Pride

Mark Driscoll was accused by his leadership of having too much anger, pride and being too domineering. 

Psychologically, he probably had a lot of anger because it sounds like he had been sexually abuse in his past.  Maybe he didn't work through that enough and so it came out in his preaching style.  He had displaced anger, and instead of it coming out on his childhood abusers it came out on his congregation and mostly his fellow staff.  It's possible he was molested by a woman too because it seems he did have some anger towards women. 

He was accused of having too much pride.  He was the ASB president of his school, which can lead to pride.  He was also the captain of his baseball team in high school, which can also lead to pride.  And he was the editor of his school newspaper.  So he was smart, popular and a jock.  I can relate somewhat because I was the Senior call vice president, on Varsity basketball and in tons of AP classes.  Also Mark was voted most likely to succeed.  All of that might have gone to his head a bit. :) 

Then he started Mars Hill Church when he was only 25.  He had just converted when he was 19 to Christianity.  Paul warns that promoting new believers too soon can make them too prideful.  I think he realizes now that he should have waited to be a head pastor but oh well. 

And then pride can lead to someone being domineering, because their focus is on themselves rather than on others. 

It sounds like he had a pretty good track record too as far as not getting into drugs or sleeping around.  So that could have led to him being self-righteous and quick to judge others.  Being pure and righteous is good, but not when it makes someone think they are better than other people. 

But his heart is in the right place.  He said his goal has always been to encourage young men to step out in faith and be great Christian leaders.  That is awesome!  We need strong men to lead the younger men of America and the world. 

I think mostly the drama at his church was Satan attacking him, through his staff, and trying to take him out of the game.  Satan didn't like that he had a heart to help the young men and so he tried to stop him. 

But hopefully he will rise again, out of the ashes. :)  And hopefully he will keep trying to affect and change the world, but maybe in a more humble way in the future.  May God bless him.  Amen. :)