Tag: John Lindell

A Question for Pastor Lindell: What Isn't True About Mark Driscoll?

In his intro (I should have video up later today), Pastor John Lindell told his congregation that much of what one reads about Mark Driscoll on the web isn’t true. Dan Kellogg at Gold Creek Community Church said much the same thing.
My question for these two men is: What isn’t true? If you can show me anything untrue on my blog, I will correct it. Always have.
By making such a general statement, these men mislead their flocks (a serious responsibility in the Bible) and cast doubt on the well established facts.
Lindell also said Driscoll decided to resign. Well, yes, that is technically true. However, according to his elders, he resigned after being told he needed to become involved in a restoration plan. Up until then, Driscoll had resisted calls for his resignation.
Pastor Lindell, if you are correct, then why did Acts 29 remove Driscoll and his whole group of churches from the network? Why did nine of his then-current elders and later his Board of Overseers call for him to step down from preaching and enter a restoration plan? Why did Paul Tripp call Mars Hill one of the most abusive ministry cultures he’d ever seen?
People outside the church will chalk this up to what they believe to be insincerity among self-righteous Christians. People who are close to the situation should take such statements as a sign that the person claiming that the allegations against Driscoll weren’t accurate really is ignorant about the issues involved.  People like me aren’t sure which is more true. I hope he is ignorant and is remaining ignorant due to the social pressures to engage in confirmation bias. But the skeptic in me doesn’t rule out the possibility that there is an effort on the part of powerful ministers to spin the entire year of 2014 into something it wasn’t.
Lindell’s intro:

Lindell also disclosed to his audience that Driscoll had been getting input from famous pastors, so famous that you would know them if he said their name. However, Driscoll had an elder board that he declined to get help from. It all sounds elitist to me.