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The Evangel Society
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| By: Chris Walker |
| 1 Novermber 2005 A Passion for the Gospel, a Passion for the Culture: A Review of Mark Driscoll's Radical Reformission |
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The Evangel Society gets excited when someone comes along who has a passion for the Bible, a passion for Jesus, and a passion for culture. Someone like Mark Driscoll. While Driscoll's Radical Reformission is not without controversy, there is no doubt that he has both a passion for our culture and a commitment to the truth of the gospel. As the Evangel Society continues to oppose much of the theology espoused by the ermerging church, as typified by Brian McLaren, many presume that we would prefer life in a monastery to life in our culture. But it is not culture that the Evangel Society opposes; it is bad theology.
So what is it about Driscoll's book that excites us at the Evangel Society? It is the core of his message: that the gospel, the church, and the culture are each essential parts of our mission as Christians. In the introduction, Driscoll explains that many evangelicals are good at focusing on two of these three elements of missions, but they often forget one of them.
Three Elements of our Mission
When Christians focus on the gospel and the church, but forget about
the culture, they lose the ability to connect with the culture around
them; they are rendered useless by living in a sort of fundamentalist
bubble. When Christians focus on the gospel and the culture, but not the
church, they cut themselves off from God's people, to whom the Word and
sacraments have been entrusted. Parachurch organizations can impact souls
in the culture in many different ways, but without the church, those souls
are left without the support they need to grow in grace. Finally, when
Christians focus on the church and the culture, but leave out the gospel,
they take away the life-giving force from our message. "The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation" according to Paul (Rom. 1:16). And as
Driscoll points out, without the essential truth of the gospel, it does
not matter how well Christians communicate with the culture, that communication
has no saving power.
So, we need an undiluted gospel, and we need to communicate that gospel to a world which, by definition, dilutes or opposes it. At first, these two goals seem contradictory. But Driscoll argues that it is possible to hold tightly to the absolute truth of the gospel as presented in the Scriptures, while taking advantage of many good ways to present this gospel to the culture.
Presenting the Gospel in our Culture
To achieve the goal of reaching our culture with the gospel, we must know
the language of the culture. That does not mean we need a firm grasp on
our culture's four-letter-word vocabulary. That means we should know what
our culture lacks and what it longs for. Driscoll points out that to people
hurting from the pain of World War II, Billy Graham's presentation of
the gospel in terms of peace made a lot of sense. Likewise, talking about
a personal, loving relationship with Jesus communicated well to the generation
of the 60s and 70s. In other words, while both of these approaches are
true and accurate pictures of the gospel, they may not be the most effective
way of presenting salvation in Christ to our culture today.
Driscoll offers several "signposts," or analogies, which he has found particularly effective in presenting the gospel. For instance, many people today come from broken homes, with no fellowship or love. The idea of salvation as an invitation to God's family, or participation with God in life, is exactly what many people today are seeking. In a similar manner, emphasizing the life-changing power of salvation, along with the complete forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, is a powerful message to those whose lives are full of guilt, frustration, and anger. Just as each of the four gospels tells a slightly different collection of stories, and emphasizes a slightly different set of truths about Jesus and His offer of salvation, so we should know what method of communicating the truth of the gospel will be most effective for those in our culture.
But there is no way for us to know the language of our culture if we are completely separated from it. While there are certainly virtues to avoiding the moral depravity of our culture, if we are completely unfamiliar with the terms and the needs of the culture, then we are going to have a more difficult time communicating with the people around us. Further, only as we are involved in the culture will we be around those who need the gospel. Missionaries don't just sit in their churches and write to foreign cultures about Jesus; they go to cultures and live in them. Driscoll argues that we, too, should be familiar with the TV shows of our culture, the magazines our teens read, and the popular music of the day. I disagree with Driscoll on the extent to which he calls us to familiarize ourselves with the culture. There is a level of caution that each of us must take when we immerse ourselves in the world. However, Driscoll's challenge is still important: we must be involved in our culture if we expect to change it.
Living in the Culture
Driscoll recognizes that his call to cultural participation may sound
like participation in sin, but he argues that there is a distinction between
culture and worldliness. Culture is the environment around us - it is
the society we live in. Worldliness is sin.
I think Jesus' prayer for His disciples backs Driscoll on this point. Jesus said, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:15,ff). I don't think Jesus meant here that we should live on this globe, but avoid sinners. I think He was advocating something much bolder: that we should be active participants in our culture while having no part in the sin of our culture.
