Tag: Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll Addresses Mars Hill Church About "One Of The Deepest Learning Seasons" Of His Life

Update: The entire video was available on the Mars Hill website but since the church is now closed, it is no longer available there. You can view it below, hosted on YouTube.

Saying he wanted to give the church an update on “one of the deepest learning seasons” of his life, Mark Driscoll delivered a 30 minute video message via the Mars Hill weekly update yesterday.  Without giving many details about “the season,” Driscoll hinted at several issues but ignored others.

 

 

 

 

 

Driscoll began by discussing the beginning of his Christian life and the beginning of Mars Hill Church. Consistent with the dominant narrative in recent years, Driscoll omitted mention of Leif Moi and Mike Gunn who co-founded Mars Hill Church.

He said communication with the church had not been sufficient so the leaders started the weekly update series. Driscoll’s update was being delivered now before he left for his customary summer vacation.
Driscoll said he and the leaders had been silent recently in order to determine the nature of the problems. Calling the time “overwhelming and a bit confusing,” Driscoll said the leaders weren’t sure what was happening. He added that he wanted to make a godly response and submit to the authority of the Board of Advisors and Accountability.
Driscoll said, “A lot of the people we were dealing with in this season remain anonymous, and so we don’t know how to reconcile or how to work things out with people because we’re not entirely sure who they are.” This is a puzzling statement. Numerous people have contacted Mars Hill by name with their concerns with little response from the church.

Driscoll referred to the times of organizational change during 2006-2007 and 2011-2012. He said those changes were made in response to church growth but added that he now believes that he could have handled those changes in a more “sympathetic” manner. He said the changes had some “adverse personal implications for the people and the leaders who were involved.” Some people “were hurt,” Driscoll said, and “as a result there is a group of largely anonymous former leaders of our Mars Hill Church family and we want to reconcile with those men, our brothers in Christ, and so we have opened up a process that has been underway, and it is a relational reconciliation process, where an independent outside ministry, that’s part of the Peacemakers ministry is involved.”

Driscoll said the church was inviting the leaders in to speak to the Peacemakers team. Of course, it was the 20 former pastors that requested the process after efforts to get a hearing were denied. Driscoll said the process would go on until September. He added that they are not free to speak about the process because of the confidentiality requirements of Peacemakers.
Driscoll said that in the future the church would be using Bible based covenants with pastors and staff rather non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. While this sounds like a departure or improvement, without being able to see what is in the “covenants” it is hard to evaluate whether or not this is a sign of change.

Although Mars Hill has moved to remove fair use of their video materials from You Tube, Driscoll indicated that he was glad we live in a nation with freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  Given the lack of engagement of Mars Hill with the media and their move to remove fair use materials, it is hard to take this sentiment seriously.

“We can’t respond to everyone, but we’re willing to learn from anyone,” Driscoll said about Mars Hill’s critics. While it is hard to take this seriously, it is clear that Mars Hill has changed the way they solicit donations as the result of my reporting on Mars Hill Global. If they were interested in learning or really being open to outside input, they could start by responding to requests for information, not just from me, but from donors to Mars Hill Global.

Driscoll addressed the possibility of a lawsuit by informing the congregation that the church is retaining documents, including emails in the event that the church is sued. However, he indicated that no such suit is current.

Driscoll told the congregation that he is learning the value of mourning and lamenting, that his empathy for women and children is higher than his empathy for other men and that he wants to be a more effect “spiritual father.” He assured the church that he did not plan to leave Mars Hill because he believes he is where he is supposed to be.  Even though the congregation has no vote on Driscoll’s tenure, he thanked the church for allowing him to teach the Bible at Mars Hill.

Driscoll closed with a request for prayer that he would not respond with impatience or pride.

On the whole, this address was very short on specifics and completely ignored issues surrounding the financial problems of the church and the controversy over Mars Hill Global.  It seems to be an effort to calm the nerves of a rattled congregation. My sources inform me that attendance has taken another dip and giving continues to trend downward.  Probably the executive elders believed the people needed to hear from Driscoll.

I may be able to make some of the video available soon.

A transcript of the video is available here.

Crosscut on Mars Hill Church's Recent Problems

Reporter Stacie Solie has a dark view of Mars Hill Church’s recent problems in today’s online edition of Crosscut, a Seattle area news and information website.
The first paragraph provides a taste:

There are emerging stories of sensational kangaroo courts and “sex demon” trials, like something out of the Salem witch hunts of the 1600s. Even more devastating to individual members are the ways in which they are shamed, taught to blame themselves and each other when they see problems, and to formally shun people who step out of favor with church leaders. Shunnings, both formal and informal, have caused the outcast to spend years in isolation, cut off from friends, sometimes suffering deep clinical depression, nightmares, disillusionment and shattered faith.

