What makes a church?

I used to have these wild ideas about what the word “church” entails, but am starting to find out a lot of my ideas were unbiblical. One pastor who has modeled a church that I would love to visit one day is Mark Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. (Yes, this is the “Mark the Cussing Pastor” Don Miller writes about.) I listen to his sermon podcasts every week as he unapologetically describes who Jesus is - both the loving, grace-dishin’ Jesus as well as the less popular King Jesus, tattooed, sword-tongued, and ready to tell each one of us, “Well done, good and faithful servant” or “I never knew you.” Oddly enough, Mark has proved you don’t need to sugar coat Jesus for a church to grow. Maybe just a little humor and an occasional cuss word, but Jesus is enough.

I started reading Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church, Mark’s book about Mars Hill. It’s definitely aimed at church planters and pastors, but thought I’d read it anyway. Since I’ve listened to his sermons as well as his 2-hr lecture on church planting from a Resurgence meeting, I’ve heard a lot of what he’s written already. I did want to share this since I have been guilty of this view before:

Over the years, I have become increasingly troubled by the frequency with which young pastors simply dismiss the New Testament teaching on church leadership and discipline, so that if four guys are drinking beer in a pub, they can call it a church. One well-known expert promoting this new undefined, undisciplined, and unbiblical ecclesiology was once asked how we can possibly define what a church is if his advice of not having elders, deacons, members, discipline, or doctrine was heeded. His reponse was simply, “If it smells like a church, it is a church.” My response was that sometimes a whore wears the same perfume as a wife, and it’s no different with the bride of Christ.

So, if you want to hit up some no frills teaching, suscribe to the Mars Hill podcast or vodcast (video sermons). Not for the faint of heart, but shoo, Jesus isn’t really either.