Mark Driscoll Kicks Terry Virgo’s Butt

I just recently found the blog of Terry Virgo. Terry is the founder of a network of churches that has focused on the restoration of the church at large and reaching people in the nations who have never heard of Jesus.   I don’t know tons about Terry, but from what I’ve read and seen of him he seems like the sort of guy you’d like to have on your team.  I like what I’ve seen from his blog so far and I’m planning on adding a link to his blog to the page if it continues with the sort of quality I’ve seen.

Terry invited Mark Driscoll to speak to the network of churches he serves.  I have a special spot in my heart for Mark because he is a man who speaks the truth regardless of the cost.  A number of times the Lord has used him in my life to profoundly change my perception of something going on in the church.  Today Terry blogged about the impact Mark’s visit had over the summer.

I’ve always been fascinated by itinerant ministry.  There’s something miraculous that happens when God releases one of His servants to travel to another place and sow seed into a different field.  The result is more than just a moving speaker coming for a one-time event.  It’s often more of a “spiritual DNA transfer” that can change a group of people. Terry writes about the impact Mark’s visit had and I thought some of the shifts going on in his church are powerful things for all of us to think about.  Consider the following statements apostolic encouragement from the founder of one movement to the founder of another:

“[Mark] stimulated and challenged us about the pace of growth amongst us and it was so healthy to get a spiritual ‘kick up the backside’ from a guy who himself is planting churches at a phenomenal rate as well as building a great church in Seattle.”

“We were particularly stirred about his aggressive commitment to growth and his challenge to us to accelerate our church planting.”

“Lastly, there was the challenge to ‘honour the future’ and not to overmuch ‘honour the founder’. We will be taking definite steps in this connection by inviting young guys into contexts where they can learn and participate with us in our planning.”

You can read about Mark’s trip to England from Terry’s perspective here and you can read what Mark learned on the trip here.