FTE "On Call" Blog

Melissa Wiginton

Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning

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January 15, 2009

That Pesky Issue of Authority

The New York Times magazine gives us this week a story about “the cussing pastor,” Mark Driscoll, 38-year-old pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle. If you are fascinated by American culture as I am—and especially what Americans do with Christianity—you should read this very well-written article by Molly Worthen, “Who Would Jesus Smack Down?”. I come to this story from a place of attention to the call and formation of young leaders for the church. It sounds like a prototypical American story of revival: charismatic leader emboldened by the Gospel radicalizes people hungry for salvation from meaninglessness, loneliness and isolation and forms a community set apart by its convictions. The Mars Hill Church in Seattle meets on seven campuses around the city, with a reported total weekly attendance of 7,500, and a growing ministry, mission and organization. Clearly, something is going on that attracts people.

From where I sit, the story raises lots of questions about leadership (as almost all prototypical American stories do). But one question I think looms large for the young people who come into our sphere has to do with authority. Worthen’s story claims that Driscoll brooks no opposition to his authority. She quotes him as preaching that members who oppose him are sinning through questioning, a stance that echoes the teaching and practice of John Calvin himself. I’ll be candid: I am suspicious of leaders who shut down dissent—particularly when they claim to have exclusive knowledge of Truth. I learned in seminary that semper reformada—always reforming—is a mark of the church. Change usually starts with questioning the status quo. Leaders, then, are called to negotiate continuity and discontinuity with the Christian tradition in faithful and communal discernment of God’s living spirit moving among us. Leaders must know how to say yes to some things and no to others. They must be able—and allowed—to name that which defines who they are. Even with the fluidity of identity in this post-modern 21st century, human beings fundamentally long to have a place to stand and, in my view, we need leaders to help us claim those places. We seek, in our work at FTE, to find and support young people who have the capacities to negotiate leadership with authority but not authoritarianism— to say who they are, who the church is, where we stand and why it matters—and to engage and respond to questions about that—and yes, to have permission to disagree with each other, and with us. And we still believe that robust theological education in authentic communities of diverse people and ideas offers them the best preparation.