MacArthur vs Patrick: It's All About Context

John MacArthur’s recent criticism of Darrin Patrick has caused a minor stir in the blogosphere. British readers may not be particularly aware of either character – MacArthur is something of an American John Stott while Patrick is part of the Mark Driscoll crowd. I have never read anything of MacArthur’s, but I have been to Patrick’s church, and he was kind enough to once contribute to this blog, but I do not know him in any way.

So what interests me about this spat is not so much the characters involved but the way the argument evolved, which centres around MacArthur criticising the following statement in Patrick’s book, Church Planter:

One of the common errors of young men who surrender to ministry is to simply adopt the model of a church that they have experienced or idolized. A similar mistake is to blindly accept the ministry philosophy and practice of a ministry hero. The man who is experiencing head confirmation is thoughtful about his own philosophy of ministry, his own ministry style, his own theological beliefs, his own unique gifts, abilities, and desires. In short, there is uniqueness to the way he wants to do ministry.

Now, when I read that it is immediately obvious to me that Patrick is warning young men not to simply ape the ministry mega-stars. He is saying that every man needs to work out the issues himself, and not just copy a Driscoll or Piper or whoever. (This is a point that Patrick clarifies in his response to MacArthur.) Coming from my context that is how I automatically read Patrick’s statement, because I often see young guys who just seem to be imprints of whoever their favourite ministry guru happens to be.

However, MacArthur took exception to this statement, as he read it as saying that a man called to ministry should create his own theology, disregarding normal scriptural and ecclesiological principles. When I hear MacArthur say that, I can understand why he says it, because coming from his context his concern is about young guys who are individualistic and not theologically well formed.

So the issue here is actually one of context. MacArthur completely misread Patrick because of his context. (Which is ironic when MacArthur’s ministry has been built on preaching through the Bible verse by verse and seeking to be true to the context of the text!) And the warning to us all is that even the best of us can easily make interpretive mistakes because our context so often determines the way we see, hear, and read information.

Darrin Patrick has made a very gracious response to Dr MacArthur, and I hope the two of them are able to meet and gain a clearer understanding of one another. I hope their contexts become less a reason for confusion and more an opportunity for increased appreciation. And maybe all of us can learn to be a little more careful in how we are hearing people before we speak publicly of them.