Watch Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey and vice president of Acts 29, interview leading missiologist and friend of the Resurgence Ed Stetzer in the video below:

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Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

Masculinity Reclaimed Series: Click | View Series

Corporate Worship

Is it possible for men to come into a Sunday worship service and reflect: "Now this is a masculine environment?" I reckon it is, but you have to be intentional to get there. Some of our songs lend themselves to a masculine response, and they should be chosen over others. I'm talking about songs full of objective truth that help guys know what they're singing about.

As for songs that subjectively express our love or our longing for Jesus, well they are entirely biblical. Just beware of unbalance. A normal masculine man is going to be troubled by his first visit to church (even if he got saved at Alpha), if it consists of standing to sing for 40 minutes to an ancient Jew words he would find awkward writing in a card to his girlfriend! You know the songs I mean.

And as a rule, maybe your worship leaders (if they are guys) should be the sorts who remind you of Johnny Cash rather than Art Garfunkel!

Community

Community is an increasingly trendy theme in much western culture, and good thing too, as it's biblical. But again, we need to constantly rescue it from pagan (and often effeminate) distortions. Without essential Bible concepts such as accountability, protection, discipline, and leadership, the concept becomes soupy enough to mean whatever you want it to. And this, again, is what leaves men unreached.

The images we tend to celebrate when considering community (certainly in western culture) are family (which also means a lot of things), belonging, compassion, care, and thoughtfulness. Obviously, these are noble and biblical ideas. But on their own, they create an unbalanced environment, and they will not appeal to guys who see other values in community, such as order, camaraderie, mission, teamwork, and brotherhood.

This came home to me forcefully in a meeting where someone had brought up the need for people to find a place in God's family. There was nothing erroneous said, but it left me concerned for any visiting blokes whose preconceptions of sentimental church were now confirmed. Before getting up to preach I was thinking, "Guys hear ‘family' as such a weak and syrupy word," and I felt God say to me, "Not if they have just watched The Godfather."

When we talk about family, community, and being a people, do we leave out the bits about protecting each other (especially the weak), snatching each other from sin, or speaking the plain truth in love? These and many other biblical expressions of community must come back into our language and practice if we want any hope winning a world of men.

Guys don't want to be in a "caring community," but in a "band of brothers." This never fails to bring the best out of them. Max Hastings, in his book about D-Day, states that allied soldiers who survived never recovered the sense of belonging to a fighting force. Their existence really meant something in Normandy. Many felt they were alive for the first time and after the war, craved a return to it despite the danger, never feeling part of a cause again.

Well, I have a cause.

Total Church:

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis make the case for reinforcing and strengthening churches with particular emphasis on the gospel and community. Find out more.

The past month has been very busy and people have had a lot of questions about various projects so here is the update:

Religion Saves On Shelves Now

My newest book is out on shelves now. Entitled Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions, the book is based on the sermon series that I preached at the beginning of 2008. The series was inspired by 1 Corinthians, in which Paul responds to a series of questions from people in the Corinthian church. I decided to do something similar by preaching a series answering the big questions and issues in our own day, so we tried an experiment. We opened up our website for people to post any question, make comments about posted questions, and vote for their favorite questions. In the end, 893 questions were asked, 5,524 comments were made, and 343,203 votes were cast. I answered the top nine questions in the sermon series, and the book Religion Saves expands on the sermon series. You can read a sample chapter from the book, watch the sermons, and buy the book at ReLit.org/religionsaves .

I Finished Writing Doctrine

Last week, after much work and many late nights, I finally turned in the manuscript for the book Doctrine to Crossway. It was a mammoth undertaking, weighing in at 135,000 words and nearly 2000 footnotes, and my friend Gerry Breshears and I have been living like it’s finals week for over a month to get this book finished. The book is basically a systematic theology, and it’s based on the Doctrine series of sermons I preached in the spring of 2008, which we use as our membership class at Mars Hill. The book will hit shelves sometime around the end of the year or the beginning of next year and follows the storyline of the Bible.

The Hour of Power

On Sunday, June 14, I preached two sermons at the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California. The trip went well. I paid my own travel expenses and preached without an honorarium as a way to ensure I was just serving Jesus. Everyone was super kind and allowed me to preach Jesus without edits. The sermons will be broadcast to 12 million people nationwide on the “Hour of Power” TV show, so please pray that people meet Jesus. They don’t have a firm date yet for when the show will be broadcast, but we’ll let you know on the Resurgence and on my Facebook and Twitter , so keep checking back. My first sermon was on Jesus’ claims to be God, and the second was a brutal tour of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in our place for our sins.

