Mark Driscoll is a Pastor with many people attending his church in Seattle. Recently he wrote a book and paid a marketing company something like $200,000 to get his book to #1 on the New York Times best seller list. Before we all assign Driscoll to the 'Mega-church fraud' pile, we must be really careful. This methodology of marketing and promoting a ministry is happening all the time. It's just Mark Driscoll who has been exposed for doing it. All leaders are vulnerable to the following:
I have heard the verbal gymnastics preachers get up to in order to sow an idea into our minds. That idea is that they 'have God's back in this.' Bearing in mind I know leaders who are NOT like this I want to further expose the counterfeit perception of anointing. To be clear, anointing is what all believers have. It is simply God's enabling. What we are all expected to do is rely on the Lord and in due course we will find ourselves walking in the work prepared for us. Relying is a tricky business.
How does paying for holy kudos amount to relying on the Lord? This is what we need to be exploring here, not the moral / ethical / 'gosh isn't the church a mess' Driscoll bashing. I don't know the length and breadth of Mark Driscoll. I do see his collusion with the system. That is what I want to expose, not my opinions about a child of God. I see this as vital in the last days as we see many perceived hero's of the faith fall into error. DON'T GO FOR THE MAN... it's the systems, structures, powers, principalities etc that are behind it all that needs exposure.
If we can do that maybe we can discern how taken in we all are by some aspect of this deceptive world?
I was at a church years ago and the Assistant Minister said during a message that he left a 25,000 pounds a year job to go to Bible College. Now there is a half truth in what was said. He was actually on a training scheme while learning to do a 25,000 pound a year job. The misreporting is not the problem. The problem is the idea that was placed in the minds of the hearers. They saw this minister as having dropped everything to follow the voice of the Lord... 'God has got my back.' This in turn creates a sense of authority in the minister and the congregation now have 'God's man.' For this guy the entire truth is that his family moved from the UK to Australia and he went to the Bible College his dad was teaching at. It's about what isn't said as well as what is said. At the time this happened I was also being deceived into similar patterns. I have no condemnation for the man but the seductive systems behind it. My story is like everyone else, I was caught in a system that relied on 'things-other-than-Jesus' to make it work.
In another scenario I was at a church where they worked with people in poverty. The leader of this reported regularly that there were so many hundred offices of his project around the country. When I asked around a bit the 'offices' were actually defined by a church who wanted to run with the idea and a couple of people who were trained to engage poor people. It's the reporting of it that leaves an idea that 'God has got my back.' Again... the man involved is a good guy. It's just that he has learned somehow to create this pseudo authority from people who want to see God move. At least here was a guy actually doing some good amid his self promotion and marketing.
Here are some examples of how I could report some of my historical 'achievements.'
1. The 'first man in history' - THE HEADLINE
THE HALF TRUTH
In the early 90's I decided in utter naivety to disengage drawing social security money while working voluntary at a local church. This meant I had no income at all. Over time the tax man asked for some money. I appealed that I have no money so how could I pay tax? After a while the message came back that outside the nuns and monks living in monasteries I was the first person in UK history to be exempted from taxes for 'reasons of faith.' WOW 'The first.' It's a true story but what I haven't told you is the whole truth.
The whole truth is that during this time food did not appear in front of me. I had to rely on patient brothers and sisters. It was really hard and I did not see this move honored by the Lord. I'm not going to be too hard on myself because it was the early stages of the learning curve I am still on. This period didn't last long. Soon I met my to-be wife (who seemed to like really thin Gary) and got a job as a coffee machine engineer. Now are you impressed?
2. 'Consulting with the UK Secretary of State' THE HEADLINE
THE HALF TRUTH
For years I worked on a product that simplifies and provides a level playing-field in human interaction. After the 2011 riots I was invited to the Secretary of State office to consult on this product. WOW. 'Government.' It's a true story but here is the whole truth...
I do have a human interaction product that didn't really wow the sector. The Secretary of State came to stay overnight with us in 2006 as a project he was doing while not in office. When in office I contacted his office and they invited me to chat over some aspects of how my product worked. 'Consultation?' Hardly. They promptly told me they had no money and the only thing I got out of that trip to London was 'wet.'
Why am I being a party pooper? Am I the original "Buzz-Killington?" I think this is exposing and dealing with one of the subtitles of our fallen nature. You see the ideal is that we are entirely sourced in Christ. The plan is that we are anchored into him and him alone. But with the absence of this we scratch around for that which would add to our insecurities, low self esteem, degraded self worth and broken sense of purpose. Having been taught as Westerners that our significance lies in productivity, we will do what it takes to become significant. This involves the telling of half-truths and propagating the idea that 'God has my back.'
The truth is that GOD HAS GOT YOUR BACK. But it is always and entirely on his terms. I don't know how that looks for you but for me it involves abandonment of all that would ask me to present a theater of language, practices and demeanor. If I am sourced in Christ alone why would I want to create the perception that the Lord thinks I'm more special than you? I'm just not. But what you and I actually are is so utterly amazing many cannot see past Western constructs of the mind. That we are brothers and sisters called out of the world by God himself is staggering. The wonder of this is lost in the clamor to be more significant than everyone else. Our Western thinking creates a shortfall in significance while at the same time we are SONS of the Most High God! How significant do you want to be exactly? SONS!
But that is not enough is it? If it was, why add anything more? Why engage this world for upgrades?
In conclusion to this I want to appeal to those, like myself, who have bashed preachers and assassinated ministers. It's what they have been seduced by, the yet-to-be dealt with merging with this world that we must expose. Firstly we must be honest with self. "How anchored into Christ am I?" "Am I misreporting or marketing an idea to gain respect, authority and following?" "In my attempts to appear as *God's Man* is the truth that I actually feel underutilized, insignificant and desperate to see God ACTUALLY use me?"
Truly sourced in the Risen, Glorified Christ we are so enamored by him that there's no need to 'big-up' self. We have no need to pursue works and ministries because His sending is all that needs to happen. We can be brutally candid about the reality of our barrenness outside of Him. Its simply all about Him. We were created by him, for him. Don't read these words and allow the language to assign meaning alone. Pursue the Risen Lord on his Glorious Throne. Source in him, abandon all to him and walk in that simplicity.
Gary Ward
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