Posted on September 3, 2008 - by Stephen Murray
Driscoll’s Hard Words for Sydney – and maybe us?
Well Mark Driscoll has a reputation for being controversial and he kept that intact down-under with two talks he presented to the Sydney crowd at a training day. His second talk – from the notes I’ve read – seems to be something of quite a brave critique of operations in Sydney. I think it’ll generate quite a few blog responses in the not to distant future. For the low down you can check out Michael Jensen’s brief thoughts here, Mike Jolly’s summary of Driscoll’s points here and Gordon Cheng’s notes from the two talks here. With my own denomination, the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), borrowing a ton from Sydney I wonder if Driscoll would have pretty much the same critique for us? I’d have to listen to the talk myself before passing judgment, but from a surface point of view I resonate with a lot of his points from my own experience here. That said, a few of his points don’t quite make sense to me and I fear he might be missing the boat a bit on some – but they’re all worth looking at and thinking through (In reading remember that, as Mike points out, this is friendly-fire).
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Stephen Murray
Christian, husband to my beautiful Robin, missional dreamer, pastor, church planter, Arsenal, Sharks and Springbok supporter, surfer (in the real sea), patriotic South African, Capetonian. 
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September 3, 2008
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Sam Groves said:
Being fairly familiar with the whole Sydney Anglican machine I can resonate with a lot of what Driscoll nails them for- and I think it’s great. I just hope they have the humility and wisdom to take heed where necessary and to spit out the bone where there’s just a little bit too much of Driscoll having his rant.
But you gotta love the boy. I heard that at one conference in Sydney he was assigned the topic ‘What Jesus’ critics don’t know’. So he rocks up and says ‘Nah, there’s lots of single people in Sydney, I’m gonna talk about that- let’s look at the book of Ruth.’ One of his classic lines was: ‘Hands up if you’re going out with a non-Christian….. well you shouldn’t be. You know, guys in my church do it and I say to them, What are you doing? And they say to me, ‘She’s hot!’ And I say, ‘Yea, and hell’s hot too!’ Hahaha! You gotta love the boy!
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September 3, 2008
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mssc54 said:
It seems to me that his fifteen points could have been summed up by simply saying…
“You are not following the Savior’s example nore are you following His teachings. After all Jesus, Himself railed against the organized religious system. It’s not about “checking off the boxes”. It’s about developing a closer relationship with the entire Trinity!”
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September 4, 2008
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jennifer said:
Sam “he was assigned the topic…and rocks up and says ‘Nah, I’m gonna talk about…instead’
That just sounds arrogant to me!
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September 4, 2008
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Justin Moffatt said:
mssc54 — I’m lost on your comment. Do you think that this was what Mark was driving at?
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September 4, 2008
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Sam Groves said:
Jennifer, I can understand why you see what he did as arrogant. But perhaps a little background information will help. If you know Driscoll (and I don’t know if you do) you’ll know that he has an uncanny ability to understand and analyse pop-culture. Further to that, he spent 3 weeks holidaying (with his family) in and around Sydney prior to doing the talks. Further to that, Driscoll also has a ferocious appetite for research- evident in the fact that he corrected a local press-person on the demographics of their own city whilst being interviewed- needless to say, the interviewer was not a little embarresed!
So I’m assuming that he recognised that these guys have a few blind spots that needed to be addressed. There’s a Chinese proverb that says something like, ‘if you want to know what the water is like inside the pond- don’t ask the fish’. Driscoll came from outside the pond and the fish (in this case, the Sydney Anglicans) would do well to weigh up the concerns he raised.
Personaly, I’d love it if he could come to SA and do the same for us- even if it meant changing the topic we’d assigned to him- even if he did it on the night.
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September 4, 2008
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jennifer said:
Thanks for your response Sam. I have listened to quite a bit of Driscoll and read his stuff, so I understand the points you are making.
Maybe a bit of background info on me will help you understand my reaction to what you said.
I was involved in a church for 15 years with a strong, charismatic (personality, not theology) leader. He would do things like this – and our church ended up going down a path of spiritual authoritarianism and spiritual abuse. Many people were hurt and wounded. I would therefore be unhappy if I was in a situation where someone did this on the night. For a couple of reasons:
1 – The talk advertised seemed good and evangelistic. What if people had invited people with that expectation?
2 – Does it show respect for your hosts to do this? But then again, maybe he discussed it with his hosts beforehand, and they agreed to it – I don’t really know.
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September 4, 2008
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Sam Groves said:
Jennifer, good point(s)!