Bandwagon Follow-up

Rob Bell - amazing. I had to buy Velvet Elvis afterwards. Seeing/hearing him live was 100% better than any sermon I heard online. His "Everything is Spiritual" speech is mesmorizing, authentic, eye-opening, and just makes me go wow! That is all I could say to my wife when we left, WOW! It is coming out on DVD sometime, buy it, pre-order it whatever. Buy more than one and pass them out to your "Un-Christian" friends, family, and acquaintances who rely on science, hard concrete facts, and humanism (or relativism..."I think therefore I am" etc.) to explain life. Perhaps the best $10 I ever spent.

Oh yeah, they have new paperbacks of Velvet Elvis, which I bought one, and then waited up a little for Rob and we were able to chit-chat a couple minutes and he signed the book I bought! Pretty sweet.

Tigers won last night in 10 innings. Last night's game was perhaps the one they would be expected to lose, but they pulled it out. They are the best team in baseball right now. Hands down.

Waiting on the primer to dry in the bedroom before I put the first coat of "Chartruese Frost" on the walls. Michele is off shopping with her mom and sister so I am here painting. How does that work out?

Here is how....

*Early in the week*

"Honey, we should paint the baby's room this weekend."

"Sounds great Michele. Let's go to Lowe's and pick out the paint."

"OK!"

*Couple days later* - phone rings at work

"Hey babe, it is me, my mom and sister want to see if I can meet up at Sommerset Mall on Saturday to shop with them."

"Absolutely, go have some fun, I can do a couple things around the house I've been wanting to get done."

"Sweet, I'll call them back now."

"Sounds good."

*We hang up*

2 minutes later...

Wait, aren't we suppose to paint the bedroom this weekend? (I think to myelf).

Call Michele back, no answer. Hmmmm

Get home from work and ask her about that.

"Oh yeah, well I already called them and my mom is really excited to go shopping with her girls?!" "Want me to call her back and tell her I cannot make it?"

"No." "I'll get the room painted while you are gone."

"You're the best Brian!"

And that is how I am at home on Saturday painting the bedroom.

Married life, wouldn't want it any other way.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

This weekend is a bandwagon jumping weekend...

Tonight, Michele and I will be jumping on the Rob Bell bandwagon and attending his "Everything is Spiritual" Tour at the City Theatre in Downtown Detroit (adjacent to Hockeytown Cafe). We are both very excited to see/hear/listen to this presentation. Like everyone else we enjoyed the Nooma videos we have seen (Michele has used them in her Bible studies at her job and our Life Group has used them as well at our house) and I periodically check out some of his sermons online. Ironically, I have not (nor desire to) read Velvet Elvis. His very popular book. I hope to post a review over the weekend, which leads me too.....

Also, on Saturday we will jump on another band wagon. Re-doing a room in our house to welcome our first addition to our family. Right now we are just going to paint the room (Chartruese Frost...can you tell who picked the color?). The color is greenish but light enough to be appropriate for a little girl (complimented with pink...of course). Michele is convinced it is boy (we do not know yet, but we will find out beforehand) so we have been looking at a way to incorporate the Detroit Tigers as well as trains (I work for UP railroad and have always liked trains) into the decorating motif. Actually, regardless of boy or girl, the Detroit Tigers will be incorporated into the room's design. Speaking of the Tigers....

Now, that bandwagon is one we have been on for a long time. The best team in baseball is playing like it. This weekend is huge against Minnesota. The Twins are 34-8 in their last 42 games. However, the Tigers are 31 - 11 in their last 42 and still hold an 8.5 game lead over the Twins for the AL Central lead. So far this year, the Tigers are 7-2 against Minnesota, but all those games were played before May 19. As well, understanding the importance of the series, Minnesota adjusted thier starting rotation to pitch their 3 best pitchers against the Tigers this weekend (Liriano, Radke, and Santana...combined 33-14 pitching record). It is going to be some great baseball I wish I could see in person but will have to settle for the sofa (when not painting). I expect the Detroit Bandwagon to gain "Standing Room Only" status after they dispatch of the Twins this weekend.

Does God have a reset button?

Maybe what he actually has is a "Chose your own adventure book." You know the kind where you would read a page or two of a story and then you are left with a couple choices to make to continue the story. Based on the choice you make you turn to a different page in the book. Make decision A and turn to page 44. Make decision B and turn to page 132. You read a couple more pages and again are left with a choice to make. Turn to a different page and on and on it goes until the story is over and you either succeeded or did not succeed and you would have to start over.

But eventually you got to the end of the story and it worked out like it was suppose to.

Is this life?

God has a will and a way for all of our lives. But he also created us with the ability to make choices and a free will.

So which is it?

How does it work?

Is there an easy way to go through life and get the full blessings of God and live out his full will and way? Or have I taken so many detours so far that I am not realzing my full potential or maximum blessings I could have at this time.

Maybe this would help clarify what I am saying.

Many of us know the story of Joseph and his brothers. Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons, but the 11th son, Joseph, was screwed by many of his older brothers and sold into slavery. Eventually he makes his way through Egypt with many more ups and downs. Ultimately he becomes one of the top leaders in all of Egypt (2nd to Pharoah). Joseph was able to interupt a dream for the Pharoah and was able to stave off a massive famine that hit all over the area, including where Israel and his sons and their families had settled. They make their way down to Egypt and did not know Joseph was in charge. Joseph hides this fact at first as he makes it difficult for his brothers to get what they want (food). After a couple trips back and forth, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and his father and the whole clan of Israelites settle into Egypt for over 400 years getting fat off the land and multiplying rapidly ultimately becoming over a million strong.

