At one point during his talk yesterday afternoon, Mark Driscoll implied that he expected students would blog about him (although preferably not until after he finished speaking). I, therefore, thought I would oblige...I have to confess to not having paid particular attention to Mark Driscoll prior to the last few weeks. It seemed to me that he was some American guy who everybody seemed to think the sun shone out of. That was enough for me to be wary of getting caught up in the hype that seems to surround this guy. Maybe I'm cynical of things that seem to be associated with American mega-churches or maybe I'm just a typical Australian who participates in cutting down the tall poppy. Either way, I didn't go to any trouble to find out anything more.
However, it soon became evident that there was real excitement about Driscoll's visit to Australia. It also became apparent that pretty much everybody at college was going to hear him speak at some point. People seemed to take him seriously so I began to wonder if I should at least hear what the guy had to say. I started to check out who he was and determine if I thought he was worth listening to.
Turns out that Mark Driscoll is a guy who is the same age as me, married, with 5 kids and heads up one of the biggest churches in the US. Driscoll's claim to fame is that he started off Mars Hill Church in Seattle 12 years ago (at the age of 25) with a handful of people. The church currently has approximately 7000 members! That is no small achievement. What does seem remarkable is that he appears to have done this without losing focus on Jesus.
The next thing that became apparent was that Driscoll is big on talking about Jesus as he is, without pulling any punches, but also talking about Jesus in a way that shows he is just as relevant today as he was 2000 years ago. The other thing that was particularly obvious is that Driscoll is a big proponent of encouraging men (especially young men) to step up and take responsibility for their lives, their families and their churches. Maybe Driscoll did have some things to say that were worth hearing.
On that basis, when I was offered a ticket to last night's event at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, I decided to take it. I then found out that he would also be doing a 2 hour (voluntary) seminar at college yesterday afternoon so figured I would go along to that also.
For a rundown on the two events and my thoughts on them, watch for my next posting.
