Integrity
Mark Driscoll is the preaching pastor of Mars Hill Church. It’s a giant Seattle congregation. Driscoll is also founder of the church – planting network, Acts 29 which is wildly successful. He’s an author of many books and a frequent television guest. He’s also, well… sort of a jerk. When he preaches he seems more like an angry comedian than a minister. He often talks about wimpy, effeminate men and once left a movement in part because they “tried to make God a chick.” He was accused of buying his way onto the New York Times bestsellers list. He’s been accused of plagiarism. He’s been called the world’s most “foul mouthed preacher,” a male chauvinist and a lot worse. The thing is, Driscoll knows he’s kind of a jerk and he seems pretty genuinely sorry. He wrote an open letter to his 14,000 congregants confessing and apologizing for his wrongs and explaining how he will be made accountable in the future. It should be said that he did this very same thing about seven years ago. Still, it’s a gutsy move.
Find it @ reddit.com
Movie
I did it. I went and saw Noah. I was sort of excited when I first heard about it. And then the controversy set in. My social media accounts went nuts and countless people, even a former professor of mine, reviewed the film (without even seeing the movie yet). Many boycotted and protested. And I must admit, after more of the story being told in the movie came out, I wanted to see it less. But I saw it. And guess what? Meh, it wasn’t great. But not because Hollywood took a nice Bible story and made it into something weird. I had no expectations that it would be a movie about honouring God in the first place. I knew from the start that it would essentially be secular midrash. I was cool with that. And let’s face it, that story is pretty brutal on its own. In the film, Noah doesn’t really know God, isn’t very sympathetic and God is basically just a big environmentalist. No, it’s not theologically sound or biblically accurate. But what movie is? Boycotting this film because it tells a different story than the Bible does is just silly. Boycotting it for being dull on the other hand… well, that’s fair. But who am I to judge? I’m ordering a copy of Troll 2 as we speak and I can’t wait to see “the worst movie ever made.”
Find it @ noahmovie.com
Article
It’s not uncommon today for people to go out “church shopping” in search of the perfect church that will give them exactly what they need. Once they’ve found it of course they usually find that some things need to change. And if they can’t influence that change, they go shopping again. Some of this is fair and healthy, of course. People need to be in a church that fits. The problem is that people too easily forget that the church is not called to serve us. We’re not consumers. It’s the other way around. We’re called to serve the church. To this, Relevant magazine has published a great little article entitled, “Five Really Bad Reasons to Leave Your Church.” The first one is “I’m not being fed.” I’ll let you discover the other four on your own.
Find it @ relevantmagazine.com
Craziness
Well, we’ve all heard about Jesus appearing on the side of a taco in Mexico City. The sad part is, not all of us can afford the pilgrimage to see such sacred relics. Enter the good folks at Jesus is Everywhere. Now we can see those wonderful miracles by way of the interwebs. Never again will you have to fly to see the Jesus Cheeto, the Jesus banana or even the Jesus bruise. Luckily some loonie is collecting pictures of them all and posting them online for everyone to enjoy. Yeah!
Find it @ jesusiseverywhere.net
