Intersected

I’ve read in many places about the power of the preaching of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I’m looking forward to reading the 2 volume biography of him (David Martyn Lloyd-Jones the First Forty Years 1899-1939 (v. 1),David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981 (v. 2)) that I recently purchased to get a better account. Here’s a quick summary from both J.I. Packer and Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ daughter of Dr. Lloyd as written on the 9Marks blog

1. The man deeply felt his conversion.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones never got over the Lord’s mercy to him in saving him and this was clear in his preaching.
2. The underlining issue behind his preaching was the glory of God.  Behind all of his preaching the main point and main issue was always that God be glorified and exalted.  He never treated the Lord casually.
3. He had the presence of a man who dwelt with the Lord in prayer.  When he preached, he sincerely preached as a man that had consistently lingered truly humbly before the Lord and had dwelt on the Truth of God in Scripture.  He brought those meditations and that posture to the people.

The word “missional” is everywhere. Grad Schools. Books. Blogs. It colored my conversation last week with a pastor at Grace Bible. I’ll probably talk about it Friday night over dinner and definitely next week at the Acts 29 Boot Camp in Louisville. It can be a hard word to define, however. Missional means the act of being a missionary, but people can have pretty rigid preconceptions of what a missionary does, especially since most people have never lived as missionaries. If you’ve ever spent time talking to people involved in international missions, it can be hard and tiring work, bearing fruit infrequently and with much difficulty. People don’t want to think of themselves as missionaries because they want the easy way out. They want a program, not a life.

Jonathan Dodson of Austin City Life is currently writing a series on his blog about Why People Aren’t More Missional. Read it. His ideas are challenging and gospel-centered and his recent breakout session at the 2009 Acts 29 Houston Boot Camp could be my favorite talk from all the Acts 29 events, and I’ve listened to all but 3 of them.

Here’s Part 1 of the series

Do you ever struggle in motivation for mission? Do you ever see your people lacking in motivation for mission? After all the shifts in ecclesiology, the planting of many churches, and the landslide of missional literature, why aren’t people more missional? Perhaps it is because we are motivating them with the wrong things.

What should motivate us for mission? There are numerous motivations for mission in the Bible. Many of them can be grouped under three headings that point us to the goal of the gospel, the demands of the gospel, the graces of the gospel. In this first post, I’ll address our missional identity.

Missional Identity

The missio Dei, a Latin phrase meaning, “the sending of God”, reminds us that mission is not merely something we do, an action; it is something God is. Mission is an attribute of God. He’s a sending God. He sends his Son (Easter) and sends his Spirit (Pentecost) to renew the world. So, mission doesn’t start and end with us. It starts and ends with God. His mission is nothing short of the redemption of peoples and cultures, the renewal of all creation for his own glory. It’s God’s great, burdensome, and glorious mission—the renewal of all creation! My goodness, we can’t manage that, but God, in his mercy has invited us to participate in his mission. Through the gospel, He rescues us from a life of self-serving mission to participate in a life of God-serving, Christ-glorifying mission. We are remade into missional people by the redeeming work of the Spirit and the Son.

Therefore, if we are in Christ, we have a missionary identity. We are adopted into a missionary family. We serve a missionary God. Mission becomes part of our identity, because we cut from the cloth of a missionary God. So, the church is a missionary church, with missionary people, that do missionary things. It is who we are and it is also what we do. Mission is not merely for the superspiritual, an option, an appendix to Christian faith. To be Christian is to be on mission.  It’s who we are and it is what we do. We redemptively engage peoples and cultures, by sharing, showing, and embodying Christ in our context. This includes evangelism, social action, and cultural engagement, counseling, empathy, celebration. It’s bringing the renewing power of the whole gospel into the whole city.

Now, the good news of the gospel is that we get to be the blessing of mission, while God carries the burden of mission. Ultimately, it is God’s mission. The Spirit does all the changing; we simply share, show, and embody the wonderfully renewing power of gospel. However, if we aren’t walking with God, keeping in step with the Spirit, and following Christ, out life will hardly be missional. In fact, it will be rife with dangerous disobedience. If you are in Christ, you have a missional identity. To disregard your missionary identity is to reject your identity in Christ. The first motivation is the missio Dei, that mission is in our DNA, our identity. It is who we are in God, through Christ, by the Spirit.

