Mark Driscoll
197 pages
I flew right through this book. Confessions of a Reformission Rev. was extremely well written, full of sarcasm and wit, crass and bold, humble and sincere and an amazingly helpful resource and insight into the world of church planting, church issues and church problems.
I was highly impressed with Driscoll’s first book, The Radical Reformission, when it came out a few years ago as I found myself highly challenged and highly engaged in the inner-workings of Driscoll’s missiology. It’s often times very difficult for an author to put out a second work that matches the brilliance of their first work, but Driscoll’s sophomore release exceeded my expectations and in many ways was better than his first. (He even alludes to a great number of books with subjects that he hopes to tackle and write in the future—I am very much looking forward to reading them as well.)
Driscoll’s Confessions is a brief look back over the life of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, of which Driscoll was one of the founding pastors. He goes through the struggles that he himself personally faced as well as some of the struggles of the church, how he handled them and how he either failed or succeeded. He even explains how he arrived at the conclusion that it is an okay thing to have video venues in a multi-site approach to church—a laugh out-loud sort of story that includes sickness, diarrhea, sharting yourself on stage, etc…
Driscoll tackles a great amount of practical as well as theological issues surrounding the church, whether it be church polity and structure, or worship styles and church discipline. I wish that he would have gotten deeper into each of the issues, but for most of them he’s hoping to write an in-depth book on each of the subjects. He holds a great amount of wisdom and insight in these areas and I look forward to learning more from him.
Driscoll uses a great amount of sarcasm, wit, and blunt metaphor to communicate in this book which sometimes leaves you feeling either uncomfortable, or rolling in laughter. I can’t remember the last time that I read a book and actually laughed out loud at what I was reading, but Driscoll has a knack at writing humorously while conveying an extremely valuable and important point. There are many that disagree with Mark because of how crass and blunt he is, because of his theological positions on women, homosexuality, and others, but I would suggest looking beyond these differences and take a gander into the book anyways. I would highly recommend this book, not only for the insight, but for the sheer joy that it is to read. So, go pick it up or add it to your list… but don’t miss out on this one.
Related posts:
- dr. schuller, mark driscoll, & the crystal cathedral.
- missional vs. seeker
- Faith of My Fathers (a review)
- breaking the missional code (a review)
- church discipline.
