Mark Driscoll reflects on his time in the UK here and here

My posts on Together on a Mission 2008

My posts on the Dwell London conference

Mark Driscoll’s pastors training track (audio) – Be Radical Plant Radical Churches

Together on a Mission 2008 (audio) – Main Sessions

Off to CYFA camp in Colwyn Bay (sunny North Wales tomorrow) – 10 days of fun, hard work and learning lots about Jesus from John’s Gospel.

• What does the Scripture say?
• Theological – What does it mean?
• How can I make it memorable? – a hook to hang the sermon on – connect with doctrines, big words, emotion, images, people, characters
• Apologetic – How do people resist the message? – Answer the objections
• Missional – Why does this matter to our community?
• Christological – How is Jesus the hero?

On the 6th point Driscoll went on to talk a lot about how we can preach Christ from the Old Testament by using; prophecies, Christophonies, types (Adam, Priests, Prophets, Kings), services (tested in a garden, tested in wilderness etc.), events (Passover, Day of Atonement etc.), titles of God.

Mark simply concluded by saying:

“It’s all about Jesus”, “Love Jesus”, “Talk about Jesus lots”

He said, “If it’s about Jesus, it works… and it makes up for a lot!”

He then addressed a Q&A session mainly answering questions about the role of a wife and family life in church planting ministry. He also had time for a quick jab at us Brits, he said two of our biggest weaknesses were our “fake niceness” and our “cowardice” particularly in addressing big questions – like sex. All in all great conference, watch this space for more stuff from the Acts29 and Porterbrook Network partnership…

Mark began by quoting Martin Luther from his lecture on Galatians 2:14 -

“The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine…. Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

Driscoll then went to 1 Corinthians 15, asking – What is the Gospel?

• It’s continual (now I would remind you)
• Proclamation and Explanation
• Pastoral and Personal
• Essential (don’t assume too much, preach the priorities)
• Relevant (don’t make it, show it)
• Christological – it’s all about Jesus
• Penal Substitutionary
• Biblical (it was prophesied)
• Eschatological (it has a future)

Under the PS point, Mark alluded to his knowledge of the NWA foundation, and told the story of how his church grew by 800 people on the week he preached PSA! He said that he wants to be a ‘truth teller’ – “I’d rather be hated than ignored – that’s my ministry!” Mark then moved on to look at the two enemies of the Gospel – Idolatry and Religion.

Idolatry

Driscoll quoted Luther who said that idolatry was “the sin”, and that it all came down to the first two Commandments – if we disobey the first two we have an idol, and will break the other commandments.

An idol is that which takes pre-eminence, which receives our worship. We’re all spiritual people because we all have our own definitions of heaven and hell, and the a ‘Functional Saviour’ (our idol) to take us from hell to heaven. He then goes on to reference Tim Keller who has a set of questions to expose our idols:

What are you afraid of? What do you long for? Where do you get comfort? How do you introduce yourself? Whose approval do you seek? What makes you happy/sad?

Religion

Mark started off by showing the clear differences between the Gospel of Grace and the Religion of Works:

If I obey God loves me  vs.  God loves me, his Spirit enables me to obey

Good and Bad People  vs.  Repentant and Unrepentant Sinners

What you do  vs.  What Jesus has done

He then explained the result of religion, it either leads to pride and self-righteousness (these people stay in the church), or despair at not being good enough (these people walk away from church). Rather, the Gospel ends in joy, those who receive grace are humble and happy.

Acts 17 – God commands ALL men to repent (religious and idolatrous)

Romans 1:16 – Mark reminded us not to be ashamed of the Gospel we preach, and again to notice that it goes to the Jews (the religious people) and to the Greeks (the idolatrous people)

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning (he added this one at the end)

Steve stressed that the forming stage was the time to build a ‘dynamic of Grace’ into the structure, the DNA of the group. Then in to 1 Timothy 3:

The need for stand-out godliness (v.1-13)

• The principle to be ‘above reproach’ (in all things)
• Leaders should model real-life, practical holiness
• A love for strangers – “Grace with clothes on”

The means of stand-out godliness (v.16)

• ‘The Mystery’ – godliness revealed in Jesus
• Through relationships, lived out in real life
• Grace – to be loved and lived
• Chief of Sinners + a lover of grace and people

Where it comes together (v.15)

• In the church!

Steve then brought up two final thoughts:

• “litter the world with communities of grace”
• (point 5) Adjourning – keep going, keep replication, keep planting communities of grace

Steve gave two talks about grace in church planting – ‘Church Planter as a Minister of Grace’ and ‘Planting Communities of Grace’. Steve is involved in lots of different things; Crowded House in Sheffield, Radstock Ministries, and the Porterbrook Network who had partnered with Acts29 to put this day conference on. Here’s the first talk:

Church Planter as a Minister of Grace – 1 Timothy 1

Identity

• The Foremost of Sinners (v.15)
• A conviction not a comparison
• Paul’s past convicts him (v.13)
• Grace more than abundant (v.14-15)

Ministry

• Background – Ephesian heresy, Grace being turned into Law
• v.3-5, Paul confronts, instructs and teaches
• Encourages Timothy – to fight, contend, to pray indiscriminately (2:1)

Relationship between Identity and Ministry
Model Grace:

• You are an undeserving recipient of Prodigious Grace
• You don’t base ministry on performance (that’s legalism)
• You display humility in conflict and opposition
• Love the unlovely and unlovable
• Be kind an patient (2 Tim 2:24-26)
• Handle success and failure with grace
• We are trophies of grace – for HIS glory

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken, Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much;

An extract from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If…’

