John MacArthur on the Emerging Church and Mark Driscoll

It is about time that Pastor John MacArthur spoke up about the Emerging Church Movement and the infamous Mark Driscoll.

“We keep hearing from evangelical strategists and savvy church leaders that Christians need to be more tuned into contemporary culture. You have no doubt heard the arguments: We need to take the message out of the bottle. We can’t minister effectively if don’t speak the language of contemporary counterculture. If we don’t vernacularize the gospel, contextualize the church, and reimagine Christianity for each succeeding generation, how can we possibly reach young people? Above all else, we have got to stay in step with the times.”

I vividly remember hearing these arguments for the very first time. It was a horrifying experience to hear a friend of mine defend the idea that our churches should adopt postmodern so we can be more “relevant” in reaching the lost. Do you remember where you were when first confronted with Emergent arguments? I do. I was sitting at Bucks when I was given my first written work by Driscoll. How ironic that the first Emergent book I read was written by someone on the far end of the conservative spectrum.

“Those arguments have been stressed to the point that many evangelicals now seem to think unstylishness is just about the worst imaginable threat to the expansion of the gospel and the influence of the church. They don’t really care if they are worldly. They just don’t want to be thought uncool.”

Sadly, this is exactly what we see from most who claim to be Emergent. The primary concern is having the appearance of coolness, while the clarity of the gospel comes in second. My criticism is not simply that these priorities be reversed, but that coolness not even be a concern. Besides, as Pastor MacArthur later points out, if the world hates you, remember that they hated Christ first.

“Worldly preachers seem to go out of their way to put their carnal expertise on display—even in their sermons. In the name of connecting with “the culture” they want their people to know they have seen all the latest programs on MTV; familiarized themselves with all the key themes of “South Park”; learned the lyrics to countless tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music; and watched who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They’ve adopted both the style and the language of the world—including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. They want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.

Mark Driscoll is one of the best-known representatives of that kind of thinking. He is a very effective communicator—a bright, witty, clever, funny, insightful, crude, profane, deliberately shocking, in-your-face kind of guy. His soteriology is exactly right, but that only makes his infatuation with the vulgar aspects of contemporary society more disturbing.

Driscoll ministers in Seattle, birthplace of “grunge” music and heart of the ever-changing subculture associated with that movement. Driscoll’s unique style and idiom might aptly be labeled “post-grunge.” His language—even in his sermons—is deliberately crude. He is so well known for using profane language that in Blue Like Jazz (p. 133), Donald Miller (popular author and icon of the “Emerging Church” movement, who speaks of Driscoll with the utmost admiration) nicknamed him “Mark the Cussing Pastor.”

I don’t know what Driscoll’s language is like in private conversation, but I listened to several of his sermons. To be fair, he didn’t use the sort of four-letter expletives most people think of as cuss words—nothing that might get bleeped on broadcast television these days. Still, it would certainly be accurate to describe both his vocabulary and his subject matter at times as tasteless, indecent, crude, and utterly inappropriate for a minister of Christ. In every message I listened to, at least once he veered into territory that ought to be clearly marked off limits for the pulpit.”

It is greatly encouraging to know that I am not alone in my assessment of Mark Driscoll. Right from the off I took a hard stance against his views at a time when he was uber popular, which was not easy. Thankfully, in my circle of friends right now, his popularity is at an all time low =). In fact, I knew that once folks began to realize the kinds of results the ECM produces, they wouldn’t take to it. Having said that, there will always be those who fall prey to a smooth presentation like Driscoll’s. But these folks were already susceptible to other spiritual dangers.

If you carefully read how MacArthur described Driscoll, it is along the same lines of what other incredibly gifted men of God have said: James White, Phil Johnson, Steve Camp and countless others. The only folks who disagree with the above description fall into one of two categories: (1) those who are not familiar with Driscoll’s books and sermons; (2) those who are themselves Emergent/Emerging.

Finally, I’ll end with MacArthur:

“I frankly wonder how any Christian who takes the Bible at face value could ever think that in order to be “culturally relevant” Christians should participate in society’s growing infatuation with vulgarity. Didn’t vulgarity and culture used to be considered polar opposites?”