Confessions of a Reformission Rev.
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Synopsis
This is the story of the birth and growth of Seattle's innovative Mars Hill Church, one of America's fastest growing churches located in one of America's toughest mission fields. It's also the story of the growth of a pastor, the mistakes he's made along the way, and God's grace and work in spite of those mistakes. Mark Driscoll's emerging, missional church took a rocky road from its start in a hot, upstairs youth room with gold shag carpet to its current weekly attendance of thousands. With engaging humor, humility, and candor, Driscoll shares the failures, frustrations, and just plain messiness of trying to build a church that is faithful to the Gospel of Christ in a highly post-Christian culture. In the telling, he's not afraid to skewer some sacred cows of traditional, contemporary, and emerging churches. Each chapter discusses not only the hard lessons learned but also the principles and practices that worked and that can inform your church's ministry, no matter its present size. The book includes discussion questions and appendix resources. "After reading a book like this, you can never go back to being an inwardly focused church without a mission.Even if you disagree with Mark about some of the things he says, you cannot help but be convicted to the inner core about what it means to have a heart for those who don't know Jesus." - Dan Kimball, author, "The Emerging Church". "...will make you laugh, cry, and get mad...school you, shape you, and mold you into the right kind of priorities to lead the church in today's messy world." - Robert Webber, Northern Seminary.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mark Driscoll is a sinner. A sinner that God has used in one of the least Christian cities of America to bring glory to his name by founding and leading a church, Mars Hill. Driscoll's latest book is Confessions of a Reformission Rev, the story of how he led the church from its humble beginnings to where it is today, there are much better reviews of this book available in the blogosphere from, far more discerning men than I and I encourage you to read them. Tim kindly lent this book to me and I felt that I'd like to offer some thoughts about this book.
Confessions is an exciting read and one that is hard to put down. It is brutally honest about leading a church in a post-modern culture and dispels any image that one might have that leading a church is an easy, almost romantic duty. From what Mark Driscoll depicts, it is anything but easy or romantic and I for one am not the sort of man who could manage such a task. In the short ten-year history of Mars Hill, Driscoll has variously faced: post-modern craziness, dreadful worship leaders, eviction from the church buildings, marital issues, demonic attacks, tambourine wielding charismatics and preaching through the Song of Songs. Yet by the grace of God he has survived such trials and brought the Gospel of love and freedom to the many `unreachable' of Seattle.
Throughout Confessions you cannot fail but to see how much Driscoll loves Jesus and how much it pains him when those around him either reject Jesus or detract from his glory. It is also clear that Mark is a sinner, like I am a sinner and it is truly remarkable how God has used him despite his shortcomings.
Reading Confessions has certainly deepened my respect for Driscoll and that said I do have some concerns about Driscoll. Firstly Driscoll places a lot of emphasis on church growth and numbers in the congregation. He backs this up by saying that churches that aren't growing or seeking to grow are sinning by stifling their evangelistic efforts. I don't agree, I think that there comes a point at which a church should split and plant other churches for the work of the gospel before it becomes too big that it stifles the love and community that a church should provide, all whilst not stumbling on its commitment to evangelism.
I also feel that Driscoll's image of what masculinity is too crude. He advocates men as being individuals who should be able to skin an animal with their teeth.If they can't? Well they're written off as girly men. Men unfit to lead in the church. By Driscoll's definition, I must be a girly man but I certainly object to this!
All said I enjoyed reading Confessions and would recommend it to someone interested in the workings of a church and how a church should relate to the culture around it. I would be hesitant to recommend it to most students however, as whilst it is an enjoyable read, I figure that there are much more useful and relevant books that they could be reading such as Contending for Our All by John Piper.
Confessions is an exciting read and one that is hard to put down. It is brutally honest about leading a church in a post-modern culture and dispels any image that one might have that leading a church is an easy, almost romantic duty. From what Mark Driscoll depicts, it is anything but easy or romantic and I for one am not the sort of man who could manage such a task. In the short ten-year history of Mars Hill, Driscoll has variously faced: post-modern craziness, dreadful worship leaders, eviction from the church buildings, marital issues, demonic attacks, tambourine wielding charismatics and preaching through the Song of Songs. Yet by the grace of God he has survived such trials and brought the Gospel of love and freedom to the many `unreachable' of Seattle.
Throughout Confessions you cannot fail but to see how much Driscoll loves Jesus and how much it pains him when those around him either reject Jesus or detract from his glory. It is also clear that Mark is a sinner, like I am a sinner and it is truly remarkable how God has used him despite his shortcomings.
Reading Confessions has certainly deepened my respect for Driscoll and that said I do have some concerns about Driscoll. Firstly Driscoll places a lot of emphasis on church growth and numbers in the congregation. He backs this up by saying that churches that aren't growing or seeking to grow are sinning by stifling their evangelistic efforts. I don't agree, I think that there comes a point at which a church should split and plant other churches for the work of the gospel before it becomes too big that it stifles the love and community that a church should provide, all whilst not stumbling on its commitment to evangelism.
I also feel that Driscoll's image of what masculinity is too crude. He advocates men as being individuals who should be able to skin an animal with their teeth.If they can't? Well they're written off as girly men. Men unfit to lead in the church. By Driscoll's definition, I must be a girly man but I certainly object to this!
