In the final chapter of Confessions of a Reformission Rev., Mark Driscoll addresses the future.
He notes a conversation with Larry Osborne at a Leadership Network conference. Larry redirected the conversation to family and kids. Here was a guy who “got it”, and Mark needed the reminder.
It is awesome to come home from the office and spend time with my wife and little girl (ask me about this when she is a teen). It reminds me that the Great Commission begins at home, and there is more to life than vocational ministry. I get to laugh… and that’s kind of important to mental health.
But what happens when she gets older? Do we shelter her from the bad aspects of church life? Or do we integrate her with ministry life? I’d like to bring her to hospital visits to develop a compassion for the hurting (and not feel as awkward as I do in there), deathbeds excepted perhaps.
His Coaching Corner returns to the idea that a church must continually ‘reinvent’ itself if it is to remain healthy, vibrant and growing. In 5 years my family life will have to change. My daughter will be in school, and we can’t act like she’s still 2. She’ll have new skills to acquire, and her world will expand. It is the same for churches, unless they want to decline and die. He lays out some of the things that have been on his heart for the future, and I share most of them.
More Prayerful Men. Implementing corporate prayer is difficult regardless of size. We’ve done the prayer meeting thing, but it sucked the life out of me to only have 1 or 2 other families show up. Folks, prayer doesn’t sell (unless there is a mighty move the of the Spirit). And private prayer doesn’t cut it. In Ephesians 6, the stuff on spiritual warfare is about community- and that includes prayer. There are too many distracts for me (and most pastors?) to pray in my office. And I find I don’t pray enough, period, and strategically in particular. This is intensified for me as a miniscule church pastor since there is no secretary. I am it.
More Elders, qualified elders. In most churches I am familiar with, this office has declined into a decision-making role. Biblically, this is a shepherd. We need to bring men through the pastoral epistles to ingrain the realities of ministry into them (and that won’t be pleasant). So often they don’t realize they will continually run up against the flesh in themselves and the congregation. Ministry is hard, regardless of what those largely Pelagian leadership books tell you. They are filled with lies which make you feel like a complete freakin’ loser. Leading people is filled with resistance and heartbreak unless you found the 5 guys who are continually living by grace in the power of the Spirit (another thing most elders resist, oddly).
Elder Options. Driscoll devotes some time to length of service, how to choose them. I really agree that short terms create problems with continual training and lack of continuity. And I’ve seen the danger of lifetime appointments (I used to think this was a great thing- it is if all those you choose are actually godly, otherwise it is like Ted Kennedy with his deathlock as the Senior Senator from MA and the power to obstruct every good idea). Meetings can be shortened by empowering elders to make more decisions regarding their ministry responsibilities. The whole Session shouldn’t have to vote on everything, only big things (no more hymns, or only hymns- how often we celebrate communion).
More Technology. Some Reformed guys are afraid of it. I’d love to have it. I want to stop killing trees so we can have handouts every Sunday. I’m tired of picking them up and tossing them. Technology is not evil, only the people who use it for evil. I am utterly shocked at how few churches in my denomination have websites. Talk about snubbing the younger generations. And the number who put resources on line, like sermons, is even smaller. We have such a small vision for ministry sometimes.
More Staff. He believes in strategic hires. I’ve done that, and it wasn’t what I’d hoped. This was partially because we really didn’t know the guy (this is a huge trap churches fall into, repeatedly). Churches need to do a better job of raising up their own staff from within. That way you know their character, their strengths & weaknesses, etc.
More Church Planting- Driscoll’s contention is that you cannot truly be missional unless you are planting churches. I’d agree.
More Pruning- this is the stuff we don’t like. We want to bear fruit, but not be pruned in order to produce it. God works to remove unproductive parts of our lives, in order to produce character.
Overall, this was a great and challenging book. It is not a how-to, but provides guidance on some of the things you need to think about as you go through the stages of church development. Unfortunately, some people will get (needlessly) hung up on the “Driscollisms”. If you do, you will miss some really important things to think about.
Cavman Considers 
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