Mars Hill have launched a new media library and the code that runs their pages has been updated - very web 2.0! It’s great to see that there are some good Christian coders out there, see below:

Check out this video, it’s an in-house production by Mars Hill to publicise their Good Friday services, it’s quite graphic, so if you’re a bit squeamish at the sight of blood (well it’s not real blood) then don’t watch it. At the production level it’s awesome, really powerful visually and says it better than words, I’m impressed that any church (even a ‘mega church’) can produce something so professional. Actually, the video is a little bit weird, but it’s well done nonetheless…

I saw on BBC IPlayer last night the first episode of BBC’s The Passion… I thought it was pretty good, both generally as a TV production and in being reasonably true to the gospel accounts. Part 2 tonight, BBC1, at 8.30pm.

Remember the ‘Ask Anything‘ where you could vote on loads of different questions, of which the top 9 questions would be the basis of a sermon series preached by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill. So, that has now become a preaching series entitled ‘Religion Saves and Nine other Misconceptions‘. I like the title, because it’s really easy even for Christians who’ve grasped justification by faith to slip back into religious thinking… anyway, here are the nine sermons coming:

9. What about Birth Control?

8. Why does Mark Driscoll make jokes about Mormons and homosexuals?

7. Election and non-Election - Romans 9?

6. What’s the hardest thing that you teach?

5. How can Christians break out of sexual sin?

4. Salvation? Faith? Works?

3. How can Christians date righteously?

2. Emerging Churches?

1. The Regulative Principle?

Mars Hill have also launched a series of x-rated videos (MH-17) well more like PGs where you should be older than 17 to watch because it’s a series of questions about oral sex and other things like that which would make a school boy blush, followed by off the cuff and very frank answers.

Driscoll is also getting well into Facebook it seems, using his page as a little resource centre for videos, mp3s, blog feeds etc. Also he’s gonna be adding his preaching schedule on there soon, so Driscoll geeks like me can follow him round… sadly he hasn’t yet got back to me on my offer of coffee together when he comes to Brighton.

Read this book while on the train to Budapest… this book is the story of Mars Hill church in Seattle, along with some insights into various aspects of missiology and ecclesiology from Driscoll along the way.

The Criticisms

The two main criticisms I’ve heard about this book, and Driscoll’s ministry are; 1) the chapters are all based around the size of the church, 2) there’s lots of inappropriate things that Driscoll has done that he refers to.

Having read the book I think these are flawed criticisms - first, the book is about the growth of the church, and a vision for more growth, having targets is healthy for mission and focus, in one of his sermons Driscoll says about his church “Is it all about numbers? Well yeh it is because numbers are people and we want to serve as many people as God gives us.” Second, the book is called Confessions not everything here is presented as the right way to do things and Driscoll often talks about the times he has come to repent of his mistakes in ministry.

Key Points

Mission - Driscoll starts off with some of the themes of ‘Radical Reformission’, in all of the decisions he takes in Mars Hill he always makes sure that the focus is kept on the church mission - to reach Seattle with the gospel. Sometimes he has to “put dogs down” when there are people getting in the way of this mission.

Change - when a church grows from 50-4000 in less than 10 years there’s inevitably going to be some radical changes taking place. It’s interesting to hear about Driscoll’s personal change, distancing himself from the liberal Emergent movement and embracing Reformed theology, and how through preaching through Romans the church established this position. Driscoll makes some controversial, sometimes unpopular decisions, but is always looking to keep the church vision focused and ready to grow.

Management - a lot of what Driscoll does seems very experimental, but is always done under the authority of Scripture and the council of other pastors. Firstly, I like the basis of leadership, where rather than recruiting external leaders, that new leaders are raised up and trained within the church, and the idea of hiring staff slowly and firing quickly. And there’s lots of good thoughts about being a pastor, leading a church, leading an eldership team and managing staff, members, change and growth.

Questions - it’s not really a study guide, but at the end of each chapter Driscoll asks the readers some questions about their churches and their attitudes. Driscoll is on a mission and is constantly questioning why we do things, Driscoll brings us back to the Bible for the answers…

Overall…

You have to remember that this book is the story of a specific church in a specific place. And also that it’s a book of confessions… not everything is said and done is ‘good’. But, Driscoll’s passion for evangelism, for leading and building a church is worth the read alone, his thoughts on how to lead/pastor the church may seem a bit strange sometimes, but I love them, because he always goes back to the gospel mission and what the Bible says as his lead and guide.

As I understand the book is now out of date, the church has grown even more and has started multi-site services, with preaching streamed by satellite. Driscoll ends the book with a vision and strategy to see a church of 20,000, I suspect an updated edition will not be too far away!

As ever, it’s an easy read, full of humour and sarcasm, couldn’t put it down. Other reviews of the book can be found at… Reformissionary, Tim Challies, thebluefish

Gonna read about the ‘Cambridge Seven’ now…

Recently I’ve very much enjoyed Driscoll’s series on Ruth at Mars Hill. Some things I particularly liked was the use of video to produce a interactive bible reading, Dricoll’s own special way of bringing the story to life and helping us to understand 3000 year old events in today’s culture, and his emphasis on God’s redeeming grace in the life of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz. Also they made a nice desktop background to accompany the series. You can see all the series here…