In a post at his Patheos blog (how strange to be writing that), former Mars Hill Church co-founder and pastor Mark Driscoll provided an excerpt from his new book, Spirit Filled Jesus (read a review of the book here).
My wife Grace and I have five kids—three boys and two girls. We moved to Arizona for a hard reset of life and ministry after years of feeling like a crash test dummy in a car with no airbags. After about two decades in ministry, I took some time off to heal up before entering the next season of God’s will for our life.
That’s one way of looking at it.
Let’s rewind to August 8, 2014. On that day, the Board of Acts 29 church network made public their decision to remove Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church from the network. Here is a portion of the letter:
Over the past three years, our board and network have been the recipients of countless shots and dozens of fires directly linked to you and what we consider ungodly and disqualifying behavior. We have both publicly and internally tried to support and give you the benefit of the doubt, even when multiple pastors in our network confirmed this behavior. In response, we leaned on the Mars Hill Board of Advisors & Accountability to take the lead in dealing with this matter. But we no longer believe the BoAA is able to execute the plan of reconciliation originally laid out. Ample time has been given for repentance, change, and restitution, with none forthcoming.
We now have to take another course of action. Based on the totality of the circumstances, we are now asking you to please step down from ministry for an extended time and seek help. Consequently, we also feel that we have no alternative but to remove you and Mars Hill from membership in Acts 29.
Then on August 21, 2014, 21 former elders brought formal charges of wrongdoing against Mark Driscoll as pastor of Mars Hill Church. Clicking the link will take you to the charges. Some of those elders felt like crash test dummies.
Then on August 24 2014, Driscoll requested 6 weeks off while the charges were being investigated. According to church by-laws he had to submit to the process of being investigated.
Then on October 14 2014, Driscoll resigned amid the completion of an investigation into the charges filed by former church elders. The Board of Overseers reported:
We concluded that Pastor Mark has, at times, been guilty of arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner. While we believe Mark needs to continue to address these areas in his life, we do not believe him to be disqualified from pastoral ministry. Pastor Mark has never been charged with any immorality, illegality or heresy. Most of the charges involved attitudes and behaviors reflected by a domineering style of leadership.
Later, the elders who investigated Driscoll said he was offered a plan of restoration to return to pastoral ministry but declined to accept it.
So yes, he “took some time off” but his explanation leaves out many important components. It is astounding that he does not mention the name of the church which made him famous. The elders and members of Mars Hill Church might also feel like crash test dummies. Although several years have passed, the scars run deep, apparently on both sides of the crash.
From what I remember he tearfully apologized, stepped down from his position, and left ministry for three years, while still preaching because he has a family to support. I’m sorry, but it seems as though you’re all trying to judge how he went about repenting, while completely brushing off the fact that he has indeed repented. This isn’t even a position God would take and you therefore put yourself in God’s judgement seat, and welp, this is pretty much wrong thinking; thank God it’s a sin that Jesus died for. I praise God for his grace on you and on me. When a person apologizes and repents, you forgive, because God forgives. It’s quite scary that one of the few times our gracious Savior hurled insult at someone, it was at people who were being judgmental. I believe “Brood of vipers” was the phrase. Again, I’m glad he loves you and that you have his grace, please extend this to Mark Driscoll.
“We moved … after years of
feeling like a crash test dummy in a car with no airbags.”
Oh, the poor, poor, dear. We feel soooo sorry for innocent little Markie.
Sorry, Driscoll. You are a sham wearing that cloak of victim-hood. Get over yourself. Get a new line of work. Used car sales, perhaps?
See my comment above. Be filled with God’s grace, be joyful in it, and extend that grace to Mr.Driscoll.
Thank you, no.
Gotta call a greedy con man when I sees him, especially if his con is in the field of religion.
How unfortunate. God’s peace to you.
“Pastor Mark has never been charged with any immorality…”
It’s interesting that the Board of Overseers apparently consider it ‘moral’ to be arrogant, quick tempered, harsh, and domineering.
He would have hurt many more people if he had had an affair, you see.
Luke, I’m assuming your comment was a tongue-in-cheek reflection on the Board’s apparent belief that being a bully and a thug is redeemable as long as no sex was involved?