Free Gift for Dads: Pastor Dad

For Father’s Day, I released a short book on fatherhood called Pastor Dad, which is adapted from an eighty-one-minute sermon I preached in 2001, and includes a few stories about the Fantastic Five—the Driscoll kids. This book is a simple attempt to help God’s men be a “poppa daddy,” as my kids call me. Pastor Dad is available free online at ReLit.org/pastordad .

After some final trips to preach at the Advance Conference in Raleigh and also the annual Acts 29 retreat in Vail, Colorado, I am working a normal schedule, enjoying having the kids home for the summer, and looking forward to our trip to Israel next month.

The latest and greatest free Resurgence wallpapers are now available. Enjoy!

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Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and purchase the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.

Great Books Series: Click | View Series

Apologetics Introductions

• Frame, John M. Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction
• Geisler, Norman L. Christian Apologetics
• Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity
• McGrath, Alister E. Intellectuals Don't Need God and Other Modern Myths
• Moreland, J.P. Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity
• Sproul, R.C. Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics

Apologetics Methods

• Boa, Kenneth D., and Robert M. Bowman Jr. Faith Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity
• Cowan, Steven B., ed. Five Views on Apologetics
• Follis, Bryan A. Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer
• Sproul, R.C., John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsley. Classical Apologetics
• Van Til, Cornelius. Defense of the Faith

Athiesm

• Boa, Kenneth D., and Robert M. Bowman. Twenty Compelling Evidences That God Exists: Discover Why Believing in God Makes So Much Sense
• Geisler, Norman L., and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Athiest
• McGrath, Alister E. The Twilight of Athiesm: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World
• McGrath, Alister E., and Joanna Collicutt McGrath. The Dawkins Delusion? Athiest Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine
• Rhodes, Ron. Answering the Objections of Athiests, Agnostics, and Skeptics
• Zacharias, Ravi. Can Man Live Without God
• Zacherias, Ravi. The Real Face of Athiesm

The Bible

• Blomberg, Craig L. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
• Bruce, F.F. The Canon of Scripture
• Bruce, F.F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
• Cabal, Ted, ed. The Apologetics Study Bible
• Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas Howe. When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties
• Metzger, Bruce M., and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration
• Ridderbos, Herman. The Authority of the New Testament Scriptures

Vintage Jesus:

A theological journey chasing Jesus through Scripture and pop culture. Timeless answers to timely questions about the most important man who has ever lived. Find out more.

Masculinity Reclaimed Series: Click | View Series

I ended my last post with the following bold suggestion: we have created church environments that are effeminate-positively off-putting for most real guys. Let me look at a few ways in which we have allowed this state of affairs and then propose some moderate steps of improvement (though the real men will despise my moderation; here's hoping anyway).

Corporate Prayer

Do you have a church prayer meeting? Who comes? Are there lots of men? Would you go if you weren't the leader? Often these are attended by women (whose husbands "sent" them), a few faithful men, and a handful of "eccentrics." I am extremely glad for all the women attending our weekly prayer meetings, but I am haunted by Paul's words: "I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling." (1 Timothy 2:8)

A robust prayer meeting is a place to see true masculinity on display. If that seems unlikely go back and read Acts. In fact, I was so eager to aim for this that when it came to launching our Saturday morning prayer meeting a couple of years back, I started with just men. I wanted a manly meeting, so I handpicked some blokes to join me each week at eight o'clock in the morning-about 25 to start with.

For a while it grew unofficially under the radar, like a Gnostic cult (except the pastor was running it). I'd have guys in their twenties trembling and whispering the request, "I have heard about this prayer meeting. Do you, ahem, mind if I join?" I'd say, "Who told YOU about it?!" It felt like the movie Fight Club where the one rule is, "No one talks about Fight Club." Some called the meeting "Prayer Club!"

It was perfect: a testosterone-fuelled and Holy Spirit-filled set up for the weekend, and when we got the momentum we wanted, we knew we were ready to invite the whole church. Now, I am usually confident that guys will take a strong lead, praying for the gospel to be successful every week in our city (we barely ever get knocked off this focus). And if key guys are not vocal, they get mercilessly picked on afterwards!

Intentionally gather guys to seek God. They will rise to it, and the church will follow.

