A few weeks back, I shared my excitement about a new book, Religions Saves, and Nine Other Misconceptions.

I wrote a few posts since then, talking about individual chapters (1 and 2), but today I’m excited to be on the official blog tour. So, here’s my overall review of the book (and please forgive me if any of this seems repetitive to you):

What do birth control, humor, calvinism, grace, sex, faith and works, dating, the emergent church, and the regulative principle have in common?

Well, ask pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church to write a chapter on each topic, put them together, and you’ve got Religion Saves, and Nine Other Misconceptions.

So, the first question that comes to your mind is probably along the lines of, “Why would anyone put those topics together in a book?”

Good question! And there actually is a reasonable answer!

The book is based on a really neat idea: pastor Mark explains in the introduction that upon reading through the book of 1 Corinthians, he noticed that a significant purpose of the letter is to address questions from the church in Corinth. And the more he thought about it, the more intrigued he was by the idea of preaching a series of sermons that are answers to common questions from people today — questions specific to our time and culture. So, last year, Mars Hill opened up a portion of their website for a forum called ‘Ask Anything‘. Over a series of voting cycles, people all over the world were allowed to post questions: any questions. These were then widdled down to the 9 most popular questions through a voting process. In the end, 893 questions were asked, 5,524 comments were made, and 343,203 votes were cast, and the following topics emerged, in order:

1. The Regulative Principle
2. The Emerging/Emergent Church
3. Dating
4. Faith vs. Works
5. Sexual Sin
6. Grace
7. Predestination/Election/Calvinism
8. Humor
9. Birth Control

Pastor Mark preached a sermon on each one in a series by the same name as this book. You can download the video and/or audio of each of these for free here. This book is basically another form of responding to those questions, with a chapter devoted to each one.

The first thing you notice when you pick up the book is the excellent design. It’s a sturdy hard-copy with a knurled texture containing an intriguing graphic of a family walking out of a typical-looking church building… and they appear to be on fire. Part of the flame is the provocative title of the book: Religion Saves. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the message of the book.

I think pastor Mark does a great job explaining the title (from the introduction of the book):

Before we proceed, the title “Religion Saves” merits a bit of explanation. The one thread that weaves this book together is religion; many of the questions that made the top nine are highly religious in nature. Religious people are prone to go beyond the teaching of the Bible to argue for positions that are not clearly taught in Scripture. They are further prone to go beyond the biblical principles on these issues and seek to impose their method on others, as if they alone are truly biblical. Religious people tend to have very strong and vocal opinions about the issues we will examine. In fact, religious people were often the most devoted voters for the questions that comprised the “Religion Saves” sermon series and this book.

…

Religious people mistakenly think that they are saving people from such things as a fruitless life, sinful sex, bad relationships, unholy humor, wayward churches, evil birth control, and what they call “strange fire.” However, religion never saved anyone, and religious answers to complex questions are simply misconceptions, which is why I have titled this book, “Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions.”

So as you can see, the purpose of this book is not directed so much at non-believers as at the most religious of believers. This book isn’t so much an apologetic or a call to holier living as it is a call to repentance from our righteousness.

Having read the book, and listened to each of the sermons upon which it is based, I wholeheartedly recommend it for the following reasons (in no particular order):

• Pastor Mark does a great job of thoroughly covering each topic. He doesn’t write a few pages telling you what you already knew. Each chapter is in the ballpark of about 30 pages, and I learned from each one, even though I had already studied each of these topics. I even passed the book on to my dad to help him with some questions he had on the topic of election. I couldn’t think of a better resource to introduce the topic, explain each side, and then make a case for the most Biblical one!
• Pastor Mark shows his cards. An apologetic book or a text book would likely present each angle of a particular topic, and then leave you to take the facts and decide what to do with them. Pastor Mark goes one step further and tries to make a case for his own view on each topic, yet is simultaneously careful not to overstate things. I would challenge a non-christian who thinks that Christianity is too close-minded or old-fashioned to read this book. I’ll bet it would challenge a lot of your incorrect stereotypes. I would also challenge the most fundamentalist, self-righteous of ‘christians’ to read this book. I’ll bet you will be challenged about what convictions you’re holding in a closed hand that belong in an open one.
• It’s a great combination of topics. The odd combination makes it a great read because the gears shift significantly every chapter. But possibly more importantly, the topics emerge from questions submitted by people in our day and age, and are incredibly relevant to our time and culture. In particular, I think that birth control and humor are two topics that are discussed far too infrequently in the modern church, and it leaves a lot of young folks with questions that they are afraid to ask.
• The thread that ties the whole book together is crucial to the Church in our time. Though the topics seem unrelated, the theme of each chapter is a call to repentance (from self-righteousness if we think we’re doing good by Biblical standards, or from rebellion if we choose to reject the Biblical standards) and to turn our eyes to Jesus. I think Mark does a fantastic job of making clear the idea that St. Augustine expressed when he said that “[the christian life] is one of continual, active repentance.“

