I am sure everyone has seen the New York Times article profiling Mark Driscoll* entitled Who Would Jesus Smack Down? and many of you have been witness to the profile from Washington Post's front page profile of Gordon Cosby, the recently retired pastor of Church of the Saviour in DC.
While one is the pastor of a mega church in Seattle, young, hip and cool, powerful and a user of the latest in technology to spread his influence, embraced by thousands of young ministers desiring to become the next Driscoll, the other is the exact opposite, theologically, culturally and in demeanor. Yet, even with little press during his lifetime, Cosby has been as influential as Driscoll. Although Cosby's influence has been slowly growing with many of his disciples lacking knowledge of his name, Driscoll can only hope he is as influential in 50 years as he is now.
What is interesting is to juxtapose these articles and profiles, these 2 men. If we are charitable, we can find it wonderful that the tent of Christianity is large enough to fit both of these men. If not particularly charitable, we can wonder how both of these messages and styles can emanate from the same sources, Jesus and the Bible.
Even if you have read both articles, take an opportunity to look back over them while thinking of the other profile.
*a man to whom I am always grateful. We may not see eye-to-eye on much theologically but he was an advocate for me in my early church planting days and he paid a couple of hundred dollars to a scalper to treat both of us to Red Sox opening day tickets in 2001 so we could take it in Manny Ramirez' first game as a Sox player.
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it was easy to find any picture of Driscoll I wanted. It took a good bit of searching for images of Cosby. This tells you a lot about the worlds in which they live. Also, do a google search of each and see how much comes up.
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one of these guys is a real man, tough guy while the other actually served in the military and put his life at risk during a War.
4 comments:
I am so grateful to you for this post. I had not heard of Crosby, but his quiet humility and reliance that God will provide direction, that He starts ministries and ends them, and that we are merely to listen and follow, is an inspiration. As for Driscoll...lets pray that the Fruit of the Holy Spirit grow in him more and more each day.
Great, great post, Rick. A really revealing contrast.
(btw, it's 'Cosby'-- get the 'r' outta there ;-) This might have had something to do with your lack of Google results)
thanks Mike. I don't know why I kept calling him that. I think his name should be Crosby, not Cosby. Still, the number of articles and pics are fewer than they should.
I did fix it.
Oh, I'm sure there is still a huge disparity between Google results. And many more people should hear about Gordon and CotS, for sure. Which is why I'm so glad for this post.
What is interesting to me is that when I get a chance to hang out with folks from the CotS family of (small) churches (for one does not need to see Gordon to know CotS, which is another fascinating phenomenon) to respond to their kind invitation to run my smack, I have the overwhelming realization that they have *been there, done that* to all of my (so-called) innovative ideas. And yet, they are-- to a person-- fascinated, engaging, and encouraging to me. It's really remarkable: they are both humbling and encouraging.
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