Board of Advisors and Accountability

Did Paul Tripp Meet with the Mars Hill Church Board of Advisors and Accountability?

For a full treatment of this question, please see Wenatchee the Hatchet’s post on the subject.
On Wednesday, Sutton Turner wrote:

During my tenure, many people criticized the culture of Mars Hill and lack of accountability. The most stinging came from Dr. Paul Tripp who actually served on the Board of Advisors and Accountability for eight months when past mistakes and sins began to crater in on Mars Hill. Few people know that Dr. Tripp never physically attended a board meeting during that time. In fact, he had never met all of the board members in person. Furthermore, the points he attempted to make were never made in a board meeting or to all of the board members.

In a March 26, 2014 letter from the Board of Advisors and Accountability, Board chair Michael Van Skaik told Mars Hill leaders that Paul Tripp had been to Seattle to help address the charges against Mark Driscoll. Van Skaik wrote:

However, we are hungry for reconciliation and are continually grieved that many offenses and hurts are still unresolved. We want to seek out and hear the hurts in a biblical manner.A Board-approved reconciliation process is currently underway and is being overseen by Dr. Paul Tripp who flew to Seattle and recently spent a day with the Executive Elders. [emphasis added] He has also been in conversation with a person who is very capable of facilitating these reconciliations.

According to the letter from BoAA chair Van Skaik, Tripp was in Seattle and was in the thick of the efforts to bring reconciliation. I am aware that Tripp met with several former Mars Hill pastors in order to bring them in to the reconciliation process. While it may be true that Tripp did not meet with the entire BoAA all together in one room at the same moment, it is clear that the BoAA trusted him enough to publicly refer to him as the point person on reconciliation. Furthermore, if Van Skaik was right, Tripp met with the executive elders in person for an entire day on the subject of the leadership problems at Mars Hill.
The reconciliation process was initiated with several meetings but fizzled over time. Tripp eventually resigned in July 2014. Tripp made a statement about the situation in August 2014 on his website.
Also, in August 2014, I reported that Paul Tripp told nine then current pastors at Mars Hill Church that Mars Hill was “the most abusive, coercive ministry culture I’ve ever been involved with.”

Mars Hill Church Executive Elder Dave Bruskas on Mark Driscoll, NYTs Best-Seller List, Strange Fire and More

I suspect different people will key in on different aspects of this video featuring recent remarks from Dave Bruskas. Bruskas led the Albuquerque NM City on a Hill church into an alliance with Mars Hill and then left Albuquerque in July 2011 to become an executive elder at Mars Hill Church. He is now slated to return as preaching pastor for the newly renamed North Church. Bruskas spoke on December 3, 2014 to a member’s meeting at the church. The questions were pre-selected with public questions not taken from the crowd. Yesterday, I posted a brief segment where Bruskas said Driscoll’s resignation was not the most redemptive outcome. The following segment deals with Bruskas regrets following a question from lead pastor Donovan Medina. A transcript of the video is at the link.

Click here for a transcript.

At about 1:15, in response to Medina’s question, Bruskas said the Board of Overseers (Jon Phelps, Larry Osborne, Michael Van Skaik, and Matt Rogers) found three areas of “persistent sin” via the examination of charges against Mark Driscoll: arrogance, domineering leadership and harsh words. While these were the three areas identified by the Board of Elders’ investigation, the BoO did not use the term “persistent sin” in their communication to the congregation. Rather, it was the elders later who used the term “persistent sin” in their verbal report to the various Mars Hill locations. The elders wanted Driscoll to step down and enter an elder-directed restoration process, whereas, in contrast, the BoOsaid they didn’t ask Driscoll to resign, and said that he wasn’t disqualified.

Bruskas admitted that the problems were “painfully entrenched in our culture.” He acknowledged that many leaders felt Mars Hill was special; now he sees that “God’s grace was on us in spite of us.” Bruskas didn’t believe he personally had used harsh words as Driscoll did.

For himself the three things he felt grieved about were the New York Times best-seller scam, the Strange Fire conference, and the performance driven culture of ministry.

Bruskas said he was a new executive elder in 2011 who was informed about the ResultSource contract by Jamie Munson in a car ride to work one morning. He asked if the approach had integrity and was financially feasible. Bruskas said Munson answered yes to both. After that, according to Bruskas, he didn’t ask any more questions.

Bruskas disclosed to friends that he was going to take the #2 position at Mars Hill in July 2011. That was about a month after Mark and Grace Driscoll and their agent Sealy Yates met at Thomas Nelson to discuss the ResultSource approach to scamming the best-seller list. This June 27, 2011 note from Sealy Yates to Kevin Small was included in a Mars Hill memo on the ResultSource-Real Marriage campaign.

The question is who was Jamie Munson working with? Munson has not responded to email questions on this topic. Bruskas is correct that he was a relatively new member of the executive elders. I wonder when it became clear what was actually happening with ResultSource. For instance, I wonder if he ever saw this memo. To his credit, he now believes the scheme was clearly wrong.

The second thing that grieves Bruskas is the Strange Fire incident. He said he would apologize to John MacArthur and believes he should have said something at the time. It has been over a year since that incident took place. If I had been in the Albuquerque audience, I would have asked him about the famous Driscoll tweet that security confiscated his books. I would like to hear Bruskas’ view of that tweet.

Last, Bruskas said he was sorry for being complicit with a “highly performance driven culture.” Perhaps he is referring to the actions described in this 2012 memo. In it, Bruskas took the lead in informing campus pastors that they couldn’t advocate for the staff they had to lay off due to financial pressures. The pastors were supposed to get in line. At the time, Driscoll, Bruskas and Turner had gotten significant pay increases while about 40% of the staff faced layoffs.

