For those of you following the Emergent/Missional church in the US (which probably isn’t too many of you, but ah well..), this is interesting:

So Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle has now officially called Rob Bell of Mars Hill Michigan (along with Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt) a heretic.

And here:

Then, Mark Driscoll spoke.  Excellent stuff.  I watch Mark’s Vidcast every week.  If I could pick a church as a backup church to attend other than Life Pointe, Mars Hill Church would probably be the place.  In watching, listening, and reading his stuff, I’ve had a mental picture that he is a 6’4″ trucker looking guy.  I guess he’s about 5’6″?  So, my mental picture of his persona was off a bit…though he still comes off truckerish, engaging, funny, abrasive, and insightful.
With that said, he has HUGE words for the Church.  He talked about:

• the difference between the three streams of the emerging church (the relevants, the Emergents, and the confessional contextual calvinists).
• how that Brian McClaren, Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell are basically sell outs when it comes to Scriptural integrity.  He presented a strong case and held nothing back.  Interesting stuff.  Without a doubt, this is the most direct, I’ve heard Mark address these issues.
• He specifically cited their views on the Atonement, views on homosexuality,rabbinical study, their influences, and theology.
• There were some very vivid conversations and references to the virgin Mary [from Amy: I think he means, specifically, the Virgin Birth] and McClaren’s new organization, “Deep SHIfT”.
• Most importantly, he spoke of how there is a generation of people on the scene now who have no historical knowledge of the Church and how we must engage them.
• If we fail to do so, the Church will continue to compete for an ever shrinking circle of angry children of liberal or fundamentalist religious people.

Brian McClaren’s new book is out in a couple of weeks – I’ve read it and did a brief review of it a few weeks ago, but I’ll have a more detailed look when it’s published. I’ve read through Rob Bell’s book on sexuality:  Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality and wasn’t exactly blown away by it. Not nearly as “radical” as the buzz would have you believe, and, most fascinating to me, no treatment of procreation. And you know, if you’re treating the connection between sexuality and spirituality, that small matter of how, in sex, God works through our interconnected lives and bodies to, you know..make new human beings…might be important.
A lot more here, at the Emerging Grace blog – she has listened to the podcast of Driscoll’s talk, outlines it, and asks for comments.