Driscoll on Mission and the Church

The church obeys the Great Commission to evangelize and make disciples. The church is an evangelistic community where the gospel of Jesus is constantly made visible through its proclamation of the gospel, the witness of the members' lives, and its Spirit-empowered life of love. From the first day, 'the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved' because they took Jesus' command seriously: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'

The church is to be an evangelistic people on mission in the world, passionate to see lost people meet Jesus Christ as Savior, God, and Lord. Any church submitting to the Holy Spirit and obedient to Scripture wants fewer divorces, addictions, thefts, and abuses and knows the only way to see that happen is to make more disciples. The church loves people and is continually and painfully aware of the devastation that is wrought in this life and in the life to come for those who are not reconciled to God. Therefore, while not imposing religion on anyone, the church of Jesus Christ is to constantly be proposing reconciliation with God to everyone.

Driscoll on Teams

Affinity vs. Community

If you're cause-oriented, you get affinity. All the people who agree with you come together. If you're Christ-oriented, people who disagree on a whole lot of things, they come together. That's actual community. What passes for community in our day is pretty much affinity. Everybody like me hangs out and does what I like. Community is people totally unlike me, who don't have much in common with me, come together with me, because we're Christ-centered. It's all about Jesus, and as we're all walking closer to Jesus as followers of Jesus, we happen to get closer together and become a team. That's what's cool about Christianity. You guys know this, in your community groups, your social networks, you're like, "Man, my Christian friends, I would never pick these people. I don't have anything in common with them—bipedal, upright—other than those two factors, we got nothing in common. But you know what? They love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love them, and together we make each other more sanctified, and together when we serve Jesus, it goes better, so praise God for a weird, diverse, collective team of different kind of people." So on our team, there are artists, there are accountants, people who are good with pictures, people who are good with numbers, all important, very vital. Weird teams are the best teams. You see that with Jesus. It's kind of a weird team. He's not picking the guys you'd expect, he's picking a bunch of no-names and nobodies.

Driscoll on Calling

Find your calling

Some of you will have a calling, and sometimes your calling will be like mine. Mine was obvious. God spoke to me, "Marry Grace, plant churches, train men, preach the Bible." Okay, that's what I'm doing. For some of you, you'll be reading the Bible, and you'll see something or somebody, and it's all of a sudden like that just leaps out at you, you're like, "That's it. That's what I want to do. That's what I want to give my life to." Or you meet somebody in the Bible, you're like, "I'm like them. I want to do what they're doing. That's what I need to do." That could be your calling. And sometimes it's trial and error, you're like, "I tried that, I'm no good at it. I tried that, I'm no good at it. I tried that. Hey, that actually works. I'm pretty good at that, and I like that. God seems to bless it when I serve in that area."

Calling also can be just that deep-rooted sense of "have to" in your gut. It could be the Holy Spirit. So you say, "I have to help abuse victims. I have to help the poor. I have to help single moms. I have to help kids. I have to help men learn to be fathers." Right, there's something in your gut, and it's there from God. It's the beginning of a calling, and it starts with a real passion. Maybe there are certain things in life, you kind of ebb and flow, and the enthusiasm is hot and cold, but this is something that's consistent.
Delight in the Lord

See, for me, I see it this way: how do you know you're called to something? Well, part of it is God gives you an innate desire. That's why it says in 1 Peter 5, "Don't lead because people made you lead, lead because you desire to, that you want to." That's why Paul says elsewhere, "If anyone desires the office of overseer, it's a noble thing they desire." It's a good thing to have a desire. So I was talking to a new Christian recently and they were unsure about God's calling on their life. "I don't know what God wants me to do. Got all these new decisions to make in life now that I'm a new Christian." And they were very kind of panicked about it, "What do I do?" I said, "Don't worry about God's calling, first worry about God. The Bible says, 'Delight yourself in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart.'" I said, "Are you enjoying the Lord?" They said, "Yeah, I'm reading my Bible. I'm praying. I'm in a community group and reading good books, and I'm repenting of sin, and I'm seeing the ways that I'm not like Jesus, and my life is changing and yeah, I feel like there's momentum, and I'm really excited about Jesus, and I'm growing." "Great."

This person looked at me and said, "Well, what do I do?" I said, "Do whatever you want." They're like, "What? Do whatever I want?" "Yeah, because if you delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. He'll put desires on your heart, so that God's desires become your desires." Augustine said it this way, "Love God and do whatever you please." I said, "Well, what do you like?" They're like, "Well, I like serving people, and I'm pretty extroverted and, you know, I like welcoming people." "So you want to be a greeter?" "Yeah, I'd love to be a greeter. And I love hospitality and I love getting people together." "So someday you'd like to be a community group leader?" "That'd be great. I'm not ready yet, but maybe I could apprentice and get ready." "Yeah, that'd be a great idea. How does that sound?" "That sounds really fun. Should I do it?" "Do you want to?" "Yeah, well, how do I know if it's God will or my will?" "Well, if you're enjoying the Lord, his will becomes your will. He's glorified, you're satisfied, other people are helped. Everybody wins, that's ministry." It's more about our heart enjoying the Lord, and then we'll want to do what he wants us do.

