Why I'm quickly becoming a fan of James MacDonald
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 at 12:30AM I posted a bit about my experience with James MacDonald last year. Others have gently pushed back on some of his writings, which I applaud. But, after spending a day listening to James today, I am going to have to upgrade my view of James for a number of very good reasons.
One: Some of the best messages I've heard over the past year have been by James. He's clear and his preaching challenges me.
Two: James seems to be gentler, humbler than before, and humility is an attractive virtue on anybody.
Three: Joseph Stowell likes him. That has to count for something.
Four: John Maxwell annoyed him. When he and Maxwell ended up golfing together, Maxwell figured out that James had some issues. He pushed James to express them, and James resisted. Eventually, they met in Maxwell's office, and James laid it on the table - but began with tears. He told Maxwell that he was a shameless self-promotor. Maxwell responded in tears, confessing it is his besetting sin, and he asked James to pray for him. This story made me think much more highly of both James MacDonald and John Maxwell. It's easy to criticize from a distance; much harder to give and receive criticism with such a great spirit.
Five: Despite disagreeing with Bill Hybels on a lot of issues, they seem to hang out and get along quite well.
Six: When challenged by Scot McKnight on his article Why I Am Not Emerging, James promised to remove the article from his site (note: still there!) and left a comment at Scot's site: "I am glad for the summary you have written and I accept it as a more factual and informed definition than my own."
Seven: I like James because he would be ticked that I'm praising him, and he'd want to redirect that attention to someone much more worthy.
Reader Comments (8)
I was at the Worship and the Word event with James last night at Hamilton Place. I've been thinking about his message all day today at work - I guess that's a sign that you've been exposed to good preaching.
My experiences with James have been less then thrilling. Strangely enough mostly at MBC. That was a few years ago now, and I've heard from a number of people that his humility is really beginning to show. Rob
Darryl and Jacob, I missed both you guys. I was looking for you all day Darryl, I probably walked right by you and didn't recognize you. Maybe you lost more hair or something. Little harder to find you Jacob with all the people at Hamilton Place, I was helping out on the balcony. It was a great day all around. Its like James said, there is a sense among many that God is doing something in our area and its like people are expectant. It will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold especially in the Hamilton area with the different upcoming events.
I heard James MacDonald at MBC and he cut down John Piper and caricatured him. He totally doesn't understand calvinism or Piper's manner about it. I've read almost everything of Piper's and he's not pro-system; he's pro-God and God's sovereign grace.
George: I was in the overflow room all day. It would have been good to see you. Trish: MacDonald talked about that. He's learned to let some of that go, I think. I sensed a bit of a softening in his attitude in how he disagrees with others.
Yeah, you're right about J. Stowell. If he likes him that says a lot. Stowell is cool in many ways.
Sorry I missed you Darryl, I looked in the overflow just before getting back from lunch. Glad you had a good day.
All I can say is, MacDonald is starting to be listed with some some pretty unusual company: http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tele-evangelist_lifestyles.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tele-evangelist_lifestyles.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tele-evangelist_lifestyles.html