My friend Mike Bull summarizes my present sentiments on the Driscoll announcement:
Regarding Driscoll himself, he might go off the tracks with a passion, but he gets back on them just as passionately. It seems to me most people fail to realize that his obvious weaknesses are the flipside of his obvious strengths. In other words, he has a spine, and he’s passionate, things which many of his Christian critics will never understand. God has done more through this flawed man than He could ever do with the armies of cowardly pastors who hide in their churches, never take any risks for the sake of the Gospel, and are not willing to be bold for the sake of the truth. And I’m not talking about sizes of churches here. There are many courageous men who have small churches. But there are many cowards who do nothing but hide and criticize.
Driscoll has stumbled numerous times but he just keeps getting back up again. God asked Adam what he did wrong and he blamed everyone else. So did King Saul. Driscoll is taking the blame, and it disempowers the devil every time. His critics really ought to start reading the Bible. The narrative concerning King David might be good start. Driscoll is a real man of God, like David, and he has the faults and the faith to prove it.
Driscoll is a non-confessional, soteriologically-Calvinist, non-Reformed, Charismatic, Christian pastor who claims to have visions of his congregant’s sexual misdeeds. He has stolen portions of other’s written work and claimed it as his own, and profiting in the process. When confronted, he denied it. Now, Driscoll has been found to be using offerings to fund a campaign to increase sales of a book, the proceeds of which go to him. Now he’s repenting (of which scandal, exactly?) and yet because he is not bound by a confession, he is beholden to no one.
Yet Bull writes: “God has done more through this flawed man than He could ever do with the armies of cowardly pastors who hide in their church”
I for one would gladly take a Confessional, Reformed, Sola Scriptura-holding pastor who limited his focus to the duties and responsibilities of an elder in the church of God. Call him “cowardly” if you will, but I believe he’s doing what God has commanded in Scripture, and will never need to repent of it. My pastor does not “hide” in my church, but he boldly proclaims the Gospel of Christ and feeds the sheep of his local congregation, as a shepherd should.
I don’t think we need to separate the two, Micah. And I don’t think Bull was condemning faithful pastors like yours.