Despite his return, Mark Driscoll has not learnt his lesson. It’s Mark Driscoll again! “Look at me, I’m a controversial preacher” is being used in a new anti-Calvinist way. Here is a quick overview of Mark, one of the most significant preachers of the last 25 years, for those of you who are unfamiliar with him.

 

In 2008 Mark Driscoll was one of the rising stars of the New Calvinism and one of the first to be perceived as a celebrity pastor. A superb communicator, he offered hope and encouragement to those of us who wanted to see the presence of a robust but contemporary Reformed theology in the market place – although his unhealthy obsession with Song of Solomon (which he seemed to perceive as a sex manual) and his reputation as the ‘cussin’ pastor, did cause some concerns.

 

His fall was spectacular; accused of bullying and plagarism, as well as allegations that church money was used to promote his book onto the bestsellers list, he was removed from the church planting movement he co-founded, Acts 29 (which has gone on to thrive), and his Seattle Mars Hill megachurch collapsed. He resigned in 2014. He has now moved to Arizona where he is the founding pastor of Trinity Church. The hope was that his fall would have taught him humility and that he would have come under the oversight of a wider church denomination and would have been able to use his considerable gifts for the glory of God and the good of the kingdom.

 

Sadly it appears as though the opposite has happened. He now has Mark Driscoll ministries where you can ‘Ask Pastor Mark’, get daily devotions from ‘Pastor Mark’ and even more amazingly get lessons in leadership from ‘Pastor Mark’, the failed leader.

 

You can also give to Mark Driscoll ministries and buy Mark Driscoll books. In a bizarre tweet last week he even offered to send you a personally signed copy of his sermon notes if you signed up for his ministry. Protestant indulgences anyon

 

Reformed theology is: I have a dad who is powerful, in charge, not relational, he lives far away, and don’t get him mad because he can hurt you.

 

“Then they pick dead mentors, Spurgeon, Calvin and Luther – these are little boys with father wounds who are looking for spiritual fathers so they pick dead guys who are not going to get to know them or correct them”.

 

It’s deeply saddening to read such language from any Christian pastor, let alone one who considers himself to be a teacher of others and a father figure. It’s not so much the amateur psychology or the abusive language, but rather the ignorant or deliberate misrepresentation of Reformed theology.

 

I regularly read Calvin, Luther and Spurgeon and I suspect that anyone who argues that they present a cold and distant view of God has read about them, but has not read them. I have found Calvin to be warm and so focused on the love of God that it is rare for me to read him without my heart being ‘strangely warmed’ (something that happened to John Wesley as he heard Martin Luther’s preface to Romans being read.e?!