My Interview with Mark Driscoll By Mike Corley

Click here to hear my INTERVIEW WITH MARK DRISCOLL, JUNE 7, 2007
I spent about 40 minutes talking with Mark Driscoll this week. My decision to interview Pastor Driscoll came about for a couple of reasons.
First, I am personally fascinated by the man and his ministry. Driscoll was very open in our discussion to say that he has totally disassociated himself from the Emergent Church and that in fact the leaders of that movement, in his words, “have nothing to do with me” theologically. My fascination stems from the fact that Mark and I are in agreement almost totally theologically, both of us upholding the reformed tradition. I will admit though, there are some areas involving methodology that still raises concerns for me.
Second, he has highly regarded by other men of God whom I respect greatly, such as John Piper, Mark Dever and C.J. Mahaney. Piper welcomed Driscoll to the most recent Desiring God conference; Mark Dever’s 9Marks website recently featured an article by Driscoll on narrative preaching, and I read recently where C.J. Mahaney visited Driscoll in Seattle and is very encouraging of their ministry there.
Thirdly, I did want to speak to the man myself and have the opportunity to ask him personally questions that I have been pondering since first learning of Driscoll and his ministry. While I am not endorsing the EC concept of “conversation” just for the sake of conversing, I did think it was a positive to establish a line of communication there.
As I said before and after the radio interview, there will be some who think I was too soft on Mark Driscoll, and there will be some who think I was to hard on him. Mark is a big boy and can obviously had either. But I personally found him to be very open and willing to admit his faults, failures and dependence on the Lord. Do I agree with everything he says or the ways he says it? No. But I am not as quick to rush to judgment in regards to the ministry of Mark Driscoll as I was before. Quite frankly I want to know and see more.
That is why I have requested the opportunity to travel to Seattle and visit Mars Hill myself and see first-hand what goes on there through the ministry of Mark Driscoll. I have also asked for such an opportunity at The Journey in St. Louis, Missouri. I want to go to these locations, see whats going on, write on what I see and hear, do some interviews and hopefully even do some live programs from there and at least try to understand some things.
I am not backing off of my concerns with the Emergent Church by no means. Yet it is my prayer that through all of this the Lord will help us, me, to better reach those in the emergent church movement, and everyone, with the Truth