LayGuy

My highly anticipated event at the Sydney Entertainment Centre has come and gone.  Mark Driscoll’s “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” event was a sellout with 10,000 people treated to typical “Driscollonian” brilliance.

To say that he was funny is the understatement of the year.  He had the crowd in tears on several occasions with his take on Australian, and particularly Sydney, culture.  Curiously I did see some people walk out early in the piece – most probably thinking that Driscoll was all comedy and no substance.  Their loss!

And as you can see from the photo, I did get to shake the man’s hand after the event as he stayed back and had a chat and prayer with anyone keen to meet up with him.  I’m the tall guy on the left and my mate and Pastor is on the right.  When we told him we drove up from Melbourne, he was blown away by how far we’d driven – he has done his homework on Australia!

Not since Billy Graham back in 1975 have 10,000 people packed the arena to talk about Jesus!  Driscoll has been likened by some to be the modern day Spurgeon and now he seems to be on par on what Billy G was able to achieve!

But instead of elevating him to superstar status and worship him as an idol (and heaven knows how hard some can fall – check out this story on Mike Guglielmuci), I simply take my hat off to a guy sold out on the message of Jesus and the advancement of His Kingdom.

I’ve been listening to Driscoll for 2 years to the day of the event and have seen him grow in maturity,  influence and impact as he follows his calling as founding Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  Additionally his work in the church planting movement Acts29 and ministry in The Resurgence and various high profile connections with some of the leading theologians of our time, has elevated Driscoll to monumental “influential” status in Christianity and indeed the world – being recently included in Seattle’s Top 25 most influential people (and this in the city of Microsoft, Starbucks and Kurt Cobain!)

But push all that stuff aside and you have a guy sold out to his hero – Jesus Christ.  The “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” event was designed to destroy the false views of Jesus held by Sydneysiders (a bunch of Australians inferior to Melbournians) and to replace it with a biblically accurate rendition of what Jesus said and did.

Thanks to Dave Miers, here are the 7 plastic Jesus perceptions Driscoll addressed:

1. Religious Jesus
2. Bling Jesus
3. Moral Jesus
4. Aussie Jesus
5. Country Jesus
6. Spiritual Jesus
7. Pensioner Card Jesus

It’s my personal opinion that Driscoll held back on his assessment on many of these areas – in particular the Bling Jesus – which stands for “prosperity gospel.” He did mention that Sydney has a likening to “Bling Jesus” in particular referring to a 11% increase in “Bling Jesus” denominations.  Anyone who knows Driscoll knows that he can’t stand the “prosperity gospel” and undoubtedly he was referring to Hillsong and like minded denominations.  But as a guest to our shores – he held back.  Which was kind of strange for him.

But his pictures of the various “jesus” stereotypes and his explanations had everyone laughing – except for those who held onto these views.  I was blown away at how much he understood our culture as he went through these stereotypes.

He then took a few mobile phone Q & A’s before nailing what Jesus said and did.  In particular, he addressed the following areas:

1. Jesus said he came down from heaven (John 6)
2. Jesus performed miracles
3. Jesus said he was God (Mark 14:61-64 + John 10:30-35)
4. Jesus said he was without sin (John 8:46)
5. Jesus forgave sin (Mark 2)
6. Jesus is the way, truth and life and no-one comes to the Father but through him (John 14:6)

These are taken out of his book Vintage Jesus and in his explanations, he trashed the plastic views.  Personally I felt as if he rushed this area a little and would have loved to see him rip into the Revelation 19 rendition on the reality of our Glorified King – as was printed on our booklets. His teaching in this area is some of the best bible teaching I have ever heard!

But by this stage, he had been talking for a good 1.5 hours and to an unaccustomed crowd to long teaching, this may have been a little tiring.  Additionally like a good guest, I think Driscoll didn’t want to come across too strong in his views as this was his first visit here.

Having a chat with him after the event, he mentioned that he plans to hold an Acts29 bootcamp in 16-18 months time and is meeting up with John Piper and Matt Chandler next month to convince them to come down for the event.  Now that would be cool indeed!

Overall an awesome night!  Jesus was glorified, Driscoll was funny and the venue was packed!  Check out the five minute clip below of some of his teaching including a dig on the Bryon Bay dopers!  Like I said, in his 3 weeks here, he nailed our culture to the bone!  Truly a missional mindset!