Solie pulls no punches in describing the results of her reporting. As usual, Mars Hill representatives declined to comment or be interviewed.  I was interviewed for the article and show up briefly near the end.

Mars Hill Church Scrubs Three Mars Hill Global Videos

UPDATE: Mars Hill claimed a copyright violation against the videos embedded below which resulted in them being removed from YouTube.
I’m not sure what to make of it but Mars Hill Church has made three videos private which were once featured on their Mars Hill Global You Tube channel. Two of them feature Pastor Mark Driscoll (in mid-2012) and in the other one, Pastor Sutton Turner (Jan. 2013) asks Mars Hill members for money to support Ethiopian church planting efforts (for a short time, you can see them in the list – #8, #24,#25 – on the Google cache page). Someone named muscleman uploaded the video featuring Sutton Turner before it was removed:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hkgolN5w8Q[/youtube]
Transcript:

Howdy Mars Hill Church, pastor Sutton Turner here and I’m in Ethiopia, and I just want to thank Jesus for continuing to use Mars Hill Church to make disciples and plant churches. Mars Hill Global is the arm of Mars Hill Church that makes disciples and plant churches all over the world. We not only do church planting, but we help better equip church planters. Most recently, we shipped and now distributed a thousand Bibles into Amharic which is the language here in Ethiopia, and we launched a project to translate Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Doctrine book into Spanish. We have people from over 29 different countries that are giving on a monthly basis to Mars Hill Global.
So whether you’re a member of one of our Mars Hill Church locations in the United States or you’re one of 100,000 podcasters every single week, we encourage you to pray about giving above and beyond your tithe to Mars Hill Global. Thank you and let’s see more materials translated, more pastors sent out, more churches planted, and more people saved by Jesus Christ. (emphasis added)

Because the Google cache won’t last forever, here is a screen capture of the missing videos.


In the video, “To India, Ethiopia and Beyond: A Mars Hill Global Update,” Mark Driscoll takes the first minute of the video to give an update of church planting at Mars Hill in the U.S. Then he says, “We believe there are other opportunities and we are waiting for Jesus to clarify exactly where He wants us to go next. In addition, I want to tell you some things that are going on with Mars Hill Global.” (emphasis added). Note the transition from church planting at Mars Hill to a report about what is going on with Global. Driscoll then summarizes what is happening in India and Ethiopia. At one point, at 2:00, Driscoll points to the Mars Hill congregation and says, “You are funding over a dozen church planters in Ethiopia.” Later, he adds that through Mars Hill Global, the church is getting resources out “to the ends of the Earth.” In the other video, “What is Mars Hill Global?” Driscoll runs down a similar list of accomplishments. He says the international efforts are being done in addition to the church planting in the U.S.
From my point of view, beginning in early 2012, Mars Hill created an impression that gifts to Mars Hill Global were mainly going to international mission efforts. Inadvertently or not, they created confusion (as they have admitted) with their various definitions of Mars Hill Global (is it a non-member audience, is it a fund, is it both?), and their constant references to international efforts in the context of Mars Hill Global pleadings. Actually, most of this has been admitted. What is remarkable is that they used “the preponderance” of donations to expand their locations, even though they gave donors almost no indication that the money was being spent in real time for those local purposes.
In accord with fair use guidelines, I clipped relevant material from the deleted videos. These clips indicate that Driscoll presented Mars Hill Global as something Mars Hill Church was doing in addition to church planting in the U.S. This is of course make sense since the international efforts after 2011 had a name (Mars Hill Global) and a fund (the Global Fund). Non-members gave money to the General Fund and the Global Fund of Mars Hill Church and at times, Mars Hill leaders referred to Mars Hill Global as people around the world who donated money. However, in these clips, Global is referred to as an effort conducted by Mars Hill Church.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/YQM_TcGhGys[/youtube]
I don’t have an opinion about why these videos have been removed. Mars Hill has already acknowledged that the church caused confusion and the leaders spent money that at least some donors believed was going to international missions primarily on domestic expansion. In any case, these videos are three of the clearer presentations of MH Global as something Mars Hill does as opposed to seeing MH Global as a group of non-members who give money.
For all posts on Mars Hill Global, click this link.
 

