Nuttier Than a Snickers Bar

The holidays were wonderful. Grace and I and the Driscoll Fab 5 enjoyed the snow, hung out a lot as a family, laughed a lot, and had some great down time. As always, I got my big daddy dates with Ashley and Alexie. And I had great guy time with Zac, Calvin, and Gideon. Now I’m officially back to work and this week has been nuttier than a Snickers bar. The latest book, Vintage Church, showed up in the mail weighing in at 335 pages and over 600 footnotes. It is now for sale and covers a wide range of issues from the Spirit-filled Christian life, the definition of the Christian church, leadership (including women in ministry), preaching, sacraments (baptism and Communion), discipline, unity, love, multi-site churches (including video sermons), the use of technology for ministry purposes, missional churches, and the role of the church in culture. Honestly, I think the book is great, thanks to some twelfth-hour hard work by my copyeditor, Crystal, Crossway’s rock star editor, Lydia, and my friend and coauthor, Dr. Gerry Breshears. It’s not as edgy as Vintage Jesus, or as somber as Death by Love, but does cover more ground (especially new ground) on the church than any other book I have read. If you love your pastor or ministry leader, methinks this would be a nice and helpful gift to them. While you’re at it, grab a copy for yourself as well. We kicked off the "Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 and 2 Peter" sermon series on Sunday. We had our biggest attendance ever and popped over 8,000 people. We hope everyone will use our roughly 200-page free study guide we handed out in order to study 1 and 2 Peter for themselves, with their children (if applicable), and in their community group. We also saw that Mars Hill people will laugh for five minutes if I come out dressed like an attorney in a suit. This week we also saw our web traffic explode with more visits and downloads than ever. That was likely due, in part, to a lot of media attention. People have asked me how I feel about it, and to be honest I have not even looked at a host of recent media coverage; I figured that since "Driscoll" is the Greek word the New Testament uses for "piñata," it is more of the same old, same old. Still, the media coverage did lead to some other interesting requests. In addition to a mountain of interview requests from various radio and print media outlets, some national television shows called. Dateline called, Nightline called, and, to top things off, the following is an excerpt from an actual email we received, "We are a television company that specializes in non-scripted and documentary programming, and are a subsidiary of Endemol, the company behind Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, and Fear Factor. We . . . are interested in having a general meeting with you to discuss possible future TV projects. We'd love to meet you and learn more about you, your work, and what might be a good fit for you in terms of a show." The thought of being followed around the house in my boxers by a crew of guys with cameras was about as appealing as being a contestant on Bret Michaels’ Rock of Love. I asked my five-year-old daughter, Alexie, if she wanted to be a reality television star and she said "no," so I turned them down based upon her professional opinion. However, the interview with Nightline sounded intriguing and so I may do it. If it comes together we’ll let you know when it airs. The Today Show was recently out to Mars Hill, but that bit did not air, so you never know how these things will work out. Tomorrow I am road-tripping to the Portland area for a day with my friend and the vice president of the Acts 29 church planting network, Darrin Patrick. We are speaking at a men’s event along with some mixed martial arts fighters. Word on the street is that Olympic silver medalist wrestler and great Christian brother Matt Lindland, along with fighting legend Ken Shamrock, have both called me out and want some time on the mat. I have a better chance of getting tall than winning a dirty boxing match with either guy, but if we’re having a spelling bee I have nothing to fear. Then, it’s home for Gideon’s third birthday party and to preach again on Sunday at Mars Hill as we continue forward in 1 Peter 1:3–9. This week, the text sings so sweetly that if it does not fire you up, your wood has to be wet. Also on Sunday, I will have a full financial update regarding how we finished up the year. The gist is that some of our seven campuses did not make budget, but some amazing generosity from people who could not even make it to church during the snowy blizzard weeks in December did allow us to make budget for the eleventh time in twelve years. Lastly, Jesus is alive, seated on his throne, and at work in the world in spite of me, so I wanted to close by saying thank you to him.