Quotes from Mark Driscoll

Forgiveness is not reconciliation. It takes one sinner to repent, and one victim to forgive, but it takes both to reconcile. Therefore, unless there is both repentance by the sinner and forgiveness by the victim, reconciliation cannot occur

Like a tree, the Bible tells us, bitterness has roots.a Consequently, we can saw away at our frustrations, disappointments, angers, hurts, and sadness, but unless we dig up our root of bitterness, it only returns, sometimes bigger than ever.

In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations

We believe that the local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and that the universal church is all of God's people in all times and places.

entire churches can be consumed with the demonic drama that proceeds from one tongue speaking on behalf of a bitter heart.

What happens if you walk into a church and try to find out what a man looks like?

The truth is, righteous anger is the right response to sin and far more consistent with God's character than faking happiness, approval, or acceptance.

The least likely person you'll see in church is a single twentysomething male. He is as rare at church as a vegan at a steak house.

Corporate worship is to be God-centered.

God wants his glory to shine through men. God wants his Kingdom to be made visible through them.

Corporate worship is to be intelligible.

Avoid participating in any religious community where the clear truth-claims of Scripture are ignored while contemplative and mystical practices are favored simply for their spiritual experience. Be careful of any church or ministry wherein acts of mercy and environmental stewardship are devoid of a theology of the cross and wind up being little more than the worship of created people and things. And be careful not to worship a good thing as a god thing for that is a bad thing.

Corporate worship is to be seeker sensible.

we receive suffering when it comes as an opportunity for God to do something good in us and through us. We rejoice not in the pain but rather in what it can accomplish for the gospel so that something as costly as suffering is not wasted but used for God's glory, our joy, and others' good.

Moralizing is reading the Bible not to learn about Jesus but only to learn principles for how to live life as a good person by following the good examples of some people and avoiding the bad examples of others. That kind of approach to the Scriptures is not Christian, because it treats the Bible like any other book with moral lessons that are utterly disconnected from faith in and salvation from Jesus.

Shame exists where there is sin, and so feeling ashamed, particularly when we sin, is natural and healthy. Therefore, shame is not bad, but unless the underlying sin that causes the shame is properly dealt with through the gospel, then the shame will remain, with devastating implications.

Colossians 1:10–14 and "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. . . . He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Once you get married, however, a good defense is frequency and freedom.

Corporate worship is to be unselfish.

Adultery doesn't come until the seventh commandment, and you won't even get to the seventh commandment if you don't violate the first two commandments. Sex is god, and I worship by having sexual sin.

Now more than ever God's people must be committed to being gospel centered. Jesus can no longer be out there somewhere on the horizon as we look to culture, religion, politics, spirituality, or morality for our true north.

Young evangelicals are likely to leave their faith because they are not able to articulate their own faith, and many lack a biblical worldview.

Hebrews 4:15–16, which says: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Corporate worship is to be orderly.