ResearchTyler Tankersley  |  December 6, 2021
When I used to be in faculty within the mid-2000s, I wolfed books by way of pastors and writers who have been categorized “Emergent.” Popping out of my Southern Baptist upbringing, I used to be attracted to expressions of Christianity that perceived to interact tradition now not as an enemy, however as a chance for better contextualization of the gospel.
It gave the impression that a lot of the kinetic power in the back of this Emergent motion was once popping out of the Pacific Northwest. Donald Miller, who lived in Portland, Ore., wrote his ebook Blue Like Jazz. I used to be so captured by way of his frank and truthful reflections on religion that I jumped on the alternative after my freshman 12 months of faculty to do an internship in Portland with a fledgling ministry group.
My internship was once to paintings with a ministry to the unhoused based totally out of a small church get started. We worshiped in a film theater, and we hosted nightly occasions the place we washed the ft of and equipped unfastened haircuts for the unhoused at the streets of Portland. Our small congregation was once a part of a quasi-denominational frame of church buildings referred to as the Acts 29 Community, a gaggle of theologically Reformed church planters.
As a part of the internship, the opposite intern and I got a ebook to learn written by way of one of the crucial major leaders of the Acts 29 Community. The ebook was once The Radical Reformission by way of Mark Driscoll. In it, Driscoll lays out his non-public sense of project and calling for church buildings to be puts of deep doctrinal fact and likewise edgy studies of cultural engagement.
“I used to be discerning a choice to ministry on the time, and Driscoll’s concrete simple task was once interesting at a time in my lifestyles once I felt out at sea driving the waves of doubt and confusion.”
I used to be discerning a choice to ministry on the time, and Driscoll’s concrete simple task was once interesting at a time in my lifestyles once I felt out at sea driving the waves of doubt and confusion.
For the following couple of years, I adopted Driscoll’s ministry as it all started to blow up on YouTube. Pals would ship me clips of his sermons, and we might gawk at his audacity to scream at his congregation and curse whilst preaching. Then again, his fervency at all times perceived to stand up out of a passionate adherence to the gospel and, due to this fact, we felt his outbursts and vitriolic language have been merely expressions of his fervency for fact and righteousness. In different phrases: The ends justified the approach.
As my theological horizons started to enlarge, I began to look Driscoll’s sermons in a brand new gentle. I may now not sq. away his “prize-fighter” model of Jesus with the Lamb of God. I heard too many tales of ladies who have been grew to become clear of the gospel as a result of Driscoll’s rants about “Femi-Nazis.” Sooner or later, by way of the grace of God, I discovered different voices that led me deeper into the best way of Jesus.
Mark Driscoll preaching at Mars Hill Church (flickr)
Which is why I’ve listened with heightened passion to the hot podcast from Christianity Nowadays referred to as The Upward push and Fall of Mars Hill. For many who might not be mindful, The Upward push and Fall of Mars Hill catalogues the tale of Driscoll, the church he based in Seattle (Mars Hill), its fast enlargement and its much more fast ultimate after Driscoll was once discovered to have fostered an abusive and noxious management surroundings.
The general episode not too long ago posted led to me to replicate at the revel in of being attentive to this tale of a church’s fast enlargement and unexpected crumbling.
The podcast has now not been with out controversy, and I feel probably the most complaint has been unfair. Some other people have taken umbrage at the truth that the podcast highlights probably the most certain studies many had at Mars Hill. One episode includes a gorgeous tale of a father baptizing his daughter. Twitter exploded with indignation that the podcast was once one way or the other giving credence to Driscoll’s poisonous theology. However I feel the ones criticisms display an lack of awareness of the cultural contexts that give upward push to leaders like Driscoll.
We wish to pay attention the ones tales of authentic ministry as a result of they function a caution to those that are these days embedded in church settings. None people are immune from being blinded by way of the good stuff taking place round us to the purpose the place we shrug off perhaps poisonous habits from our leaders or ourselves.
As a result of if the one lesson I remove from The Upward push and Fall of Mars Hill is, “Woo. Thank God I’m not anything like Mark Driscoll,” then I’m no higher than the Pharisee status within the Temple with gratitude that It’s not that i am like that tax collector (Luke 18:9-14).
As an alternative, all of us will have to strive against with what we supply inside of ourselves and be prepared to inspect (deconstruct) our personal theologies and views on management. None people are immune from falling into the lure of turning into a poisonous chief or collaborating within the poisonous tradition of a church or hitching our wagon to poisonous theology as a result of we have now one way or the other satisfied ourselves that the ends justify the approach.
Of their ebook A Church Referred to as Tov, father and daughter Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer write about how church buildings turn out to be puts of goodness (the Hebrew phrase for “excellent” is tov) as an alternative of injury. They draw from high-profile examples of poisonous management equivalent to Invoice Hybels or James MacDonald, however right through the ebook they warn that the indicators that led to those downfalls are pitfalls for all people. They write: “When leaders gain persistent, persistent itself turns into an agent that can cut back the chief’s capability for empathy and compassion, particularly towards those that are powerless (like girls, in lots of church buildings). Any such self-centered hubris would possibly purpose the private persona of the power-shaped pastor to lose touch with the very essence of Christianity.”
It’s now not that the podcast has been with out faults. I want The Upward push and Fall of Mars Hill had long past a lot additional in deconstructing the tactics Mark Driscoll’s theology arose out of a patriarchal type of Calvinism that leads many down a trail of theological conceitedness this is frequently disguised as “biblical Christianity.”
“Mark Driscoll’s theology arose out of a patriarchal type of Calvinism that leads many down a trail of theological conceitedness this is frequently disguised as ‘biblical Christianity.’”
I want the podcast had achieved extra to discuss how Driscoll’s consistent mocking of anything else out of doors conventional gender roles got here from a spot of deep and sinful homophobia and transphobia.
I want the podcast had achieved extra to inspect the tactics Driscoll repeatedly preached the parable of redemptive violence and used struggle imagery in destructive and unwise tactics. I want all of the ones issues and extra.
But, I’m thankful for The Upward push and Fall of Mars Hill as it has jogged my memory of the utter necessity of cyclically deconstructing my very own theology and my very own sense of calling.
Might I by no means be stuck within the traps of persistent and repute.
Might I by no means be the supply of my neighbor’s non secular trauma.
And would possibly I by no means prevent pursuing the grace of the thriller of God at paintings in damaged puts, at paintings in me.
Tyler Tankersley
Tyler Tankersley serves as senior pastor of Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C. He’s a graduate of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. 
 
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