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.