Sort of; I was actually thinking that the word ‘immorality’ being restricted to sexual issues misses the worst sins that can be committed. And yet, the word ‘immorality’ is supposed to be the most intense kind of sin, right? Excepting stuff like murder. It’s pretty messed up IMO.
Lies of omission don’t count as lies any more? Or is it that lying doesn’t count as immorality?
How fortunate for him that this blog doesn’t allow comments…
Do Christians just not believe in repentance anymore? I thought forgiveness & repentance where supposed to be Christianity’s not-so-secret weapons, but the more I see, the more that is betrayed.
Not that crowd, for sure — they never did. If there are examples of prominent conservative evangelical leaders truly repenting and spending the rest of their lives making up for their transgressions, then I haven’t heard of them. Some are brought low, for sure, but if they don’t get right back on the horse again, it’s not for the want of trying.
I still remember the fuss over Charles Stanley back 20 years ago when he said he would resign if his wife divorced him. When she finally did, some years later, of course he didn’t, and according to a recent CNN article, had never intended to in the first place. Of course, that’s not in the same league as many of the other scandals talked about in this blog, but it betrays a similar mindset.
How about any crowd? Paul wrote the following to the Jews:
For Christians, a slight modification could be made to reference the gospel instead of the law. Would the modified version apply? To which Christians would it not apply? Where are repentance, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and reconciliation shining beacons of God’s glory?
P.S. I can’t quite make sense of your “spending the rest of their lives making up for their transgressions”; that seems too much like a denial of forgiveness. What I could see, for example, is an analysis by Driscoll and others of how he managed to be domineering for so long without being either corrected or fired. This analysis would include self-justifying stories Driscoll told himself, elements of his sermons which reinforced it, and institutional considerations which protected him instead of exposing himself to any necessary rebuke. Imagine publishing this for all to see!
“Making up for their transgressions” seems like a denial of forgiveness? Isn’t repentance supposed to include restitution in whatever way is possible? You’re supposed to try to fix things for the people you’ve wronged, no?
The specific words were “spending the rest of their lives making up for their transgressions”; it was to that intensity that I referred. For example, the repentance I suggested for Mark Driscoll would not have taken the rest of his life, and yet I think it would have benefited Christianity greatly. Furthermore, we Christians can release others from even providing full restitution; if we don’t, then the parable of the unforgiving servant seems to apply:
What do you make of that parable?
I think you have a more optimistic view of humanity than I do. I also think that repentance should involve a good effort to make restitution to people sinned against. Not every jot and tittle, perhaps, but a serious effort. I haven’t seen Mark Driscoll make that effort, yet.
If the problem were largely Driscoll, you would expect to see repentance and restitution from other Christian leaders who have fallen from grace. I think the problem is that we Christians in America don’t actually believe that repentance is all that great. I’m sure some do, but so many seem to think it’s for weaklings. In its place you get cheap forgiveness (hello Jeremiah 7), which just so happens to place most of the burden on “the least of these”. Sounds awfully like Ezekiel 34, to me.
I don’t think you’re still facing the parable of the unforgiving servant head-on; I think it requires more radical forgiveness than suggested by your “Not every jot and tittle, perhaps”. Put perhaps you’re keying into the fact that so often, those who get most forgiven are those who least need it. Meanwhile, our prisons are stuffed to overflowing, credit card companies are making boatloads, and payday loan companies prosper. And this isn’t even getting into the fact that black Christians seem to have to do a lot more forgiving than white Christians. Paul suffered quite a lot for Christianity; most of our leaders seem to do quite nicely for themselves. Something does not seem right.
As to my views of humanity, I don’t see how they are optimistic. I think we can have great relationships and do great things if we trust God. I just think we generally don’t—or at least, we don’t in key areas. I spent a bit of time on Throckmorton’s blog when the Driscoll affair unfolding and sadly, I detected a lot of pure blame of the leaders while the followers were nigh innocent. I don’t see scriptural warrant for that extreme asymmetry, especially given the expectation of maturity for all. There is warrant for some asymmetry—James 3:1, for example. So I would say we are all falling down on the job. Maybe, just maybe, the rabble is demanding a pound of flesh from Driscoll and that isn’t justified by scripture.