Many of us also know the story of Moses and the Exodus out of Egypt.

But was the Exodus necessary?

God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give them their land from the beginning. So what if after the famine was over, Israel had returned to their home land?

Wouldn't God have smote their enemies and made sure any other nationality that had settled there would be "taken care of?"

Afterall, famine had just ripped through the land so the enemy would even be weak.

And what of the fact that God was silent for over 400 years (from the time Joseph dies until "a new king, who knew not Joseph, came to power in Egypt") while Israel just sat around getting fat and happy and not claiming the promise and covenant God had given to them?

The only other time in scripture where God is silent for that long is between the last of the prophets (Malachi, Zechariah, etc.) and the announcement to Mary (roughly 400 years again).

This all makes me wonder if the Exodus and 40 years of wondering was an (yes I'll say it) unnecessary detour that God had to put the Israelites through.

What if the famine ends and the children of Israel travelled back to Canaan immediately afterward?

God's will was still accomplished, Israel ended up in Canaan, but it seems odd to me that his promise would be over 400 years in the making (especially when they already had it).

God's will will still be accomplished in my life and your life, but are we experiencing unncessary detours along the way? Are we having to go through "40 years of wandering" that are really a loss of our time and dragging us down?

When we come to forks in the road of life and chose to turn to page 85, does that end up being the long way to our ultimate goal?

Maybe I should have made that left at Albuquerque and turnd to page 47.

My Perception

Some people look and say:

"Technology is phenomenol."

"When I was your age we didn't have the ability to see that!"

"Look how small it is right now?!"

"Isn't it something that a machine allows us to see this?"

"It is amazing what we can do nowadays"

All of the above is 100% true. Technology nowadays is mind boggling. The things we can do, the things we can see, and the things we'll be able to do see some day in the future will be leaps and bounds over what we have now.

To me, technology cements the wonder and awe that is God. It enhances (not that I need it) God and his miracles. Blessings from the Creator are legitimized (not that I need that either) through certain modes of technology that open up our eyes to what is going on and allow us a perspective that we would have no other way.

This is even compounded when the same technology that currently brings unmeasureable joy and a new perception on life, was last used to bring despair and pain. Questions and doubt. It is what makes life life. Makes it unique and a mystery to all of us humans.

This mystery is compounded when the same technology that tells you what the future holds for you cannot fully affirm the details and the looks. What the unique characteristics will be. What the amouts of joy and sadness and pride and hurt will come down the line as a result 5, 10, 15, maybe even 50 years from now.

But when I look and see:

I drop my jaw in awe of God.

I walk outside and take in the sunlight in a state of wonder.

I look at my wife in a new glow and walk in life.

My head is filled with thoughts and prayers and wonder and questions and some doubt.

When I look, I.....

Driscoll - Confessions...FINALE!!!

"Jesus, We're Loading Our Squirt Guns to Charge Hell Again."

The last chapter isn't so much a retelling of history but laying out a portion of "over a hundred pages long" strategic plan for Mars Hill church to get from 4,000 to 10,000 and more people attending their church on a weekly basis. With the church sitting at a maturity stage right now, they have a lot of processes, policies, and procedures that are well developed and in place. Capitalizing on those, Mark provides a brief overview of each of them as well as an Appendix in the back that is more of a Q&A that seems to be addressing more FAQs about Mars Hill in general as a whole. Before he begins to lay out some of the details, Mark is honest in telling us that he is hesitant to even include this here, because some of these will be done away with, completed, or added to after the book will have been published. They may not even work. But, "it's where they are at."

He begins with More Prayerful Men. He means praying outside the church service and the basic run of the mill prayer requests that fill the websites and message boards (not that those aren't needed and important), but more strategic praying. Specific needs within and pertaining to the church and the community.

A second endeavor is More Elders to help care for the people. The church is too big for one group of elders to run and manage the daily operations of the churh and plan its future. But when you add leaders and more management, harmony and consesus are much harder to attain. Therefore elder organization is also at the top of this list. He lays out 3 options and ultimately (not surprisingly) does not like either one on its own. They have started to take some elements from the 3 options and kind of do their own. Elder voting is also a concern and he lays out a couple options and (surprisingly) they adopted one of those methods.

Mark also lays out More Technology as a strategic initiative for Mars Hill. There website is there frontdoor to everyone (church members, non church members, you, me, others...everyone) and there church members only website is their new living room. With over 1,000 members, discussing over 4,000 topics with over 30,000 postings, their members only website has required a $800,000 new web portal technology (um, wow).

More Facilities which also brings More Parking with it. Mark explains that they have purchased a new "dumpy" 43,000 sq. foot warehouse just a block from their current church. Eventually, when the building is ready to go, they will continue with multiple services at both location at multiple times. With a possibility of 8 sermons a day or so, the decision has been made to have Mark preach one sermon, videotape it and the other church services will just show the video. Interesting note about this portion of the book...Mark retells the story of the time he crapped his pants in 2005 (literally). This kind of pushed him over the edge to videotape his preaching if for nothing else then for when he is sick.

It seemed odd when I first read it but Mark explains that More Security is definitely needed as they have had some people (as I have blogged about ready) disrupt their church service in sometimes violent ways. They already have a security team and have an off-duty police offer on-site.

More Training for all the church and its elders and leaders, including Mark. Theological training especially.

