Last Sunday, at Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll preached a sermon on the Regulative Principle. For a few minutes, just at the end of the sermon, he discussed some “behind-the-scenes” time he has spent with both C.J. Mahaney and John Piper. In this brief audio excerpt, posted below, he explains to his congregation some of the ways he has failed to serve them and how he hopes to grow in and by God’s grace. This is in light of some private brotherly correction and feedback he received from John Piper and C.J. Mahaney at the recent Resurgence conference.
You can read more (and listen to the audio) here.
Some questions:
-Do you think it is beneficial for pastors to have accountability?
-Do you think it is wise for those outside the local body to peer in and offer correction?
-Do you think the benefits of such actions outweigh the possibility of corruption?
-If you are/were a pastor, how would you look upon correction coming from the outside (local body) but inside (Universal Church)
3 comments:
It is good to connect with other believers.
It is good to remember grace.
That is why I have such trouble with the "Way of the Master" stuff.
They can always tell you of your sin, but I never see it going past that.
But I never see how they encourage you to realize how much God loves you.
Isn't that what its about?
Getting to know God?
I already know my sin.
I want to know God.
Roland,
I have never heard of the "Way of the Master" stuff until I visited Time 2 Change Churches and The BenchStone. Other than knowing that they recommend them (or at least have them in their blog roll) I know nothing more about them. I did look at the radio station link one time but I don't recall what was there.
So, I cannot rightly comment on what you say in specifics but generally I can address the issue.
I think we, as humans, have a tendency to fall off one side of the fence or the other. For some reason it is hard for us to keep balanced between two extremes. Sometimes we look at our culture and see that it is overcompensating so our tendency is to overcompensate the other way to show a contrast. Sometimes this is needed, but that need changes when people understand why the compensation is there. In the same way, once we understand the depth of our sin and how much God abhors it, only then can we have a decent understanding of what it means for God to love us inspite of it. Jesus is the example of God's love. This needs to be stressed in the context of why we need God's love and why we don't deserve it.
I think we need both extremes to be balanced but it is very easy to gravitate towards one poll or the other. We must not lose site of the bigger picture as it contains our sin nature, our own sinfulness, God's standard for holiness, His mercy and grace in offering His Son to die so that we might come to know Him and spend eternity with him, and the comming judgement where those who were obedient to the gospel command will be seperated from those who weren't and the two will meat their totally seperate fates and live them out for eternity.
As a summary statement, my point was this: you must know your sin and God's view of it before you can truly know God. Both extremes (God is love/God is judgment) are needed to be balanced.
j razz
Good explanation.
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