John Piper and Rick Warren…

People have opinions. Not necessarily well-reasoned or, in this case, well-informed opinions. I saw it this past week at General Council.

I presented this question, “What do you think about Mark Driscoll?” to a number of people, including my own peers, students, denominational leaders, and seminary professors. Respondents fell into one of three groups:

  1. They loved him.
  2. They didn’t like him (’cause Alliance folk don’t hate).
  3. They didn’t know him.

What stood out to me (Laurel mentioned it first) was that each of those who didn’t like him gave the same answer, using the same words and phrases, as though they had read it from the same source. Probably the same blog.

It reminded me of something that happened a few years ago. I was with a group of pastors, many of whom were trashing The Purpose Driven Life. My friend, George, asked one of the more vocal men, “Have you read the book?” You know the answer, right?

Today, George pointed me to an interview of Rick Warren, conducted by one of the most well-respected, theologically precise pastors of our day, John Piper. In this excellent interview, Piper begins with these words:

Frankly, I’m appalled at the kinds of slanders that have been brought against this book by people whose methods of critique, if they were consistently applied to the Bible, would undo it as the Word of God. ….I am one of these Reformed types and my type tends to get on your case pretty often, and when I read the book I thought, “What’s the issue here?”

The Piper / Warren Interview is here.

Take a listen. Or better yet, read the book for yourself. You can read the first few chapters here.