Here’s Part 2

Despite the preponderance of missional church resources, American Christians are slow to live missionally. Why is this? In our last post, we suggested that one reason is that we are motivating the church with best practices of mission, instead of an identity of mission grounded in the Missio Dei. Today, I’d like to suggest another motivation, with a twist.

Any evangelical can tell you that they are supposed to be on mission, but very few are. They can rattle off the Great Commission by memory, while running along no differently. Yet, all four Gospels contain missional mandates from the resurrected, King Jesus himself (Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke 24/Acts 1, John 16/21)! Why does missional disobedience persist? Perhaps because…

1. We don’t take Jesus seriously. Jesus is our friend, not our Lord.
   
2. We think the missional mandates are for apostles or super Christians only.
3. We have a functional God that we like more than Jesus.
   
4. We believe that mission is optional and that we won’t be judged for our missional disobedience.
5. We don’t actually believe the gospel.

I love the church. I’ve been a part of it almost my whole life and I can bear witness to how God has changed me through it. That is why I’m very excited about our Re:Train class in two days – Missional Ecclesiology, taught by Southern Seminary professor Gregg Allison. The books we read in the pre-class work were engaging and challenging and I’m looking forward to in-class discussions that could find people in different camps (things like elder-ruled vs. elder-led, congregationalism, infant baptism, etc). As a primer for class, Dr. Allison has posted articles for the past two days on TheResurgence.com detailing six characteristics of the missional church.

The first article deals with trinitarian aspects of the church

1. Doxological: Oriented to the Glory of God

The church is doxological, or oriented to the glory of God. Like everything else that God has created—the heavens and the earth (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 108:5), the angelic realm (Psalm 29:1-2), and human beings as the divine image-bearers (Psalm 8:5), the church is characterized by an orientation to give God glory (Ephesians 3:21).

Specifically, the church is to be orthodoxological, or oriented to the proper (Gr. ortho) glory (Gr. doxa) of God. Implied in this imperative is the possibility for the church to engage in false glory giving, or idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 John 5:20-21; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4). Manifestations of the church’s false gods include money, power, societal approbation, its pastor or its programs, political persuasion, size, and the like. The church must avoid such idolatry and be oriented to the proper glory of God.

2. Logocentric: Focused on the Word

The church is logocentric, or focused on the logos, the Word, understood in two senses to refer to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and Scripture, the inspired Word of God. As for the first sense, the eternal Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on the fullness of human nature and became the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ John 1:1, John 1:14). He promised, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), and he is its cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20) and its head (Ephesians 1:20-23). The church is centered on this incarnate Word of God.

In the second sense of logos, the church is Word-centered in that it focuses on Scripture, the inspired Word of God. This inspired, sufficient, necessary, truthful (inerrant), clear, authoritative, and productive Word announces salvation (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14), brings new birth (1 Peter 1:23), ignites faith (Romans 10:13-17), presents sound doctrine and equips the church for good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and, while providing cohesion and nourishment for the church, also destabilizes it by confronting its many sins. The church is centered on this inspired Word of God.

3. Pneumadynamic: Empowered by the Spirit

The church is pneumadynamic, or created, gathered, gifted, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. He inaugurated the first church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-5), and this church in Jerusalem multiplied and expanded through the evangelistic centrifugal movement orchestrated by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). In these churches, the Spirit distributes spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11) for “the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7), while also being the creator and sustainer of unity (Ephesians 4:3) by supplying genuine love among church members (Romans 15:30; Colossians 1:8) and fostering an atmosphere of righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14:17). Certain members are installed as leaders in the church by the appointment of the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28; Acts 13:2-3). Thus, the church is Spirit-activated.

The second article deals with the “gatheredness and sendedness of the church”.

4. Covenantal: Relationship with God and Others

The church is covenantal, or gathered as members in new covenant relationship with God and in covenant relationship with each other. As for the first covenantal aspect, the new covenant:

1. is a unilateral agreement, established by God and God alone
2. creates a structured relationship between him and his covenant partners, Christ-followers “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9)
3. features binding obligations on the part of both God and his covenant partners (e.g., 2 Corinthians 6:16-18; Matthew 22:37-40; Matthew 28:19-10; Galatians 6:2)
4. is sealed by two covenantal signs, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

As for the second covenantal aspect, the new covenant places church members into relationship with one another (Ephesians 4:17-5:14). This aspect may be best expressed by means of a church covenant, an agreement that binds those who affirm it to life together in the church.

