Mark Driscoll

For the screenwriter of the TV show Ellen, see Mark Driscoll (screenwriter).

Mark A. Driscoll
Born	October 11, 1970 (1970-10-11) (age 41) Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Pastor, Author, Church planter
Religion	Christianity
Spouse	Grace Driscoll

Mark A. Driscoll (born October 11, 1970) is an American pastor and author. He is the founder and preaching pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, he co-founded the Acts 29 Network and Churches Helping Churches, and has contributed to the "Faith and Values" section of the Seattle Times and the "On Faith" section of the Washington Post. He helped start The Resurgence, a repository of missional theology resources.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Driscoll was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and was raised Roman Catholic in the Riverton Heights area of Seatac, WA, which is located just south of Seattle, WA.^[2] He is a 1989 graduate of Highline High School in Burien, Washington, where he served as student body president and editor of the school newspaper. He earned a Bachelor's degree in communications from Washington State University^[3] with a minor in philosophy and holds a Master of Arts degree in exegetical theology from Western Seminary.

The Resurgence

Driscoll founded The Resurgence, a theological cooperative whose partners include Acts 29 Network and Mars Hill Church. It is also associated with Desiring God (a ministry of John Piper), The Gospel Coalition (including Tim Keller and D. A. Carson), Crossway Books and The Hub.

The Resurgence aims to train church leaders in conservative reformed theology and also in the practice of contextualizing the Gospel to different cultures and people groups. It has three main branches: Re:Lit, a publishing house; Re:Train, a missional training centre; and Re:Sound, a music arm.

ABC Nightline Special

In 2009, Driscoll was involved in a debate with Deepak Chopra, Annie Lobert, and Carlton Pearson in an ABC special entitled, "Does Satan Exist?". He has also been featured on the program discussing other topics including the 10 Commandments and sex.

Haiti relief

In January 2010, following the 7.0-measured earthquake disaster, Driscoll and James MacDonald took a crew to Haiti to provide prayer and relief to Haitian churches through their ministry ChurchesHelpingChurches.com.

Style of sermons

Driscoll's casual, but direct approach style of sermons has resonated in the Pacific Northwest, a region considered the least churched in the nation, according to the North American Religion Atlas.^[4] Driscoll's style, he says, is influenced by stand-up comedians like Chris Rock.^[5] Driscoll preaches series like Vintage Jesus, Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions, The Peasant Princess, and Trial, focusing on a book of the Bible or topical sermons. Driscoll delivers his sermons with a Systematic Theology approach.

Rob Wall, a professor at Seattle Pacific University, explains the success for the church in Mark Driscoll's direct answers to complicated spiritual questions: "His style of public rhetoric is very authoritative. Whether it's about the Bible, or about culture, he is very clear and definitive."^[6] In a Crosscut.com article, his style was described this way: "Pacing the stage at the main Ballard campus, he delivered a sermon on marriage roles as he saw them set forth in the Song of Solomon. He told stories from his own marriage, offered statistics, and dropped jokes without their feeling forced. Every few minutes he would sniff in a thoughtful, practiced sort of way. This untucked, down-to-earth demeanor was the opposite of a huckster televangelist, but polished in its own way. It makes the guy easy to listen to."^[7]

Driscoll has been widely inspired by other theologians including Augustine (especially on predestination(?)), John Calvin (especially on city transformation), Martin Luther (especially on the gospel), along with the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards and, Charles Spurgeon. And he finds himself in connection with contemporary theologians including Lesslie Newbigin, Tim Keller, Ed Stetzer, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, Wayne Grudem, Bruce Ware, Don Carson, John Piper, John MacArthur, David Wells and Driscoll's co-writer Gerry Breshears.^[8]

Beliefs

Calvinism

Driscoll distinguishes between double and single predestination, and says that unlike John Calvin, he believes only in single predestination.^[9]

Driscoll denies the orthodox Calvinist view of Limited Atonement and believes instead that Jesus died for all people in some sense, and for some people (the elect) in another sense.^[10] He thinks this position was what John Calvin believed, saying in a humorous tone: 'Calvinism came after Calvin... I will argue that the Calvinists are not very Calvin. I will argue against Calvinism with Calvin... What kind of Calvinist are you? I'm a Calvin, not a Calvinist, that came later'.^[10] Driscoll also believes that this position (or slight variations thereof) was held by men like Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, Martin Luther, and Richard Baxter.^[10]

Driscoll has on several occasions cited Charles Spurgeon as having a major influence on his theology, pastoral ministry and preaching.

Emerging church

His description of his association with, and eventual distancing from the Emerging church movement:^[11]

In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake.

