Driscoll, Radical Reformission

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Mark Driscoll, Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out. Zondervan. 2004.

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LifeandLeadership.com Summary

Since this book was originally posted on LifeandLeadership.com, Driscoll’s ministry has been strongly and legitimately criticized. This text still has value, however, as decribed below.

Some would not categorize this book as a theology of mission, and it is not deep theology in the academic sense. It is a biblically grounded popular-level expression of how to keep postmodern ministry rooted in Scripture, thus the subtitle, Reaching Out Without Selling Out. Look also at the title, Radical Reformission, which has a Reformed, sola scriptura, ring to it. One might call Radical Reformission a Reformed theology/philosophy of ministry expressed in the terms young postmoderns may understand and appreciate.

During his ministry, Driscoll also strongly identified with the interests of the Gospel and Our Culture Network, and the writings of authors such as Lesslie Newbigin, Hudson Taylor, and Roland Allen. Echoing these mentors, he argues that “at the heart of reformission are clear distinctions between the gospel, the culture, and the church.” (19) Each of these must be held in proper balance. He says:

Jesus has called us to (1) the gospel (loving our Lord, (2) the culture (loving our neighbor), and (3) the church (loving our brother). But one of the causes of our failure to fulfill our mission in the American church is that the various Christian traditions are faithful on only one or two of these counts. When we fail to love our Lord, neighbor, and brother simultaneously, we bury our ministry in one of three holes: parachurch, liberalism, or fundamentalism. (20)

He provides equations to show how each groups emphases and de-emphases play out:

Gospel + Culture – Church = Parachurch
Culture + Church – The Gospel = Liberalism
Church + Gospel – Culture = Fundamentalism

His intent is for the book to gather “the best aspects of each of these types of Christianity: living in the tension of being Christians and churches who are culturally liberal but theologically conservative and who are driven by the gospel of grace to love their Lord, brothers, and neighbors.” (22) Hopefully what results is “a radical call for Christians and Christian churches to recommit to living and speaking the gospel, and to doing so regardless of the pressures to compromise the truth of the gospel or to conceal its power within the safety of the church.” (20)

In this vein, he addresses the following topics:

Loving your Lord through the Gospel:

Follow Jesus into crossing barriers to reach people who are in sin
Distinguish between what is cultural and what is scriptural, and couching the message in the language of culture (e.g. the four Gospels)
Evangelism: Routine Presentation Evangelism vs. Reformation Participation Evangelism

Loving your neighbor in the culture:

Appreciate the role of culture in God’s creation, and to evaluate culture and our participation in it
Find intersections that allow us to convey the gospel to our culture
Avoid the twin errors of syncretism and sectarianism (with an excellent application on alcohol consumption)
Understand the promises and the pitfalls of postmodernism

In the appendix, Driscoll “leans into the future” (193) to consider where current cultural trends may lead, always with the hope that “if reformission takes hold, if God’s people can see tomorrow and prepare for it today, some of the sinful things listed need not occur.” (194) He addresses nine categories: population, family (e.g. homosexuality, gender roles), health and medicine, creation, technology, sexuality, religion.

From the Publisher

Reformation is the continual reforming of the mission of the church to enhance God’s command to reach out to others in a way that acknowledges the unique times and locations of daily life. This engaging book blends the integrity of respected theoreticians with the witty and practical insights of a pastor. It calls for a movement of missionaries to seek the lost across the street as well as across the globe.

This basic primer on the interface between gospel and culture highlights the contrast between presentation evangelism and participation evangelism. It helps Christians navigate between the twin pitfalls of syncretism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your message) and sectarianism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your mission). Included are interviews with those who have crossed cultural barriers, such as a television producer, exotic dancer, tattoo studio owner, and band manager. The appendix represents eight portals into the future: population, family, health/medicine, creating, learning, sexuality, and religion.

About the Author

Raised behind a strip club in a rough neighborhood near Seattle, Mark Driscoll attended a local Roman Catholic church and served as an altar boy. Not until college did he read the Bible cover-to-cover and turn his life over to Jesus. Five years later, at age 25, having no formal training he invited 12 people to meet in the living room of his rented house and founded Mars Hill Church.

Today more than 6,000 people attend one of Mars Hill’s four campuses each Sunday in Seattle. His sermons are downloaded more than a million times a year. Driscoll also co-founded and is president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network having helped launch more than 100 churches in the U.S. and seven countries. Most recently he founded and leads the Resurgence Missional Theology Cooperative, a resource enabling people to effectively reach their community by leading biblically faithful and culturally relevant lives.

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