5. Confessional: United by Common Faith

The church is confessional, or united by both personal confession of faith in Christ and common confession of the historic Christian faith. All church members must have a credible profession of faith in Christ as they have heard about his person and work through the gospel (Romans 10:8-13). This aspect is the act of faith that leads to salvation.

Additionally, the church as a corporate assembly regularly makes a common confession of the Christian faith (e.g., 1 Timothy 3:15-16), professing together the sound doctrine that unites the church (Ephesians 4:4-6) and brings it to maturity while keeping it from going adrift (Ephesians 4:13-15). This aspect is the content of the Christian faith that marks the church throughout the ages.

6. Missional: Divinely Called and Sent

As discussed above, the church is missional, or identified as the body of divinely-called and divinely-sent ministers to proclaim the gospel and advance the kingdom of God.

7. Historical Reality, Future Hope

The church is spatio-temporal-eschatological (here and not-here, oralready but not yet), or assembled as a historical reality (located in space and time) and possessing a certain hope and clear destiny (eschatology) while it lives the strangeness of its existence in the here-and-now. Christians meet together to worship God “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24) in local churches that, while they may be anywhere (that is, the location is not the issue; John 4:20-21), they are always somewhere also. This spatial characteristic means that the church takes up physical space—often a building—and prompts reflection on an important question: Does this physical space advance or obstruct what the church is seeking to be and do?

Legacy

The temporal element means that a church has a heritage that goes before the current manifestation of gathered people, and this legacy exerts a powerful influence for either good or bad on the current expression of the church. Additionally, if the Lord wills, the church will have a future that goes beyond the current manifestation of gathered people, and this hope prompts reflection on what kind of reputation this current expression of the church will bequeath to its next iteration.

Sojourners

Beyond its being “here,” the church is also “not here,” in that what the church experiences now is only a foretaste, a down payment, of a promise of yet more to come. The church lives in a “boundary epoch” between the two advents of Jesus Christ, so it is composed of strangers and aliens (1 Peter 1:11), sojourners who are in the world and for the world, but not of the world. The eschatological church awaits a greater reality (Revelation 21-22).

When I heard that Brian McLaren was going to observe Ramadan I was blown away. It is blasphemy for Christian to participate in a practice that is worship of a false God.  USA Today wrote an interesting article about the controversy. Nice to read Al Mohler and Mark Driscoll proclaiming the truth. I do want to quibble with part of the article, though. Eric Gorski, the author write

There is disagreement among evangelicals about whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God

That’s a fast statement. You can’t be an evangelical and believe that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. You can’t even be a Christian and believe that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Christians believe that God eternally exists in three persons – God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit and Muslims do not believe this.

As the emerging and liberal church seek to be more palatable to the world, this is the kind of heresy that is bound to increase. May we be bold to proclaim the truth.

In anticipation of being assessed as a church planter, I wonder how I will respond if my “grade” on the assessment indicates that church planting isn’t the most appropriate ministry for how God has made me. Maybe I’m better suited to pastor or replant an existing church. I don’t know, but I’m definitely praying about it.  This post from Scott Thomas on the Acts 29 Network Blog provides helpful thoughts when Envisioning a Replant.

