Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons From an Emerging Missional Church (The Leadership Network Innovation) by Mark Driscoll

Author:Mark Driscoll
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780310270164
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2006-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

I was not a Christian when

I came to the church.

Today I am a pastor.

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Jesus, Why Am I Getting

Fatter and Meaner?

350 – 1,000 People

It was not a happy time. It was the fall of 1999, just after the shootings at Columbine High School and just before Americans were

spinning like tops over the end of the world, which was supposed

to be brought on by the Y2K bug. Thankfully, Seattle grunge had

nearly run its course, and the local thrift stores were filled with

used flannel shirts and boots. Tragically, grunge was replaced with

happy-clappy, half-naked teenage girls, like Christina Aguilera and

Britney Spears, and boy bands that danced and still had the audacity to claim they were heterosexual. More than Y2K, it was the rise

of the teeny-bop pop that caused me to think the end of the world

might indeed be imminent.

Our little church was rolling along rather nicely. We had settled

into our rented church and had grown to nearly 350 people a week.

In fall, I started preaching through the book of Exodus. We also

changed our worship ser vice to include communion every week

and put most of the congregational singing after the sermon as a

response to the hearing of God’s Word through the preaching. We

felt free to do so because no commanded order of a church ser vice

is to be found anywhere in Scripture, nor is any detailed example of

a worship ser vice from the first-century church. Scripture nowhere

requires a fixed order for church ser vices but simply teaches that

things should be done in a way that is “fitting and orderly” and that

reveres God (1 Cor. 14:40; Heb. 12:28).

Churches ser vices commonly last approximately one hour or

less. Churches wanting to have short ser vices must therefore choose

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between singing songs, partaking of communion, praying, and

preaching. Most churches virtually, if not entirely, omit at least one

of these four major aspects of worship for the sake of time. Mars

Hill began with only a few songs, a sermon, and monthly communion but over the years has grown to include each of the four

major aspects of a worship ser vice. Because of this, our worship

ser vice takes up to two hours and is an event that people simply

make time for, not unlike a big concert or movie. We made the

sermon the hinge for the ser vice, with time for repentance, giving,

communion, and most of the congregational singing following the

sermon to provide people an opportunity to process God’s Word

and respond to his initiation in their lives.

It felt good to be making progress and to settle into a groove

with good momentum. We were forming our own identity, people

were coming to faith in Jesus, young people were getting married,

babies were being born, our financial state was climbing out of the

toilet, and for the first time in our church history, I was actually

feeling happy and hopeful.

Then came that Monday.

On that Monday, I was told via letter that the building had been

sold and some other church was evicting us, effective immediately.

We had only days to leave the premises and take all of our things

with us.

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