You may have heard of Mark Driscoll. He's pastor of a large, fast-growing church in Seattle. I'd seen his name from time to time, but really took interest when I read that there were eight motions at the Southern Baptist Convention last June relating to him! All of them condemnatory! One called for SBC organizations to "refrain from inviting speakers who are known to be unregenerate and curse, speak vulgarly and support alcohol." And Driscoll's not even a Southern Baptist! I knew if someone irritated the SBC that much, I had to find out more about him!
Religion Saves is based on a sermon series Driscoll preached at Mars Hill Church, of which he is founding pastor. On the church's web site, they had people vote on questions they had about church, faith, God, whatever, and then vote for the top questions. Then during the series, they had Q and A sessions, included questions texted to the pastor, for clarification and further questions (apparently he fields questions like this every time he preaches). Hundreds of questions, thousands of votes, and nine sermons later, this book is the result. While Driscoll's style includes plenty of humor, off-the-cuff remarks, and colloquial language, I was surprised by the depth and scholarship that he demonstrated as well.
Many, if not most of Driscoll's congregants are young and single, and many of them formerly unchurched, having been immersed in our free-wheeling, sexualized culture, which explains why three of the nine chapters deal with sex. He writes on birth control, dating, and sexual sin. In these chapters he is very frank, bordering on explicit (not in a titilating way, but instructionally). Some of his teaching on sex has drawn the ire of his critics. But in terms of his actual content, I don't know what the critics can criticize. He does not compromise, taking the side of sexual purity and obedience to scriptural standards.
He does use lots of humor, and dedicates a chapter to defending the use of humor. He points out that the Bible, including Jesus' teachings, is full of various types of humor. He follows the common biblical model, mocking occasionally sinners, but especially "serious religious types who are legalistic, self-righteous, and sinfully judgmental of other people . . . seeking to expose the folly of fools so that they might come to their senses and repent." He points out that in a culture where people listen to comedians on the radio, download funny YouTube videos, watch sitcoms, and stay up late for Leno, Letterman, and the like, the language we use to speak to reach them must include some humor.
The remaining chapters deal with more traditional theological topics: predestination, grace, faith and works, the emerging church, and the regulative principle. Again, I was surprised and impressed by the depth and clarity of his discussions of these topics. He does tend to use a limited number of secondary sources. Also, in his desire to provide a scriptural defense of his position, he throws out lots and lots of scripture, in many cases without interpretation or application, so it leans toward proof texting. But his level of engagement is appropriate for this type of book, and certain provokes reflection.
I started the chapter on predestination thinking I would just skim it; I tire of the arguments one way or another. But I decided I'd read more carefully, and see what conclusion I come to. He makes a solid case for Calvinism; he is died-in-the-wool Calvinist. But in his presentation of Arminianism, I found myself leaning that direction. This is a reflection of two things: he is fair in his presentation of views with which he disagrees, and I am theologically undecided. I will have to do some more reflection on scripture and look into some of the Arminian-leaning authors he cites.
On a final note, Driscoll has been connected to the emerging church movement, and provides a helpful parsing of the different groups in the movement. He draws a hard line between those who hold to orthodox Christian faith yet exhibit nontraditional styles of worship and practice, and those who wander far from orthodoxy into heresy. Most in the movement contextualize church, as missionaries should. "Some churches are on the cutting edge of 1796, with hymns, pews, and a male preacher in a dress." But some go beyond contextualization to rejection of salvation through the cross, denying the virgin birth, and embracing universalism.
Driscoll gives specific examples of emergent pastors participation in interfaith dialogue, in which they neglect to mention the name of Jesus, while seeming to endorse others faiths besides Christianity as salvific. He goes on to say "while Christians should have evangelistic friendships with members of other religions, we must never participate in the practices of other religions with its members because they worship different and false gods." Interestingly enough, the day after I read this, the local paper's religion section featured an article about a "multifaith worship exchange" in the area. I know the pastor of the Baptist church involved, and have attended there. His church is definitely in the emergent group, as described by Driscoll, and I am confident they have avoided the off-ramp of heresy that some emergent churches have taken. But this article did make me wonder what a "worship exchange" looks like. Friendship, yes, dialogue, yes, but worship together, I don't think so.
Driscoll's book impressed me. Though I can see where some uptight Baptists might object to his teachings, by doing so they reveal their own cultural captivity. Rather than making me want to embrace my Baptist roots, these Baptist critics have led me to discover a voice for challenging, culturally relevant, thoroughly biblical and theologically sound teaching.
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