Maintaining certain fictions until the end, Mars Hill leaders posted the 2014 annual report today.
The section on Mars Hill Global and Mars Hill Go reflects what happened to Mars Hill Global after I reported on the tactics to promote missions but use Global Fund money to fund U.S. expansion.
Between 2012 and May 2014, the Global Family was called the “Mars Hill Extended Family” and Mars Hill Go was marketed as the Mars Hill Global and the Global Fund.
The annual report maintains an upbeat reframing of the church closing and includes a brief accounting of finances for the year. No word in the report about the fate of those 73 church planters in Ethiopia and India.
Category: Mars Hill Church
Former Executive Elders of Mars Hill Church May Face RICO Lawsuit
According to former Mars Hill deacon Rob Smith and Seattle attorney Brian Fahling, a lawsuit is being prepared with Mark Driscoll, Sutton Turner, David Bruskas, and Jamie Munson named as defendants. The suit may not be filed until later this week or early next week. Those bringing the suit have alerted Mars Hill Church leaders and hope to engage in talks which could serve to prevent the suit from going forward.
A civil RICO claim (see link for statutory basis of a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations suit) must allege an injury to the plaintiffs. In this case, plaintiffs donated funds for specific purposes based on church leaders’ representations. The funds were then diverted to other purposes. In addition, plaintiffs believe that funds from the general fund were used fraudulently to scam the New York Times best-seller list for Mark Driscoll’s self-inurement.
As has been documented here, Mars Hill leaders solicited donations for various specific purposes (e.g., Jesus Festival, international misions). However, those funds were often used for other purposes (e.g., establishing Mars Hill video locations) via Mars Hill Church. The suit will allege a pattern of activities occurring over at least four years. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability may also be named in a separate action.
Smith, who has raised numerous concerns about Mars Hill, recorded a You Tube video to promote a legal fund for the suit. The rationale is provided on the fundraising site:
Mars Hill Church, according to Paul Tripp who recently served on their Board of Advisors and Accountability, “is without a doubt the most abusive, coercive ministry culture” he has ever been involved with.
Because of the abuse of both people and money, it is essential that the dissolution of the church be delayed until the abuse can be clearly articulated by the church leadership, and repentance and restitution be made.
At this point, only a just legal action will stop the dissolution of the church. A legal team has been hired and the delay of the dissolution will be sought so that true repentance and restitution can occur.
Please support this effort.
As this year has unfolded, we have seen the widespread abuse of people, and of money.
Mark Driscoll, who built his image calling men to take personal responsibility for their actions, rather than take responsibility himself for his part in the abusive culture, resigned and left the church. He failed to address the abuse that Paul Tripp spoke of. He failed to address the hundreds of shunned and abused members, ex-members and donors.
The remaining leadership, rather than dealing head-on with the abuse, has continued to make decisions behind closed doors and simply ignored the multiple requests of members, ex-members and donors to deal with the abuse.
Rather than be transparent about the misuse of the finances of Mars Hill and the widespread abuse of people, they have chosen to hastily dissolve the corporation, and is promising whatever cash is left over to the individual campuses of Mars Hill Church.
The lead pastors of each of these campuses, rather than raising their voices for transparency and closure for the hurting ex-members, many of whom were under their care, are saying nothing. The word in the street is that they will lose their part of the “spoils” if they rock the boat. So they appear to have no interest in bringing healing to the members that their campus has harmed, or to the hurting members and ex-members from other campuses.
These “pastors” are not even calling for the public shunning of Paul Petry to be lifted. This is continued cruelty that has lasted over 7 years. Paul Petry represents many other members and families that were wrongly disciplined or ex-communicated.
At this stage of the game, without legal action being taken, Mars Hill Church will dissolve and the assets, including money, will be distributed in back-room deals that members and donors are excluded from. The many members, ex-members and donors who feel defrauded and abused will not see a just resolution to their wounds.
It is in the interest of transparency and healing that the dissolution be stopped. It will prove to be the righteous course of action. It will allow leadership that has particpated in the shocking level of abuse to clear their consciences, speak the truth, do the right thing, and be forgiven.
It will be a wonderful testimony to all. To simply dissolve will permanently harm all who are seeking healing and closure.
Please support this fund.
From my vantage point, it would be to the advantage of Ethiopian and Indian pastors if the dissolution of the church could be stalled to allow Mars Hill more time to disclose how much money should go to them. The Global Fund brought in millions and an investigation would help clarify how much money should be funneled to those who were used to raise the funds which ultimately were used to support Mars Hill’s expansion.
