Mark Driscoll and the 900: Toughness and Manliness in Gospel Ministry

Those of you who want a high-viscosity challenge in the realm of Christian ministry should check out Mark Driscoll’s call for 900 men:

“We are deadly serious about the great commission and loading all guns to storm hell with the gospel of grace. And we need more men. Nine hundred men. Not boys—men. Real men. Men who care less about padding their resume and getting their vacation days than about seeing lives transformed and legacies altered for generations. We need men who love their wives, pastor their children, submit to Scripture, bleed the gospel, and have steel in their spine, love in their hearts, and the lost in their sights.

Most of the guys reading this likely do not have the calling, courage, conviction, compassion, compulsion, or character to qualify as a church planter or campus pastor. But if you think you have the stuff, by God’s grace, to plant a church for Acts 29 or launch a campus for Mars Hill, we invite you to join us in Seattle on March 9–10. I don’t care if you are sixteen or sixty-one years of age. If you have gas in your tank and a calling in your life, show up for training, networking, and possibly even assessing, if you qualify.”

There is a really good and needed element in this call, that of the connection between ministry and toughness.  Our movement is too influenced by weak-hearted spirituality, in which an overactive meekness swallows God-given energy and aggression. 

It is not a bad thing to be aggressive for the gospel, it is a good thing. 

We need to be aggressive and assertive while praying, thinking, and working through the Scripture.  All that must be in place.  When it is, we should work with strength and force to do something significant for God.  Thinking specifically of future pastors, too many men worry too much about their carefully cultivated peaceful mindset, their social calendar, and their free time.  Too few give themselves wholly and sacrificially for the good of their families, their churches, and their God.

Whether or not you agree with every point of Driscoll’s ecclesiology and theology, it’s hard not to appreciate his bold and courageous stance in a fallen world.  I, for one, am hoping that he gets his 900.