Apologetics

Piper demonstrates his gift for leadership & humility.

This is how one actually apologizes, and then actually uses the opportunity to leverage the humility and guts it takes to say, "I am a jerk when I do this", to teach an important lesson about the Christian life.

And isn't it strange: what Piper did was some much smaller than the on-going unpleasantness with Mark Driscoll, yet nobody had to have a series preparatory meetings for how to address Piper, then meetings to set up “the meeting", then a meeting in which counter-grievances are heard, and then a cooling-off period in which the facts are re-researched, and then another letter or meeting to clarify, and then at some place someone says, "that's quite enough of this -- you go your way and I'll go mine, and you stay on your side of the world and I'll stay on mine."

Piper can see that Piper was, in his words, a "jerk". This is why he's qualified to be an elder in his church, and a man to whom other elders can look up to.

Discuss amongst yourselves.