Dave Bruskas and Mark Driscoll to Mars Hill Church Elders in May 2012: We Really Need Your Help
The following post by Dave Bruskas and Mark Driscoll was made to Mars Hill Church’s internal website The City and also sent via email to staff and elders on May 25, 2012. This memo contrasts with the reality of compensation for the executive elders, apparently unknown to the lead pastors and members at the time.
This memo should be read along with the memo Sutton Turner sent to Mark Driscoll and Dave Bruskas in March of 2012 where Turner said the church was in serious financial trouble due to poor planning and lack of financial transparency. Also recall that the church paid ResultSource over $200,000 in late 2011 and early 2012 to get Mark Driscoll’s book Real Marriage on the New York Times best-seller list. Another relevant fact is that the church solicited $6.4 million from the congregation at the end of 2011 in order to help launch four new church plants in January 2012, the same month that Real Marriage was released. The executive elders told the people that in addition to launching the churches, Mars Hill planned to use that money to develop an animated children’s video series. Like the Jesus Festival, the series was never animated.
The full text of the memo is reproduced below.
We Really Need Your Help
From Pastor David Bruskas:
From Pastor Dave:As the final days of putting together a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 are here, some Lead Pastors are wrestling with the reality of letting a few good people go at the local church level. And some of you have had recent conversations with your Lead Pastor regarding upcoming transitions that have been painful. I understand firsthand how hard it is to let a productive staff member go whom your church loves. I also know how hard it is for the people who have been served well to let staff go without a fight. So that makes Lead Pastors twice as vulnerable. They must face the disappointment of the departing staff member and the disappointment of the church. And much like I would expect any good leader to do, many Lead Pastors are fighting hard to keep staff and avoid cuts creatively and boldly. But we need to let go of that fight at this point. Here are a couple of reasons why.
First, we have, in reality, a single budget for all of our 14 churches. So this means for every cent in exceptions that once church receives above the $10 per adult compensation and ministry operation allotment, another church loses the same amount. So the only way for one church to win is for another church to lose. Second, the cost numbers per adult that Pastor Sutton and the Finance Team have given for targets aren’t arbitrary nor merely guidelines. They are hard targets that have been carefully researched and must be met. And if we don’t live within our means, we won’t just face the loss of future expansion opportunities, we will have to scale back our current ministry services significantly. And in the most dire circumstances, shut down a few of our churches. As of today, we are paying extra fees in financing the costs of existing buildings because of our unattractive financial condition to potential lenders. This must change for us even to be good stewards of what we already have.
A couple of final thoughts. First, we know this isn’t your fault, but the result of past decisions and practices. And while we will provide you a new and helpful global narrative soon to communicate this really tough news to our members, to be critical of the past means that we have to say things publicly that might hurt good leaders with great intentions who served Mars Hill well. Some of whom are still faithfully serving along side us today. And that to us seems like a losing proposition. We also know that this process has had some starts and stops along with some conflicting information. Please forgive us for that. We are continually receiving new financial information that has caused some hiccups along the way.
Second, these are decisions the Executive Elders are making in unity. We have spent countless hours discussing together both the state of our finances and our present staffing model through face to face meetings, emails, texts and phone calls. We have worked through each of your staff rosters in an attitude of prayer thinking through every angle we could imagine to keep as many people as possible. We grieve the fact that this cut is deep and results in letting go of some very good people who are performing well and helping the church. We have done the same thing with our central team reducing our costs 40%. It is super painful and we are very sympathetic towards you, your team and your church.
And more than anything, we hurt for those who have lost jobs. We would request that you abide by our spending targets per person. Please respect these decisions by not coming to us individually in the hope that they may be changed. Pastor Sutton and I are happy to clarify anything that is confusing. But we can’t devote any more time to hearing appeals.
We love you all very much and appreciate your devotion to Jesus and His church in this tough season. We do feel loved and supported by you and hope you feel the same from your
Executive Elders.
From Pastor Mark:
These are tough seasons. Personally we love our staff.
Pastorally we are concerned for our staff. Practically we grieve for our staff. Professionally we don’t have a choice but to reduce our staff. We simply have to live within our means. If we reduce staff now we can provide lead time for people to find an option while receiving severance. Had we not done this we would have had to reduce staff without severance this summer. We know this is hard but it is better than the alternative. The various leaders making these decisions across four states have prayed and labored over these tough calls. Your Exec Elders have cut first and deepest. Central is reduced 40% and working double time. We are vacating our offices reducing our staff and in contact nearly every hour every day pulling together and seeking Jesus’ wisdom. Your Executive Pastor Sutton is up at 4am everyday praying for our church. Now is a time for everyone to pray and love a lot. Lastly, without being improper we’ve frankly been through tougher times and deeper cuts before. After 15 years i can say this is not the worst storm we’ve weathered. We will get through it together by Gods grace. Trust me on this fact.