More Staff. Mark writes that Mars Hill intends to double its staff in the next year as they are grossly understaffed. He also writes, "One thing we will require of everyone we hire is a sense of awe and gratitde that they are privileged to work at Mars Hill and be part of what God is doing by the power of his gospel. At this phase, we can't tolerate employees who are simply working a job." (page 179).

From the no duh department, More Money. But more than telling their congregants to give more and be good "stewards of God's money", they also provide classes and seminars and books on budgeting, investing, life insurance, and real-estate. They also DO NOT pass around a offering plate, instead they:

• can set up regular deduction's from a paycheck
• Pay online via debit card
• send in a check
• offering boxes are posted near the exits, they can drop a check or cash in there
• they can place their gift in a basket when they come forward for communion each week.

Every service, they make it a point to tell anyone who is a visitor or not a member to NOT give. Being that, on average, 40% of their weekly attendance are not members, this makes those guests feel welcome.

Mark definitely points out that More Member Care is a top priority. People have real needs. Real people have addicitions, perversions, and our lost. Caring for these people is an absolute must.

More Church Planting is something that Mark hounds is needed in Seattle (for the umpteenth time, "the least churched city in the nation."). But not just Seattle, America needs them everywhere. As such, they have started up the Acts 29 Network (which is an excellent name I may add, for those that get it). The central offices are housed at Mars Hill and they help locate, assess, train, and deploy church planters around the nation and world. Matter of fact, Mars Hill church gives 10% of the general giving to help support church planters.

More Kindness, admittedly is something Mark has been working on for a long time (I truly do appreciate his brutal honesty, I mean he told us he crapped himself one time). He tells a story of when he contacted Rick Warren for some support and Rick reminded him that "he works for an audience of one" (AMEN!!!).

More Pruning. To be fruitful, everything needs to be pruned back somewhat. Some aggressivley, some tenderly, some early in age, some later in age. But all things need to be pruned somewhat to stay fruitful and abundant. Jesus pruned us through hardships, suffering, failure, loss, discipline, and pain. To endure pruning and trust Jesus yields bigger, better, and more fruit for his kingdom.

In closing the book........

"Thy kingdom come, they will be done.

Amen" (page 184)

*******************************************************

As I said, the Appendix deals more with questions including:

• Why is there laughter at Mars Hill
• Why does Mars Hill partake of communion every week
• Are the Mars Hill pastors ordained
• How does someone become an elder at Mars Hill

There are more than these, but you get the jist (if you do not, buy the book, it is well worth it).

The second appendix is titled "Distinctives of Larger Churches" and contains some titles that deal with Pastors and their roles, how large churches are led, church facility use, expectations of large churches, etc. Followed by 3 - 7 bullet points under each explaining or describing.

Finally, there is the "Notes" section which contains all the references that Mark makes throughout the book and also contains even more commentary to further explain some of the ideas and subjects he wrote about. This portion of the book is 10 pages long of about this size font with A WHOLE LOT OF INFORMATION.

I do not know what more needs to be said about this book. It is a great read that does have its weak points and moments that lag a little. But it is filled with humor and history. As much as this book is about a church plant and how it grew or maybe even tailored more toward pastors, the common lay person can garner a lot of information from this book. Some of it you will agree with, some of it you will disagree with it, but it will get you thinking about your church and your role in it. Mark will challenge you (or at least me he did) to look at your participation in your local church and if you are helping to advance the gospel of Jesus.

Are you loading your squirt gun, while helping others do the same, to charge hell?

Or

Are you sitting there with your pants around your ankles with a bottle of lotion in one hand and a kleenex in the other?

Driscoll - Confessions...8 (Chapter 6)

So far, through the book Confessions of a Reformission Rev. - Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church we have read repeatedly the hardships and crisis that Pastor Mark Driscoll, his wife (Grace), and Mars Hill Church have gone through to get a church planted, started, and sustained in the "least churched city in the nation." Every time, just as things looked up, they quickly headed downhill and in a rather grandiose large-scale fashion. Satanic influences undoubtedly, maybe some bad management and or decision making as well. Nevertheless, as we already know since this is the "story of" Mars Hill, they always tied up their bootstraps and climbed out of it. In this chapter things are different. Mars Hill owns their church building (and the Paradox), has a full-time staff, Mark and his wife have a growing family, there was money in the bank, and Mark was "sleeping like a Calvinist at night because things were under control." (page 140) Then Mark goes and blows it all up. On purpose.

Realizing that church must stay innovative to grow he goes on a "rampage." He starts to fire people, reorganize the elders and deacons, bring in new leaders, they fire more people and reorganize more programs and projects, and collectively they shut down their multiple buildings and move into one building to coordinate the church from there. They shut down the men's home and women's home they had started. They started encouraging solid married couples to open their homes (and/or buy bigger homes), bring in renters (preferably non-Christian), and start small community groups. On and on the list goes. They literally blew Mars Hill up and started it over.

The difference being that there were leaders and some finances in place to undertake this endeavor. As would be expected, Mars Hill lost members and staff members and elders as they made these proactive changes. Some of the staff members and elders that left did not really leave though. They just did not move into the one central building. They stayed where they were and started new church plants. An excellent alternative, which Mark did not count on but was very happy for. (page 148)

The "new" building they moved into was a 20-year-old 40,000 sq. foot former hardware store. They had no seats for their first service there and people had to bring their own. As they moved forward with the reorganizing, church members began coming forward with money and gifts for the church (someone donated $20,000 for chairs, that person remains anonymous to this day), another family gave $500,000 worth of sound gear to the church. A sound engineer during this time also became a born-again believer and he designed the sound system for Mars Hill.