I do think restitution is important. But there is also this:
How do you understand that parable?
I don’t think it’s right for someone who has been wronged to DEMAND restitution, but I still think that the person who has done wrong to someone should do what he can to set things right. If it’s not possible (and it usually isn’t, after all) I would hope that the wronged person would forgive what cannot be made whole.
In my experience, it would generally be much more effective for the friends of the harmed person to “DEMAND restitution” and for the friend to remain silent. But this would skirt the spirit of the parable. Does God require that we fix what we broke, to the best of our ability, up to and including “spending the rest of [our] lives making up for [our] transgressions”? Of course not.
A question I asked one of the signers of the Dallas Statement, @eddingess:disqus, is relevant:
Christians can, in effect, socialize the consequences of sin and the fixing of the damage while absorbing the rest. Christians can also be incredibly evil and concentrate the consequences of sin on an minority. If the person who caused the wrong grew up in a really terrible situation and is trying but often failing, is it the best use of Christianity’s resources to require that person to pay back everything [s]he can? I doubt it, and I find it incredibly questionable if and when a Christian who has had a much nicer life says such things. (I don’t claim you have, but you haven’t warded off this possibility, either.)
Said another way, I think God really does want us to participate in reconciling creation to him; I’m very much inclined toward N.T. Wright’s message in After You Believe. But I don’t think that will possibly happen via a hyper-individualistic accounting of transgression and a hyper-individualist restitution. That is utterly antithetical to the message of Jesus. How then will wrongs be righted, how will damage be repaired and hurt, healed? I say: by reversing Cain’s stance of, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” But not via a gross violation of Mt 20:20–28 and 13:8–12.
Oh, I have no trouble with helping a person who has done a serious wrong, but who does not have the resources to right that wrong as much as it can be righted, Are people not supposed to help one another, Christian or not?
There are several bits in the NT which point Christians to take special care of their own. I surmise that one of the reasons for this is that one can be more merciful and more gracious to, and require less restitution from, precisely those people who wish to partake in this … “socialism experiment”. One way I think of it is via free trade & the division of labor: maybe the person most suited to fix some bit of damage is not the one who caused it. Well, if we all do our part then we can fix what was broken and heal what was hurt—to the extent possible this side of the eschaton—with less total expenditure of time & energy.
Now, I should acknowledge that @tacitusq:disqus was addressing a very specific population with the clause that set me off:
I suspect that most who are “prominent conservative evangelical leaders” have many, many resources. And so the following scripture applies:
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However, the above must be balanced with the following:
So, I think it is fair to say that the parable of the unforgiving servant must apply to leaders as well as followers. It must really, really apply.
One of the Bible’s greatest weaknesses is that it can “legitimately” be used to sustain multiple and opposing courses of action on the same issue.
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. People who appoint themselves as pastor while in reality are CEO of a greedy for-profit organization are not really representing Jesus Christ but rather are working for the other god of this world known as Mammon or simply money. Jesus is very straightforward in what He has to say about unrighteous mammon and men who are rich. If we only took what He said seriously, there would be a whole lot less scandal around. We mostly ignore greed in America, and only realized that something is wrong when other evils, like adultery, spring up out of that root.
The only person I see who says to follow riches is Satan. “ I will give you all the Kingdoms of the world if you bow down to worship me.”
I hardly ever see warnings by leaders against greed in the church and a desire “ to possess the nations.”
These are in fact “secretly” encouraged in the political gospel and prosperity gospel.
Warren,
Here’s to hoping you have a great many followers in the Phoenix area.
Wonder who is going to write the forward in his new book.
No need to wonder, it’s right there on the Amazon page: Robert Morris — ultra-conservative, Dominionist, Trump-loving, Barton-loving, prosperity gospel preaching megachurch pastor.
Ticks all the right boxes, and some.
No need to wonder, it’s right there on the Amazon page: Robert Morris — ultra-conservative, Dominionist, Trump-loving, Barton-loving, prosperity gospel preaching megachurch pastor.
Ticks all the right boxes, and some.