This memo illustrates why transparency is needed now. Dave Bruskas is the remaining executive and presumably is the one responsible for the current decision not to release information on the Global Fund, severance packages and the Driscoll investigation report. In 2012, the executive elders had gotten raises while telling the staff that they had cut “first and deepest.”
What were the cuts? In Driscoll’s case, he cut his salary for several months from $503,077 to $480,769. While some people were losing their jobs, Driscoll cut his half million dollar salary by 4.4% on an annualized basis. Then, less than three months later, Sutton Turner recommended that the church raise Driscoll’s pay by nearly $150,000. Clearly, the first cut was not the deepest.
Year after year, Mars Hill members have been asked to give sacrificially above and beyond tithes to the Global Fund and various year-end financial drives (Turner called them “Hail Mary” efforts) with no knowledge of the financial moves being made by leadership. As the church winds down, secrecy still appears to be the norm at the church with members being asked to give until the end while the leaders have decided not to disclose the Driscoll investigation, a full accounting of the Global Fund, or the commitment of the church to executive severances.
The current remaining elders have an opportunity to step up and walk in the light as they were asked to do by the nine former pastors who took a stand for disclosure and transparency. Time is slipping away and it remains to be seen what that legacy will be.
Research for Mark Driscoll's Delayed Book — The Problem with Christianity — Available to the Masses
This is an interesting development.
The research which formed the foundation for Mark Driscoll’s now postponed book, The Problem with Christianity has now been made available for free download on the Mars Hill Church website.
The way the description of the research report closes makes me wonder if Driscoll is going to release his book:
Our hope is this valuable research can be helpful for you as you prepare content such as sermons, books, or blog posts.
When he took his six week “focus break,” Driscoll said he had agreed to postpone the publication of the book until a future “season.”
Now someone else might turn it into a book first.
I have to give some unknown decision maker at Mars Hill kudos. The research for the book cost Mars Hill Church six figures and now the members and the rest of us can read it.
Soma's Jeff Vanderstelt Answers Some Questions Regarding Mars Hill Bellevue Transition
Last week, I asked Nick Laparra several questions about the transition from Mars Hill Bellevue to Bellevue Soma (or Soma Bellvue). Laparra just emailed to say that many of those questions have been answered in an open letter, which I am reproducing here. Jeff Vanderstelt, the Soma pastor tapped to possibly take on the preaching duties at Bellevue, wrote on the Soma website:
In light of the recent announcement that I am considering replanting a new church out of Mars Hill Bellevue which will cease to exist on December 31, 2014, it seemed wise and helpful to further introduce myself.
I have been in pastoral ministry for nearly 25 years and have a passion to see Jesus at work through the church, which is His body, in every sphere of life. I believe God has called me to cast this vision for the church as well as equip the church to fulfill it. I believe the church is much more than an event on Sunday or a group of leaders who run programs for people to attend. The church is God’s people, saved by God’s power, filled by God’s presence, for His purposes in all of life. And the leaders God gives to the church exist to serve and equip the church to live this out everyday of the week.
I began as a pastor in student ministry equipping students for everyday life. I then joined Bill Clem, who planted Doxa Church in West Seattle, which was part of the Acts 29 Network. The elders of Doxa sent me out to plant Soma in Tacoma where we were assessed and Soma Tacoma became part of the Acts 29 Network. For the past 10 years, I have been equipping all ages as part of Soma Tacoma’s leadership team. In the past, I served in the role of Vice President for Acts 29 and more recently as part of the Acts 29 Board over the Northwest. Presently, I have stepped away from board leadership and moved to an advisory role.
The Biblical letter to the church in Ephesus significantly shaped Soma’s vision with Ephesians 1:22-23 leading us to our ‘Soma’ name: “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body [Greek: soma], the fullness of him who fills all in all.” We believe God wants to fill Tacoma, and every place for that matter, with the presence of Jesus through His body [soma] the church so that every man, woman, and child has a daily encounter with Jesus. We knew this could not happen through large group gatherings only, so we trained our people to live in community, on mission, in smaller groups called missional communities. As a missional community people learn together how to love one another like family, serve Jesus by serving others, and share Jesus verbally to others with the hope that they also would come to love and follow Jesus. It is not just an inward facing group but one that deliberately faces outward to a neighborhood or specific group of people who don’t yet know the love of Jesus personally.
As we equipped people to live on mission together, based upon God’s Word, out of love for Jesus and empowered by his Spirit, more groups were started and the church continued to grow. Eventually we found ourselves helping other leaders around the country and the world to plant new churches or transition existing ones to greater faithfulness to Jesus’ mission. This led to the beginning of the Soma Family of Churches in 2010. The Soma Family is a group of independently governed churches committed to a common vision of seeing Jesus work through His body in every place and every day through missional communities. We share similar doctrinal distinctives as well as common convictions regarding equipping the church for mission. We also believe every church should be led and governed locally by a plurality of elders who humbly lead and serve by example amongst their community. Though we are not legally bound to one another, we commit relationally to love one another like family.
