Celebrity vs. accountability: the disconcerting case of Mark Driscoll

UPDATE to below: Wade Burleson makes the point I feel like I am trying to make here, though more eloquently and with some more details.  But you don't have to take my word for it.

I am someone who could be considered part of the generation of "de-churched, re-churched" believers--young men and women who grew up in church, fell out either wholly or in part as we became entranced by the real world, but then experienced God's call to truth and found ourselves transformed and back in church not simply because "that's what Mom and Dad did" but because we found ourselves in love with Jesus.  There is a list of preachers who find themselves at the forefront of this revival of sorts, three in particular that often come to mind and mention: John Piper, whose terminology inspires this blog title; Matt Chandler, my own pastor; and Mark Driscoll, whose Mars Hill Church began as an effort to preach the Gospel to Seattle, one of the most notoriously unchurched cities in America, and has grown to have campuses all over the western United States.  All three pastors are prolific speakers, and both Piper and Driscoll are prolific writers.*

But John Piper and Matt Chandler are missing one commonality with Mark Driscoll: they have not become the subject of notoriety or accusations regarding their behavior or personal character.

Book review: What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qu'ran

Let me preface this by saying that I don't consider myself to have any sort of authority to really "review" this or any other book as...well, as an authority.  I am writing about it purely from the perspective of, I would say, the sort of person this book is intended for: a Christian desiring to have knowledge that can aid in the preaching of the Gospel to those who need to hear it most (that would be everyone).  And to that end, the book I want to discuss is exceedingly useful.

The book I refer to is What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qu'ran, by James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries.  Dr. White is an incredibly intelligent and well-spoken teacher and preacher of the Word, and while there are a couple of minor points we may disagree over*, by and large I have found his work to be invaluable in expanding my understanding, maturity and confidence.  He has a prolific body of work, and is known for his unflinching engagement of apologetic issues ranging from second and third tier issue discussions (issues like spiritual giftings and the various "isms" of Christianity, like new perspectivism, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, etc.), cultic offshoots of Christianity (such as King James Onlyists) and other religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, atheism, and of course, Islam.

There are many things to appreciate about all of Dr. White's works, but three primary ones shine through that make this work helpful and edifying for the believer:

1. It is detailed and utilizes good scholarship while still being readable and clear.  So much writing is just hard to wade through because it's so thick, either with dry, boring prose or the author's own overwrought attempts to sound "casual" that generally result in them sounding confused and unclear.  Dr. White is a heavy user of footnotes, and every statement is backed up with thorough documentation so that, should the reader so desire, one can verify if his statements are true and reflective of what he is discussing.  In addition to this, he is completely transparent both as to his motivations and his sources, and such transparency only serves to make his work more credible in the eyes of someone who may otherwise be skeptical of a Christian writing about Islam.
2. This is not an anti-Muslim screed, or a book about the encroaching dangers of Islamofascism/sharia law in the West.  Dr. White desires to see transformed hearts in the Muslim world, and approaches them not as enemies needing to be beaten back, but as brothers and sisters that are astray and in need of Christ's love.  As a result, this book is written in love and in a spirit of gentle correction and discussion that, one hopes, would be accompanied by the Spirit's movement in the hearts of readers to unlock chains of deception.  That in and of itself makes it incredibly unique.
3. Dr. White is devoted to the idea that a text should be able to speak for itself, and therefore the book has extensive quotations from both the Qu'ran and the hadith literature that forms the body of understanding and commentary on the Qu'ran.  By doing so he is able to open the minds of Christians seeking to understand their Muslim neighbors, to talk about their worldview without attacking and to give an apologetic basis for engaging in the areas that typically are sticking points between Christians and Muslims.  In one section, he writes about the claims of the Qu'ran that "people of the book" (a.k.a., Jews and Christians) should look to their own writings (the Torah and the Gospel) for evidence that Mohammed is Allah's final prophet and that the Qu'ran is Allah's true and final word, while also demonstrating that the Qu'ran's author clearly did not know what was contained in either of those writings.**  While anyone who has engaged with someone from another faith can well attest, simply demonstrating this will not generally cause them to make an about-face into Christianity.  It can, however, open doors of dialogue, and demonstrate that we as believers do take them seriously and desire to understand them. 

The spirit of love and the earnest desire to see Muslim lives transformed by the power of the Gospel is infectious and clear.  This is a book that anyone who wishes to understand their neighbors, their mission field or just to understand the true thoughts and desires of the people we see portrayed on the news as everything from savage monsters to innocent victims of Western colonialism.  Muslims, like all others, need to know that Jesus is not simply a teacher or prophet, not simply someone who said good things and carries a title of Messiah, but that Jesus lives and that He gave His life to redeem theirs.  They need to know that their good works do not hold value before a holy and just God, but that in Christ they are seen as justified, sanctified and glorified, adopted children of the living God.

I encourage everyone to read this book.  I read it on my Kindle phone app, which was very useful in hopping back and forth easily between the main part of the book and the footnotes.  While it won't make you an expert on Islam (a title even Dr. White does not claim), it together with a knowledge of the Bible will give you a foothold in understanding it and its adherents, and in being able to have loving, fruitful conversations that, God willing, will lead to lives transformed by the power of the Gospel.

