Seattle pastor says no question off-limits

EDITOR’S NOTE: Staff writer Clint Cooper recently spoke to Mark Driscoll, 37, the pastor of 7,000-member Mars Hill Church in Seattle who can count nearly 4,000 friends on Facebook. He solicits text-message questions for an afterservice session and has podcast sermons consistently ranked No. 1 on iTunes for religion and spirituality. The Seattle native, whose style is described as theologically conservative and culturally liberal, is also co-author of the new book “Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions.” The book, published by Crossway Books, is available at local bookstores.

Q. Why are people afraid to ask pastors what they really want to know?

A. Sometimes if you ask a pastor a personal question about your life, I think you’re kind of worried about what he’ll think about you or maybe what others will a think about you. I think most people feel pretty comfortable sitting down personally with their pastor and asking a private question, but usually when it comes to being in a church service or the whole church knowing, I think there’s a reticence to have other people know maybe what you’re struggling with or what you’ve done.

Q. Do pastors shy away from preaching on touchy subjects that may relate to the spiritual journey of their members?

A. Yeah, I think they do, and I think in our culture that’s particularly true with sexuality. Some pastors don’t want to be offensive. Some pastors know that particular subjects are really controversial. I think they may have a little cowardice when it comes to addressing them. I think others have personal issues in their own life where there’s sin or immaturity (and) they don’t want to talk about those issues because they themselves aren’t in a place where they feel exemplary.

Q. What is the question you get most often?

A. On the spiritual side, a lot of them struggle with sort of the basic questions of “Is the Bible trustworthy?” “Is Jesus the only God?” “Is there really a hell?” — the more common theological questions that come up all the time. I think the one that is probably the most common is, “Is Jesus the only God? Are there other gods? Is there a possibility of other gods being in addition to Jesus?”

Q. What is the answer that surprises most people?

A. For Christians, I think it is the humanity of Jesus, that he remained God but he was fully human. He really was tempted. He didn’t walk around like he does in the movies with a halo around him or an aura. He really was a human being. He went to the bathroom. He got the flu. To even say that Jesus went to the bathroom, a lot of Christians are freaked out by that. For non-Christians that he never sinned, I think, is the big one.

Q. Can popular culture help us understand a man who lived 2,000 years ago?

A. What’s amazing is that Jesus is incredibly popular — a hot subject — in pop culture. And so lots of people are talking about Jesus, singing about Jesus, writing about Jesus, but don’t know him and don’t even claim to know him or be Christians. And so to me if there is such a great interest in Jesus, then it’s the job of Christians to also weigh in on the discussion and talk about what the Bible says.

Q. Is it possible for an increasingly secular society to relate to a man who lived 2,000 years ago?

A. Yeah, I think so. I think Jesus being God is timeless, and as a result of being timeless he’s always timely. And the fact that there are a few billion people on Earth today who worship him as God indicates that he’s more relevant than ever. You know, I’m not sure society is more secular. I think it’s more honest. The recent Pew studies indicate that, for example, fewer people claim to be Christian. I’m not sure that’s entirely a bad thing. There may have been previous generations where people claimed to be Christians but really didn’t know Jesus and really didn’t live as Christians. I would say that maybe what we have today is not fewer Christians but less hypocrisy. Maybe those who are Christians say “I am” and those who are not say “I’m not,” and there’s not pressure culturally to be a Christian or to live as a Christian, so people don’t feel they need to lie or fake it any more. They can just say they are not.

Q. Must the church of today adapt or face elimination?

A. My view is always that Christians need to live as missionaries. And that’s whatever culture they are in. And, sadly, a missionary has been seen in America as sending Americans to other countries, but as our culture becomes more multicultural, more pluralistic, more non-Christian, we need to act as missionaries in own culture. So if you’re going to be a missionary in a culture, you learn the language, you wear the clothes, you eat the food, you participate in the holidays and the social events. You act like a member of the society, and you get to know the society, and you introduce Jesus to the people who are there. For me, any church that doesn’t think like a missionary, act like a missionary, becomes very irrelevant very fast and may die. Too many churches exist for the people that are already there rather than the people who aren’t.