Ruth Moon writing for Relevant Magazine interviews Jennifer McKinney, Gerry Breshears, Samuel Rodriguez, Francis Chan, Kate Bowler, and William Vanderbloemen to seek answers to her question.
Seems like it all comes down to celebrity and business. Don’t worship the pastor and don’t make church a business.
While those are two important components, I hope there is more to learn than that.
Some observations:
Breshears is described as Driscoll’s mentor from 2000-2010. According to Driscoll’s 2012 job description, Breshears was still mentoring him in 2012. Note this excerpt:
External Accountability
o James MacDonald, Darrin Patrick and Larry Osborne.
o Gerry Breshears will serve as a theological accountability/consultant to Pastor!Mark.
o Dr. Catanzaro will serve as health accountability for Pastor Mark.
In December 2013, when I contacted Gerry Breshears about plagiarism in his book with Driscoll, he told me that Driscoll’s apology via Tyndale House about Call to Resurgence was sufficient, even though Driscoll never addressed plagiarism in subsequent books.
Breshears now has lots of observations about Driscoll and Mars Hill. For instance, he opines:
“The goal was always, ‘We’re going to win more people for Jesus.’ The goal was good. And Mark as a preacher was pretty much right on target, but the high-pressure, performance-driven, get-results culture was deadly,” he says. “The underlying culture increasingly became, ‘We must be business efficient in all we’re doing.’ More and more, Mars Hill became a brand.”
So Mars Hill was the brand? Those familiar with the church, especially those in the media and communications team, know that Driscoll called himself the brand.
The article is interesting and I appreciate the observations but I think former members should have been interviewed. Their voices are missing. They are still waiting for the shell of Mars Hill Church to provide answers and accountability to be learned.
Vanderbloemen mentioned the church succession plan. Here it is.