Gender roles

Driscoll holds to a complementarian view of gender roles.^[12] He sometimes asks his wife to come up on stage to help him answer questions texted in from the audience,^[13] and believes that this does not clash with his understanding that preaching/teaching by women is prohibited by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:12.^[14]

When the Evangelical leader Ted Haggard left New Life Church in Colorado, Driscoll raised an uproar with the comment on his blog: "A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband's sin, but she may not be helping him either."^[7] Driscoll later apologized for his statement.^[15]

When the Episcopal Church elected a woman as its bishop, Driscoll wrote on his blog, "If Christian males do not man up soon, the Episcopalians may vote a fluffy baby bunny rabbit as their next bishop to lead God's men."^[15]

Bibliography

Books

• Driscoll, Mark; Gerry Breshears (2010). Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe. Crossway Books. ISBN 9781433506253. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2009). Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions. Crossway Books. ISBN 1433506165. 
• Driscoll, Mark; Gerry Breshears (2009). Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods. Crossway Books. ISBN 1433501302. 
• Driscoll, Mark; Gerry Breshears (2008). Death by Love: Letters from the Cross. Crossway Books. ISBN 1433501295. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2008). On the New Testament (Book You'll Actually Read). Crossway Books. ISBN 1433501341. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2008). On the Old Testament (Book You'll Actually Read). Crossway Books. ISBN 143350135X. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2008). On Church Leadership (Book You'll Actually Read). Crossway Books. ISBN 1433501376. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2008). On Who Is God? (Book You'll Actually Read). Crossway Books. ISBN 1433501368. 
• Driscoll, Mark; Gerry Breshears (2008). Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions. Crossway Books. ISBN 1581349750. 
• Driscoll, Mark; et al. (2007). John Piper. ed. The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. Crossway Books. ISBN 158134922X. 
• Driscoll, Mark; et al. (2007). Robert E. Webber. ed. Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches. Zondervan. ISBN 0310271355. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2006). Confessions of a Reformission Rev.. Zondervan. ISBN 0310270162. 
• Driscoll, Mark (2004). The Radical Reformission. Zondervan. ISBN 0310256593. 
• Howerton, Mike (2004). The Relevant Church: A New Vision For Communities Of Faith. Relevant Books. ISBN 097469424X. 

eBooks

• Driscoll, Mark. Pastor Dad. http://relit.org/pastordad/. 
• Driscoll, Mark. Porn Again Christian. http://relit.org/porn_again_christian/. 

See also

• Missiology
• Missional
• New Calvinism
• Missional Quotes

References

1. ^ "About the Resurgence". http://theresurgence.com/about. Retrieved 11 July 2010. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Worthen, Molly (January 11, 2009). "Who Would Jesus Smack Down?". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 
3. ^ Tu, Janet. "Pastor Mark packs 'em in". The Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/1130/cover.html. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 
4. ^ "North American Religious Atlas". The Polis Center. http://www.religionatlas.org/default.asp?page=rel_region&ext=htm. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 
5. ^ Driscoll, Confessions, p 70.
6. ^ Rose Egge (2008-07-14). "Mars Hill Church one of nation's fastest growing". Ballard News-Tribune. Archived from the original on 2008-08-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20080803000401/http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/articles/2008/07/14/news/local_news/news03.txt. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Evangelism meets Seattle: the view from Mars Hill". Crosscut.com. http://crosscut.com/2008/10/30/religion/18602/. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
8. ^ "One to One with Mark Driscoll". New Frontiers Magazine. http://www.newfrontiers.xtn.org/magazine/previous-issues/vol-307-apr-jun-2008/one-to-one-with-mark-driscoll/. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
9. ^ go to the Part 3 sermon 'Predestination', after about 8:30min through the sermon he talks briefly about this.
10. ^ ^{a b c} Notes on Unlimited-Limited Atonement (sermon notes for November 20, 2005); and Unlimited-Limited Atonement (audio) see especially between 44 and 50 mins
11. ^ Driscoll, Mark. "Welcome". http://theresurgence.com/?q=node/5. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 
12. ^ Driscoll, Mark: It's Always Something at Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll's blog, September 19, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2006.
13. ^ see http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial and go to the sermon 'Marriage and Women' 45:38min through he invites her up.
14. ^ see http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial and go to the sermon 'Marriage and Women' 1:01:25min through he clarifies this.
15. ^ ^{a b} "Mars Hill pastor responds to uproar over blog posts on women". Seattlepi.com. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/294572_marshill04.html. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 

External links

• Mars Hill Church Homepage

Persondata
Name	Driscoll, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 11, 1970
Place of birth	Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States
Date of death
Place of death