Two points help clarify this idea. First, Driscoll argues that the line between participating in culture and sinning is different for each person. Some people are tempted by certain sins which are not a temptation to others. Each person should make sure that his actions are not causing himself or others to stumble. For example, drinking wine with dinner or having a beer with your friends is a perfectly Christian thing to do, as Driscoll is quick to point out. But not if it will tempt you to the sin of drunkenness. Knowing our own weaknesses and being willing to be involved in our culture wherever possible will give Christians more opportunities to share the good news of the gospel than if all culture is avoided as sin.
Second, Driscoll believes that a humble and repentant attitude is essential if we are to become more effective witnesses for Christ. Admittedly, I am horrible at making the effort to understand our culture. In fact, this shortcoming may place me under some milder definitions of a cultural escapist. Yet if we are serious about having a passion for souls, then the first step must be to humbly repent of our own failures. We must get rid of our self-righteousness and our prejudice against certain people, and recognize that only the cross makes us who we are. As Driscoll puts it, "Repentance enables us to kneel humbly with fellow sinners at the foot of the cross so they can see Jesus without our pride rising up to encumber their view."1 If we approach culture with this attitude, we do not need to avoid it completely.
Steps to Take: Our Family, in our Town
Driscoll does not just challenge Christians to be participants in their
culture, he also explains how we should approach our culture with the
gospel. He calls it a "radical reformission". This "reformission" is not
so much a new mode of evangelism as it is a refocused evangelism. Driscoll's
call is two-fold. First, he calls us, as Christians, to renew our passion
for presenting the hope of Christ to our culture. Perhaps the most convicting
lines of Driscoll's book are, "Jesus wept over the condition of Jerusalem.
Once we have repented of our sin of indifference, we too will weep over
our towns and long for their transformation."2
How little have I wept for the condition of those around me! Yet it is
precisely the act of humbling ourselves in the face of our sin and weeping
for the lost condition of those who do not have the forgiveness of Christ
that inspires a passion for our culture.
Second, Driscoll calls us, as Christians, to be actively involved in our towns and in our neighborhoods. Our mission is right here, in the town where God has placed us. Missions is not something only done in foreign countries. It is a call to present the gospel to those who live around us. Evangelism in Driscoll's reformission is an effort by individuals and families to live out the truth of the gospel right where they are.
Is Driscoll Part of the Emerging Church?
The essential difference between Driscoll's approach to culture and the
Emerging Church's approach to culture is the gospel. This is evident in
three ways. First, the gospel, properly understood, is life-changing.
Repentance, therefore, is a necessary part of the truth of the gospel.
For McLaren and the emerging church, the gospel is merely a general pattern
of deeds based on Jesus' life. It is true that we should follow our Lord's
example, but that is only possible after repentance and the heart-replacing
surgery of the Holy Spirit. Driscoll continually emphasizes that salvation
in Christ will result in rejecting sin and walking in newness of life.
Second, the gospel is necessary for every person because of God's justice. Each of us, as a sinner, awaits the just wrath of an almighty God, whom we have offended by our sin. Driscoll says that many Christians attempt to make the gospel appealing to the culture by presenting God as a sort of Sky-fairy, who loves people immensely and would never make a person stay in a place as bad as hell for more than a little while. McLaren, for instance, denies the eternal punishment of unbelievers in hell. But this understanding of God is not biblical. God's love does not compromise His justice. Rather, God's love is evident in the death of His Son, through whom we can look forward to eternity with God.
Third, Driscoll is adamant that, for the Christian, the customer is always evil. While Christians should try to present the gospel clearly and effectively to the culture, they should not try to make the gospel appeal to the culture's desires. A church that focuses on what people want to hear will necessarily water down the gospel. Rather, Christians should try to persuade the culture to desire the gospel. As Driscoll puts it, "If we simply give people what they want, we will not be giving them what they need."3
Conclusion
As I think back over Radical Reformission, my mind returns to the
core message: passion for the gospel, passion for the church, passion
for our culture. Caring about our culture is a sort of spiral, either
upward or downward. The less we are involved in the culture, the less
we see the need for Christ in our culture; and the less we see the need
for Christ in our culture, the less passion we have to be involved in
the culture for the sake of the gospel. But the spiral also works the
other way, so that as we participate in our culture and see its need for
Christ, and as we humbly come before Christ in repentance of our own sins,
our passion for sharing the salvation of Christ with the culture will
increase. May this be our prayer. 