Points of Connection - Mark Driscoll in Australia

I was going to blog this in my other blog which has a lot of stuff regarding my personal thoughts and cogitations about things. But after watching this interview of Mark Driscoll in Sydney (at sydneyanglicans.net) there was so many points of connection with Connections that it seemed best to put it here.


All of our leadership at Connections have read Mark Driscoll's Confessions of a Reformission Rev which describes the planting and growth of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, USA. I have found much wisdom, encouragement, and inspiration in Driscoll's attitude to church planting. I gel with his reformed theology, his healthy grasp of the Spirit at work, and his method of cultural engagement. There is much from Mars Hill that can and has shaped Connections. Personally, I know that I have become more direct, perhaps even bolder, in my preaching. The sheer importance of getting to know Jesus, worshipping him and serving him 24/7 becomes our point, purpose, and joy.

And so when the interviewer in this video talks about Sydney Anglicans being intrigued about his reformed theology but ability to culturally connect, I smile and I cheer.

And some of the questions that readers of the sydneyanglicans.net website that are raised on the video are interesting. Again, there are echoes of the small-scale issues and principles that we face at Connections. Paraphrasing, examples are:

Q) How do you prevent issues of being a personality cult?
A) The leader needs to give up power - not too quickly, but slowly to qualified people. It takes the stress off of me...

Q) Isn't secular music worldly?
A) It's using culture in a redemptive way.... Our goal is to redeem as much as we can...

Q) You do communion every week - see it as commanded by Jesus - how do you stop it slipping into repetitive formula?
A) It follows preaching - think, pray, work it through - and you come when you're ready, not row-by-row. The key is to give people time and put it after the sermon so that it's in response to the Bible.

Q) How do you balance the cultural application when at times it can be seen as watering down the gospel?
A) The gospel will always win - we are to be faithful and fruitful, but if you have to pick one - faithful. I'm going to do everything I can to reach as many as I can - we see Paul say that.... The key is to never forsake the gospel.

Q) Dreams, vision, prophecies - do you still experience this? How do you interpret them as God-given or something else?
A) Most of the time when it's a prophetic dream, God gives me Scripture and then wakes me up. And usually its something in the future which happens as he says. Other times I see things, the gift of discernment... God telling me something I need to know so that I can serve people.

Q) What are the main things you can impart to us (Australians)?
A) I find Sydney to be one of the most selfish cities I've seen in my whole life - everything is about personal happiness. [With reference to Connect '09 a bit gospel initiative for Sydney next year:] That's all going to be relationship - reaching young men in cities is key to everything. The only way to reach them is through relationships... Strategic friendships with young men in cities.