As they moved into the one building and had four different Sunday services, in addition to the now "awesome" sound and lighting productions, a buzz began to grow about Mars Hill Church. The Seattle Times did a 12-page article on the church. This really but a buzz into the city and as word grew, Mars Hill found itself going from 1,200 people in that first service in the old hardware store to now having 4,000 people a week in attendance. Mark admits that a third of them are actual members to Mars Hill church. The rest are made up of non-Christians, people checking them out, tourists, other Pastors looking for a fresh perspective, and other potential members who want to see if Mars Hill is right for them.

Mark explains that his priority shift was to develop leaders to work in the church so he could work on the church and plan for future growth (something he also mentions in Chapter 0). Through some extensive research and conversations with some of the pastors of the largest church's in America, Mark points to ten principles:

1. I needed to transition from caring for all the people to ensuring they were all cared for by raising up elders, deacons, and church members.
2. I needed to transition from being everyone's pastor to being the missiologist-preacher who led the church from the Bible in the pulpit.
3. I needed to stop doing most of the work I was doing and deploy more elders and deacons to manage church members who would do the work of the ministry.
4. I needed to transiton from working both in the church and on the church to almost exclusively working on the church, continually making plans to connect the Bible with our culture.
5. Our internal and external church communication needed to transition from informal and oral to written and formal, which include me writng lots of email templates, booklets, and position papers to inform our people.
6. We needed to transition our people from a survivalist mentality that focused on the present to a settler mentality that focused on a lasting legacy.
7. We needed our people to accept that we would be a very large church.
8. We needed to ensure that in the tension bewteen caring for Christians and reaching non-Christians, evangelism continually remained our highest priority.
9. We needed to accept the fact that some people would feel less connected to my family and me, experience displacement, and leave the church.
10. My wife and I needed to reserve the right to select our own friends without feeling personally obligated to everyone in the church.

These principles are what Mark established before he went cutting a swathe through Mars Hill church. It was provacitive and maybe a little arrogant (to say the least) but the initiative seems to have paid off as Mars Hill enjoys over 4,000 people in attendance a week while staying true and grounded in the Gospel of Jesus.

The last chapter remains.

Driscoll - Confessions...7 (Chapter 5)

This chapter was definitely a blur as Mars Hill grew from 350 to 1,000 regular congregants. While the chapter opens with some success and structure to Mars Hill it quickly turns down hill as we learn that Mars Hill was being evicted immediately following the sale of their building. They lost everything, the offices, worship space, class space, band space, and no where for their church to meet.

We read how Mark attended a community Pastor's meeting and asked the whole group for a building to use for free for a yet to be determined amount of time. The host Pastor of the church they were meeting at was gracious enough to offer up their church for Sunday evening services to Mars Hill.

The building was less than spectacular being in the middle of downtown being surrounded by panhandlers and drunks who would "pee on the church." (page 118). Mark and the others called everyone they knew and told them of the new locale and they cut back down to one 5pm service. They cancelled all their programming and went into "survival mode."

It was during this time that Mark thought long and hard about his next step and how long he was going to keep working on Mars Hill. He ultimately recommitted himself to the church and its membership and vowed to the congregation they would succeed or he would die trying.

As such, Mark and Grace threw themsleves into a 24/7 lifestyle for the church. The home they were renting was used to start back up some of the men's and women's bible studies and programming. Their family began to come under some demonic attack (Mark relays a pretty chilling story involving his daughter Ashley and "the bad angels." It is pretty scary, honestly).

While borrowing the old big church, Mars Hill was still trying to get into their own building to no avail. Eventually, they were able to get their hands on Seattle's oldest theatre and re-named it "The Paradox." The building is in a pretty dilapitated state with leaky roofs and a ra infestation among the plethora of problems. Additonally, it too was surrounded by many homeless adults and kids. The back of the building was a popular spot for heroin junkies, so much so, that one morning a couple of the guys came into the office and found a dead guy on their steps.

So now Mars Hill had 2 old barely able to stay standing buildings. They were able to get some free help from a couple guys who owned construction companies in the church. Also, miraculously, a yound couple offered up $200,000 to the church. That was huge, to say the least, as they got both buildings up to code and were able to start hosting rock concerts at the Paradox to reach the many young people in the area. Eventually they also started up a 7pm Sunday service at the Paradox to follow the 5pm in the old big church. One thing that Mark wrote about in relation to the Paradox is worth noting here I think. He mentions that the Paradox was setup in a pretty shady part of town (as we have already read) but they exploited that "hip" area to be hospitable to the surrounding residents. Here he writes:

"Many Christians wrongly think that hospitality is the welcoming of fellow Christians into their home and church for friendship. But that is fellowship. Hospitality is when Christians welcome strangers, especially non-Christians, into their homes, lives, and church."

There is a distinction between the two and Mark lays it out very succintly here.

Anyway, as the church progressed and began to grow again, Mark noticed a huge gaping hole in the church....the men.

He had men his age and older coming to him over anyting and everything. It was so bad that Mark called a meeting for men only and demanded they all attend. He preached for more than 2 hours about manhood. His premise was that a man cannot "charge hell with your pants around your ankles, a bottle of lotion in one hand, and Kleenex in the other." (page 129)

At the end as the men walked out (the ones that stayed at least), he handed them each 2 stones and told them they were getting their "balls" back. After this Mark began to preach his Sunday sermons from the book of Proverbs. This further fanned the flame of manhood and masculinty within the men of Mars Hill and the congregation started to soar.

