Mark Driscoll has been taking some heat and some hits the last couple of days over a session he filmed for the Exponential Conference which is the 2007 National New Church Conference - a conference for start ups, church plants, and people trying to make churches improve and grow.
The video of Driscoll's session is now available on YouTube. The video is 9 minutes long, and worth your time to listen to.
I appreciate Mark for the way he speaks the truth, and how passionate he is about it. Amen Brother, AMEN! And the video is really cool too.
Update:
Mark Driscoll posted on his blog just a bit ago about the video. It appears that every person in attendance at the conference was supposed to get a DVD of this video, and after Bill Hybels sold Driscoll out, the leadership of the conference decided to not pass out the videos. I've lost some respect I had for Hybels over this.
Related Tags: Mark Driscoll, Bill Hybels, Exponential Church Conference, Exponential, National New Church Conference 2007, Mark Driscoll Video, Mars Hill Church, Emerging Church, Emergent, Church Planting Network, Church Plant, Church Conference, Andrew Jones, Tall Skinny Kiwi
7 comments:
Great video. I understand the tension. There are many good churches on both side of this issue. However, his comments about Christ and the strategy of church planting are right on. Great post! dt www.davetilma.com
I've just read Mark's chapter in "Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church." I'm going to remember that bit about "Jesus is not a gay hippie in a dress."
Mark has been growing on me more and more this past year. That video was very Braveheart-esque, it definitely was motivational. I appreciate his heart and courage to say hard and challenging things.
I was there. And have on my desk right now TWO copies of the Driscoll DVD handed out to me by Acts 29 people ten minutes after the sessions ended...what is lost in this is the lie that the distribution of the DVD was banned. Not even kinda. Regardless of your belief about the issues the fact that the DVD was not banned - but was claimed to have been - has to rankle.
Todd,
Thanks for your comment! It's good to hear some or perhaps all of the DVD's did get distributed. I'm not at all doubting your accuracy, but I wonder then where Driscoll got the impression the DVD were'nt handed out? He's not the kind of guy to make that up, so somewhere there must be a serious miscommunication going on. Either way, my issue with Hybels isn't about the DVD's, but about him taking a shot at Driscoll. I've followed Hybels for a good number of years, and that was really disappointing to me.
Big Chris
Chris, thanks for your response. I cannot believe that Driscoll would intentionally represent the facts. I have no doubt that someone told him that the DVDs were banned. My concern is that he publicized something that was untrue (and frankly, stretched credibility to believe) without doing due diligence. I was not thrilled that Hybels took a shot, but I will add this - Bill's comments were clearly directed at Driscoll's position and not his person...
Todd,
yeah, it surprises me too that Mark hasn't changed his statement, or made a new one with current info.
As for Hybel's comments, he has gotten in trouble a couple of times for off the cuff remarks. When Hybels says something, it carries a lot of weight, even among those who don't like Willow. I didn't take it as a personal shot against Driscoll either, but definitely it was undermining (in my opinion) what Mark had just spoken on, without any chance for push back from Mark on the matter. There's no doubt Mark believes women are gifted. I too think this is why Driscoll replied as he did without being confrontational towards Hybels for his remarks. Either way, I thought it poor taste and timing for Hybels to do that. He could have said the same thing and with the right wording not have set his position against Marks.
Big Chris
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