Mark Driscoll is one of my favorite young Christian leaders. While I’m not Reformed in my theology, I think he has a lot to offer Christian leaders, especially us young ones. While on a trip to the sunshine state (Florida) Mark sat down with J.I. Packer and asked him about theological issues young Christian leaders need to be focused on.

Here are Mark’s notes from his blog and my comments are in italics:

1. Regeneration — He said that the doctrine of regeneration has not been fully appreciated by many who do not understand that to be born again with a new heart and new nature means that we have at our deepest level a new identity and new passionate desires for God’s Word and ways. He commended to all young Christian leaders a thorough study on the doctrine of regeneration.
   
   I agree with this. To many times Christians are left to think that showing up or even going a step further and putting some cash in the coffer equals biblical Christianity. I’ve had my chops busted by well intentioned church people when I’ve talked about the negative sides of American Christianity, but I’ll take the heat when it comes to calling those who claim and call themselves Christ-followers to living as the Bible calls us to live. Regeneration is simply allowing the Holy Spirit to begin a work inside us that make us more like Christ (ie., Fruits of the Spirit, Clothed with Christ, good trees bare good fruit). Regeneration occurs when we focus on God through hearing and reading His word, praying, and other Spiritual Disciplines. We (young Christian leaders) no matter our position in the church need to do more living by example and showing what a changed life looks like and how to allow the Holy Spirit to begin this work and teach more on the call for those who follow Jesus to pick up their cross daily and actual follow what He teaches.
   
   

2. God-Centered Theology — He said that theology today is rife with man-centered thinking so that the glory of God in all things is not the essence of what is taught to be faithfully Christian. The result, he explained, is that even Christians often live their lives for the supreme purpose of their perceived happiness, feelings, and satisfaction. Yet, biblical Christianity differs from the other religions of the world in that the desires and purposes of God override ours; we are not the number one priority, but rather God is.
   
   I’ve allowed myself to fall into the trap of living for myself and forgetting that we live for and solely to glorify God. Again we young leaders need to be living by example a life that glorify God and works to bring the about the Kingdom of God taught by Jesus. Teaching through scripture in stead of purely topical when bring about a more God-Centered Theology to your congregation as you teach the whole Bible.
   
   

3. Godliness Begins at Home — This point was both surprising and refreshing. I was expecting only weighty and complicated theological admonition from such a theological giant. However, his wise counsel on this point is well needed. Packer said that most Christians do not take seriously the biblical teaching that true Christian living begins first at home with one’s spouse, children, and grandchildren. Therefore, he implored young Christian leaders to begin their quest for maturity and holiness at home in relationship with their family.
   
   I strongly agree with this. A lot of factors can get in the way of leading your family like personal pride, misplaced priorities, lack of understand from those who oversee you, etc. No matter the factors you are faced with you must realize your calling is to your family first then your ministry (1 Timothy 3:4). If to make it work put your family on your calendar and schedule family time. Take care of wife and your children and your work as a leader will be easier as you lead by example those the Lord has placed under your teaching and oversight.
   
   

4. Trinity — Packer stated that the fullness of the doctrine of the Trinity is not completely appreciated as it should be. The result, he said, is that some Christians have only a deep understanding of Jesus or the Holy Spirit so that they are guilty of what he called “Jesus-olatry” or “Holy Spirit-olatry” rather than a full love and worshipful appreciation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
   
   I think God revealed Himself to us in three different ways and should be studied and understood best we can from scripture. As young leaders we should add to our knowledge base so we can pull out ways the Trinity works or reveals to us in different ways as we’ve seen in scripture.
   
   

What about you, what are some theological issues you think young Christian leaders should be focusing on?

I heard about this new site that takes the words off your blog and makes a mash up of the words you use the most. Maybe a helpful tool to see what you’re really spending all your time blogging about. Check it out Wordle.

Here’s mine.

HT Chris

This morning at the church we’re attending I heard a message that really hit home with me. I’ve been accused of being ahead of my time and to forward thinking. So to hear some encouragement about seeing beyond the here and now. The message was based on Numbers 13 & 14 and the 12 Spies trip into Canaan and their and the people’s reaction to what lie ahead of them.

The introduction to the message was “Vision is the ability to see God’s presence, to perceive God’s power and to focus on God’s plan in spite of obstacles.” He went on from here to say that “Christians with vision are endangered species”. I completely have to agree with him to many times I see Christians and especially church leaders cannot see more than the next Sunday in front of them let alone 2 years, 5 years and 10 years ahead them.

In order to be a person with vision you must posses three things:
-Awareness, the ability to see
-Attitude, the faith to believe
-Action, the courage to do

Only a minority will see things as God does, and that vision almost always goes against the flow.
-The majority see the problem, people with vision see potential (Numbers 13:1, 17-20, 27-20)
This is what separates the people God calls to be leaders of His church and that people in our faith communities need to follow those leaders and trust they follow God.
- The majority exaggerates difficulties, people with vision magnify God (Numbers 13:31-33)
We in the church doubt I’ve always wondered where the verse “to Him who can do immeasurably more” or “nothing is impossible with God”. Why even show up on Sunday if you don’t trust God to do great things around you?
-The majority listen to critics, people with vision listen to God’s word (Numbers 14:1)
Why do we listen to critics? Why do we allow people to gossip and spread negativity around the people?
-The majority glorify the past, people with vision point to the future. (Numbers 14:2-4)
Their is a lot of good that comes from our past, and those in the past have word extremely hard to get us where we are but we forget they did what they did to help us grow in our faith and we have a commitment to do the same for future generations.
-The majority is fear based, people with vision are faith based. (Numbers 14:5-9)
It saddens me to see all the fear good church people allow to get in the way of following God where He is leading. It irritates me to see people in the church use fear as a tactic to stop the forward movement of their local church let alone the whole kingdom.
-The majority see obstacles, people with vision see God (Numbers 14:10-11)
God is visible we just have to know where to look (Matthew 25:31-40) and getting on board with the things God is already blessing or blazing trails scriptures calls to blaze is seeing God and just following.

The Difference Vision Will Make-
-With problems in my life
-Power in the church
-People in my path
-Potential in my path

Lack of vision is plaguing the American church as we’ve become more like the Israelites that wanted to go back to Egypt in stead of forging ahead to the next great adventure God is calling us to. A story that was used as an illustration this morning really fits the current state of a lot church’s and church leaders. “About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway? Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.”

Italics above are my opinions and thoughts based on the point being made

Bob Hyatt linked to this article about Mark Driscoll on Wittenburgdoor.com and I want to share so thoughts from it.

I have to admit that I really respect Mark, though I don’t agree with him theologically. Mark’s leadership and desire to teach both the people in his gatherings and leaders the masculine side of Christianity that gets dismissed by almost all of America Christianity is inspiring and the kind of leader I want to follow. A while back I listened to one of the Acts 29 Bootcamp podcasts about men in leadership and that’s where my respect for Mark began. He his total on target for calling men to stand up and be the leaders God called us to be. In the Wittenburg Door article he doesn’t really delineate from that and this great moment in church conference history Mark invites five guys from the audience up, puts his hands behind his back and tells them to take a punch at him in the chin. No one takes him up even though he promises not to hit them back and after they leave the stage he precedes to hit himself five times and the goes on with his talk. This is great stuff, when has a leader ever been so brave as to do something like this.

Here is a list of articles from Mark Dricoll’s - The Resurgence website
Where Have All the Fathers Gone? Pastoral Strategies to Bring Men Back to God’s Household
Profiling Christian Masculinity
The Banned Church Planting Video
The Whole Section on Men Issues

So, what do you think of the article and Mark Driscoll?