Preaching

Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was asked publicly why the churches of his day had so few young men in the pews. He instantly shot back, "Because there are so many old women in the pulpits." Preaching should either send men away angry or turn them in heartfelt repentance. The one thing it must not do, but too often does, is dull them.

Jesus gathered men by preaching straight, and so did Chrysostom, Luther, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody, and Billy Graham. If you want to reach men, follow their example and preach boldly. Men get nauseated by preachers who apologize for every point they make, sharing platitudes and leaving sinful get-out clauses for every application. My favourite encouragements come from guys who spend the first two-thirds of the sermon wanting to hurt me, and then come to repentance before the day is over. It means a great deal more than, "That was a nice talk."

Vintage Jesus:

A theological journey chasing Jesus through Scripture and pop culture. Timeless answers to timely questions about the most important man who has ever lived. Find out more.

In Light of the Ages Series: Click | View Series

Church, Shiny and New

The great monument to the Industrial Revolution church would happen when the generation born at the end of the Industrial Revolution, the Baby Boomers, would receive power and modify the remnants of the Agrarian Church. They turned it into a full, humming, efficient church factory—a campus, a massive movement capable of producing and programming disciples on a grand and standardized scale.

No longer would the factory necessarily be bleak and uncomfortable. No longer would working conditions be dim. The mall, the centralized center of consumption, and the factory, the massive center of production, would come together in the world of the church. This was now the standardized church with the fullness of creature comforts. It was the glory of the modern world.

That megachurch would become all that many have written about. It would adopt even the model and languages of its factory and business forefathers, where the church pastor would behave like a CEO and discipleship would be like assembly lines. They created linear processes.

This is not an effort to judge or condemn the mega- or attractional church. They are faithful to their calling. They incarnate. Others may spend time criticizing how well the experiment worked. The pastors of those churches may even write books recognizing their shortcomings. I simply note the history and point out to those inclined to condemn that there is no line of North American evangelical church history without them. There are no continuations, modifications, or reactions without their presence.

Revolution, Un-Revolutionized

The world had changed. The Industrial Revolution had brought with it precision and control. There was a top-to-bottom pyramid structure that would be, by its nature, successful everywhere it could touch, where its power could be diurnally felt. It would be this very strength that would be its undoing, as the world became electronic and limitless, and to have influence meant never even having to touch when things became high-tech.

That change would be a great shift, and just as the Industrial Revolution made those who were separated from their Agrarian forefathers very different, it was even more so with those who were born on the other side of the Information Age. They found a brave and new world, and with it new ways of incarnating church. These ways would ultimately invert the previous ways. Control would no longer be the virtue, but would become the very anchor that would not allow progress.

If the Industrial Revolution was about standardization, localization, and control, the Information Age was about to demand the exact opposite, and the church would need to understand how it would shift accordingly.

Trial Study Guide:

Get the companion study guide to Pastor Mark's latest sermon series in downloadable PDF form. Find out more.

Titus' Milestones to Maturity Series: Click | View Series

Here are some assists in burning hot and long with godly zeal:

• Time with Jesus. Spending time alone with Jesus results in a myriad of good things, including an impartation of his zeal. I come away from my times with God burning with his authority, love, and zeal. He is the ultimate stoker of zeal and in fact, without regular time with him we run the risk of developing zeal for the job, zeal without knowledge, or other equally dangerous counterfeits of the real zeal.
• Get hold of "the faith" for yourself. Paul says we are to each get our own grip on the faith (1 Timothy 3:9). Make sure you believe what you believe with a clear conscience, both about doctrine and the mission of your church.
• Allow hardship, setbacks, and suffering to develop your own conviction and zeal. Relentless zeal is produced through tough times. See them through, and the hardships will stoke the fires of zeal. Seasons of frustratingly slow church growth have always made me dig deep into God, purify my motives, and reaffirm my zeal for the advance of God's kingdom.
• Keep taking risks. Continuously stepping out of your comfort zone and staying on the faith-stretch keeps the adrenaline levels high, but more importantly, allows you to keep seeing God in action—feel the zeal, baby! So don't take your cloak or wallet with you; let God arise. The taking of risks is not much in vogue in our "health and safety" paranoid culture, and this is one of Satan's most cunning plans to castrate true leadership. Leadership presupposes forward motion, not just managing the status quo. Here's the math: no risk taking, no forward motion.
• Avoid dead works like the plague. Dead works are "doing the stuff" because we have to, and it is "what us Christians have to do." Yuk. These are works void of love and faith, and they will profit you nothing, others little, and are an offense to God. Also, you won't get any rewards for them! A pastor of another church attended Godfirst for six weeks to see what he could learn. At the end he said to me, "I have never seen such a generous and hardworking church, but in the last six weeks I haven't heard you tell anyone to do anything. How does that work?" I talked him through the difference between God-fueled living and dead-works-fueled living.
• Think on the cloud of witnesses. In preparation for a trip to the USA, I've been reading American history. I read about General Patton who, as a young soldier in World War I, was paralyzed with fear during a brutal skirmish with the enemy. Cowering behind cover, he got a vision of the long line of military ancestors watching him from above. Stirred by his heritage, he jumped to his feet and led the charge shouting at the top of his voice, "It is time for another Patton to die!" We are watched by a cloud of zealots (Hebrews 12); let's get out there and lead another charge!