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.--1 Peter 3:14-16

The light of love and the one who least deserved it

I was listening to a streaming discussion about Calvinism, and commentary related to a tape being played of someone criticizing it by saying that they heard a lot of theological discussion and verses about the sovereignty of God, but they didn't hear a lot of talk about God's love. My wife was listening with me and she mentioned that she agreed with him to some extent: that she feels like a lot of theological talk comes apart from a discussion about God's love, and so people who are hurting and tired that come to this just have no interest in hearing it, and in fact it serves to place a heavier burden on them. And this placed a weight on my own heart. After all, I certainly have not felt like that about the teaching and preaching that has greatly impacted my own life. The words of men like Matt Chandler, John Piper and Charles Spurgeon have always come to me, not as an intellectual, dry talk about theological issues, but as hot, passionate love notes to a God that authored their very existences, who transformed them from people who were focused on themselves, their own comfort and desires, into men who were willing to sacrifice all that for the sake of giving glory to Jesus and pointing others to Him. And I realized that I needed to do a better job of being that same person, of not simply being a knower and explainer, but of being a lover and an example of how much Jesus has shown me His immense love for me.

My life before His life was poured out into me was one that had begun in church, but in which I feel like my ears were not open to hear. I know truth was spoken, and my parents especially sought to gently, lovingly bring us up in a Godly way and point us to Jesus. But even as I managed to conform my external life to a pattern of religion, to a way of talking and acting that seemed good and right, my unseen life was one full of addiction to selfishness. Self-righteousness ruled my life and thoughts, desires to pursue my own way and my own pleasures drove me; as I grew older I found a growing addiction to and desire for pornography that would not be satisfied. I was self-centered, and even moralistic statements I might have made were not because I understood the real significance of who God is and what it meant for His Son to have come to die for my sins, but because I believed deep down that the way to please God was to be able to hold on to an intellectual position. My eyes were closed to the reality that the life I lived, and the thoughts I allowed into my head, were a complete insult to the God I paid lip service to.

But God is rich in mercy, and it was His mercy that began to take away the things that I had used to tell myself that I was good enough on my own, in my own head. My success in school, in music, in life in general eroded, and I was left feeling frustrated and tired. I was getting along just enough, and I was sick of it but I knew no other way except to just continue as I had. Then one day almost exactly six years ago, God opened my ears, and I heard for the first real time the Gospel of Christ preached--not that I had not heard it before, but that it was in that moment that the Spirit spoke directly to me, in words of conviction, of love, of a desire to lead me into the true joy of really knowing Jesus.

And things happened in a series, quickly at first to let that first seed fall, and then afterwards slowly as the new life planted within me began to grow and flower. First, God gave me a mirror in the form of His Word: my ability to hang on to a belief that I did not really live out didn't make me commendable. It made me a functional atheist. It was really irrelevant what I thought about God, if my heart hated Him and wanted to pursue wickedness and selfishness. He showed me how I had acted in an evil manner in the way I acted in secret, and in the way I acted publically: not simply my porn addiction but the way I dealt with my friends, with strangers, with people online and in real life. No longer was I able to look at another and think "I am superior," because God broke that down: I was the chief of sinners, undeserving of anything except death.

But that was only the beginning, and the next part is why the preceding section is seen as mercy: He showed me how much He loved me. I was able to see the examples in the Word of mighty men and women of God...who really, weren't so mighty. They were broken people, just like me, who struggled with their sin and ached for a closer relationship with their God, who made mistakes and were reconciled. And God forgave, God loved, God transformed, not because they had done anything to make themselves better, but because it was His good pleasure to do exactly that. God's love extended so far that He sent His Son, who deserves nothing but ultimate praise and worship as the Creator and the Word of God, to become a man born to the lowliest station of life, to live the life I could never live and die the death I deserved to die, because He desired to adopt into His kingdom sons and daughters who knew that love and desired Him above all things.

And in having my eyes opened to that love...I broke. I wept openly and praised the Name of the Living God that He would ever make my life anything other than a display of His justice...instead, He made it a display of His mercy. He made it a moment to show His incredible forgiveness, His love and goodness in working out His desires to adopt and redeem me. Again, not because I had deserved it, not because I memorized enough verses, or knew the right things, or acted the right way. Certainly not because I could hold and defend an intellectual position, but because it was His pleasure and desire to glorify Himself by loving me more than I could ever deserve. And that is why I love God, it's why I love the doctrine of God's sovereignty and His rule over my life...because I do not deserve it, but He has worked it anyway. I pray for more and deeper roots, and I pray that I would be seen as a gentle, nail-pierced example of that love, to my wife most of all.

Strange Fire follow-up

Just as an aside from my last post, I wanted to share this link to John Piper's response to the Strange Fire conference. Not because I consider him the ultimate authority or anything, but because I feel like he has done a much better job than I did in explaining the hestitancy I have in putting myself in one camp or the other for this particular debate. I would recommend listening to all the podcasts listed.