At a time when the once-vaunted unity of the religious right has eroded and the mainstream media is proclaiming an “evangelical crackup,” [Mark] Driscoll represents a movement to revamp the style and substance of evangelicalism. With his taste for vintage baseball caps and omnipresence on Facebook and iTunes, Driscoll, who is 38, is on the cutting edge of American pop culture. Yet his message seems radically unfashionable, even un-American: you are not captain of your soul or master of your fate but a depraved worm whose hard work and good deeds will get you nowhere, because God marked you for heaven or condemned you to hell before the beginning of time. Yet a significant number of young people in Seattle — and nationwide — say this is exactly what they want to hear. Calvinism has somehow become cool, and just as startling, this generally bookish creed has fused with a macho ethos. At Mars Hill, members say their favorite movie isn’t “Amazing Grace” or “The Chronicles of Narnia” — it’s “Fight Club.”

Mars Hill Church is the furthest thing from a Puritan meetinghouse. This is Seattle, and Mars Hill epitomizes the city that spawned it. Headquartered in a converted marine supply store, the church is a boxy gray building near the diesel-infused din of the Ballard Bridge. In the lobby one Sunday not long ago, college kids in jeans — some sporting nose rings or kitchen-sink dye jobs — lounged on ottomans and thumbed text messages to their friends. The front desk, black and slick, looked as if it ought to offer lattes rather than Bibles and membership pamphlets. Buzz-cut and tattooed security guards mumbled into their headpieces and directed the crowd toward the auditorium, where the worship band was warming up for an hour of hymns with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”

On that Sunday, Driscoll preached for an hour and 10 minutes — nearly three times longer than most pastors. As hip as he looks, his message brooks no compromise with Seattle’s permissive culture. New members can keep their taste in music, their retro T-shirts and their intimidating facial hair, but they had better abandon their feminism, premarital sex and any “modern” interpretations of the Bible. Driscoll is adamantly not the “weepy worship dude” he associates with liberal and mainstream evangelical churches, “singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair.”

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

1. kb9gzg wrote: Reminding me of “Athanasius contra mundum,” refering to the blessed one’s stand against the Arian heresy of the 4th century.  You remember: that’s when the vast majority of Bishops, including Pope Liberius himself, had succumbed to the heresy de jour. Saint Athanasius was excommunicated for his orthodoxy. The full phrase is, “If the world goes against Truth, then Athanasius goes against the world.”  Here’s another Athanasiusism applicable to our current situation: “May God console you!... What saddens you…is the fact that others [the heretics] have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises, but you have the apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith?” January 13, 12:58 pm | [comment link]

2. Conchúr wrote: Just another form of “straight edgism”. Nothing new. January 13, 2:35 pm | [comment link]

3. Bryan McKenzie wrote: It just seems more like another niche church to me.  This one is just the psuedo-Calvanistic conservative hipster church.  Christianity Today had a profile on this guy a while back, and he came off as a jerk there too. January 13, 4:07 pm | [comment link]

4. Bryan McKenzie wrote: The Christianity Today link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/september/30.44.html?start=1 January 13, 4:15 pm | [comment link]

5. John Wilkins wrote: I think he preaches well.  I enjoy his rhetoric and think he has some imaginative programming.  I think his theology sucks, but the medium is the message. His view of Jesus is probably more accurate than the Jesus as welcome mat.  But it is still just one side of Jesus.  I think we can learn from this person.  Still, if I were to pepper my sermons like he did, I’d probably get a fair amount of push-back. January 13, 4:32 pm | [comment link]

6. MattJP wrote: I have a lot of respect for Driscoll. Especially with what he’s up against in a city like Seattle. January 13, 4:38 pm | [comment link]

7. recchip wrote: Our vestry discussed this article and one thing which kept coming up was the gentleman’s insistance on absolute loyalty without even questioning.  That disturbed us.  While one must ultimately submit to the collective leadership of a church (and to the Priest/Bishop in their particular areas of sole authority), it is NOT a sin to question or dissent. January 13, 4:40 pm | [comment link]

8. Watcher On The Wall wrote: Driscoll seems to be from the same “manly Christian” school as Doug Giles. January 13, 6:32 pm | [comment link]

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