Hipster Jesus
A friend of mine sent me an article about New Calvinist uber-pastor Mark Driscoll. I have to admit my knowledge of Mark is very limited. In fact I got him confused with the emergent movement, but after reading the article I remembered he was part of New Calvinism which, for some reason, is attracting 20-somethings like mad. I attend a Calvinist church so it does suprise me that in a world of relativism to see young heads going to a church that has certain ideas and theology that can be hard to grasp or to wrap your mind around. It seems to work so good for him. I know when I was their age I would have loved to go to a church like Mars Hill where you are likely to find people who bought the newest Tom Waits album and can quote "Clerks". When you are young who wouldn't want to be with like minded people that you share a lot in common with? At my current church if I try to bring up my giddy joy that Over The Rhine is coming to a local theater most people's eyes glaze over, but they know what they believe and why they believe it. I can't tell you how many times when I made a statement people much smarter than I have asked, "So that's what you believe? Why?" Why do I have the feeling I wouldn't get such a challenge from Mars Hill? And to be around so many fellow hipsters sounds kind of annoying to me. I do not think I could handle week after week being around so many people who are just like me. I'd miss out on the encouragement, ribbings, and fun that I have with the men and women of my church who are, thank God, not like me in the least. Plus, I am tired of people trying to be controversial just for the sake of being controversial. I am no longer impressed by people trying to shake the tree to create a cult of personality. The best pastors and teachers I have ever experienced weren't particularly dynamic they just love the Lord and desire to equip and edify the body through scripture. Lastly, he has way too much power. To have one person be in so much control of a church that they can tell you to shun somebody just because they question some of your ideas is ridiculous. That is how the PC(USA) went from being a church steeped in scripture to the liberal mess it is today. In fact, a church I attended imploded for that very reason. Too much power given to a few who forgot the needs of the church. Perhaps Mark offers a lot of good things to the Christian buffet? I do not know. I am curious to read his blog and see what he has to say.
Labels: good reads, religion
posted by Out Of Jersey | 5:17 AM
5 Comments:
The ideal is a balance: a community that includes people somewhat like me who can relate and people not like me who challenge me and my thinking.
Which is what I have now.
Our church is going through some tough transition to the point that part of me wondered if we should consider leaving.
But we're committed to this community of people, and we can't readily leave that.
It also surprises me when I discover someone like me who I'd never guess to be like me. We may have different tastes, but they stem from the same values. We may be different ages, but that refreshes the friendship (bringing me her wisdom and her my craziness--if you need extra craziness in life).
I personally am not real fond of his work or his thought. This is a guy who implied that if Ted Haggard's wife hadn't let herself go and had pleased him sexually he wouldn't have had a homosexual affair. He pretty regularly comes off as a moron, and that has kept me from being able to take him terribly seriously.
At the same time, I am fascinated with the fact that his church has grown from his living room to being several thousand strong.
Heather,
That's pretty much how I feel. I have found at least some common ground with others unlike myself and a different perspective I can enjoy.
Luther,
That was the guy? I knew someone said that, but I never knew who it was. How sad.
Yep, that was him. I tried to find the blog entry online, but it has apparently been taken down. The original quote - made in a blog entry about the HAggard scandal - was this:
"Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations
and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely
despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one
for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who
really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their
husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives
them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually
available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank
about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be
helping him either."
Like I said, I think Driscoll is on to something in the way the attracts folks to the church, but his message to me leaves a lot to be desired.
Of course, who am I to judge? I'm pastor of struggling church of 60 people that meet in an old strip mall. He must know something I clearly don't!
yeah, i don't... i don't know man. his large following doesn't really matter to me. but he is a brother and i'm trying to be respectful, but he flies off at the mouth and is very disrespectful and hurtful in much of what he says. he basically accused stay-at-home fathers of being lazy a couple months back and i wanted to tear him a new one (not that i mind being challenged, but i'd rather not be judged b/c of his warped and fixed views on gender roles.)
add that to what you said about his controlling power, yeah, i don't have the highest regard for him...
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