All said I enjoyed reading Confessions and would recommend it to someone interested in the workings of a church and how a church should relate to the culture around it. I would be hesitant to recommend it to most students however, as whilst it is an enjoyable read, I figure that there are much more useful and relevant books that they could be reading such as Contending for Our All by John Piper.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the US, though not so much in the UK, a distinction is sometimes made between emerging church and emergent church. Mark Driscoll places himself in the emerging camp (as opposed to, say, Brian MacLaren who is emergent).
Mark is the pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle (www.marshillchurch.org). This book tells the story of the development of Mars Hill from its tiny beginnings to its current 4000+ megachurch status. It raises all sorts of questions for me since some of Driscoll's assumptions--that size matters, that real men are macho, that women cannot lead, that Biblical truth requires one particular way of reading the Bible, and so on--are ones which I cannot share. Yet it is always good to read books which challenge one's assumptions and `Confessions' certainly does that.
Where the book is really strong is in its detailed account of the trials and triumphs of leading a church into growth. Mark is especially brave in laying bare his own weaknesses and prejudices. Although he clearly has a strong sense of his own importance to the church he is not afraid to expose himself as someone who is often tempted and needs a lot of support. If only more church leaders were able to do this!
If you are into apophatic theology (God cannot be known through the mind but only encountered as a person); if you are a fan of postmodern Bible reading; if you are convinced that Jesus came to preach kingdom rather than personal salvation; then do read this book. It offers an important witness to the fact that it is possible to build a missional church with an `old-fashioned' conservative reformed theology--at least in the US.
I can't say that I enjoyed the book, it often seemed too dogmatic and intolerant for me, but I was certainly stimulated by it and some of Mark Driscoll's principles are worth pondering in any context.
Mark is the pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle (www.marshillchurch.org). This book tells the story of the development of Mars Hill from its tiny beginnings to its current 4000+ megachurch status. It raises all sorts of questions for me since some of Driscoll's assumptions--that size matters, that real men are macho, that women cannot lead, that Biblical truth requires one particular way of reading the Bible, and so on--are ones which I cannot share. Yet it is always good to read books which challenge one's assumptions and `Confessions' certainly does that.
Where the book is really strong is in its detailed account of the trials and triumphs of leading a church into growth. Mark is especially brave in laying bare his own weaknesses and prejudices. Although he clearly has a strong sense of his own importance to the church he is not afraid to expose himself as someone who is often tempted and needs a lot of support. If only more church leaders were able to do this!
If you are into apophatic theology (God cannot be known through the mind but only encountered as a person); if you are a fan of postmodern Bible reading; if you are convinced that Jesus came to preach kingdom rather than personal salvation; then do read this book. It offers an important witness to the fact that it is possible to build a missional church with an `old-fashioned' conservative reformed theology--at least in the US.
I can't say that I enjoyed the book, it often seemed too dogmatic and intolerant for me, but I was certainly stimulated by it and some of Mark Driscoll's principles are worth pondering in any context.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First read this book over a year ago now and couldn't put it down. In fact I stayed up most of the night until I finished it. So many books out there written by megachurch pastors are not always honest about the struggles to get where they are. But as the pastor of a small/medium size church I found this book so inspiring because it tell the story of a small and strugging church in Seattle, and how God has blessed them with growth. Also, the other thing that is so refreshing about this book is that it comes from a missional/emerging church pastor who has remained true to God's Word and has not compromised the gospel. One other thing, I don't think I have laughed reading a Christian book in a long time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Confessions: wow...
Quite simply the best Christian paperback ever!
Driscoll moulds theology, ecclesiology, leadership practice and biography together in the most wonderful way, producing the... Read more
Driscoll moulds theology, ecclesiology, leadership practice and biography together in the most wonderful way, producing the... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by J. Natali
Meat for the Mission-minded
Unorthodox but conservative, radical but thoroughly Biblical, provocative yet addictively enticing, Mark Driscoll journals with self-deprecating wit and wisdom the story of his... Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2008 by Jonathan Le Tocq
Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll is the leader of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the largest churches in the USA and currently has a membership of 8000 people. Read more
Published on 22 July 2008 by K. Leversuch
Relevant, honest and Biblical
This book has helped revive my commitment to church planting in the UK. The divide between those committed to cultural engagement, and those afraid of culture seems to grow, but... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2008 by M. Erwin
Biff Bang Wallop
Straight talking, hard hitting, biblical and funny - the remarkable journey of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church. Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2008 by Mark Landreth-smith
Almost brutal, but good fun
This is a great book to have a look see how a Pastor with a biblically based theology works to reach out to a group of people who haven't grown up with a traditional Christian... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2008 by Robert Bridgewater
Hard lessons produce straight talking
I read and digested the truths of this book in less than a week. Here is a guy (dude) who bears his heart for the truth of The Gospel and records & discusses in all honesty how... Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2006 by Dr T J
The emerging church should learn to listen to women
An interesting book spoiled by its overt sexism, his assumption that only men should be church leaders, and his tendency to blame women for male hangups about sex.
Published on 6 Nov 2006 by Theological practitioner
Rocket fuel for the soul
Over here in the UK the emergent church is beginning to rear its head, so it is a great relief to read the story of someone in the US who got out of emergent, embraced solid truth... Read more
Published on 12 May 2006 by Matthew Hosier
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