Alright, this is a strange one. This short video was shown two weeks ago at the National New Church Conference in Orlando. Mark makes an appeal for focusing on the “men, mission, and message” of biblical church planting. There has been some controversy surrounding this video. Watch it first and try to guess what the controversy is. Then follow the links at the bottom of this post to read about the controversy. And then if you don’t mind, tell me what you think.
Read TallSkinnyKiwi
Read Tom’s Big Picture
Read Driscoll’s Resurgence Blog
** Brian Clack should not watch this video. If
Brian does so we can not be held responsible
if it causes him to sin.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
Am I the only one who sees the irony? The conference organizers engage in “man pleasing” by banning a video that isn’t “woman pleasing” enough.
I found the video to be highly defensible and to the point. I do take exception with his point on the fact that a “church planter” is not “pastor” because he hasn’t grown his church yet! Or am I missing something about church planting, since I have never personally planted a church but have finacially sponsored a dozen or more church plants?
I thought the video and accompanying controversy was much ado about nothing.
I would be interested if anyone else watched the Women’s video on TallSkinnyKiwi and what they thought…
I would have to agree with arthur. I do not see the big “controversy”. He is clearly wrong on some theological issues (definition of what it means to be a man, church planter not being a pastor, cussing for the sake of it, vulgarity for whatever purpose), but is that suprising coming from the emergent church?
Is this not in line with everything else coming from Mr. Driscoll?
Caddie,
I think what Driscoll is referring to is the fact that true Church Planters often not looking for sheep to pastor but more shepherds to train — especially in those first few years.
In the early years church plants must focus on developing their leadership, laying a solid biblical foundation, and establishing their pastoral authority in order to survive in the long run. Of course these practices will continue through-out the remaining years of the church, but the priority of these practices will often be at the expense of other ministries early on.
daniel –
The video wasn’t banned! Driscoll makes this claim on his blog and it is contradicted by people at the conference who handed out the video and by people who picked up the video. People can criticize the logistical planning of the conference planners for not having more volunteers and a better distribution plan if they need to, but Driscoll is the one driving the controversy with his false accusation of a banned video.
Let’s try this. Drizzle first says that the kind of man that Paul is looking for is one who is sound in doctrine and practice. Of course the qualifications for overseerers is listed in Timothy and Titus, but Drizzle makes only scant mention of that. Instead, he says that the kind of man that a planter should be looking for are men who meet none of the qualifications. Next, he juxtaposes the soldier being entangled in civilian affairs and goes on to exalt the civilian needs of the men as necessary prerequisites (including their sexual satisfaction) as what is really needed to be done. The selfish narcissistic needs of the man and the picture perfect Dobsonian family is most necessary and secondary to that is the Gospel. Tack Jesus on to the end of any program and you gotta love it?
Am I getting close? What Drizzle seems to want is anything but a Christianity that is Christian. His crude humorlessness and twisted missiology is the cause, not the fix of the decline of Christianity in America. Chalk one up for another get rich quick mininster riding the sewage sludge surge of pop religion compliments of deconstructionist enterprizes and fading fads of self agrandizing irrelevance.
hmmm, several things in there I can point to that “churchianity” might have a problem with. We need more men like this speaking out in the church…
1. Sex every day with their wives…? I’d like to hear his teaching on that…and I’d like my wife to hear it too!
2.0f course non-believers will get all uppity about using military language…but then they don’t know nor believe the Word
3. Using the initials “B.S.” At the age of 23 (am 44 now) I was an assistant pastor, had recently graduated and was preaching a sermon and I used the term “B.S.” Just the initials, just like he does in the video. We had several families leave our church because of it. Seems rediculous now but then I was devastated for being so insensitive.
after watching the video, i gave a hearty AMEN!