In a little over a year after that, Mars Hill had to go from one church service at each locale (the church and The Paradox) to 6 services at 2 different locations. There was still a lot of growing for the church and the men to do as well as Mark himself (he spends the last couple pages talking about his shortcoming, repentance, mistake, and growth). Ultimately it ends with:

"So we made all these difficult decisions, and the church stabilized. Finally, we had facilities, money, men rising up to lead, intentional community housing, a successful concert venue, and a church that seemed organized to us. We had grown a church of one thousand people in a tough urban culture despite massive hardship. With things going so well, I feared we'd get too comfortable, and so I decided it was time to blow it all up, create some strategic chaos, and start over yet again."

Up next, Chapter 6 - Jesus, Today We Voted to take a Jackhammer to Your Big Church (1,000 - 4,000 people)

Driscoll - Confessions...6b (Chapter 4)

The second half of chapter 4 is not as insightful as the first half has been, so I will just provide a quick overview.

Mark had decided to start a Sunday night 9pm service after an opportunity opened up next to the University of Washington. Mark did not hesitate and started the service immediately. It bombed immediately. Mark writes that he believed only attractionally and not missionally and had wrongly believed that if he had a cool band with some cool music and preached cool sermons he could reach the college dudes easily and they would just show up.

It was painful but after a few months, Mark pulled the plug and his dignity took a "huge hit." He was completely bummed out but learned a valuable lesson: ministry should be done both attractionally and missionally (something he wrote about in Chapter 0).

Additionally, during this time, Mark's wife Grace started to experience some serious medical problems. As much as Mark was spending every waking moment working on the church, his wife was doing the same and working outside the church for money for thier family. Grace would lead Bible study's, organize meals and support for new moms, as well as organize all the baby and wedding showers in the church. Mark and Grace were both putting in all the hours and extra time with the church and none with each other.

Pulling the plug on the 9pm Sunday evening service put some of that in perspective to Mark. As such him and his wife began to work on their marriage. Mark confessed to her that he had failed to manage his church and home effectively enough to not put this extreme burden on Grace. With the confession and tear shedding, Mark and Grace grew together stronger and shortly afterwards, their first born daughter (Ashley) was brought into the world.

As his home began to come into order he realized that his church still was not in order. He was doing pretty much all the work. There were no deacons or elders. Plus they were running evening services exclusively. As such, many people were double dipping. Meaning, going to their home church in the morning and Mars Hill in the evening. This meant the congregants were tithing in the AM at their home church. Mars Hill was still getting very little financial support. Also, they were not getting any leaders or people to give of their time too. As such, Mark went out to set up church government and structure.

This the portion of the book where Mark explains the different methods of church leadership and government and structure (ecclesiology). He critques the 3 common methods (no surprise as well established methods seem to never fit with Mars Hill) of:

1. Congregational Ecclesiology - picture a reverse pyramid with the congregation on top, the staff in the middle, and it funnels down to the pastor. The congregation runs everything and votes in and out staff and pastors as they are viewed as employees of the congregation.
2. Senior Pastor Ecclesiology - runs like a CEO led corporation. The pyramid is now upright with the pastor at the top and in the middle is the staff and it broadens out to the congregation. These churches will grow greatly as the leadership is established by few people. Problem is that no one is there to stop someone's possible stupid idea or keep them in check when they screw up.
3. Elder Ecclesiology - similar to the CEO model, but now a board of directors (elders) are in between the pastor and the staff.

Mark also writes extensivley of Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Church which lays out that the goal is to move congregants to roles of leadership and ministry rather quickly. This is done through a lot of training and classes.

Mark implemented some of Warren's methods but altered them a little to fit is missional and attractional methodology. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will always run the church and be the "Senior Pastor." Elders are a qualified team of male pastors who are player coaches who are both leading the church and training people for the ministry. Deacons are qualified male and female pastoral associates. Members are church leaders who give their money, service, prayers, and time to the advancement of the gospel and submit to discipline if needed.

The new element though is the Gospel Class. All perspective members must go through the filter known as the Gospel Class. This would all to know the major doctrines and missiology of the church. After the class, the attendees are asked to sign a covenant with the church. Those who did not or did not agree were asked to leave. Mark admits this may be harsh, but he wanted missionaries in the church who held to the gospel and had a yearning for lost people and bringing the gospel to the culture.

As the leadership was set, the church members began to grow and the weak ones were weeded out, the church began to take care of itself. No longer with Mark and Grace running and controlling everything. Home Bible studies started up. new youth programs as well as prayer ministry's were started.

The weekly attendance climbed above 300 and things were humming along. But it would not stay that way.

Up next Chapter 5 - "Jesus, Why Am I Getting Fatter and Meaner?" (350 - 1,000 people). Preliminary thoughts on this next chapter lead me to believe it will be a whirlwind. If more problems are on the way (as the last line of the current chapter leads me to believe) but yet the church will nearly triple (350 to 1,000 new members) alot must happen in the next chapter. We'll see.

Driscoll - Confessions...6a (Chapter 4)

"...an older woman who always wore purple because it is the biblical color of royalty, brought a praise flag, and carried a tambourine with ribbons flowing from it...jump on stage and play with the punk rock band as the Spirit led. One night I put my face in my hands during worship, asking Jesus to rapture her immediately." (page 100).

