I've been listening and thinking through Mark Driscoll's sermon series on the book of Ephesians, "Who Do You Think You Are?" for a couple of months now. Each sermon has encouraged me in various ways and I've posted a lot of quotes and links to each one. The only one out of the series that I really wasn't agreeing with was "I Am Appreciated." I can go into reasons why at another time. In other sermons, there may have been points that I wished he would expound on (or that I know he's already expounded on in other sermons), or that I wasn't sure I agreed with him on, but as a whole, the sermon was quite good and biblically based. I really would recommend the series to all Christians who want to think more deeply about the passages in Ephesians, and also about what we sink our identities in. Here: http://marshill.com/media/who-do-you-think-you-are
Now, onto a lengthy aside that I actually didn't intend when I started writing this. A lot of people really seem to hate Mark Driscoll. I can respect some people's disagreements with him, and don't agree with him on everything myself. I've probably said this before, but I don't think that there are any preachers or teachers out there that are perfect and who have everything perfectly correct. For me, it just depends on what specifically that preacher or teacher is right or wrong about, judging by what the Bible says. Some preachers'/teachers' issues are easy to spot and it's not hard to say, 'Okay, well that's definitely an issue but it's not something that necessarily discounts everything else he or she is teaching, and it doesn't totally throw out important parts of what the Bible teaches us.' With others, there is no doubt at all that what they are teaching is totally wrong and that their teaching is not redeemable until they get the key tenants of the Christian faith right. I am a huge advocate for not just accepting anything a teacher says just because it sounds nice and/or because I like how they say it. I am more interested in truth than whether or not a person entertains me or makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So please, use the brains that God gave you and be diligent in your discernment of what a person is teaching. Oh and also, READ YOUR BIBLE. That's a big one. People seem to forget that that's kind of a necessity in being a Christian and being able to discern between what's true and what is false. Don't just trust your fallen mind to figure out what's right. There's a reason why we have the Bible and why we need our minds renewed (Romans 12:2).
My Mom (@Karen Rose) made a good point awhile ago in a conversation on this topic of teachers that made sense to me. We're all sinful, we all have our areas where we desperately need to grow in Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit, and there are some of us who are called to do big things in the Kingdom of God. She wondered if it's possible that there are some obvious issues in certain historical teacher's lives that God left in them for a time so that people would know something important; so they would know that that teacher's good works, the big things that they were doing, and the power that they were doing them with, was all from God. As one can easily see, in this country especially, we tend to idolize and put people on pedestals. We tend to do this especially with our favorite preachers or teachers. In doing this we tend to forget that they are human, fallible, and fully able to lead others astray. A good example of this is Martin Luther. Yeah, Luther's a pretty important guy in Church History, right? A lot of people still read his writings and he has helped many Christians along in their faith. But then there's that glaring bit about him being an Anti-Semite towards the end of his life. Hmmm...so should we throw out all of what he did and said? I'll let you think about that one.
Another good point made by my Godmother. With the age that we are currently in, where there are so many teachers/preachers with much bigger platforms than they might have had years ago because of the Internet, we are able to point out even more of their flaws. It's all on display, and we can re-watch the video over and over again until we puke. We also don't give anyone a break in that plenty of the old school teachers/preachers had lots of sins and mistakes that they committed, it was just in front of a smaller population of viewers. I think this can also go along with the aforementioned fact that we have pet preachers/teachers that we like and who can do no wrong. Until, of course, they have an affair and have to step down from their pulpit. That's the unforgivable sin, but the rest...oh we'll just ignore them.
Anyway. Yeah I get a bit riled up about this subject. In an age where we can scrutinize people a lot easier, and slander them with a quick couple taps of some keys, it can be frustrating to see how ill-informed and down right mean Christians actually are. Like I said in the beginning of this blog, I don't always agree with everything Mark Driscoll teaches. And there are legitimate issues that people have with him. But I have seen a lot of people who dislike him because they have either taken what he's said way out of context and/or because they just don't like how he delivers a point. Then they go on to post lots of articles and blogs about it, when they didn't actually listen to the whole sermon or read the whole book. Another issue I've found is that the disagreements are rarely on a biblically-based point. It's usually just because Driscoll rubs them the wrong way.
Now this really isn't all just to defend Mark Driscoll, although I'm sure that it comes off that way. I do like listening to his sermons, and I have been taught many good things by God through Him. He isn't the only guy I listen to though. And this is more about the fact that Christians are getting caught up in a nasty habit of being ill-informed, lazy, slanderers, just like everyone else around them. That's a big problem. We seem to have forgotten that we have an imperative to think about what we are learning and also that we are intimately attached to some of the people we dislike. The image of the Body of Christ wasn't put in the New Testament just so we could pull it out when we like or agree with our fellow Christians. It was put there so that we could know that we can't just decide when to pick up or throw out a brother or sister in Christ. God's the one who decides these things. And I'm pretty sure He's not too keen on us just spitting out our opinions every which way without actually studying and praying about what might be going on with the teacher/preacher we disagree with.
All of this to say, please think, and pray, and read your Bible. You don't have to like Mark Driscoll, or any of the other preachers/teachers I post. You don't even have to agree with me (unless it's about all of the stuff in here: http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm). It would just be nice to see more well thought out discussions about our teachers, and more grace given to those we disagree with. We tend to forget that we are just as sinful, just as prideful, just as ugly, just as in need of Jesus as the next guy. So let's start treating each other like we need each other...because we do.
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