Image by kofoed @ flickr
“Pastor” Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church (no, not that one, the other Mars Hill) has commented on his perception of the quality of preaching in the church in the UK. He’s done so in an interview for Christianity magazine conducted by someone from Premier Radio.
To help people get up to speed on this, Krish Kandiah has posted a response which includes links to the audio of the interview and Mr Driscoll’s own response to the furore that has ensued. Christianity Magazine have also responded.
I’m a young (at 35 – and charming, according to the Daily Telegraph) preacher from the UK and I take exception to being described as a “coward who won’t tell the truth”. I know from experience that up and down the UK are women and men of all ages (and I know Mr Driscoll won’t recognise the validity of the ministry of half of those on the basis of their gender) who passionately preach the gospel of Jesus who has transformed their life.
This matters because whatever we in the UK may think of Mr Driscoll, his description as a “pastor”, his attitude towards women and his notions of what being masculine means, there are a lot of people in the American evangelical churches (and sadly, also some in the UK) who listen to him who will believe that we on the east of the Atlantic are in some way ashamed of the gospel and not prepared to announce it as the truth we believe it to be. This in turn matters because it damages relationships within the church of God and Jesus said that everyone would know we’re his disciples by how we love each other.
So…
This is an open invitation to Mr Driscoll to come to St Francis’ Church in Luton and hear me or another member of our team preach. If he has any problem with it, he’s then welcome to talk with us and we can reason together.
I suspect there may be other churches who would happily extend the same invitation. If you lead one, please feel free to include your invitation as a comment on this post.
4 comments
Jake Belder
13/01/2012 at 15:45 (UTC 0)
Indeed. He’s certainly welcome at St John’s in Hull any time to hear us as well.
Dave Meldrum
13/01/2012 at 15:49 (UTC 0)
He’s welcome to hear this Brit abroad preach in Cape Town, St Peter’s Mowbary. Actually, last time he came to SA he tweeted that ‘the men here are very impressive’. He hadn’t visited our church, but the mind boggles…
James Stacey
13/01/2012 at 20:30 (UTC 0)
He’s welcome to come and stay a week with the Jesus Army. We’d give him a run for his money!
Michael Leyden
13/01/2012 at 20:48 (UTC 0)
James, is this the clerical version of “Oi, Driscoll, you and me outside, now!”? You could have a preach-off and we could all come and vote… I’m glad to see living away from home hasn’t taken the scouuse out of you!