You need to know this: I like my job. I love to preach and teach the Bible. There are, quite frankly, a lot of things that I get excited about, that I lose excitement for; studying the Bible, teaching the Bible, my whole life, ever since I got saved at age nineteen I've been pretty fired up about that. People ask me all the time, they're like, "How do you study that much?" I like it. It helps. Alright, unlike some jobs, which you're like, "I don't like it," that's hard, and maybe God's called you to a hard job, but when it comes to ministry, particularly for those of you who are volunteering, it's a great opportunity to say, "I want to do something that I like and I'm good at, and helps people and glorifies God, and I just get to pick something that fits." That's all.
Jesus trained the called

Jesus trained the called. These twelve were already part of his ministry, they're already serving. They're already following him. They're already responding to him. They're already submitting to him, so he starts training them.

Train the called, not call the trained.

Mark Driscoll on Preaching

Hard words produce soft people, and soft words produce hard people.

Mark Driscoll on Reflection

Mark has some helpful questions in an outline of how he does a day of reflection:

Date:
Modified or Full Plan:
Note: Here I am making note if it?s one hour or one day for silence and solitude.
Place and Conditions:
Note: I am someone for whom space deeply matters. On a nice day I sit outside by a river or at the beach in a beautiful spot. I don?t like coffee shops (too noisy and crowded) or the office (too much distraction). I like to be up high with a view, crave fresh air, love the sun, and cannot relax where it?s loud, busy, ugly, stinky, disorganized, poorly designed, uncomfortable, or too hot or cold, and yes, I am picky. So, I note where I was and that helps me keep a record of nice spots for silence and solitude days. I borrow friends? vacation homes, have spots I like outside of town in the mountains, and so forth.

Part 1 ? Recent Evidences of God?s Grace

?Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.? ? 2 Thess. 2:16?17

Note: To have good words and works, we need hope and comfort by seeing and savoring evidences of God?s grace. I start with this topic to get me into a mode of worship. I can be quite a gloomy and moody person, so this gets me going in the right direction for my time with God. I often take an hour on this topic alone and make a long list, thanking God and praying as I go.

Part 2 ? Deep Questions

?The purpose in a man?s mind is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.? ? Prov. 20:5 (RSV)

Note: These are my questions and you can make your own or change mine. I don?t include Bible reading and study because they are like breathing to me, but you may want to add them. In question four I?m talking about my wife, Grace. I list each of my kids in question five because with a big family it?s too easy to treat the kids as a herd rather than knowing and pastoring each one. I put my work last, figuring that if the rest of my life is in order, work will go well. I rate every question on a scale so that I can be honest about how I?m doing and track progress over time. The prayer points are things I pray about as I?m journaling and things to put on my prayer list that week. The action items go on my calendar. Lastly, I share a lot of this with my wife, kids, friends, and others, and a lot of my blogs and ministry training are simply sharing what comes out of my journaling on days of silence and solitude.

1. How accurate is my view of God lately?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

2. How are my joy in the Holy Spirit and corresponding hope?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

3. What temptations and sins are most ensnaring?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

4. How is my connection with my wife?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

5. How is my connection with each of my children?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items
6. How is my health (e.g., weight, diet, exercise)?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

7. How is my sleep (e.g., bed time, quality of sleep, length of sleep)?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

8. How is my energy level?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

9. How is my dominion over my technology (e.g., cell phone, laptop, email, text)?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

10. How is the stewardship of my wealth (e.g., finances, possessions, property, investments)?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

11. How is my social life with friends and extended family?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

12. Who or what is filling my tank lately?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

13. Who or what is draining my tank lately?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

14. Who has sinned against me and how am I responding?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

15. Who do I need to confide in and where should I seek wisdom?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

16. Are there any warning signs that I am burning out?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

17. Am I successfully getting out of the river onto the bank enough through silence, solitude, study, and Sabbath?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

18. What do I need to stop doing, do less of, or hand off to someone else?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

19. How are my self-deception and truth suppression?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

20. How is my writing (e.g., books, blogs, papers)?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

21. How is my preaching (preparation and results, in and out of Mars Hill)?
? Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
? Prayer Points
? Action Items

Mark Driscoll on Worship

Everything in the service needs to preach: architecture, lighting, songs, prayers, fellowship, the smell, it all preaches.. To experience God is often the highest form of knowing and the entire worship experience must be more than a presentation about God.