This is what can be expected when you open the doors of the church to culture and let them all come in. While the story is humorous, I like the fact that Mark never stopped her from doing this. Might have been hard for him to do, but the ability to be "open" to something like this happening is what has helped Mars Hill grow. True it was probably distracting and people lost focus on the worship and music, but all in all, was she being demonic? Was she stopping the church? So Mark was tolerant, but you see his human side with the rapture comment. It is this "human" element of Mark that is so real. He'll admit (confess) his sins to any and all and make the changes that need to be made. He is human like anyone of us and when the crazy lady got up one Sunday evening and was led by the Spirit, Mark prayed for the rapture. So very human.

Mark opens Chapter 4 telling of the community and ordinance headaches the church began to experience as it grew into the 200 people range and even split into 2 services. They had parking problems (people's cars were getting towed during service because they had to park illegally) and noise problems (many neighbors complained about the noise so much that the church bought a noise meter and had people watch the meter and regulate noise during the service).

Mark explains that has the church reached 150 and he expressed to them they were going to split into 2 services to keep growing, many in the congregation were concerned they would lose the small community feeling.

"What they were really saying is that they wanted to be a small community and not a large community of multiple smaller communities." (page 94)

So Mark preached through the first couple chapters of Acts and showed how in one day 3,000 were added to a little church of 120 in a upper room. Mark made it clear that "limiting the size of the church for our convenience was a sin and that we should be a church that always exists more for the people who are not yet saved than for people who are." (page 94).

To which I say AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, and AMEN.

Now, for those that are familiar with Mark's preaching style, you know he usually picks a book of the Bible and goes through the whole book in a systematic way. Occasionally he preaches a series sermons on a topic rather than a whole book, but a majority of the time it is start at chapter 1 of a book and go to the end (but as Mark points out "move through the Bible books fairly quickly" to avoid people losing the overall theme and purpose of the book). He gives some insight into how and why he started this.

1. Christians should learn all of Scripture and not just topics
2. It is important for Christians to understand how to study a book of the Bible and realize the inspiration God had in organizing and inter-connecting it all.
3. So many new people come and go from Mars Hill, it is easier for people to follow along and not get lost while jumping all over the Bible.
4. BECAUSE ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD-BREATHED AND FOR OUR BENEFIT, THERE IS NOT A PAGE OF SCRIPTURE THAT IS NOT HELPFUL TO OUR FAITH, SO WE SHOULD EXAMINE IT ALL. (my emphasis)
5. This forces controversial and tough subjects to be addressed that would/could be otherwise ignored.

So, where dd Mark begin this style of preaching? None other than the Song of Songs. The book in the Bible devoted to sex and pleasure. To say he didn't do this on purpose to drum up some controversry is to be naive, but to deny how smart it was is also naive. As Mark did not hesitat to preach on marriage, foreplay, oral sex, sacred stripping, and outdoor sex ("just as the book teaches"). By the way, all of these sermons can be heard at marshillchurch.org.

A pastor using the words "penis" and "oral sex" is going to start a buzz and it did as people from all over began pouring into the church. From here, Mark begins to the tell story of how he began the friendships with notable Christian leaders and authors as many showed up at his church and he began to travel the country going to pastor confereces. These men included Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz, where Mark is known as "Mark the cussing pastor", Searching for God Knows What, and Through Painted Deserts), Rick McKinley (Jesus in the Margins and founding pastor of Imago Dei church in Portland, OR), Chris Seay, David Crowder, Dan Kimball (The Emerging Church), Doug Pagitt, and Brian McLaren (A Generous Orthodoxy).

Mark writes extensively about his relationship with Brian McLaren. This is in light of the "cyber-fight" they had a few months ago over some comments Mr. McLaren made in regards to homosexuality. Do any google search on Mark Driscoll and one of the first hits you will get is on that cyber-fight.

Anyway, Mark gives the history as they all came together, but then sadly, they began to break apart as they began to differ on doctrine and such subjects as the sovereignty of God, God's knowledge of the future, whether Jesus dies as a substitute for our sin, and many others. Mark explains that he became very frustrated by having to argue over very explicit teachings from he Bible that some young pastors disagreed with. He did not want to leave and seperae from this group of people, but conviction should always beat community.

Next I will finish with the second half of Chapter 4.

As an aside, I am enjoying this book the deeper I get into it. I know the reason is that it is becoming more of a history book and a running commentary on Mark's growth as a Christian and church leader while also providing some great insights into how the whole Emerging Movement (which Mark claims over and over he is NOT a part of) and the Reformed Movement (which Mark claims over and over he IS a part of). Being relatively new to both "movements" it helps to understand the history of both and understand how all the men mentioned above connected together and wove together. Anyone that travels the blogosphere within the "movements" has read a whole lot about these guys and been to all their websites (blogs). So this helps connect some of the dots.

Driscoll - Confessions....5 (Chapter 3)

As Mars Hill Church grew from 75 - 150 people Mark and the leaders faced more roadblocks and outrageous circumstances that could have destroyed them or scared them. But they continued to grow and take deeper roots into Seattle and its culture. There were more mistakes made by Mark, but once he realized his mistake he turned immediately and would confess to all the church and make the change that was necessary. But Mark's focus during this chapter, were on a couple specific instances that were quite "supernatural" in their actions and events. He also spends some time helping church leaders define the type of people who enter their church and what kind of people they will be. As such, so will my focus.

The first story was of an "older man who had been somewhat of a mentor" to Mark (page 74). He began pushing some theological limits that stretched the gospel. Additionally, during his first sermon in the church, he brought his wife up for a team teach which focused on Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem. During which time, to "demonstrate" the old man asked Mark on stage and then asked him to get on all fours and act out the part of the ass. Mark does not admit if he followed through on the request, but he does suggest he was oh so close to punching him in the mouth.