Many have asked why I would consider replanting a church in Bellevue, especially in light of the brokenness and pain that has taken place in the existing church. The answer I have continued to share is that I really love Jesus and His church, and my heart is deeply broken over what has taken place. Everything in my flesh tells me to run the other way. However, Jesus has led Jayne, my wife of 22 years, our children, our local elders (many of whom have been praying for Mars Hill for years), and over 60 leaders from our church to see this as our brothers and sisters whom Jesus died for and whom we are called to love. We are all in agreement on this. Jesus has clearly directed us through his word (Romans 15:1-13 and Isaiah 61), through dreams, and through many wise counselors to seriously consider replanting a new church. One of my responses to a leader from Bellevue who incredulously asked why I would ever consider coming was this, “When God calls you to do something you just know. You just know! And when you know, you have to obey or you will not be able to sleep at night.”
Part of our ongoing process of discernment involved our local Soma Tacoma elders spending a night in prayer and waiting to receive counsel, concerns, and key questions from God that they in turn presented before Jayne and me. I had informed them that I would not consider this if they did not unanimously affirm it. They returned with over 30 very specific questions and concerns, some of which we answered in our next meeting together. A key question, among many, during this time was whether I truly had a heart for the people there. In response I shared that I wept over these brothers and sisters every time I prayed for the church there, “Yes, I have a huge heart for these people! And I don’t know how to explain it apart from God’s work in me.”
Many other questions and concerns could only be addressed by the Bellevue elders. So Jayne and I, along with two Soma elders, met with the elders from Bellevue. During that time the rest of the questions and concerns were addressed. One of the key points of clarification was that this new church be a genuine replant – a new start – with new vision, methodology, different staffing if needed, and a willingness from all the elders to resign if necessary. I also shared that I would want this new church plant to eventually become part of the Soma Family of Churches, which we all agreed could not happen immediately. These elders have humbly agreed to all these points. They want to do whatever is needed to see the people of the church shepherded and led well moving forward. We also made it clear that I would not be considered a part of Mars Hill in any way. In light of all that has transpired, we agreed that since many people have been deeply hurt, there is still a need for ongoing repentance, reconciliation, and restoration.
Since that meeting, we met with over 60 of our leaders from Soma Tacoma who affirmed God’s call to consider this new ministry. I also met with other leaders from the Mars Hill Bellevue and Sammamish churches, interacted with members of the body during their family meeting on November 23rd, and shared my story and vision for a new church during the 4 PM gathering.
As we continue in this process of discernment I am making myself available to members of the Bellevue and Sammamish churches, as well as Soma Tacoma. I also intend to meet with the greater Eastside pastors and leaders as well as receive ongoing counsel from leaders from around the country. We are not planning on making this decision in isolation or without the support and affirmation of the Bellevue and Sammamish church families. We hope to have clarity on this decision by December 14th, making an announcement no later than December 21st.
In everything we do moving forward, I want us to operate with dependency on the Spirit, openness and transparency, mutual submission, and with a constant posture of humility. As a result, I hope this leads to a new church that partners with other churches and other leaders in the community. In this new church, Jesus must be the only man lifted up, and I trust that as He is, by the grace of God, healing, reconciliation, and restoration will take place.
Please pray for us as we consider this together. And if the Lord should so lead us to replant a new church, pray for healing, for wisdom for establishing a new leadership culture, and above all else that we keep Jesus at the top of the org chart and humbly serve Him well on the Eastside.
Dreams?
Vanderstelt said the Bellevue elders were willing to resign but did not say if they intend to, and, to my knowledge, they haven’t.
My question about transparency was not addressed directly. I noted to Laparra that the amount of money spent on missions, and the disposition of Mark Driscoll and Sutton Turner is unknown to the members who are being asked to give money. Members don’t know if their money is going to help start the new Soma church or if it is going to pay severances. I asked if Soma would require more transparency at Mars Hill Bellevue. Other the word “transparency”being used, there is nothing specific in this letter. In my opinion, every day this information remains hidden is a day that the new boss seems a little more like the old boss.
I suspect this letter will sound very Mars Hillsy to many. That may or may not mean anything problematic but as one who did not know the language before a year ago, I can recognize it here. I do think this line must have been written with Mark Driscoll in mind: ” In this new church, Jesus must be the only man lifted up, and I trust that as He is, by the grace of God, healing, reconciliation, and restoration will take place.”