Mars Hill: character is made, not given
- When a spiritual leader falls and hurts people, to what extent are followers victims — and where does personal responsibility begin?
Ben works through his re-listen of the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill: Mark Driscoll's teaching did real work in his life as a younger man, but the story is one of aggressive leadership and bad stewardship. The missing piece on the podcast is personal responsibility — faith is something God gives ('increase my faith'), but character is made, not a gift. The integrities tend to fail as integrity problems, and 'they can put the clothing on, but they still walk like a wolf.'
Clips from this
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Faith, Family, and Leading Your Own Way #shorts
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'When God is silent': what counts as hearing from the Lord?
- What does it mean to 'hear from the Lord,' and how often should we expect it?
Mike brings a question from his Bible study, whose paragraph heading was 'when God is silent': the author wrote that he experienced God's silence for a couple of weeks and freaked out, and Ben expected a relatable years-long drought story — 'Oh, two weeks.
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Mike frames the question: are more people hearing from God?
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Ben asks Mike for a two-sentence framing; Mike says listening to the book of Job while mowing made him furious when Bildad 'received a word from the Lord,' turning a bad human argument into an unarguable divine claim.
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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Does God speak more now? Indwelling Spirit versus prophets
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A host asks whether God talks to people as much now as in the Old and New Testaments. Ben's key distinction: the indwelling Holy Spirit means more people can have the experience…
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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How to tell your voice from God's: the Bible test and leniency
- How can you tell the difference between you speaking and God speaking?
Ella distills the question: how do you tell the difference between you speaking and God speaking? Her first answer: we have a Bible — what God is telling you is probably already in it ('Ben's gonna have a proud papa moment').
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God