Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Driscoll Apology (a model for all of us)

Mark Driscoll is a man's man. I am a guy's guy (these are subtly different things). The reason I am designating Mark a man's man (and we know he would never want to be dsignated less than manly) is that he has come forward with an (somewhat belated) apology to Doug Pagitt and Brian McLaren for his comments on Christianity Today's webblog in January (related to Brian's blog regarding homosexuality).

Listening to friends with godly counsel and not listening to the justifications from his mean spirited fans (who justify any bad behavior in the name of good theology), Mark has said this...
A godly friend once asked me an important question: “What do you want to be known for?” I responded that solid theology and effective church planting were the things that I cared most about and wanted to be known for. He kindly said that my reputation was growing as a guy with good theology, a bad temper, and a foul mouth. This is not what I want to be known for. And after listening to the concerns of the board members of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network that I lead, and of some of the elders and deacons at Mars Hill Church that I pastor, I have come to see that my comments were sinful and in poor taste. Therefore, I am publicly asking for forgiveness from both Brian and Doug because I was wrong for attacking them personally and I was wrong for the way in which I confronted positions with which I still disagree. I also ask forgiveness from those who
were justifiably offended at the way I chose to address the disagreement. I pray that you will accept this posting as a genuine act of repentance for my sin.

In the end, I do not want my tone and style to get in the way of important discussions and kingdom work. So, my intention is to lean into God’s empowering grace to become a holy man who demonstrates greater self-control. In the future, my prayer is that I could continue to speak with pithy edginess and candor that
is also marked by grace and appropriate words. I obviously failed this time. Please forgive me and pray for me.
Kudos to Mark. I encourage his justifiers and fans to notice the humilty and respond in kind.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was real glad to see this. His comments were true and funny, but his tone was out of line.