Thoughts by Mark Driscoll
Here is a summary of what Driscoll presented to the Sydney Anglicans...
17. There is not a great sense of urgency. "I believe God has a sense of urgency for planting churches, and releasing young men" but this urgency is not evident. You're not seeing a lot of conversions, and everywhere I go I'm having guys come to me and complain that they have no permission to plant churches. Urgency shows itself with new services and new churches. Lack of urgency shows itself with a lack of innovation. Not everyone is an innovator or entrepreneur - but is there room in the system for those who are? You can allow innovation without taking away from what is good.
18. Movements have become institutions and museums. A movement is where God does what He always does, but in greater depth than we normally see, for example the Puritans, Methodists, Charismatic movement.
Defining variables of a movement are:
(i) Young people are often at the centre of a movement - everywhere but Sydney. I'm an older guy where I'm from - but here, I'm young. Young people are often at the centre of movements - most of the Methodists were guys in their 20s, Billy Graham was 19 when he first started preaching.
(ii) "Statistically I think one of the reasons your church is so small is that your young men don't get to lead them until they are old" - and they run out of gas before they get there. You say, ‘but the young are irresponsible' - of course they are! Young men say and do stupid things, but it's good to get the losses out of the way early.
(iii) Movements are marked not just by birth, but by new birth. New churches have to be planted and you need new leaders so there can be new churches.
(iv) A lot of movements are completely unaware of their influence - "I was shocked by the number of Aussies who download my sermons."
(v) Movements have supporting organisations, such as theological colleges and publishing houses.
(vi) Usually, new movements come into existence when there's new technology. For example, the Protestant Reformation happened at the time of the printing press, Billy Graham used the advances in amplification and radio at the time he was preaching. Today, we have the internet. Old systems were based on control, but today, there is no control. "You can sit on your Macbook and even if no leader approves of it, you could communicate to the world. That changes everything." People spend more time looking at a screen than a human being. Mark Driscoll's sermons are downloaded more than 10 million times each year. "That's crazy - we could never have a meeting with 10 million people, we'd call it a country."
(vii) The movement leader embodies the values and then tells the story of the movement so that the movement has integrity into the future. They are attacked and maligned and usually not appreciated until after they're dead.
(viii) Movements become organisations, which become institutions. Innovators don't go into or come out of institutions. Institutions are marked by a fear of failure and a preservation of previous wins. "Eventually, young leaders realise that it is too cumbersome to get anything done and they leave."
(ix) If an institution doesn't come back to being an organisation or a movement, it becomes a museum. "A museum exists to tell the stories of when God used to work." A museum doesn't exist to call future leaders. So you need to ask: ‘Are we a movement, an organisation, an institution or a museum?' Do the best and brightest entrepreneurial young men want to partner with you, or are they unwilling to walk with you because they don't want to be controlled by you?"
Five ways you've gone off track:
1. Doctrinally, you have too much or too little control. You define the world so tight theologically that you don't give much flexibility.
2. Relationships - people love each other and don't want to walk away from the relationships they have with others in leadership - so the love of relationship means all seats (of opportunity) are taken.
3. Organisationally, you have too much or too little control - too much, and ministry becomes too complicated, too little and people who don't have good doctrine or character can come in.
4. Pride or ‘Not invented here syndrome' - not adapting something unless it was created by someone on your team. Your worship and service structure is painful and slow and frustrating - you need to have humility to learn from other people in other denominations and discernment to know what not to implement.
5. Failing to honour founders and future. Issues of succession are difficult and significant. The key is to honour both your founders and your future. You need to do some things differently, and you need to be innovative in what we do.