1. Envision what the worship gathering could be (Acts 2:42-47).
   • Attitude of body during worship
   • Music
   • Prayer
   • Teaching
   • Communion
   • Children
   • Exaltation of God
   • Incorporation of arts
2. Envision what the evangelism could be (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).
   • Who can you reach immediately?
   • What attitudes toward evangelism need to change?
   • Where or how could you boldly make an impact with the gospel?
   • What steps of faith need to be taken to reach the unchurched and the unsaved?
   • How could your youth evangelize?
   • How could households evangelize together?
   • What worldwide impact could you make as a body (i.e. foreign missions)?
   • How are you going to be an eternal value to your community?
3. Envision how education and discipleship could be effective (Acts 2:42).
   • How will it become a passionate pursuit of the body (“continue steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine,” Acts 2:42)?
   • What resources (people, qualities, gifts) do you have in place to launch greater disciple-making?
   • How will the fathers and heads of households (single moms, etc.) be trained to be the priest and spiritual head of their homes?
   • How will the older men and women teach and interact with the younger men and women? (Titus 2)
   • Will the age groups be segregated (children, youth, singles, college, married, etc.) or will they be integrated into the body?
   • What role will small groups play?
   • What training will be needed to help develop disciples who are passionately pursuing Christ?
4. Envision an Acts 2 commitment to fellowship (Acts 2:44-45).
   • In what ways will the body seek to meet the needs of one another (spiritual, social, financial, physical)?
   • What attitudes need to change to be sacrificially generous with time, money and resources for the encouragement and edification of the body?
   • How will the body serve one another actively and responsively in an unprompted way?
   • What will the membership requirements be? How will it communicate a covenantal commitment?
5. Envision an effective youth and children’s ministry.
   • Will they be integrated into the church ministry? If so, how?
   • How will families be strengthened through the student ministry?
   • How will the youth be encouraged and trained to evangelize their friends?
   • What role will the heads of households play in the student ministry?
   • Who (person or groups) will lead the youth and children’s ministry?
   • What facility changes are needed to communicate the value of children and youth?
   • What other positions of leadership need to be filled to be effective?
   • What leadership development with the students will be put into place?
   • What programs or customs need to be extracted from the youth and children’s ministry to avoid distractions from the ministry goals?
6. Envision an equipping staff (Eph. 4:11-13).
   • What changes need to be made with the staff (paid or volunteer) to meet the church’s goals?
   • Are the staff members doing the ministry or leading people to do the ministry? If they are doing the bulk of the ministering, how will they develop the body to do the work of the ministry?
   • Are you over-staffed or under-staffed to meet both financial obligations and the development of lay people (taking responsibility for ministry)?
7. Envision a body not reacting to finances to determine God’s call (Matt. 6:24).
   • How will faith in God calling a body to reach out to the community and world be weighed against financial responsibility and stewardship?
   • If mortgages or debts exist, how will they be paid off in a realistic way over a reasonable time period?
   • What attitudes or practices about money and finances need to be changed?
   • Is a budget in place? Is it a true reflection of the church’s giving and spending (balanced budget)?
   • What expenses can be cut immediately to be redirected toward the church’s mission?
   • Is the body (especially the leadership) making decisions based on finances or on God’s calling?
   • What creative ways can you generate more income without sacrificing resources, biblical principles, or expending paid personnel?

This week is our second Re:Train class, Missional Christology, taught by Dr. Bruce Ware, a professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Our pre-class work included reading four books

• Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper
• Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance by Bruce Ware
• Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution by Jeffrey, Ovey, and Sach
• Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology edited by Sanders and Issler

This class will be intense, but I’m really looking forward to learning more about Missional Christology. But, you may ask, what is Missional Christology? Well, here’s Dr. Ware’s explanation from TheResurgence.com.

“Missional Christology” focuses on aspects of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ which are central to the mission he fulfilled, by the ordination of the Father, in the power of the Spirit. Christology is relevant to the mission of the church because we are called to express and extend the mission of Christ. His mission is now ours.

The Father’s Plan

Understanding the Person and Work of Christ as missional is crucial and central to understanding Jesus and his work correctly. The mission of the Son began long before his going to the cross, or his baptism, or even his incarnation. The mission of the Son began in eternity past when the Father devised his plan by which the Son would be preeminent over the created world the Father designed, planned, and willed to create.

As the Father chose the Son to be his Agent by which creation would come into being, so the Father chose the Son to be his Agent by which re-creation also would come to pass. The Son’s mission, then, was from eternity past the mission of one thing—he sought in all that he thought and felt and said and did to do the will of his Father.

Divine Empowerment

But to accomplish this mission, the Son had to take on human nature and live as one of us. While he was fully God, he also was fully man. And as man, he needed divine empowerment to obey the Father, resist temptation, and fulfill the mission the Father sent him to carry out. The Spirit’s indwelling presence and power on the Son was necessary for the Son to accomplish what he did. Only as the Spirit-anointed Messiah could this Christ be our Savior.

To see the mission of the Son correctly requires that we see him in Trinitarian context. Both the Person and the Work of the Son are fully inexplicable apart from seeing the Son’s relation to the Father and the Spirit. Getting the Trinity right is crucial to getting the mission of the Son right.

Christ’s Mission

So, the Son was sent by the Father and empowered by the Spirit—but to do what? Here we realize that the Son’s mission was about regaining the lost creation through the salvation of the elect and his victory over the powers of darkness. At the core of the Son’s accomplishment are the dual biblical themes of penal substitution and Christus Victor. His payment for sin and victory over sin constitute the basis for the fulfillment of all that the Father sent the Son to do.

