How do you come up with so much material to blog with?…

Glad to have you stop by my little remote blog…and an Aussie, no less!

While I don’t quite share the same high regard it seems you have for Driscoll, and does make some good points, and male leadership is certainly one of them.

Great blog, LG!

OK, I’m sorry for the lame joke, but aren’t we Christians meant to score a little lower than that on the “rage-o-meter”…?

Now - On Topic - apart from the arrogance and harshness on *both* sides, I can see that you’re both coming from the same place - you both want to respect God and do life the way that he wants. Right? Shouldn’t that give us a bit of common ground to discuss this on? In an effort to further that, let me throw something out and see whether we can all agree on it -

What God’s Word says *is important*.

There, that’s it. What we think, what we feel and what we wish God said is not a very big deal when it’s measured up against what God says.

Can we agree on this? Before saying yes or no, this means that we need to be humble enough to listen to how eachother understands God’s Word, but bold enough to hear what God says and not argue with it. If God’s Word is plain and simple, it’s only rebellion and intellectual dishonesty that prompts us to not be. This means that we need to recognise that we can’t just fall back on “that’s your interpretation” - we should go all out and find out what the *meaning*, not just the interpretation, really is.

Anyway, that’s my $0.02. Take it or leave it, but this is an issue which is serious and affects the entire church (and the world). If we are to be God’s people, unified as he prayed, then we need to unify around devotion and obedience to our God.

– Nathan

First of all, although I respect Henry Judy’s comments about what he saw at the conference in regards to the distribution of the video, I’d be listening more to Driscoll’s take on the events as Driscoll is one of the founding Directors of Acts 29. He would be privy to heaps more information than Henry would ever be.

In your first point you say, “This is the convenient “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” crap that must constantly be challenged in every generation. You can interpret the Bible your way, and I’ll interpret the Bible my way.” This just exposes your proud heart and I have no respect for this kind of attitude. Although difficult at times, I aim to let Scripture have authority over my thinking and if God says so, I aim to let it be. If you have an issue with this, then I feel for you.

You said, “But in the process, can I suggest that we interpret using our brains and our hearts and not our male genitalia?” By this comment I suggest you don’t have any to speak of.

You said, “Maybe this guy is so freaking wrong about women in the church that it’s painfully obvious to so many of the rest of us — and we just have to speak up out of concern for the women who continue to be pushed aside and marginalized in our churches.” Now I start to seriously doubt your capacity to think straight. At no point does Driscoll hate or put down women. I wonder, have you ever heard his sermons? Gone to Mars Hill? Have you ever planted a Church and Pastored it to the point where Mars Hill is today?

Probably not and you have the lame mentality to criticize someone working his butt off for the Kingdom to the point of exhaustion. Like I said Steve, you are a bit of a wimp.

To help you read between the lines, Driscoll, nor I for that matter, are against the wonderful women in our churches. I agree that God has given many women talents and strengths many men would do well to listen to.

Many women I know are in leadership roles and good on them. What Driscoll talks about goes way beyond what you have such a hard time understanding. No wonder you bag him. You are too simple to understand.

I also have to challenge you to think again on a couple of other points (not that I expect you will, but here goes anyway):

1) “the ultimate earthly authority goes to the male cause that’s the way God intended it to be. If you have an issue with that, bring it up with God cause He said it to be so.” This is the convenient “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” crap that must constantly be challenged in every generation. You can interpret the Bible your way, and I’ll interpret the Bible my way. But in the process, can I suggest that we interpret using our brains and our hearts and not our male genitalia?

2) “Driscoll, you have my vote. You must be doing something right to have all the spectrum’s of criticism against you.” I really debated even posting anything about Driscoll because I anticipated that people like you would jump to this conclusion. I mean, look at ALL the persecution this guy is facing?! He’s challenged on every side! He must be “right”!?! I’m sorry but that is absolutely ridiculous reasoning. Maybe this guy is so freaking wrong about women in the church that it’s painfully obvious to so many of the rest of us — and we just have to speak up out of concern for the women who continue to be pushed aside and marginalized in our churches.

When ideology like this gets promoted, I truly believe God’s heart breaks — for his daughters who he’s gifted for leadership and teaching and for his Church which is missing out on their gifts.

Thanks for your comment. Appreciate any input from people who were there.

My comments about the video being pulled are directly from Driscoll’s Resurgence website and these are his words..

“Apparently the video was shown at the event, was well received by the attendees, and then criticized by Bill Hybels from the stage because it did not speak of women church planters. And, not wanting a bigger fuss, the organization hosting the event then made a decision not to hand out the video as they had promised, leaving the guys from our Acts 29 Church Planting Network who had hauled suitcases of the videos to Florida with thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of wasted effort.”

It seems as if there are conflicting reports about this. I wonder what the truth is?