The Piper - Driscoll Exchange

Many of you have probably heard that at last week's Desiring God conference John Piper offered some public exhortations/criticisms of Mark Driscoll after he had left the conference.  He was concerned that Mark tried to be too clever and that this could diminish his preaching of the gospel and he was also concerned that other preachers would try to emulate him, with negative effects.

I have to admit I was pretty disappointed when I first became aware of this - I felt that it should have been shared in private rather than public.  I think it's a potentially fair criticism, and for what it's worth - I think most of us preachers can relieve Dr. Piper of any anxiety that may come from the thought that we are going to become bad Driscoll knock-offs.  Very few of us are as hip and clever as Driscoll is so most of us won't try to imitate his style, we'll stay within our own limitations.

Having said that, Driscoll has done a wonderful post on his blog about this - Thank You, Dr. John Piper | TheResurgence.  Apparently there has been a "roaring debate" in the blogosphere about this and he wants us to know that this has not led to a breach in his relationship with Dr. Piper and the two are unified.  I'd encourage you to read the post, as it includes an e-mail exchange where you can see the humility and warmth between the two men, and you will also see that Dr. Piper found himself convicted by his own words.  So, it's really a great post and a great exchange modeling Christian love.  I won't say it models Christian reconciliation because there was no break in the relationship, but it does model Christian love in a great way.  Steve McCoy extracts this great quote from Piper which hopefully will put any roaring debaters to bed:

...tell the world that, I would not have .001 seconds hesitation in having Mark Driscoll come back tomorrow to our church or our conference. I LOVE being on the same team and consider my self a learner in your presence more than a counselor.

HT - Reformissionary by way of Justin Taylor

Related Tags: Religion, Theology, Church, Christian, Christianity, John Piper, Desiring God, Mark Driscoll

Comments

[Kaffinator]

I think this quote from Piper is more interesting:

Good grief. I am glad I don't read the web very much. I would sin with anger too much. "Roaring debate" !-- these people have too much time on their hands.

LOL!

[iMonk]

Hello David.

Thanks for this post.

>I have to admit I was pretty disappointed when I first became aware of this - I felt that it should have been shared in private rather than public.

I agree completely, and while appreciating the beautiful display of unity in the emails- one that all of us can humbly learn from- I join you in believing that a public forum was a questionable place for this. Now I am not in a position to judge, and I can understand that Dr. P may have been speaking to Driscoll wannabes more than to Driscoll, but it is hard for me to process this apart from my setting.

I mentor more than 20 preachers. Many of them are young men. I FREQUENTLY need to share words of criticism and admonishment regarding their public preaching in our chapel. Again, I am not Dr. P's judge, and I believe he exercises gifts that are far, far above mine, but I cannot concieve of the situation where I would make any comnment in a public forum. But, again, Driscoll is a public figure with a public following.

I am somewhat surprised that conferences/conventions that are heavily pormoted and communicated on the internet become the occasion to be critical of the discussion that goes on in the blogosphere about those conferences. Preachers: If you don't want bloggers commenting, then shut the doors and turn off the microphones. Let us read your official version the next day. But when you bring Challies to the conference, and when other bloggers liveblog and publicize, there will be a diversity of reaction. That's a good thing, or at least it seems so to those of us who believe the blogosphere has a role to play in making events less of a lecture and more of a conversation.

Thanks for your space, David. God bless you and yours.