Secondly, Mark had a "dream vision" where the old man walked through the doors while Mark was in the foyer (Mark gives a very detailed description including shoes, shirt, and pants style as well as color of each and the mans accessories that he was dressed with). The old man instructed Mark to give him complete control of the church. Mark writes that immediately after this happen, "God then spoke Acts 20:28 - 31...and 1 Peter 5:1-4." God had spoken to Mark directly that the man was a wolf in sheep's clothes whose design and desire was to destroy the church. Mark admits that since that time he has had many other similar dreams and words from God and always know they are from God because they come true and are "confirmed by God with Scripture." (page 75).

In this instance, on the opening night of their church plant in October of 1996, Mark and his wife (Grace) were just sitting down as the service was starting. Grace realized her Bible had been left in the foyer. Mark raced to the foyer to grab it before the service started when guessed who walked through the door? The creepy dude from The Poltergeist (well that is what I pictured at least). Yes, the same old guy dressed and accessorized exactly the same as Mark had dreamed and made the exact same qoutes to Mark as he had visioned. After Mark picked his jaw up off the floor he immediately asked the man to leave and never come back. Some time later, another Pastor contacted Mark and relayed to him that that man had been kicked out of churches before for undermining young pastors and taking money from church plants.

The other story Mark relays to us through his book is during the beginning of one of their church services (just as attendance was steadily reaching 150 per week) . They would begin their services in a time of prayer with various people praying for the city, church leadership, each other, etc. During this time, Mark felt compelled to standup and proceed to the front of the church and stand their at the front over looking the church. As he did so a young man from the back began praying out loud and his voice changed dramatically as he became very authoritative and commanded all to stop worshipping Jesus and trust in ourselves only. He then got up and sprinted down the aisle in a fit of rage and heavy breathing spouting "absolute heresy about Jesus (page 86)."

Mark immediately began qouting Scripture he tells us (1 John 4:1-6) and raised his hands over the man and prayed against the demon in the man and prayed forJesus to save him. The man turned right around and sprinted back up the center aisle and arms flailing ran out the double doors and into the street. Mark admits how crazy it sounds and acknowledges that some in the congregation may have thought it was orchesrated. He assures it wasn't and also tells us the result was that many people left the church and attendance dropped a bit.

Instead of wilting or ignoring the situation, Mark called upon the congregation and the church leadership to embrace this captured soul that Satan has over many in their city and to go proclaim the gospel of Christ to these captured souls and free them. They also resolved to not allow these heretics and false teachers to continually sidetrack them in their mission to bring the "simplicity" of the gospel of Jesus (page 87).

Mark tells other stories of renegade worship leaders leading people off to mystical Catholic Churches and New Age self-help cult seminars and the endless search and time it took to find an ample replacement that would fit Seattle's culture but also carry a strong conviction for Christ. This same worship leader also led a booze cruise complete with loud cursing Christians who crashed one of the church services that they were having out on the beach (something they would do throughout the summer).

And as I mentioned before, Mark spends a lot of time in this chapter explaing how important it is for church leaders to categorize their members and others who visit. This proper evaluation will allow the leaders to discern who should lead and who should help and who should work and who should be asked to leave and who should never be asked to help but expected to show up every Sunday. Also show how needy each member is (Mark also gives some time in this chapter to the "bombshell" him and Grace received when longtime friends of theirs left thet church because Grace "would not drop everything to take this woman out to tea whenever was convenient for her." (page 81)

The following is his list breakdown (page 79 - 80):

• Horses - are vibrant leaders who pull a lot of weight and run fast. Horses need to have character, sound doctrine, and agree with the vision of the church
• Colts - are emerging leaders who need training, testing, and opportunities to lead. If properly broken in, a colt can be devleoped into a horse.
• Fish - are non-Christians who are spiritually lost and often not actively looking for God. Fish need a Christian friend to lovingly introduce them to Jesus and his church.
• Eagles - are skilled leaders who are being developed within the church with the express kingdom purpose of leaving the proverbial nest and leading a ministry elsewhere, such as missions work and church planting.
• Mules - are faithful workers who dependably and continually do whatever is asked of them in the church. Mules need to be thanked and protected from burnout.
• Cows - are selfish people who wander from church to church, chewing up resources without ever giving back to the church until they kill it. A fence needs to be built around the church to keep cows out.
• Squirrels - are people who are generally liked because they are nice, but they rarely do anything meaningful. Squirrels need to be put to work in the church.
• Stray Cats - are socially peculiar loners who linger around the church. Stray cats need a friend to help bring them into the church and an opportunity to serve other people so that they can be meaningfully connected to the church.
• Rats - are people who appear to have the potential to have a fruitful ministry, but they lack dependability, humility, or maturity. Rats need to be rebuked, and if they do not repent, they must be strategically ignored until they commit to no longer being a waste of time and effort.
• Sheep - are people who have legitimate needs that require patient and loving support. Examples of sheep include widows, orphans, and those who are seriously ill or fighting addictions. Sheep need to be loved and served.
• Ducks - are disgruntled people who continually quack about whatever they are unhppy about. Ducks need to stop quacking, or the pastor(s) must go duck hunting before ducks drown out everyone and everything else in the church.
• Wolves - are false teachers whom Satan sends into the church to devour Jesus' sheep. Wolves need to be quickly identified, rebuked, and if they are unrepentant, they must be shot before their false teaching destroys people in the church.
• Snakes - are evil people sent by the Serpent on a mission to destroy the church through anything from sexual sin to starting rumors. Leaders must stomp on the heads of snakes before they bite people and infect them with deadly venom.

