My last
post told the story of how I came to hear Mark Driscoll twice on Wednesday. This post will look at what he had to say first of all to Moore College.
The seminar he conducted on Wednesday afternoon at Moore College was probably the best-attended college event I have yet seen. I doubt there were many students or faculty who were willing to miss the opportunity to hear what Driscoll had to say about preaching to today's generation.
It was quickly clear that Driscoll had done his homework about Australia in general and Sydney in particular. He knew statistics about Sydney that some had never heard before. He seemed to have gleaned a good understanding of the pop-culture of Sydney, of what things were in fashion, especially amongst the younger generation, and of what was considered to be 'cool'.
Driscoll also had done his homework about Moore College and determined what it was that he felt we, as a college, needed to be told. And tell us, he did! He was quite complimentary of the attention that is given to remaining true to the Scriptures by the Sydney Diocese and of not allowing the gospel to be compromised. He said that we were known as 'the Bible guys'. However, Driscoll was quite forceful in telling us that we need to polish up our act in how we present the gospel to our community. He said that there were two groups - the boring Bible guys and the really cool heretics. He suggested that we need to be adding a third group to the mix - the pretty cool Bible guys. He then went on to talk about some of the ways we could do that.
He reminded us that proclamation of the gospel is about the telling of a timeless truth but that contextualisation is about telling it in a timely manner. In other words, be unflinching in the gospel message but flexible in our approach. However, contextualisation is not making the gospel relevant, it's showing the relevance of the gospel.
Driscoll also challenged us as students to be thinking about how we are sharing our lives with non-Christians. It's true that it is very easy to lead quite an insular life here at College, one where we have very little contact with anybody outside of our immediate community. It was certainly a challenge that is worth further consideration. How do I go about ensuring that I have opportunities to share the gospel if I have no contact with non-Christians?
Driscoll also gave the guys a particularly hard time, bluntly telling the young guys that they, especially, need to step up, grow up and take responsibility for their lives, their marriages and families and for their churches. My understanding is that encouraging young guys to step up is a particular hobby horse of Driscoll's and he did not settle for less on this occasion. He also argued that a man is going to have little idea of how to head up a church if he has not headed up a family.
Although the single women were told to keep serving Jesus and be prepared to change what this looks like when they marry (a generally good principle), there was no recognition at all of the fact that relationships are not always as straightforward as this, and not everybody who wishes to marry will have this opportunity. The obvious (and right) response is to keep serving Jesus. However, as somebody who did himself marry as a young man, it seemed to me that Driscoll had little understanding of just how hard it can sometimes be as a single person in a world of couples and families.
All in all, I would say that it was worthwhile hearing what Driscoll had to say. Despite not agreeing with all that he said, there was certainly stuff in there that we as Sydney Anglican Moore College students needed to hear.
Today is the second anniversary of the death of my grandfather, Reg Philpott.
