In recent months, one podcast that has been the talk among Christians has been "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill," which is published by Christianity Today. This podcast looks at how the church formally known as Mars Hill began and what caused it to be non-existent. Most of the episodes deals with the former pastor of that church, Mark Driscoll, who has been a controversial figure in the evangelical world.
I have to admit, I did not want to listen to this podcast at first because of certain reviews I have read and heard regarding the content. So about a few weeks ago, I started listening to the podcast. I have to say the first few episodes were put together really well. It was almost like watching a documentary series on TV without the pictures. However, after the first episode, I began to wonder what is the agenda of Christianity Today making this podcast.
As I continued listening more and more of what I heard backed up a lot of the critics of this podcast. First, it attacks complementarianism. Complementarianism, simply put, is the belief that men and women have been created by God equally yet have different roles in different areas of live. One example would be church leadership. Complementarians believe that men and women can be used by God in ministry, however, church leadership, such as a pastor of a church, as directed from Scripture, is for men only.
The second thing that is made clear about this podcast is the lack of clarity from the Bible. I cannot recall anyone being interviewed, nor from the narrator of the podcast, Mike Cosper, quoting Scripture to rebuke anything Mars Hill did. If there was any Scripture references, it most likely from a sermon by Driscoll himself. We all have opinions why a church failed or succeeded, but we should always look to the Bible as it pertains to what God expects out of His church. It seems a lot of the interviews was more philosophical than Biblical.
Finally, some of the episodes have nothing to do with Mars Hill. Up to this point, the episode I have finished listening to "I Kissed Christianity Goodbye." This episode deals with Joshua Harris's deconstruction story as he walked away from the Christian faith and admits that his book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, has hurt a lot of people as they tried to apply it to their lives. Harris has requested the book to be not longer in print by the publisher, which they granted his request. As I was listening to Harris's story, one question came to my mind: what does Joshua Harris's deconstruction story have to do with Mars Hill? Absolutely nothing. I do not even recall Mars Hill or Mark Driscoll even being mentioned in that episode.
As I write this, there are three more episodes that I have yet to listen to, which I plan on shortly. I am sure most of the concerns of this podcast will continue as it comes to a close in the near future. I am sure many of you are wondering if this is a podcast that I should be listening to. That is your choice, but, if you choose to do so, I invite you to listen with an open Bible and a discerning heart, which we all should be doing with any podcast we listen to no matter the content. We should always have our Bible opened when listening to a sermon or a podcast so we can examine the Scriptures for ourselves. We also must practice discernment because the people on this podcast speak really well, but, regardless of who is preaching or speaking, we must be alert.
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