Gospel Prism

So for those who think there is a rift between the two because of the remarks John Piper made after Mark Driscoll left (funny, I was there and I never took what JP said to mean that he didn’t love and appreciate MD…just goes to show what gossip and rumor can do to fellowship), here is an email exchange on Mark’s blog.

And here’s JP’s first email to Mark to whet the appetite:

Sunday, October 01, 2006 7:12 PM
Dear Mark,

I expected your message to the conference to be very good. It was better. Your left hand was like the nailing of theses to the Wittenberg Door, and your right hand was like the hand that touched lepers and said, Be Clean. It was a very good word for all of us, especially me. Thank you for the labor that went into it and for the time it took for you to come. It was good to meet Grace and Gideon.

I wish you could have been there for two subsequent things. So I will tell you about them. In the q and a I commented on your talk and said that my approach to deciding whom I hang out with and support hangs almost entirely on what is in the left hand. And I was so moved by your theses-nailing that I pass few judgments on a brother’s contextualizing “tactics.” I acknowledged that there may be disagreement over whether there are tactics that in the LONG run may undermine something in the left hand. I said if I see that I will talk to you.

I said that I would tell you one small concern. In my book on preaching I quote James Denny like this: “A preacher cannot show that he himself is clever and that Jesus is mighty to save.” I said, that you have one of the more remarkable gifts for turning a pop-cultural phrase, that it could easily set a standard for overweening cleverness for others who do not have your passion for the truth. Most of the chapter titles in your books are clever turns of phrase. Thus the general tone seems to be one of clever speech. That’s my yellow flag.

Here is the interesting (second) thing. A brother came to me this morning before I spoke and said, “You know, pastor John, Mark is clever with pop culture, you are clever with academic culture.” I looked at him and said, “That is VERY perceptive and I receive it as a God-sent exhortation.” So when I stood up to speak I narrated that exhortation to me in front of all the people and said, “So you can see that Mark and I are in this battle together. We both want to speak in a way that is NOT boring about the greatest things in the world and is not worn out and tired and hackneyed. It is a sin to bore people with God. So pray for us. The line is fine between choosing words to strike the soul with glory and strike a clever pose.”

O how good it was to have you here. Let us pray for each other. God is at work in this Reformed resurgence at more levels that you or I could get our arms around. But our roles are important (I don’t say “crucial” since we could drop dead tomorrow and the truth would go marching on), May the Lord make us contrite and broken stewards. Let us have that demeanor. Since the CT article people will be watching to see if we strut (like Bush, who says in TX it is called “walking”–that may be one of TX’s problems).

I love you and hope to be together more.

Happy tenth anniversary.

John