When he spoke at Sydney's cathedral last September, Driscoll said:
8. Many of you are afraid of the Holy Spirit. You don't know what to do with Him, so the trinity is Father, Son and Holy Bible. You are so reactionary to pentecostalism that you do not have a robust theology of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit calls people into ministry. He also empowers people for ministry. You don't have to be charismatic but you should be a little charismatic, enough at least to worship God with more than just all of your mind. The word charismatic here means prosperity, excessive, bizarre. In London, it means you're not a liberal. Don't get hung up on all the terminology. Do you love the Holy Spirit? Jesus says the Holy Spirit is a 'He' and not an 'it'." Ministry cannot be done apart from the Holy Spirit – I think that is in part leading to the lack of entrepreneurialism and innovation, because if it's not already done and written down, you're suspicious of it.
Phillip Jensen rightly says that Driscoll may have not quite understood the Australian scene:
It is not his fault that in his short visit to Sydney he did not learn that Cessationism has never had much of a foothold here. It is much more common in the USA. The barb of his "Father, Son and Holy Bible" is much sharper when aimed at the Cessationist target.
And yet Phillip says that he 'took umbrage' at Driscoll's words and will spend this year preaching about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit to answer Driscoll's claims.
I think Driscoll phrased things badly by focusing on the Holy Spirit in particular. But I think Phillip may be avoiding the full force of Driscoll's critique by taking the bait, and dwelling on the nature and work of the Holy Spirit. Why does God the Holy Spirit get lumped with all the subjective, emotional and miraculous stuff? Those things are the issue, not the person of God the Holy Spirit.
If I were writing a 'The Message' or 'Good News Bible' translation for the Australian evangelical peoples I would say:
8. Many of you are afraid of your emotions and of many of you are afraid of divine intervention. You don't know what to do with them. So, in practice, your Trinity can be caricatured as Father, Son and Holy Bible. You are so reactionary to Pentecostalism that you do not have a robust theology of emotions and of divine intervention. Part of being gifted for ministry is subjective zeal. Part of empowerment in ministry is emotional sustenance. It seems that often God even intervenes in remarkable ways to draw people into ministry. You don't have to have a charismatic style of church, or expect supernatural gifts in the church or be an over emotional person. But you do have to have a little of that, enough at least to worship God with more than just all of your mind....
