Category: Mark Driscoll

Mars Hill Church Elders Post Letter of Confession to Bent Meyer and Paul Petry

Pastors who voted to disqualify Paul Petry and Bent Meyer as elders have issued a statement of confession and repentance (UPDATE: the former website has been taken down. You can read it via the Wayback Machine). It begins:

Dear Paul and Bent, we want to publicly confess our sin against you regarding events that took place at Mars Hill Church back in 2007. We were wrong. We harmed you. You have lived with the pain of that for many years. As some of us have come to each of you privately, you have extended grace and forgiveness, and for that we thank you. Because our sin against you happened in a public way and with public consequences, we want to make our confession public as well with this letter.

More commentary to come but really it speaks for itself.
Note: The title has been changed twice to better reflect the actual events of 2007.

Mars Hill Tacoma to Become Independent Pending Bank Approval; Will The Leaders Open the Books?

According to this Tacoma News Tribune article, the Mars Hill location in Tacoma plans to pursue independent status. If the bank doesn’t approve them for a take over of the loan on the building, the congregation will seek a new location.
Lead pastor Bubba Jennings is supposed to meet with officials of the credit union which financed the building on November 18 to learn if the congregation can keep the building they meet in now.
Jennings told the congregation to keep attending and giving because the bank will evaluate those metrics in order to decide whether or not to transfer the note.
More of the same top down approach seems to be the order of the day. Jennings announced that he will tell the congregation what the new name of the church will be.
Tacoma becoming independent does not surprise me, but there are red flags for potential members in this announcement.
First, Jennings doesn’t know how much money the loan will be. He is talking about placing the congregation on the hook for a large amount of money to maintain their building without knowing the terms.  Second, there is only one fund to give money to now at Mars Hill – The General Fund. I would not give anything unless I thought it would go to the local branch. Current Mars Hill leaders have a track record of using the donations in questionable ways which should make potential donors skeptical of the claims that giving is needed to help locations become independent. Without full disclosure, how would anyone know that the donations are not going to pay executive pastors’ (Driscoll, Turner, and Bruskas) severance pay? In the past, church leaders have told the congregation that donations would go to Ethiopian and India church planters, yet very little money ended up there. Also, the leaders used a “Jesus Festival” to bring in dollars but no such festival was ever held.
Bottom line, unless current church leaders come glean on the Driscoll’s investigation, the Global Fund, Jesus Festival, year end giving campaigns, and pastors’ compensation and severance packages, I don’t think the current leaders have earned trust. Failing to address these issues is deliberate. Too many public calls have gone out to open the books for the leaders to say they are unaware of the need for disclosure.
 

Mark Driscoll’s Reports to the Woodway, WA Police

When Mark Driscoll appeared at Robert Morris’ Gateway Conference on October 20, he told some stories involving harassment of his family. Specifically, he said that rocks had been thrown into his backyard one morning after he and his kids had spent the night in a tent. Then Driscoll talked about a helicopter flying over head a few days later. Driscoll begins speaking about these matters at 3:20 into the clip.

At least one journalist, Dori Monson, initially reported that city officials of Driscoll’s home city of Woodway, WA were unaware of any such report. Although I have yet to hear it, I have been told that Monson has retracted that report. Given the police reports below, he did well to retract. While there is no evidence that the rock throwing report is related to Driscoll’s problems at Mars Hill Church, he did make the incident reports.

In order to clarify the record and with thanks to police officials there, I am posting the relevant and appropriately redacted police reports from the city of Woodway. Click the links below.

August 25, 2014 – The rocks flying incident

August 28, 2014 – KOMO-TV News effort to get an interview.
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On the KOMO-TV News report, see this post. In the KOMO report, there is a shot of a sign on the gate which indicates cameras are recording the activities. The police report includes nothing about a check of any surveillance footage.

Current Mars Hill Pastor Says Investigation Findings Showed Mark Driscoll Not Qualified as Elder

In an ongoing conversation on a previous post, current Mars Hill pastor Steve Tompkins, indicated that based on the Board of Elders’ investigation, Mark Driscoll is not currently qualified for the office of elder.
TompkinsDriscollDisqualified

Speaking to former elder Zack Hubert, Tompkins commented on the findings of the Board of Elders report of their investigation into formal charges by 21 former elders and other private witnesses.

To my knowledge, Tompkins is the first current elder who has characterized the Board of Elders investigation as resulting in a finding of disqualification. The only statement from the Board of Elders indicated that Driscoll was asked to enter an elder directed restoration process. However, instead of following the counsel of the elders, Driscoll resigned.

The Board of Elders have not released a report, and since the investigation was not completed, there is some question about the existence of a report. There are many unanswered questions about the role of the BoE and BoAA in the manner in which Driscoll left the church.

Uncertainty of another kind surrounds Mars Hill Church. Reliable sources tell me dramatic changes are in store for the church. Campus locations are considering merger, independence, or closure. Options for reducing debt and spinning off locations into autonomous churches are being explored.

Mark Driscoll Gets Prophetic Word at Gateway Conference

At the Gateway Conference this past week, Mark Driscoll took the stage for the first time since he left Mars Hill Church. There he proclaimed that he was looking for some “wise counsel” even as he had avoided the wise counsel of his Mars Hill Church elders.
Another highlight of the conference was a prophetic word from Jimmy Evans about Driscoll. According to a tweet from conference attendee Ashley Greenwood, Evans proclaimed that Driscoll’s best days are ahead of him:


If you click the Instagram link in this tweet, you will come to a picture of Evans talking to a standing Driscoll in the front row of the crowd. According to Greenwood, Evans said:

You lead a great movement as a brother, you will lead a greater one as a father, your later years will surpass your younger.

DriscollPropheEvans
The nice thing about prophetic claims is that they can be checked. If Evans is referring to Mars Hill Church as “the great movement as a brother,” then the claim is debatable given that Driscoll left the church in disarray and about to fragment. If Evans meant Acts 29 Network, then it obvious that the claim is wildly inflated in light of the network’s removal of Mars Hill due to Driscoll’s actions. In light of the facts, one could easily predict that his later years will surpass his younger.
Any port in the storm I guess. The apostolic crowd appears eager to incorporate Driscoll into their tribe.