Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions by Mark Driscoll
Who is Mark Driscoll?
Mark Driscoll is a founding pastor and the lead preaching pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, one of the fastest-growing churches in America. He is president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and leads the Resurgence Missional Theology Cooperative.
:: introduction :: or simply “how did this book come about”
how on earth was this book formulated? well, mark driscoll was preaching through the book of 1 corinthians in a sermon series called, “christians gone wild.” note to self: a catchy sermon title like that probably will get people in the door. mark driscoll noticed that in the letter to the corinthian church, paul answered a lot of their questions. but how often does the church answer the questions of people? questions they really want answers to. sadly, this doesn’t happen very often.
mars hills church’s answer to this problem was genius. they opened up a page on their website for people to ask questions, comment on questions, and vote for the answers they would like to see in the sermon series. “And in the end, 893 questions were asked, 5,524 comments were made, and 343,203 votes were cast.”
another genius thing at mars hill church was an experiment with live questions from people in the late Sunday evening service. those people were able to anonymously text message questions. having no time to prep, mark driscoll would answer those on the spot.
i like this introduction because it addresses the most important thing about religion. it doesn’t save you and it hasn’t saved anyone. the Gospel is radically different than religion.
question 9 :: birth control
this was probably the most awkward chapter of the book for me. however, i can see that someday it may be extremely helpful to me in the future when I might have the chance as a pastor to help a married couple with their questions about birth control. Driscoll breaks down birth control to different levels and why different Christians choose those different levels. whether it may be because they are being legalistic about it or they use their Christian liberty to choose an appropriate method for the couples situation. he gives sound biblical advice for forms of birth control to never use.
my least favorite part about this chapter would be the amount of detail he goes into when he gives the history of birth control. i’m not sure it was necessary but oh well. another unnecessary thing was the story of Andrea Yates. i absolutely cringe at how sick this woman is.
question 8 :: humor
I was driving down the interstate the other day and I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Come the rapture, Can I have your car?” Whether you’re a Christian or not, that’s funny. For some reason, I feel Christians should have funny bumper stickers too. However, I don’t feel like anyone is going to come to know Jesus Christ with a bumper sticker or a Jesus Fish on the back of a car though. We won’t end the debate between the Darwin Fish if we have more of our Jesus fish on our car. Okay but back to the topic..... humor.
There is no doubt that Mark Driscoll is funny. Here is how he describes his humor: “I’m on a mission to both put people in heaven and put the ‘fun’ back in ‘fundamentalism.’ I believe Christianity should be more fun than a trip to the dentist and that evangelicalism needs a better patron saint than Ned Flanders of The Simpsons fame.”
He boils down the question to is it biblical to be funny? Are there funny stories in the Bible?
The answer is yes to both questions but knowing that all Scripture is inspired by God and remembering to place the correct hermeneutical principles to what you are reading. God created humans with the ability to laugh and even said there is a time to laugh. so laugh it up.
question 7 :: predestination
as a college sophomore i could not understand if i chose God or God chose me. after a couple of years of wrestling with the topic with the Bible, Christian authors, and Christian friends, I have become a Calvinist. i think when we get to heaven someday we will laugh at why we made such a big deal out of this. However, as Christians, we need to know what God’s word has to say about it and be loving to those who do not share the same views about predestination.
when it comes to arminianism and calvinism, i feel like Driscoll has done an excellent job of explaining both views in a relevant way. then answering the common questions against calvinism such as “why should we evangelize if people are predestined?” or “does predestination make God unloving?”
question 6 :: grace
out of all the things in Christianity, mark driscoll struggles the most with grace. he describes it as too good to be true. the chapter starts out with his testimony. the fact that grace is the very thing that saved driscoll and everyone else who believes in Jesus. this is how driscoll defines grace, “grace is God the Father in love doing good for ill-deserving sinners through God the Son by God the Spirit.”
grace comes in different forms. even non-christians experience God’s grace through “common grace.” However, only God’s children are able to experience “saving grace.” the book then goes on to give 13 different experiences of grace.
this may be my least favorite chapter and it may be because
question 5 :: sexual sin
the specific question asked is “how should Christian men and women go about breaking free from the bondage of sexual sin?”
this chapter was shocking to me. especially the statistics. in this chapter, driscoll addresses the sexual sins of today including pornography, premarital sex, and prostitution. so how do Christians break free from the bondage of sexual sin? Driscoll gives 11 biblical ways to break free. This is another great chapter useful for everyone but especially pastors who counsel people about sexual sin.
Stay tuned later for a review of the rest of the book! Oh, and maybe you should buy it!
Link to buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Saves-Nine-Other-Misconceptions/dp/1433506165/ref=sprightly-20
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