As one would expect, this can be a lot of work and hard to do when you have only met someone once or twice or are meeting many people everyday. Mark tells a story which is interesting and relevant to this situation:

Lyle Schaller (the Yoda of church growth) "told a story about an old umpire he had met. He asked the umpire how he felt after making the wrong call. The umpire stated that he never made a wrong call. Puzzled, Schaller asked if he truly believed that he had never called a safe man out, an out man safe, a ball a strike, or a strike a ball. The umpire said that he had never made a bad call. Schaller asked him how that could be, and the umpire simply said, 'It ain't nothing until I call it." (page 82)

Mark explains in his church he had heretics calling themselves Christians and lazy, selfish Christians calling themselves mature. Mark had some "calls" to make. So he did.

I really enjoyed this chapter as it got away from "question asking" and more into narrative, history telling, and facts.

Chapter 4 is next - "Jesus, Could You Please Rapture the Charismaniac Lady Who Brings Her Tambourine to Church?" (150 - 350 people).

Detroit Sports

Man what a bummer 24 hours:

Steve Yzerman retires

then

Ben Wallace bolts Detroit for more money in Chicago

At least we still have the Tigers (still the best team in baseball)

The 4th

I have always enjoyed the evening time this time of the year. Sitting outside and listening to the cracks and booms out in the distance with the bright white flashes filling the nighttime sky. I cannot help but think that this is exactly what it sounded like and looked like during the American Revolutionary War.

I am in the big city and so I am sitting on my porch getting the effect of fireworks as I also hear kids and parents alike clap and cheer in joy and glee over the sights and sounds. During the Revolution, I envision if a family was sitting on their porch, the explosions and flashes could be from the cannons and firearms from which they originated and be seen off in the distance as the battles were fought over farmland and in peoples front and back yards. And the voices heard would be field commanders barking orders, and the grunts and wails and crys of militia men and army soldiers waging a battle. Some to live another day and many to never again.

I do thank God for this country I live in and I am not naive enough to believe it was/is perfect and that its history isn't shoddy and sometimes outright disgraceful, but their is no other country for me. Everything and everyone has a skeleton or two in the closet (maybe even a full closet of them) but humanity on a whole owes so much thanks to God our Creator for the birth of this GREAT nation.

One Nation Under God

Driscoll - Confessions....4

"In my opinion Chris Rock is the most skilled comedic communicator alive today, and some years later, my wife bought us good seats to see him live, which was a better study in homiletics than most classes on that subject." (page 70).

As Chapter 2 comes to a close, Mark is summing up Mars Hill Church as it begins to average 45 - 75 people. Filled with more funny (and also "no way, made up or dramatized for effect") stories, runing commentary, history, and blow-by-blow accounts of 3am phone calls (hence the name of the chapter. Mark even writes of how he would unplug his phone for multple days on end), white-gloved handell playing children, the decision to pull the plug on a dying unsaved mom, starting a nursery, and the search for a "cool" worship leader. WHEW!!! That is alot to weed through and cut through. And I didn't even mention the masterbating church member (it's in the book, buy it and read it). This chapter deals a lot with the struggles that young church leaders and planters will encounter as their church begins to move out of the infancy stage.

At the juncture where Mark writes the qoute about Chris Rock, he had come to the realization that his preaching sucked. But more than read books on it and practice and go see others preach, Mark realized that stand-up comics are the only other people besides pastors who stand up on a stage and talk to people for an extended period of time. So he read the books and practiced but he also went to go see some of the best stand-up comics of that time. And this further shows his conviction to the embrace of culture for the goodness and beauty it gives to us through our (and culture's) Creator.

There was something oddly comforting about the fact that I just read that a Godly pastor of a church went to see Chris Rock in person and it wasn't to demonstrate and protest outside. Kind of like the time my wife and I were at lunch with our Pastor and his family and he told me he went to see U2 in concert the weekend before and "it was totally awesome." I was dumbfounded for all the right reasons. If I only knew, I would have asked my Pastor to go with me as well to that concert...how awesome would that have been? Rocking out to "Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For" or "Bullet the Blue Sky" or even better "Angel of Harlem" with my Pastor. Who knows if I will ever get that opportunity again. None the less, the comfort remains of knowing he was there.

Back to the point, Mark writes that he realized hs droning on with big theological words wasn't getting him anywhere. He slowly began to mix in his "own style" and "own humor." This lead to him becoming more of himself. And he noted that he progressed from "really bad to bad" (page 70).

Another great part of this chapter was his journey from starting his church to only appeal to "Gen Xers" to realizing this was dead on wrong and "stupid" because the gospel is for anybody and everybody.

"having a church that catered only to people between certain ages is narrow, it was also sinful because God loves the whole world and not just white guys between their teens and late twenties." (page 64).

This revelation and revival lead to Mars Hill starting up a nursery for kids (they never intended on having one or needing one, Mark writes). Which then progressed to beginning to offer marriage classes and counseling and ultimately Mark officiating weddings (all the single twentysomethings really liked playing and working with the kids in the nursery. As they learned through the gospel, to get their own and do it the right way, they needed to get married and start a family grounded in the firm foundation of the gospel). As families were added and grew, more people became members of the church and Mars Hill was finally able to move out of the upstairs room of the fundy (oops...I mean Fundamentalist) church and into the sanctuary.

There was active, legitmate growth in the Mars Hill church. But we find out that has Mark closes the chapter, Satan was waiting and hell was breaking out.

Next - Chapter 3 "God, Satan showed up and I can't find my cup."