Book Review: Confessions Of A Reformission Rev.

" ... I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it"
Matthew 16:18b

Over the past two years I have enjoyed watching various clips of Mark Driscoll on YouTube and more recently listening to his weekly podcast, and after finding out more about him, and his "mega church" in Seattle, I decided to get his book about a year and a half ago, and have only just now got down to reading it. In recent years, Driscoll seems to have been, for one reason or another, a very controversial figure in evangelical Christianity, mainly, it seems, because he says what he thinks and doesn't worry about stepping on people's toes when he does. His views on complimentarianism, large church planning, and his interpretation of some aspects of Scripture in particular have stirred up the most heated debate. Personally, I enjoy listening to his podcasts and reading his blog, and whatever the particulars of his theology may be, one thing is clear: Mars Hill Church has exploded in Seattle and people are being saved in huge numbers. Driscoll has got something right. It was mainly for these reasons that I decided to read this book.

It's short, readable, and engaging; it's also disturbing, shocking, hilarious, and deeply challenging. Driscoll has named it "Confessions", and for much of the book this is exactly what he does: confess his mistakes as a pastor, leader and missionary. The chapter titles are statements of confession themselves ("Jesus, Our Offering Was $137 And I Want To Use It To Buy Bullets"; "Jesus, If Anyone Else Calls My House, I May Be Seeing You Real Soon" etc) and each takes us through a period in the history of Mars Hill Church, named after the place where Paul preached to the pagan city of Athens and founded by Driscoll in 1996. The subtitles emphasise the numbers explosion that has taken place: 45-75 people, 75-150, 150-350, 350-1,000 and so on.


There are so many stories here about individuals coming to faith, of God providing in miraculous ways for the church to continue, but also of the evil of Satan being clearly on display and of the very human errors in judgement that were made along the way. Some of the stories Driscoll recalls, such as a demon-possessed man charging toward him in the church or of his own dreams coming true shortly after really are quite shocking; perhaps we never see such things happening around us, but Driscoll's experience, of setting up a church based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a city as secular and dark as Seattle, in other words a place where Satan is nicely settled in, remind us of the realities of the existence and work of the devil and his angels. Driscoll is brutally honest at times, both in admitting his own failures and fears, and in recording his response to those who sought counsel from him who were clearly living in some sin or other. His experiences of virtually shouldering all responsibilities for church growth and leadership himself for long stretches and the health problems this caused him are a reminder of the need all our churches have for Godly, mature people to step forward and share the load that is created in church life.


Driscoll also spends considerable time discussing various apporaches to church growth and mission, weighing up the pros and cons of certain types of church governance, and challenging the reader to consider the views of his/her own church on these issues, with questions like: "Does your church or ministry community exist for the mission of reaching lost people or primarily for itself?" "Name at least ten dogs in your church or ministry that need to be shot [not literally of course!]" "When is the last time your church or ministry took a big risk? How did it turn out?" Some other questions are far more personal, but you can get the book and read them for yourself! On the whole, Driscoll is quite clearly in favour of the "large church" philosophy which is growing in America and coming into the discussion in the UK also. He seems to believe that denominationalism is dying out and that more interdependent or interdenominational churches will soon become the norm.


In terms of theology and doctrine, I did't find myself throwing the book down in disgust at any point at what Driscoll said (though I still am not at all convinced that one can believe based on Scripture that only men can be elders but men and women can be deacons - surely it has to be both for both or only men for both!). He has a fairly Calvinist theology based on man's sin and God's grace, which I believe is the key message of Scripture. I wasn't so convinced though by some of his arguments for large churches. I don't really know what I think about large churches - for a start no one seems to know what a "large church" consists of, but you know it when you see it - but my first reaction to the idea of 6,000 people on various "campuses" across a city tuning in to a sermon is that it surely makes building a close fellowship extremely hard. Driscoll and those who run large churches counter this by emphasising small groups and community groups, and more or less see inclusion in these as mandatory for their members.


Of course, any personal objections I felt when I read through Driscoll's descriptions of the church structure were countered in my head repeatedly by the thought that the his church has grown miraculously quickly and it still attracts new members. But I think a great deal of care has to be shown in churches were one pastor is a preaching pastor exclusively, and so is virtually inaccesible to an average visitor or member, or another pastor is a worship pastor, and so has little responsibility beyond deciding who has the best worship band skills and what order the worship should be conducted in. Surely the danger will always be that the whole place becomes functional more than anything else? Does everything fall apart, for example, if the church website crashes? I don't ask these questions to judge or undermine others, like Driscoll, who are part of churches like his; but they were in my head while I read, and I suppose one result of reading this book for me will be to think more in general about church structure, government and growth.


Driscoll is nothing if not open and honest about what he thinks (fans of theonomy or "The Shack" probably shouldn't bother reading what he has to say on them!) and often his put-downs or puns make for laugh-out-loud moments in reading this book. Whatever we agree with or disagree with in his approach to things, we should surely praise God for the way He is quite clearly working through this man's church; we should also be thankful that God can use human errors, even the errors of the most dedicated and God-fearing of Christian leaders, for good in the work of building His church. That's what he's been doing with Mark Driscoll.