Driscoll on Style in Ministry

Great video from Mark Driscoll. I really resonate with what he is saying here. Along with my sentiments concerning Mark’s very inspiring words here I believe there are some huge dangers that church leaders need to be aware of and ask themselves if they are succumbing to them.

When I hear a rock star pastor/leader like Mark speak about what God has done through him and his church in Seattle it is very motivating and I find myself quickly saying to myself as an average church leader, “How long until I can get that going at my church?” – I’m sure I’m not alone in this feeling in response to his words.

But here is the kicker: We need to ask ourselves, why is it that Mark has been successful (if you would allow me to use that word in reference to church)? Most people will hear Mark’s words in this video and say it’s due to all the things that he listed: they have super cool music that fits the cultural preferences, the building is all black like the dominate club scene of Seattle, they have art showings that attract the “arty” people of Seattle, etc, etc and the list goes on.

Thus, the logic goes, if I can just figure out what those attractive things are to the majority of the non-Christian culture in my community and then implement those things in my ministry then I can have a great opportunity to win them to Christ. I would say this would be a major mistake.

The problem is that we have not gotten to the root cause for all this success that Mark has seen in his years at Mars Hill church. The root cause is NOT the forms and style of ministry that he has implemented. They certainly play a role, but the dominate issue is God-given gifting and calling and not the forms that they embrace as a church.

Ask yourself this…Why is it that a dorky pastor (term of endearment) like John Piper who doesn’t have a clue about hipster music, (I love these things about him) on Sunday’s wears the one of two different suits that he owns to preach in, couldn’t decorate his church with a cool vibe to save his life, and probably doesn’t even know that there is a professional football team that plays right down the street from his church, has probably over a thousand college students at his church every Sunday? It’s because of his gifting and his personal, Holy Spirit calling and NOT due to his seeking to adapt to the dominant culture that surrounds his church.

For sure understanding the surrounding culture and seeking to adapt to it has a place when thinking about the shape ministries should take, but I feel that in our current church culture the majority of our time is spent on this, as opposed to getting on your knees and asking God what he has gifted YOU to do instead of looking around and seeing “what works” by others who probably have totally different gifts than you. Let gifting dictate your forms instead of trying to force your gifts to make set forms work. Don’t try and be Mark Driscoll!!! Ask God who he wants YOU to be and what style he wants your ministry to take. Do what YOU do best and just because Mark did something based on his giftedness does not mean that you should too.

When I was younger I spent a lot of time going to Willow Creek Church conferences. They were inspiring and gave pastors much to think about for their ministries but there was a downside.
I would be willing to bet that for every wannabe Willow Creek church where the pastor’s went off to one of their conferences and came home and successfully changed everything about their church, there are 10 that failed at it and 10 years later are wondering why Bill Hybels method didn’t seem to work the same for them. Answer: It’s because you are not Bill Hybels and you probably don’t have the God-given gifts that he has.

For sure we all need to be learning and listening to each other, but at the end of the day we need to ask God what he has gifted each of us personally to do that will bring him glory in his church and do that. Don’t think that merely changing all your externals will effect any lasting change. Believe me it won’t.

The implication is that we must know what it is that we do well and maybe more importantly also have the knowledge of what we don’t do well and be humble enough to have people around us that will help us figure it out.

One other thing…

In the video Mark seems to imply that they have found the preferred style of the majority of people in Seattle. Is this really true? Isn’t this a gross over simplification of the preferences of people that live there? Are people there really that homogeneous? I think the answer is “no”. When we assume that our people are homogeneous in this way I think it leads us to form focus and not gift focus in our ministries. Mark would probably say that they have identified a target audience and it’s easier to find the preferences of a certain target group.

Thoughts?