel work and restorative discipline is sword work.”-Driscoll on discipline
You can’t connect the sword in Nehemiah to Church discipline!!! Talk about proof texting. The sword in the rebuilding of the temple was against God’s enemies, not wielded against His body.
Just my opinion.
oh and my opinion as well, and if Driscoll told me that more churches should have a church discipline policy and actually enforce it, I would wholeheartedly agree. But still “the greatest of these is love” and so no matter what “the church” entity should always take the largest burden and shoulder the greatest pain because it is an entity and not an individual.
IMO, the young man confessed to the woman he hurt and to his peers who hold him accountable, and if they had forgiven him – then the matter is over. His mentors can “advise” he refrain from dating for a time (as fasting) and they can advise that he seek a counselor, but we have to allow people to grow as God grows them – not as we wish it.
Church of No people: http://www.thechurchofnopeople.com/2012/01/getting-spanked-in-church/
James’ ramblings: http://jamesbradfordpate.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/mark-driscolls-church-discipline/
Matt Kelley http://matthewlkelley.blogspot.com/2012/01/driscoll-discipline-conversation-my-2.html
And also, it would be interesting to do a deeper study on Matthew 18 in the context of the letter that was sent to the MH church. The rationale for disassociating with the young man is that Jesus says, “If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
But is is just me, or does anyone else read that Jesus treated pagans and tax collectors not with disassociation, but rather with acceptance and association. He ate with them (Mark 2:16), He offered salvation to them (Luke 19:9), and He even chose a tax collector (Matthew) as one of His twelve disciples (Matt 9:9). These were not in acceptance of their sin, but as with Zacheaus, the very presence of Jesus in his life caused him to desire to make things right and to be genuinely righteous.
It seems that the church leadership is missing two key points, the young man confessed to them- they did not have to approach him and point out his sin. So immediately this moves from a church discipline issue to one of restoration and healing.
And secondly the greater danger is to those who will not forgive upon his confession.
(Also from Matthew 18):
“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Amen. I’m actually quite concerned with the attention that Driscoll gets. He’s not quite the picture of what I consider to be a pastor who preaches the Word, but rather one who preaches what he thinks about the Word.
yeah, he seems to get kookier every year