To be fair, the book isn’t perfect. After all, an imperfect human is the author, and noone toes the line more closely than Mark Driscoll. Sometimes, he distracts from his point in the interest of humor, and sometimes he even made me wince a little bit at the length he was willing to go to be funny or make a point. Nevertheless, compared to his previous two major books, Vintage Jesus – where he pretty clearly crossed the line several times, going too far to make the book humorous – and Death By Love – which was extremely serious and almost completely lacked humor in the interest of making a very clearly explaining the cross of Christ – I think he found a good balance of humor, intrigue, and weight.

But the good far outweighs the bad, and Religion Saves is a book that I’m glad I read. I am such a prideful individual, and repentance is so unnatural for me. Unfortunately, it’s also uncommon in the modern church, and I am thankful for the clear and consistent message bringing it to the forefront of my mind that I found in Religion Saves.

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/08/01/religion-saves-driscoll-book-review/feed/ 0 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/07/religion-saves-humor-mark-driscoll/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/07/religion-saves-humor-mark-driscoll/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:14:09 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=3671 I had a great time hearing all your thoughts on the birth control discussion last week!

Now it’s time to move on to chapter 2 of Religion Saves – And Nine Other Misconceptions.

In this chapter, pastor Mark Driscoll tackles the 8th most popular question:

Why do you make jokes about Mormon missionaries, homosexuals, trench coat wearers, single men, vegans, and emo kids, and then expect these groups of people to come to know God through those sermons?

Just like last time, I’ll write up a bit on the chapter, but before I do, I want to ask you:

When you think of the Bible, do you think of humor? Why or why not?

What is your favorite example of humor in the Bible?

Ready? Go…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32UvLWH1pg

Next weekend, I’ll be in Durham with some of my favorite Bible teachers in the world.

I can’t wait!

There’s still room to sign up if you want to join me: www.Advance09.com

I highly commend it to anyone who considers themself — or desires to be — a ‘leader’ of any kind of ministry.

She checked the chapel schedule at Southeastern and noticed that Mark Driscoll, one of my favorite Bible teachers, would be teaching yesterday.

Several weeks ago, she told me to ask for a half-day today, but wouldn’t tell me why.

Yesterday morning, while Josiah and his grandma were having fun, we went to hear him give a sermon he called, “9 Distinctions Between the Gospel and Religion”.

It rocked.

One of those messages where even though I probably could have spat out all the ideas, just hearing remembering the Truth of the Gospel was still really energizing and good for my perspective!

You can download it for free from the Southeaster Chapel website here.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

The last teaching in the series is called, “Kingdom: God Reigns“. In it, pastor Mark Driscoll teaches the entire book of Revelation in about an hour and 20 minutes.

On my way to work this morning, I listened to this teaching

…for the fourth time.

It’s that good

That powerful

That important

Check it out. You can listen to it or watch it for free on the Mars Hill website.

Lemme know what you think…

First, people are longing for a savior who will atone for their sins. In this election, people thirst for a savior who will atone for their economic sins of buying things they did not need with money they did not have. The result is a mountain of credit debt they cannot pay and a desperate yearning that somehow a new president will save them from economic hell.

Second, people are longing for a king who will keep them safe from terror in his kingdom…

And I ask myself, “Why, Zack?”

And then I realize, “Oh yeah. It’s cause I haven’t posted anything in like a week!”

So, for both of you who still care to know what’s happening in this red-headed world, here’s a quick catch-up post:

The job is going well. I really enjoy being back in the java world, and I like the vibe at my new office *much* better.

The main downer about my new job is that I have like 1% downtime. I used to have lots of small increments of time to kill while waiting for different things to happen, but no more. This is why you won’t see this blog updated very often for a while, or your emails returned quite as promptly. I say, ‘for a while’, because I’ll eventually be working in Raleigh and the I won’t have 2 1/2 hours a day of driving tacked on to my day.

