Early life

Driscoll was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and was raised Roman Catholic in the Riverton Heights area of Seatac, WA, which is located just south of Seattle, WA. He is a 1989 graduate of Highline High School in Burien, Washington, where he served as student body president and editor of the school newspaper. On a Fulbright scholarship he earned a Bachelor's degree in communications from Washington State University with a minor in philosophy and holds a Master of Arts degree in exegetical theology at Western Seminary.

The Resurgence

Driscoll founded The Resurgence, a theological cooperative which includes Mike Anderson (Director) and Tim Smith. Its partners include Acts 29 Network and Mars Hill Church and it is also associated with Desiring God (a ministry of John Piper), The Gospel Coalition (including Tim Keller and D. A. Carson), Crossway Books and The Hub.

The Resurgence aims to train church leaders in practical theology. It has three main branches: Re:Lit, a publishing house; Re:Train, a missional training centre; and Re:Sound, a music arm.

ABC Nightline Special

In 2009, Driscoll was involved in a debate with Deepak Chopra in an ABC special entitled, "Does Satan Exist?". He has also been featured on the program discussing other topics including the 10 Commandments.

Haiti relief

In January 2010, following the 7.0-measured earthquake disaster, Driscoll and James MacDonald took a crew to Haiti to provide prayer and relief to Haitian churches through their ministry ChurchesHelpingChurches.com.

Calvinism

Driscoll distinguishes between double and single predestination, and says that unlike John Calvin, he believes only in single predestination.

Driscoll denies the orthodox Calvinist view of Limited Atonement and believes instead that Jesus died for all people in some sense, and for some people (the elect) in another sense. He thinks this position was what John Calvin believed, saying in a humorous tone: 'Calvinism came after Calvin... I will argue that the Calvinists are not very Calvin. I will argue against Calvinism with Calvin... What kind of Calvinist are you? I'm a Calvin, not a Calvinist, that came later'. Driscoll also believes that this position (or slight variations thereof) was held by men like Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, Martin Luther, and Richard Baxter.

Emerging church

His description of his association with, and eventual distancing from the Emerging church movement:

In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake.

Gender roles

Driscoll holds to a complementarian view of gender roles. He sometimes asks his wife to come up on stage to help him answer questions texted in from the audience, and believes that this does not clash with his understanding that preaching/teaching of women is prohibited by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:12.

Books

eBooks