A current Mars Hill pastor informed me that Bellevue Church (Mars Hill Bellevue) has been in intense negotiations with an individual to become preaching pastor of the church. These talks were taking place yesterday. Initially, the elders there (led by Matt Rogers) offered the job to current executive elder Dave Bruskas. Bruskas may do some preaching at Bellevue in the next few weeks, but his future is in Albuquerque where he has taken the same position at his old church.
While it may be a coincidence, there is some speculation around Bellevue that Mark Driscoll may be involved in the process of securing a preaching pastor. According to a trusted source, Driscoll was spotted at Bellevue yesterday with his assistant Frank Park.
In any event, Bellevue’s choice will provide a glimpse into the direction of a location closely following the Mars Hill legacy. For awhile, Bellevue’s moves will be of interest to those who want to follow the fall out of Mars Hill’s implosion. More broadly, this situation provides a rare opportunity to study the effects of the demise of a large multi-site church. Will the DNA of Mars Hill be replicated in the legacy churches or will they find their own identity?
Tag: Mark Driscoll
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.
John Piper on Lessons Learned from the Mark Driscoll Controversy; ECFA, Are You Listening?
In an audio presentation out today, John Piper doesn’t regret partnering with Mark Driscoll but does see some of the problems identified by Mars Hill’s elders. In this audio, Piper briefly admits that he could have done more to help. He also says that perhaps pulling Driscoll’s book from sale, as Lifeway has done, is a defensible temporary response to the controversy. I can’t get the embed code to work so click the link for the audio)
Most of the audio is about lessons learned. Piper identifies eight lessons:
1. People are complex and we can’t always see our own flaws.
2. We need to take seriously what wise counselors tells us about ourselves. Listen.
3. Sometimes you can see what others are saying and sometimes you can’t. Driscoll might not have agreed with his elders just because he didn’t see it. To me, it seems obvious that Piper hasn’t talked to many, if any, former elders at Mars Hill.
4. Churches should be led by a team of elders with all having one vote. Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, are you listening? Paul Tripp called the structure you require for accredited churches unbiblical, and now John Piper does as well.
5. The salary of pastors should not be treated as one treats the CEO of a corporation. He opposes pastors having salaries “in the 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 hundred thousand dollar range.” Well, that is the range for all of the Mars Hill executive elders. Again, ECFA, are you listening? The ECFA requires church boards to use salary comparison studies to set executive salary. All this does is create salary inflation when the same small group of churches examine salary ranges. A range from $200k to $1.2 million became a reason to bump Driscoll’s salary to $650k, and the other executive elders to the high $200,000 range. No governance is perfect, but the Mars Hill meltdown has exposed fatal flaws in your guidance to churches. Churches are not non-profit corporations and the ECFA’s guidance in area is deeply flawed.
6. Right theology can’t keep a person from sin.
7. God’s purposes are not foiled by one man.
8. Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls.
Mark Driscoll Still Featured at Hillsong in 2015
Despite the unfinished business at Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll is still a featured speaker at Hillsong’s Sydney Australia conference next year.
A flyer given out in church last Sunday tells the tale. The brochure claims the conference will champion “the cause of local churches everywhere.” Everywhere except Seattle…
Robert Morris at Gateway Church: I Know How to Build a Healthy Church
Since Robert Morris snubbed his nose at the elders of Mars Hill Church, I have been curious about the third largest church in the nation. As noted earlier today, sources within Gateway and Mars Hill have indicated that Driscoll may be on the way back. If he does make a come back, Driscoll might credit Morris. Morris told his pastors’ conference that he has been advising Driscoll and he has an obvious track record. In fact, Morris boasted about this ability last night to his church. Watch:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/nTf17lw7_8o[/youtube]
Morris claims divine revelation to make a point that the Bible already makes. Why should we believe him? Not because of the teaching of the faith but because he has built a big church. I suspect former Mars Hill folks will hear something familiar in this. The leaders hear from God and the proof is in the success of the church.