Spirit-Empowered Disciples

Amazingly, the mission of the Son does not end, though, with his efficacious death for sin or his victorious resurrection from the dead. Rather, this is where the mission of the Son moves more clearly from “singular” to “plural.” His singular sinless life and singular substitutionary death now give way to plural ministry as he now completes his mission with, and only with, the joint-work of his followers. Jesus’ last words to his disciples instruct them to wait in Jerusalem for what the Father has promised. They will be granted the very same Holy Spirit invading their lives as had been indwelling and empowering Christ throughout his life and ministry. They will proclaim his message, display his character, perform his deeds, and further his mission only as they are Spirit-empowered followers of the Son.

The Great Drama

In the end, he will return to complete his mission of remaking everything such that it becomes more glorious and magnificent than it was originally. Just as the second Adam surpasses the first, the new Eden surpasses the original. Christ will take his rightful place as Supreme Victor over all, and we, his saved followers and friends, will reign with him forever and ever.

What a story this “missional Christology” is! What drama. What majesty. What glory. To see the mission of the Son as his-mission-become-ours should result in stirring within us the longing to do as Christ did. As his mission was the mission of one thing—to do the will of his Father in the power of the Spirit—so ours likewise should be the mission of one thing—to follow our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit, doing all we do in obedience to him, to the praise and glory of the Father.

From Bob Kauflin at New Attitude 2006

Biblical Worship is the response of God’s redeemed people to His self-revelation that exalts God’s glory in Christ in our mind, affections, and wills in the power of the Holy Spirit

They touch on grace, legalism, mercy ministries, hiring staff. Fabulous stuff.

From Jared Kennedy at SojournKids.com via Bryce Butler and all the material is from Covenant Life.

Parenting Ages 19 to 22

By Bob Kauflin | May 16, 2009

• Hopes and Goals | Audio
• Rules and Relationships | Audio
• College and Careers | Audio
• Question and Answer Session | Audio
• Overall Outline (PDF, 160kb)

Parenting Ages 15 to 18

By Kenneth Maresco | April 18, 2009

• God’s Role and Our Role | Audio
• A Teen’s Relationship with God | Audio
• The Importance of Relationships in a Teen’s Life | Audio
• Question and Answer Session | Audio
• Overall Outline (PDF, 232kb)

Parenting Ages 11 to 14

By Greg Somerville | March 14, 2009

• Changing Relationships | Audio
• Emerging Convictions in a Changing World | Audio
• Changing Bodies and Minds | Audio
• Overall Outline (PDF, 244kb)

Parenting Ages 6 to 10

By Kenneth Maresco | Jan. 17, 2009

• Biblical Principles of Parenting | Audio
• Shepherding Toward Conversion | Audio
• Shepherding Your Child’s Heart | Audio
• Overall Outline (PDF, 168kb)
• Additional Resources: “Sowing Plan” (PDF, 56kb) | Plan to Overcome Complaining (PDF, 54kb)

Parenting Ages Infant to 5

By Brian Chesemore | Nov. 15, 2008

• Training, Discipline, and the Rod | Audio | Outline (PDF, 136kb)
• Biblical Principles of Parenting | Audio | Outline (PDF, 104kb)

Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, one of the fastest-growing churches in America. He is president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and is the author of several books, including Vintage Jesus.

In the first three months of 2008, Driscoll preached a sermon series on nine different topics, which were culled from 893 submissions and voted on 343,203 times. This was the first sermon series from Mars Hill that  I watched online and I was struck by many things, notably Driscoll’s preaching ability, the depth of material in the sermons, and the omnipresence of the Cross in everything that he preached. The Q&A’s that followed the last Sunday sermon contain challenging questions that Driscoll answered on the spot and his answers where pastoral, thoughtful, and biblical.

The Religion Saves sermon series became a book, part of the Re:Lit series, and I received a copy of the book to read and review a few weeks ago as part of a Blog Tour (here’s the blog tour schedule). I’m going to break out my review by chapter, listing both my thoughts and an embedded video of the corresponding sermon.

