Jesus For Sale

His Own Coming Tragedy

“The job of president [read that "pastor"] is to cope with his own coming tragedy. No man can fulfill all the hopes that go with the office. His own strengths often undo him.” This is a sentence penned by Michael Novak in reference to our new president. It seems to apply to pastors, too. No matter how much God uses you, at the end of the day it could have been more. I think the farther you go in ministry, the more that occurs to you. What do you do with that awareness? I don’t think most pastors are ready for that to occur to them, and when it does, a dark night of the soul can set in. There are no “do overs.” And there comes a time where there are no more “do mores.” (pardon the grammar) What a people do with that sense is determinative for how they end, drained or eager, distraught or thankful. No matter what, get ready to cope with your own coming tragedy and cast yourself on the mercy of Christ. And this isn’t a word for pastors alone. We will all see what could have been, and I think that is a weight that can’t be carried without Christ.

Mark Driscoll on Nightline

Thanks to iMonk for the link. In my book, Mark is one of the “good guys.” I wouldn’t go to his church, but that is a matter of style and method, not message nor motivation. He is a good corrective to the boomer church where all is sweetness and smoothness and Starbucks coffee. I am a “mild Calvinist” and I enjoy someone preaching the Reformed position in his manner. Even though JI Packer isn’t a parish pastor, I enjoy his style the more. He is fervently evangelical, deeply expositional, and insists on the conversion of the mind as well as the heart. Maybe it’s just me but I am not totally into preachers who I would be afraid of disagreeing with. Driscoll is one of those. But I think that is more my issue than his. I grew up fundamentalist and even though I did not have a bad experience (in fact I loved my church, especially Mrs. Toyer’s curry dish!!!), I have learned to distrust overbearing preachers who seem to rely too much on force of personality than the invitation to conversation that seemed to characterize Jesus, except when he was facing down the religious establishment. Interestingly enough, the overbearing types often cite Jesus’ style of confrontation as their model, but they do not take into account what audience he was addressing. I think one of the things that keeps me on the outer edges of the evangelical subculture is its attraction to Driscoll types. My preferences in communication style lean more to the Rob Bell communication pattern in addition to JI Packer. I think Driscoll’s style can feed the “I want to be right and I want you to be wrong” mindset that can kill relationships and keep religion hurting people (the wrong kind of hurting, I mean). Bell makes an ample use of questions, just like Jesus did and Socrates 400 years before Jesus. Being deeply in touch with mystery and knowing what you don’t know invites people to a more authentic experience of knowing God. No danger of mysticism with Driscoll.