Recommended Books:

A collection of fantastic reading material on various important topics, used and shared by Pastor Mark Driscoll. Find out more.

Spiritual Gifts Series: Click | View Series

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously... (Romans 12:6-8 NIV)

Spiritual Gift of Giving Defined

The gift of giving is the ability to give money and other forms of wealth joyfully, wisely, and generously to meet the needs of others and help support ministries.

People with the Gift of Giving

Regardless of the amount, people with this gift genuinely view their treasures, talents, and time as on loan from God and not their own. They are often moved to meet the physical needs of others. They enjoy giving of themselves and what they have. Even if they do not possess the resources to help, they earnestly pray for those needs to be met.

Giving in Scripture

Roughly 25 percent of Jesus' words in the Gospels are related to our resources and stewardship of them. Though he was poor, Jesus not only fed thousands (Mark 6:41) but also gave us his life as a gift (John 15:13). Elsewhere in the Bible, the widow (Mark 12:42-43), Tabitha (Acts 9:36), Barnabas (Acts 4:34-37), and the Macedonian church (2 Cor. 8:1-2) all had this gift.

Do You Have This Gift?

• Do you tend to see the needs of others more than other people do?
• Do you enjoy giving your time, talent, and treasure to others?
• Do you see giving to a worthwhile project as an exciting honor and privilege?
• Do you give to the church regularly, cheerfully, and sacrificially?
• Do you often hear people commenting that you are a generous person?
• Do you find yourself looking for opportunities to give your money—even when no one asks?

Pastor Mark:

Get the latest content from Mark Driscoll, the
preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church. See More.

The Confusing Language of "Calling" Series: Click | View Series

It is common Christian parlance to say, "I feel called to do so and so." What we're usually trying to communicate is that we feel God has given us a specific "missional" assignment in his kingdom. I wonder, however, if that language is misleading and harmful.

Why Wait on the Call?

Think of walking through your city one day and coming upon a small, handicapped child laying on the railroad tracks. The child cannot move, and you hear the sound of an oncoming train. Do you stop, get on your knees, and ask if it's God's will to pick up the child? If you don't get a clear sense of God's call, do you move on? Of course not. God's will is clear. Save the life.

I often think about this in regards to the question of whether or not we need to go overseas. Jesus made it clear that his will was for people of every nation to know the gospel. Why, then, are so many Christians waiting on a warm and fuzzy sensation—for God to spell out "Afghanistan" in their Cheerios—before they go? The call has been given. Go. If your talents can best serve God's kingdom by using them overseas, why would you wait on a call to do so?

So let me say it plainly: I don't think you need to be "called" to go overseas, any more than I think you need to be "called" to live missionally wherever you are. As a disciple, you must ask, "How can my talents best be used in God's worldwide mission?" If the answer is that you can be part of an overseas community-building, Jesus-preaching project, don't wait for a special calling. Pack your bags.

The Area of Greatest Need

Now I often hear the objection, "Why should we send people all over the world? Aren't there lost and needy people here?" Certainly, we should be committed to blessing our local communities and multiplying our churches here in America. But there are still many places in the world where there is no gospel witness at all, which is in direct violation of Jesus' command.

While one third of the world's unbelievers are Muslims, only half of one percent of all our resources (i.e. our people and our money) goes toward reaching Muslims for Christ. Does God prefer the Western world so much that it justifies such a lopsided allocation of resources?

I meet people who say, "If God calls me to go, I'll go." Perhaps the better posture is, "If God tells me to stay, I'll stay. Otherwise, I'll go." Over there is the area of greatest need. Every disciple of Jesus must consider what his role is in obedience to Jesus' command.

Resurgence Literature:

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.