Which brings me to my next observation: starbucks needs to hire me as a consultant. “Why?”, you ask. Because in my 78-mile drive, I pass 3 Cracker Barrels, 2 state rest stops, 3 Sheets gas stations, 2 malls, at least 2 counties, but NOT ONE Starbucks. Well, in fairness, I do pass two Barnes and Nobles, which have mini-starbucks inside, but they don’t open until like 9:00 am, which is way too late for me.

To further compound my frustration on this matter, I have discovered that there are *three* Starbucks within a couple of miles from each other on the road where I work, but they’re all way out of the way.

Why doesn’t the world revolve around me?

OK. I’m done being silly…

Steph and I had a great time camping this weekend. There are photos and videos from that trip coming soon.

And in the meantime, I have heard three of the best sermons in my whole life recently. Two are from the Doctrine series by Mark Driscoll. Teaching 12 on stewardship and teaching 13 on the Kingdom of Jesus are worth listening to a few times. They get me downright excited!

And the past several teachings by Francis Chan are also very good. The one called ‘Holiness’ from a couple of weeks ago is especially ‘Punch you in the face’ awesome.

Ok. More rational posting to come in the future…

That’s what Mark Driscoll and the crew at Mars Hill are calling the new sermon series.

These are the responses to the top ten questions from the ‘Ask Anything’ survey (I asked these two questions), where everybody in the world had three months to ask and vote on questions that they would like Driscoll to preach on.

Part one is provocatively titled “Is Birth Control a Sin?” (audio here) (video here)

This is an exciting question for me, because Steph and I have spent a lot of time talking through this.

I’m about to give it a listen!

‘Hero’ is a powerful word to me. But man, Mark Driscoll is seriously on track…

Check this out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdMAGxVrulA

For anyone visiting, this is my response to the discussion from a previous post. Read the comments there, and the title will make sense too…

So, first, I’m sure this response will be fairly long. So wait ’till you have 10 minutes to read it.

Second, I am LOVING this discussion. I really, really don’t see it as a couple of cocky 20-something theologians arguing about something they don’t understand amounting to morons… This is an amazingly important discussion right now, especially in light of the world we live in. The so called ‘prosperity gospel’ is more popular than ever. A couple days ago, Steph and I were in the gym, and there was a special on the morning news about how a US senator is trying to audit the 6 main ‘prosperity’ teachers to figure out how they spend their money. It pointed out how Creflo Dollar has TWO Rolls Royces, Joyce Meyer bought a $23,000 toilet bowl, and an $18,000 kitchen table, etc… It made christianity look like a bunch of crap. Half of me wanted to cry, and the other half wanted to throw up.

And the whole emerging/emergent ‘conversation’ is incredibly relevant. You have a movement of people who are asking really good questions, but mingled in there are some really unorthodox suggestions. And one of the key questions is ‘what is heaven all about?’. I heard an interview with Doug Pagitt a couple weeks ago where he very clearly argued that heaven is not a place where you go. He said maybe it’s a state of consciousness, maybe it’s something that gets established here on earth… but he was adamant that you can’t think of it as a place (I’ll send the link to the interview if you’re interested, but it was a terrible interview. The host was just a jerk. He made me ashamed to agree with him, and made Doug look pretty smart)

And that leads to the third reason why this is a good conversation to have: Mark Driscoll jokes a lot about geeks with blogs who live with their parents and just criticize everything all day. And it’s funny, but it’s true, and very serious if you ask me.

I love to read blogs and listen to sermons. Probably listen to 15 or so sermons a week. I listen to Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Stephen Furtick, JD Greear… a list that includes a wide range of folks. And I read a lot of pastor’s blogs and seminary students’ blogs… and I’d say at least 50% of what people write about is criticizing other BELIEVERS. We — the Church — paint a picture to the world around us that we can’t even agree about what we believe, and that we’re really not so interested in building the Kingdom as we are in building our portion of the Kingdom bigger than our neighbor’s. I sincerely believe that the vast majority of pastors in America are going to get to heaven and realize that most of their life’s labor did not store up any treasure in heaven because their heart’s motives were mostly prideful… and this makes sense to me because I am the chief of sinners.

And yet this is a double-edged sword, because even right now, by identifying this issue, I am somewhat of a hypocrite, because now I’m drawing negative attention to the Church.

So, all that to say, this is a great conversation to have, and I am excited about it.

So much so, that I think I’ve decided to break this down into chunks, so as not to deter anyone from reading along. So here’s part one. Hopefully part two won’t be long coming…

In the meantime, point your friends this way… let’s have some fun!