The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

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scottmaciver

Puritan Board Sophomore
I've listened to the first two episodes of the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, by Christianity Today, relating to the church planted by Mark Driscoll (Here). The podcast deals with the wider issues of celebrity pastors, mega churches, church growth and the seeker sensitive movement, whilst interviewing people who were involved in Mars Hill Church. So far, it is worth the listen and gives quite an insight into Mars Hill and Driscoll.

I remember more than a decade ago, the editor of the Free Church monthly magazine interviewed Driscoll and many minister's in the Free Church were very much enamoured with him.
 
I’ve listened as well, being a former fan of Driscoll. Much good is on there but there’s a deep undercurrent of feminist thought (and anti complementarianism and anti Calvinism) in the series. Basically it’s “Mark Driscoll did bad stuff. Here’s the bad stuff he did.” (No arguments yet.) Then, “he did bad stuff because he was a Calvinist and a complementarian.” (Implied.)

Here’s a good analysis.
 
The production quality is excellent, except for the emo hippie music at the end. The host ignored CT's key role in promoting the megachurches they now critique.
 
And like everyone else who has listened to it, I'm hesitant to listen to the one with Josh Harris. Harris had his own abuse scandal coverup (not to mention that he is an atheist who betrayed his wife).

On the complementarian line: I am not a feminist but I am generally hostile to the dudebro schtick going on. Wait till you get to the episode on sexuality and where Driscoll told a wife to give oral sex to her husband to get him to go to church. It was clear that was a sex act she was uncomfortable with.
 
I never liked Driscoll's personality, but I was surprised how much I resonated with his critique of most modern church services as being effeminate, run by women and emotional men "singing prom songs to Jesus" as Driscoll says ("I’ll be happy when we have more than just prom songs to Jesus sung by some effeminate guy on an acoustic guitar offered as mainstream worship music.") . He put his thumb on a huge problem in church...but didn't offer a better solution other than a "masculine" authoritarianism that was just as bad, if not worse. 227663085_624602475610826_4778338806475824143_n.jpg
 
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I'm not going to lie. I thought it was hilarious when Driscoll told these emergent church universalists that God had created them to be matchsticks.
 
When I'm feeling down or having a bad day I like to hear leather lung, fire breathing, face rippin preaching so I've enjoyed Mark's highlight clips. Back in the day I listened to his sermons but can't say I gained insight.
 
To be honest, I did quite enjoy some of his preaching back in the day. I also defended some of the edgy language that he used, but he went too far on that point and his language became overly sexualised at times. He also had an arrogant streak in dismissing well-established theological opinions which he did not understand (certain interpretations of the Song of Solomon and the regulative principle, to name but two). Those who detected that something was off about him were "truer prophets" - even if some of their specific criticisms were not always on target.
 
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