Top 5 issues faced at Acts 29 – Theology, Vision, Family, Calling, Character

Top 5 church-planter qualities (survey of NF leaders) – Leader/visionary, Missionary heart, Preacher, Generalist, Family man

20 Questions for a potential church planter

1. Am I a Christian?
2. Am I passionately in love with Jesus and is He the Lord of every area of my life?
3. Do I believe his word and does is affect my life deeply?
4. Am I Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-led, and Spirit-controlled?
5. Am I qualified as an elder? (above reproach – see Titus/Timothy)
6. Do I love the local church as the expression of a gospel community on mission?
7. Am I a missionary to the city? Am I sent for the advancement of the gospel in the city?
8. Do I have a clear vision for this new work?
9. Am I willing to pour myself out in obedience to the vision?
10. Am I healthy – physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually, relationally, maritally and mentally?
11. Am I the kind of leader many people will follow? Have I served as a church leader successfully?
12. Can I preach effectively?
13. Can I guard the doctrinal door with Biblical clarity and tenacious confidence?
14. Can I architect a new work with entrepreneurial skill?
15. Am I called to plant a church at this time and in this place?
16. Have my church leaders commended me for this calling?
17. Am I a hard worker? Am I persevering?
18. Am I adaptable to new people, places and concepts?
19. Can I raise the funds required for my family’s needs?
20. Am I humble enough to learn from other – particularly from those who have gone ahead of me in different areas?

• Regenerated Church membership
• Qualified Leadership (male eldership)
• Gathers regularly for preaching and worship
• Sacraments ministered correctly (Baptism and Communion)
• Unity in Word and Spirit
• Discipline for holiness
• Loves all people
• Evangelises and makes disciples

He went on expanding on point 8 to talk about all of church being on mission, citing Leslie Newbiggin who spoke of being engaged in mission that understands its culture. Driscoll then gave four examples of churches and how they respond to culture:

• Bombshelter - the fundamentalist church that hides from culture, treating church as a safe haven from it. They preach against the culture in an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality, they’re not missional.
• Mirror - the liberal church that is simply a reflection of the culture.
• Parasite - the church that takes all the benefits that a culture provides but does not serve, give to, or love that culture.
• City within a City – the church loves Jesus, believes the Bible and lives differently within the culture, it invites others to join in the distinctive living.

Obviously he’s with the fourth church! Driscoll then went through the 12 aspects of a missional church – he got to 4, having spent about half an hour on the 3rd!

• Church is a missional outpost, it exists to grow, to put on more services, set up new campuses and plant new churches.
• Every Christian is a Missionary. The gospel needs to be preached every week (to encourage inviting friends) and members need to be trained in doctrine and apologetics (so they can answer questions).
• Aware of Local Culture. Mark talked through most forms of media (TV, radio, Internet, blogs, social networking) and how he uses them, he spoke of watching TV missionally – seeing the idols displayed in the media, people’s personal heavens. He also chatted about knowing the places where people socialise and speaking to those in the know about what people get up to.
• Contending and Contextualizing the Gospel. Mark spoke first on 1 Corinthians 9:22 – “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some”. He spoke of having ‘timeless truths and timely methods’, of being ‘seeker-sensible’. In conclusion he gave one of the most clear explanations of contextualization I have heard him give – he said…

“you do not need to make the gospel relevent, but you do need to show that the gospel is relevent”

Afterwards it was good to see a little party from UCCF present and I was able to chat with Scott Thomas about Acts29, church planting and the partnership with Steve Timmis culminating in an event at St. James Clerkenwell on Friday night and the Dwell conference on Saturday. And being a geek, I went and got a picture with Mark – he has a really large head…

So if you’re not going to be at Brighton and you want to know what’s going on then I’ll be providing an ‘outsiders’ perspective of a New Frontiers conference, in fact I’d go further and say a skeptics view of New Frontiers (but that’s another story), but I’m a self confessed ‘Driscoll geek’ so there’s no skeptical view there I’m afraid, well depends what he says!

I’m sure the likes of Adrian Warnock, Bish, and other New Frontiers bloggers will be there and sharing their thoughts, I shall be trying to fit in for a week, pretending to be a New-Frontierser!

Originally I thought he was just going to be at the New Frontiers conference in Brighton, ‘Together on a Mission’ – this is happening 8-11th July… anyway I’m booked in for that, good times.

But there’s some more stuff happening too…

On the 11th July, at 8pm there’s going to be an evening session with Mark Driscoll at St. James’ Clerkenwell, entitled “Driscoll Unleashed in the UK” a nice title!

The next day, Saturday 12th July, he’ll be speaking at the ‘Dwell London – Grace for the City‘… this is a day conference on church planting, and he’ll be speaking alongside Steve Timmis from Crowded House and Scott Thomas from Acts 29 Network. It’s 9.30am – 4.45pm at St. Pauls, Robert Adam street, near to All Souls Langham Place. Tickets are £20 and are available from the Good Book Company. Here’s the programme for the day event:

• Session 1: Gospel of grace vs Religion of works – Driscoll
• Session 2: Preaching Jesus – Timmis
• Session 3: The church planter as a minister of grace – Thomas
• Session 4: Planting communities of grace – Timmis
• Session 5: Am I a church planter? – Driscoll

On the Sunday, 13th July, Driscoll will be preaching at Jubilee Church, Enfield in the morning and at Church of Christ the King, Brighton in the evening.

I don’t know if he’s got any more bookings, but that seems a fair amount to me!

Also… the Good Book Company are now selling copies of Vintage Jesus, £13 – that’s £9.75 if you’ve got a UCCF card!