Driscoll's talk @ Advance 09 (takeaways)

I was with some great friends last week @ the DPAC in Durham for the Advance 09 conference. I posted a little about our time together on Monday... you can read that HERE.
Now for some actual takeaways from the conference. It was basically a typical Acts 29 gig. + Piper who is like their "daddy" anyway. I love Piper too though as you can read about HERE.

So, Piper was there + Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, & Ed Stetzer were probably the biggest guns on the docket. + my friend's pastor from Durham = J.D. Greear & another guy from Vintage 21 in Raleigh (the Jesus video guys) & Eric Mason (crazy funny) + a couple seminary presidents (who I'm sure are great people but were less than impressive).

Today I'm just going to post some takeaways from Driscoll's 2nd talk (better than his 1st one in my opinion). (He & Piper were the only ones to get 2.) & then I'll post some more takeaways later in the week from the rest of the good stuff there @ Advance 09.
I first heard about Driscoll when I read Blue Like Jazz back in '05 & he was mentioned as that title he HATES to be known by... "the cussing pastor." I started following him in '06 when I listened to the whole Vintage Jesus series (12 weeks). It was pimp & probably his best series ever! I personally like to listen to him for my own sake even though he makes a lot of people mad. Anyway, he's the pastor @ Mars Hill Church in Seattle... least churched city in America! Pretty cool since the church now has like 6K peeps coming to 4 or 5 campuses like 15 services per weekend! God's hand is on that place!

Driscoll's 2nd talk was great & convicting for me and I think EVERYONE there! It wasn't typical Driscoll style at all though! No yelling & screaming or many crazy one-liners or cynical comedy or anything like that. It was all about Idolatry. We all know from Louie that EVERYONE is a worshipper. We all worship something. Hopefully it's God, but even if it's not... we're still worshipping. Driscoll agreed & then took it a step further to say that if we're giving the worship that belongs to God to anything else then we are IDOLATERS. agreed.
He said Worship = "Living for the glory of the Creator." Idolatry = "Living for the glory of the creation." any creation.
* "You worship your way into sin and you worship your way out." - think about that one. so true.

Funniest moment of this talk was when he was talkin about some young guys making other people (pastors) their idol... Driscoll said = "It's weird when a 20 year old guy is trying to talk like Piper. & it's even weirder when they try to dress like him." HAHA... that would definitely be messed up. (but I've definitely seen churches who make 20 year old guys do that!)

So, here was the really convicting part. He gave all of us thousands of pastors in the room 11 questions to ask ourselves about 11 different types of idolatry we might be into right now:
1 - Attendance idolatry -> Does your joy change when your attendance does? (or giving?) = "That's idolatry." WOW. ouch.
2 - Gift idolatry -> Do you feel God needs and loves you because you are so smart?
3 - Truth idolatry -> Do you consider yourself BETTER because you have more knowledge? Don't worship truth, worship Jesus! There are lots of peeps today who worship Theology and Jesus is an afterthought. That's freakin' jacked up!
4 - Fruit idolatry -> Do you point to your success as evidence that God loves you?
5 - Tradition idolatry -> Which of your traditions is stopping the progress of the gospel?
6 - Method idolatry -> Do you worship a method as your mediator instead of Jesus?
7 - Office idolatry -> Are you motivated by God's glory or YOUR title/position? Some people want to be called "Pastor" so bad. = "It matters way too much to that guy."
8 - Success idolatry -> Is winning what motivates you at the deepest level? More than God's glory?
9 - Ministry idolatry -> Do you walk with God just so you'll have a good ministry?
10 - Innovative idolatry -> Does it have to be unique? Why do you want to be unique? For your glory or God's?
11 - Leader idolatry -> Who other than Jesus am I imaging? Who do I try to be like?

Obviously many of us need to "repent" after hearing that! "Repentance is not what we preach, it's what we practice." "If you don't repent you're a heretic." & then he said "& some of you are heretics." & then he just walked off the stage! crazy moment.
[Piper actually mocked him in his talk like 30 minutes later... it was HILARIOUS! He said "Now what would Driscoll say here? IDOLATERS!... & then I walk off the stage." & then he pretended to leave, but of course came back. the place was rolling.]

Ok, so wow... crazy list of 11 questions to ask ourselves!
WHICH ONE OF THOSE HAS BEEN YOUR IDOL? WHICH ONE HAS GOT YOU THINKING RIGHT NOW!???