LOL!

A half-dozen security guards were posted at the Ballard church and a video camera was aimed at the protesters from the building roof. ”

From http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/294572_marshill04.html

Wayne said: (Post 74)

“Rev I have appreciated your radical (at least radical in our consumeristic society) stand that you take, and have appreciated your thought process and passionate desire to follow Jesus. This is all very timely for me as I am in a place of trying to reconsider my working and financial future after finishing up as a pastor”.

Wayne could have written that sentence with ME in mind! Although for the sake of clarification I am involved in a leadership position (of sorts) with a small group of Home Churches (which my wife and I pioneered in December last year; and which contains a number of ex pastors) I would no longer see myself as a pastor – another story for another time, perhaps.

And perhaps like Wayne, (I don’t know him personally so I’ll stick to my own story) I was recently released (by God) from the ‘Assemblies OR God’ institution here in NSW. I had been a prisoner (institutionalised) for nearly two decades and had worked my way up to a sort of trusteeship in charge of a few groups of fellow prisoners.

Anyway much to my dismay, when I was released I began an unexpected but terrifying experience - which some here have identified as ‘detoxing from the church’! The truth is; while I am out of the institution; as yet, the institution is not out of me! But I digress.

When we began the Home Churches almost a year ago, I thought at the time that I knew what I was doing!? However, as the months passed and we became more radical (‘only do what the Father is saying’ kinda stuff … I mean who added all that extra stuff in the Bible … or was it always there …hmmm?) then it became obvious to me that I really had no idea – ouch!

Bible College didn’t prepare me for this! Being a Senior Pastor for many, many years didn’t prepare me for this! Considerable experience in Missions overseas and at home didn’t prepare me for this! I felt then, and still do, like an absolute dill! A little hard to take at first when one considers all the years spent at TAFE and Uni and the management roles in the secular world etc.

As if things were not confusing enough … along comes ‘Rev’ with his view on the ‘kingdom of God’!

I am not (at the moment) able to clearly articulate my position; that would require using my brain and it’s still a little fuzzy! But … much to my surprise after an initial (more general) statement by the Rev, followed by my initial ‘what the…?’ I actually found myself resonating to this teaching. And to that end would like to hear more on the subject.

Rev do you deal with this issue in any detail on your blog (I just realised that you had one), if so then perhaps that’s the appropriate place for me to ask questions etc?

BTW Homer or whatever you call yourself, you’re definitely not welcome!

So, we’re organizing our first direct action. On Sunday, December 3, we’re going to take a physical stand against injustice outside the Mars Hill Ballard Campus in Seattle at the 11am service.

We’ve no idea if Mark the Misogynist is going to be there. We are not seeking an explosive confrontation or a shouting match. We simply want to show Mars Hill congregants and the rest of Seattle that we will no longer tolerate Driscoll’s view of women.”

From http://www.endfundamentalism.org/20061111/take-action-on-nov-19-mark-the-misogynist-and-mars-hill/

rev

rev

Just a point of clarification: If Mark Driscoll is a tool - whose pants should he be kept in?

Dan, I couldn’t agree with you more. Perhaps we can have a rant in real life and off-line some time!!

So a list like that (or an instruction at a ministry college or similar) is only going to be effective for those people who basically want to avoid misconduct anyway. The only thing on that list which could conceivably have made a difference to Ted Haggard was the one about being honest with your spouse, and who knows, he might have been. Nothing there per se is going to stop someone having meth-fuelled sex binges with a male prostitute.

I agree with you about responsibility lying with the pastor, but the grey area on misconduct issues is *huge* which is where I think a bunch of these sorts of guides come from. For example (which is getting way off the topic of what we were discussing), if the ministerial conduct guidelines which currently apply to our denomination had been in place ten years ago, Phil would have been in breach of it for going out with me.

Basically, I think that Driscoll holds a lot of fairly mainstream views and then tops it off with a smear of pure crap which seems designed to get a reaction.