According to those present, nothing was asked about the Global Fund, the severance packages, Driscoll’s plagiarism, and accountability for the current sitting Board of Advisors and Accountability.

Consider this an open request for an interview to really clear the air and answer questions about Mars Hill’s unfinished business.

See also, part one of this video in which Bruskas tells the congregation that Driscoll’s resignation wasn’t the most redemptive outcome.

Mars Hill Ballard Moves Toward Independence Amid Unanswered Questions

Last night, a trusted source attended an organizational meeting at Mars Hill Ballard. Several changes were announced with information provided about the move toward becoming an independent church.

According to the source:

Scott Harris is stepping down as lead pastor. It was announced that he plans to find employment and stay on at the church as a lay elder. The preaching pastor will be Matthias Haeusel. Adam Christiansen (paid) and Kirby Langley (lay) will remain as elders. Cam Huxford will remain as worship pastor. Anthony Ianniciello was described as “very tired” and will thus step down. He will continue as a church member and lead a community group. Joe Stengele feels called elsewhere.

The elders gave out paper to use to suggest church names. However, Harris said that the elders will choose the name. As the papers were distributed, the elders promoted “Seven Hills” Church. Seven was described as a “contextualization” specific to Seattle with Hills paying deliberate homage to the old Mars Hill name.

The church will probably not remain in the current location. The building hasn’t sold and the lease-back provision from the listing has been removed. They expect to take between 3 months to a year to find a suitable location. It was disclosed that the Ballard and Sammamish buildings are being liquidated to cover Mars Hill’s debts. The seed money then will be given to the different churches according to the location’s former budget and their attendance throughout this last year. Some locations will get cash, and others will get an improved equity position in their building.

The leaders promised that the new church will be “elder led, congregationally informed.”

Questions were asked about severance pay for executives and the Mark Driscoll investigation. The elders claimed they didn’t know.

I find that hard to believe, but if true, it lends some credibility to a comment made by MHInsida on another post that seed money from sale of properties and any remaining tithes and offerings is conditioned on silence and lack of disclosure. Perhaps, the pastors don’t want to know. However, it is stunning to me that the elders could go before a group of people, ask for their support, and not have answers to those questions.

Another implication of the possibility that the elders don’t know what’s happening in their own church is that the Board of Advisors and Accountability is still in charge and desires to run out the clock on the questions that have arisen about the Global Fund, severance pay, the credibility of BoAA statements about Acts 29 and Paul Tripp, and the Driscoll investigation.

Unanswered Questions at Mars Hill Church

Barring intervention, we now know that the trajectory of Mars Hill Church is toward dissolution.
However, several questions from members and former members persist without answers. Even in the increased communication from Dave Bruskas and lead pastors, some business is unfinished. I will list them here and hope the church will eventually address them.
Global Fund
How much was collected into the Global Fund from 2012 to 2014 and how much did Mars Hill Church leaders spend on Ethiopian and Indian outreach during that time? Another question relates to the ongoing needs for support experienced by the Ethiopian and Indian church planters. Who will support them? The current Mars Hill leaders have a responsibility to see that those needy families get the money raised in their name. The church should address how the Ethiopian and Indian pastors are going to get their severance pay.
Severance Pay
Another issue about which I get many emails is the status of executive elder salaries and their severance packages. Members and former members want to know if the executive elders are getting a year long severance, how much they are getting, and whether or not the severance will be paid after the church dissolves. Church leaders continue to ask members to give, but haven’t answered some basic questions about the stewardship of those funds. This is a red flag.
Driscoll Investigation Report
A third common question I hear is: When is the report on the Driscoll investigation going to be released? I am hearing that some elders want to release it now, some want to wait until January 1, and others don’t want to release it ever. The elders went part way toward disclosure but have still not directly disputed the Board of Advisors and Accountability’s claim that Driscoll was not disqualified. The matter of disqualification is relevant to the second question above. If Driscoll was disqualified then his employment agreement would have allowed for the church to handle his departure differently with more favorable financial ramifications to the church. In tight times, when members are being asked to give to a church which is dissolving, this is a relevant matter.
Non-Disclosure Agreements
Although I don’t think these are binding, several former leaders have written to say they feel their hands are tied unless the church releases them from the non-disclosure agreement. Apparently, some of these men have asked for clarity and received no answer.
It is beyond me how the leaders of any church can ask non-voting members to give sacrificially without being transparent and providing disclosure on basic issues.
Readers, what questions do you have?

Are Changes Coming to Mars Hill Church?

Within the past two days, some members are being assured by the Mars Hill Church elders that greater transparency is coming to the church. One intriguing claim is that the Board of Advisors and Accountability is soon to be dissolved. An announcement to that effect is planned to come out soon, perhaps today. According to the members who related this to me, pastors are talking openly about this without restriction.
In addition, plans are in the works to open Mars Hill’s financial records. Perhaps, the public will get a look at the real Global Fund situation. Maybe the members will at last learn how tithes and offerings have been and are being used. I suspect there will be a multitude of questions which various stakeholders will ask.
A suggestion. Don’t gloss over the issues which have been raised. For instance, where the public has been misled in the past, correct the record. Calculate how much funding should go to Ethiopian and Indian mission work, and provide that level of funding.
If this isn’t the case, believe me, I will be back to correct any false impressions created here.
I hope I soon get to write some stories of redemption and repair.