On Driscoll's 18 Points.

I thought it was passé to comment on Driscoll's visit to Sydney. But then Nicole wrote something, and so did Craig. And I said that I would say something. So here are four reflections.

Let me first say this (and I really can't believe that I have to say this), but by making these four comments, I am not trying to protect the 'status quo'. I am not rejecting his whole 'overall challenge'. I'm not the Blogerati. And I'm not pouring water on the parade. I don't know what it is about Mark (but this does worry me), but when someone blogs something contrary to Mark, then there are some who go ballistic. I'm not sure why.

Four random thoughts:

1. The first thing to do with the 18 points (after deciding which are accurate and which are not) is to separate out the ways I can personally change (e.g. #1,7,15,17) from the things that I can't change (#2,3,18 etc). That is, I can't change Moore College or its structures, but I can change my own actions and my own heart. There is, of course, a case for godly agitation. But not without first examining our own lives. This guards against frustration or anger against potentially easy targets.

2. On Australian guys being immature. This may be true, or it may not be true. Of course, it is better to assume that is is true so that we can examine how to become more mature.

That said, his reasoning was that most guys move out of home when they are 25.

But he may simply not get Australian culture. In America, 18 year olds almost always move away to College. In Australia, there aren't enough cities to actually do this. So you stay in Sydney, right? And the pressure to move out of home is less acute. So the stats on how old a person moves out will obviously be skewed higher.

Mark may get this. But one thing is obvious to my American wife and to me (having both lived in both countries): People moving out of home here in the States has not produced more mature men. Have you heard about Road Trip? Or Spring Break? The stats on US men moving out of home will show a lower age. But this has no bearing on maturity. If you are immature at home, you are immature out of home. If you are mature at home, you are mature out of home. Change may bring some crossover, but - and here is the key - it could go either way.

I am a fan of moving out young, for the record. I did. But not as a guide to the levels of maturity. All the people on Friends, Seinfeld, and Sex in the City had moved out of home and there was no maturing in those homes. Hooley Dooley.

3. On the old guy/young guy thing: Mark said that he was considered 'old' in Seattle. But in Sydney, he was meeting 'young energetic pastors' -- and they were in their 40s and 50s! Here is a speculation: I've heard Mark talk about other churches in Seattle, and other pastors. He doesn't have a lot of good to say about them. And maybe he is justified (I don't know Seattle). But maybe he just hasn't met the kind of extraordinary, godly, passionate leadership that keeps going into their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Maybe its simply new for him to be in a city where the men in their 60s are just as passionate as the so called 'young guys'.

4. On being afraid of the Holy Spirit? Mark said:

Many of you are afraid of the Holy Spirit.

You betcha, Mark. Aren't you? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I fear the Lord's Spirit like I fear the strength of a storm. May it always be so.

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