Influences (Part 3)

(Part 3 of a series. Part 1; Part 2)

It was only in the 6 months running up to Invest that my spiritual life began to re-order itself. Having spent a number of years in a very desolate place, finally, and quite suddenly, things began turning a corner. One of the things I stumbled upon during this time which helped the transition was the ministry of Mars Hill church in Seattle, pastored by Mark Driscoll.

The first thing to note here is that all of the Mars Hill teaching is available for free online, and they have a companion project at Resurgence which is an absolute goldmine for theology freaks like me. The sheer vastness of available teaching here is great, and I listened to huge amount of teaching from Mark Driscoll over the months, and it has had a significant impact on my own personal theology and my future plans for church planting.

I’ve also invested in some books – The Radical Reformission, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, and Vintage Church. The first 2 are simply amazing – the 3rd probably is too, but I haven’t read it yet…

So, what are some specific things that have influenced me. Well, there are loads, but as usual I will attempt to summarise:

1. The Dead Guys.
   I feel like my eyes have been opened to the fact that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of truly amazing believers, including some significant church planters, who have gone before us, and I should ignore them at my peril. While as Protestants we don’t accord tradition the same status as scripture, I find that many modern Christians seem to view tradition as completely worthless, if not damaging. I have certainly ignored much that has gone before me, but I’m trying to address that.
   At Christmas I read God’s Generals: The Revivalists, which was a great introduction. I have also read Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism. In my list of books still to read include work by Smith Wigglesworth, more God’s Generals, more by Spurgeon, and hopefully some Calvin too.
   Whilst we’re talking about Spurgeon, it’s worth noting that they’ve installed him as a “guest blogger” over at the resurgence. Also, my sister had a conversation with a Spurgeon fan who was gutted to discover that he was dead….
2. Preaching
   One of my other inspirations of recent years (which will probably get a post of it’s own) was David Murrow’s book Why Men Hate Going To Church. One of the many things that this challenges is the area of Sunday morning teaching/preaching, and caused me to spend some time thinking and assessing what I feel to be my primary gifting. While I concur with many of his conclusions, as I have listen to, and followed the progress of, Mark Driscoll I have come to believe in the power of preaching as a spiritual gift again, rather than simply assessing it as a purely secular medium of communication.
   It has also been refreshing to listen to some who systematically preaches through a book of the Bible, rather than the predominantly thematic preaching that I have experienced in recent years. While there are some short series based on a theme (eg Pray Like Jesus), mostly he alternates between an OT and NT book. They have just begun what will be almost 3 years preaching through the gospel of Luke.
3. Reformed / Calvinist
   If you had asked me to define my theology in previous years, I probably would’ve plumped for “charismatic evangelical”, or, later on, I invented the phrase “cynical charismatic” or “cinematic” (which was a reflection on some of my questions over charismatic practice more than theology). However, I’ve been increasingly drawn to the “Reformed” bent, under the influence of MD, who has described himself as “reformed-ish and charismatic-ish”, and also as a “4.5 point Calvinist”. The 5 points of Calvinism are certainly under consideration for me, partly through the influence of MD, and partly through CH Spurgeon, and this has definitely helped me think through some of the issues to hand when it comes to planting a new church.
4. Theologically Conservative, Culturally Liberal
   Another catch-phrase from the stables of Mars Hill. It is just brilliant for a large growing church to be able to say that they’ve achieved it without having compromise on their theological belief system. All too often, particularly in Emerging Church circles, the implication is that you need to drop some of your “outdated” beliefs in order to be truly relevant to our “post-modern” (or post-Christian, or whatever) society, and this has always been a bug-bear for me. Listening to someone preaching directly from the Bible without holding back from the difficult passages, but still managing to connect with thousands of people from all walks of life, is an awe-inspiring, and plain inspiring, sight.
5. Leadership
   Wow. This is getting to be a very long post. I’ll summarise: looking at the passages in 1 Timothy and Titus as a basis for choosing leaders forces you to examine character before gifting, which is a Good Thing (TM). Not a new thought, but worth restating, and has also benefited from a bit of introspection on whether or not I am “above reproach”.
6. Family and Household
   If you want to know how a church leader treats his church, look at how he treats his wife, and runs his household. Teaching from 1 Corinthians and Song of Solomon has changed some of my ideas about who I am as a husband and father, and challenged me to “pastor” my family better.
7. It’s about Jesus, It’s all about Jesus, It’s only about Jesus
   This should probably have been at the top. It’s all too easy, particularly in charismatic circles, to focus on the Holy Spirit, or, in recent years, to shift focus too much onto the Father, and this is often to the detriment of the Son. Indeed, the Holy Spirit exists to point people toward Jesus. Jesus is the “chief pastor” of the church. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
   Reminding myself that it’s all about Jesus has been crucial in these past few months, and is top of our list of values for the life`boat project.

There are probably more things I could talk about, but this is easily enough! Feel free to ask me questions if you need more details…