Review: "The Radical Reformission"

I finally read Mark Driscoll’s The Radical Reformission: reaching out without selling out, and I was impressed.

Driscoll opens his book by talking about his background and the revelation that sin is not primarily what we do but who we are. He then defines his title: “This ‘reformission’ is a radical call to reform the church’s traditionally flawed view of missions as something carried out only in foreign lands and to focus instead on the urgent need in our neighborhoods, which are filled with diverse cultures of Americans who desperately need the Gospel of Jesus and life in his church, Most significant, they need a gospel and a church that are faithful both to the scriptural texts and to the cultural contexts of America” (18).

Driscoll calls the reader to remember the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that God came to earth in the Person of Jesus, died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, rose and ascended back to His Throne, according to the Scriptures – as central and uncompromisable. He then calls us to repent of making anything else uncompromiseable, to obey God and act according to His Will, and to reflect and minister to our communities via the teaching of the Scriptures (22-23).

I have read a number of books on missions and community ministry lately, and this one outshines them all in stressing that Jesus and His Gospel must be first and foundational.

Driscoll alternates his chapters with short interviews with “regular” Christian people in their “regular” jobs, and he asks them about how they are being Christians in their workplace and how they can be Christians in their workplace. These interviews richly support his chapters.

Driscoll is modern, though he is obviously well-read in good works, and he can speak the language of modernity and postmodernity – both of which he rightly argues are subordinate categories to the Kingdom of God. His observations are humorous, heart-breaking, and compelling to action. This is a great book for a Mission Commission and any church leader.

For all of his argument against innovation, one area which I wish Driscoll had fleshed out more is his theology of worship. He seems to indicate that as long as the Gospel is clearly preached, what we do in worship is open to preference (73, 100). I would beg to differ with him on this, if that is what he is saying. The Scripture clearly states that certain things are to occur in worship, and these ought to be what occurs in worship. (The Regulative Principle.) (Perhaps he deals with that in another book. I hope so and would like to read him on it.)

Driscoll provides a compelling and useful call to proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ Alone without compromise in our culture and addressed to our culture. It is a valuable read, with a prophetic appendix, written in 2004, speculating on what will be in 2025 in America – we are well there.