Confessions of a Reformission Rev is the latest book by Mark Driscoll, and the first one I’ve read. I just finished it yesterday and ordered his first book, The Radical Reformission right away!

Obviously I liked it.

Driscoll is a controversial figure now days, with all sorts of people lining up to either throw stones at him or to shield him for assualt. He generates controversy for a lot of reasons. He says exactly what he thinks and isn’t too concerned about how he says it (he’s famous or infamous for his use of profanity). Calling him blunt would be an understatement.

He doesn’t catagorize easily either. He’s a not Pentecostal, hasn’t spoken in tongues, but does believe in the perpetuity of all the spiritual gifts. So in that regard he stands alongside the late Dr. Walter Martin, pretty good company!

Not only does he say what he means, but he says it in very unusual ways. Sarcasm is his friend, and in that he stands in dubious company – myself included!

The title of the book isn’t misspelled either. Reformission is a new movement in the church to get ourselved refocused on our mission! It’s not a theological realignment like the Reformation was, but a refocusing on what we are called to do and be as believers in Christ.

To give you a feel for the book, here’s a few of his chapter titles:

Jesus, Our Offering Was $137 and I Want To Use it to Buy Bullets

Jesus, Could You Please Rapture the Charismaniac Lady Who Brings Her Tambourine to Church?

Jesus, We’re Loading Our Squirt Guns to Charge Hell Again

As you can guess Driscoll is a passionate man and this book oozes his passionate beliefs on the Mission of the Church, and many other things besides!

He’s very funny, and uses his humor to make concise points that tend to sum things up very well, with a heaping helping of sarcasm of course! Let me give you a few examples:

Word Of Faith: (Jesus will always heal you and wants you wealthy, etc) “For them, Jesus was a pinata, Christianity was a wacking stick, and their mission was to teach people how to get goodies to fall out of heaven” (Pg. 49)

Immature Men In His Church: “It then dawned on me that I was dealing with with an imbecile epidemic…On their way out of the meeting, I handed each man two stones and told them that on this day God was giving them their balls back to get the courage to do kingdom work.” (Pg. 129)

Rick Warren: “Sadly, there was a time when, as an arrogant young punk, I was critical of his work. But after connecting with Warren a few times, I have found to be a good man who loves Jesus, works hard, and is just trying to make a difference.” (Pg. 107)

His comments on the ministry to Gen X craze of a few years ago is really a riot!

I laughed out loud many times reading this book. But I also stopped many time to ponder what he had written. He has some keen and powerful insights that anyone in church leadership ought to see and think about.

In the end you won’t agree with all of what he says (I don’t), but you’ll gain from his passion and insight and brutal honesty as well.

If you are in any kind of leadership position in a church or ministry, I highly recommend this book. It’s well worth the time and money you’ll invest in reading it.