Chapter 1: Birth Control

This chapter has significant value for its pastoral approach to birth control and has a tremendous amount of technical information that is incredibly helpful to the subject. Especially helpful is the breakdown of levels of birth control. In an age where many churches are unwilling to discuss the topic of abortion, for fear of appearing intolerant, Driscoll takes an uncompromising stance on abortion, referring to it as “the sin of murder (p 40)”

Chapter 2: Humor

This was my least favorite chapter. Much has been written about Driscoll’s somewhat course tongue and many prominent Christian leaders have taken him to task. This chapter is a defense of humor in the pulpit. Humor is an area that I personally would be more conservative than Driscoll on, but he does bring some needed levity to the conversation through illustrations in this chapter.

Chapter 3: Predestination

Tremendously helpful chapter about a difficult topic using OT and NT references. The illustration at the end about pulling his daughter out of traffic being similar to “God the Father reaching down to me through Jesus” is powerful.

Chapter 4: Grace

For people who struggle with the thought of God giving them something good that they do not merit, this chapter provides ample support for the concept of grace appearing throught the Bible.

Chapter 5: Sexual Sin

Another chapter that will be of tremendous benefit to pastors and those in recovery ministries. Driscoll’s call for celibacy outside of marriage and monogramy in marriage is counter-cultural, and completely Biblical. He also accurately diagnoses society’s worship of sex and how that “worship” is fed by prostitution and pornography

Chapter 6: Faith and Works

This chapter is jammed packed with Scripture, and for good reason. The contrast of faith and works has been debated since the beginning of time and Driscoll does a great job of showing the necessity of both. Much of the chapter is focused on “God’s regernating work in the new heart of those who are born again as Christians to a thoroughly new life. (p 169)”. Driscoll’s connection of a regenerated heart enabling us to do good works is very helpful.

Chapter 7: Dating

Challenging, challenging chapter, especially Driscoll’s discussion of the different methods of dating. I must admit that this chapter, and the sermon on which it was based, have almost completely convinced me that “courtship” is the pattern of male/female relationships that Julie and I will be using in our family. Also helpful are the “Christian dating” questions that each gender should ask as they seek to enter into a relationship. Before I was married, I was as guilty as anyone of not pursing women with a godly intent. This chapter is an excellent rebuke and an exhortation to glorify God in all that we do.

Chapter 8: Emerging Church

I’ve read a ton on this topic, so this chapter had a lot of repetition. For people who are drawn to the writing of Doug Pagitt, Brian McLaren, and Rob Bell, Driscoll includes quotes from their work and interviews that are cause for concern and do seem to indicate some departure from orthodox Christianity. Using direct quotes keeps this chapter from being one big rant, instead making it seem very balanced and fair.

Chapter 9: Regulative Principle

This very short chapter is actually focused on what is right worship. Driscoll discusses the Normative Principle (church worship includes everything prescribed in the Bible and anything not prohibited by the Bible), the Regulative Principle (church worship includes only things prescribed in the Bible), and Missional Worship Principle (which seems a lot like the Normative Principle). His concern throughout is not necessarily the principle that we use for worship, but the object of our worship, namely God.

Concluding Thoughts

I enjoyed reading this book, but having watched all the sermons already, it wasn’t as “new” an experience as someone else would have. I would definitely recommend this book to others. It’s a pretty quick read and provides thoroughly footnoted and researched items. Looking to the future when I will, Lord willing, be planting a church in Ann Arbor, I can definitely see myself coming back to certain chapters in this book for pastoral assistance.

Blurb about the book

After 343,203 online votes on the Mars Hill Church website, nine questions for Pastor Mark Driscoll emerged as the ones most urgently calling for answers.

Inspiredby 1 Corinthians, in which Paul answers a series of questions posed by the people in the Corinthian church, Pastor Mark Driscoll set out to determine the most controversial questions among visitors to the MarsHillChurchwebsite. In the end, 893 questions were asked and 343,203 votes were cast. The top nine questions are now each answered in a chapter of Religion Saves.

After an introductory chapter devoted to the misconception that religion is what saves us, Driscoll tackles nine issues: birth control, humor, predestination, grace, sexual sin, faith and works, dating, the emerging church, and the regulative principle. Becausethe purpose of this book is to address commonly asked questions, all readers will find relevant, engaging material, written in Driscoll’s distinctively edgy, yet theologically sound style.

In his distinctively edgy, yet theologically sound style, Pastor Mark Driscoll addresses the nine most controversial questions posed by visitors to theMarsHillChurchwebsite. This book is part of the Re:Lit series.