Mars Hill Church Says A Little More But Not Enough About the Global Fund Changes

In this week’s email newsletter to members (dated 7/11/14), Mars Hill Church leaders mentioned the Change.org petition asking for financial accountability regarding the former Mars Hill Global Fund. Mars Hill has now admitted that money given to the Global Fund actually went in the church’s General Fund and mostly was spent on expanding Mars Hill video sites. Despite the fact that Mars Hill leaders admit there was a separate fund, they are requiring donors to contact the church and specifically designate (again) that their donation should go to missions (See the Global FAQs for more information). From the newsletter:

Update on Mars Hill Global

We are very thankful for what Jesus has done through our global family since 2009, with many disciples made and churches planted in the US, Ethiopia, and India.
As we strive to communicate the vision of Mars Hill Church, there has been an outside petition asking questions of Mars Hill. However, of the nearly 400 signers, only four have ever given to Mars Hill Global. We sent letters this past week to over 6000 Global donors giving them the option to designate their funds solely for international work if they wish. We received many replies of encouragement, as well as a few people who asked to change their designation, and we have gladly made those changes.
If you have any questions regarding Mars Hill Global, we have recently posted updates to our Global FAQ online page that you might find helpful.

I have heard from donors who did not get a letter or email from the church. In fact, I have not heard from any donors who did get a letter. Obviously, I am not in touch with 6,000 donors and so I am not saying a letter was not sent. However, some donors did not get a letter. Also, I would say it is a little early to quantify the reaction to Mars Hill’s change of public position (for a somewhat different reaction see Wenatchee the Hatchet). They just changed their Global FAQs on July 1.
I don’t understand what this sentence is trying to communicate: “We received many replies of encouragement, as well as a few people who asked to change their designation, and we have gladly made those changes.” Change designation from what to what?
The Global Fund was clearly designated as separate from the General Fund on the online giving page, as well as in Mars Hill documents. If donors wanted to designate their funds to Mars Hill Church’s General Fund, they had the option to do so. Thus, Global Fund donors were designating their money to what Mars Hill Church said was “how we as a church participate in the worldwide mission of Jesus” (see below from the FY 2013 Annual Report). Now Mars Hill is making their donors jump through another hoop to redesignate their money to missions. So when Mars Hill says they are changing the designations for gifts, I don’t understand. Are they really claiming that there was no designation before?

The petition (which is still open for signatures from anyone who wants to encourage disclosure in accord with ECFA guidelines) says:

Mars Hill Church has solicited millions of dollars for its “Global Fund” which, now that questions have been asked, has disappeared. It seems that most of the money was not spent on global or international outreach and that the money simply went into the general fund. Donors and those with a close interest or tie to Mars Hill Church ought to know exactly how much of what they gave was spent on international outreach. This is a part of a greater call for financial transparency from the leaders at Mars Hill Church.

Every time a person signs the petition, a letter is sent to the boards of Mars Hill Church and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability:

Mars Hill Church, please tell us how much “Global Fund” money was spent on “international” outreach. We donors, members, ex-members and the broader Christian community deserve transparency from the leadership at Mars Hill Church.

This is a question Mars Hill could answer easily. They know how many donors gave money, they certainly know how they spent the donor’s contributions. Mars Hill Church leaders already said the preponderance of the funds went to fund the expansion of Mars Hill video sites in the United States. Surely, they can tell us the actual numbers. Sources within Mars Hill have told me the percentage of Global Fund actually spent on missions is low, perhaps 5% or less. There is potentially quite a windfall for Ethiopia and India if Mars Hill donors would contact Mars Hill to stress they want those funds spent on missions. The amount would likely more than double the annual budget of Mars Hill’s partner for Ethiopia, New Covenant Foundation.
For all stories on Mars Hill Global, click the link.

What is the Best Season for The Problem with Christianity?

About Mark Driscoll’s The Problem with Christianity, Tyndale House said Tuesday:

Finally, while we did delay the publication date of Mark’s latest book, The Problem with Christianity, as we look for the best season in which to publish it, we have not altered our full intention to release it as a Tyndale title. This is a groundbreaking book that we believe will be greatly beneficial to the Church.

According to a March 2013 internal Mars Hill Church document provided to me, The Problem with Christianity was originally slated to be released in February 2014. Apparently, Valentine’s time is not the “best season.”
According to Driscoll, speaking in the November 1, 2013 Christian Post, the book was moved to the fall of 2014.

I will close out the conference with the findings from a massive research project we have undertaken about the most common objections to Christian faith by the unchurched and de-churched ages 18-44 that is the basis for my next book due out next fall that I am currently writing as the follow up to A Call To Resurgence. The tentative working title is My Problem With Christianity. This is the biggest research and writing project I’ve ever been a part of and the findings are surprising and enlightening while also discouraging.

Again, apparently the fall of 2014 is not the “best season.”
To the Christian Post, Driscoll mentions research that is to be the basis of the book. That research was conducted in the Spring of 2013. Given that the surveys were about trends among unchurched people, it seems like it would be good to get the research in front of people while it is still current. However, if this fall is not the “best season” then what season would be best? How much longer should Tyndale wait to bring out research done in the spring of 2013?
The book has been removed from Tyndale’s website after being up for weeks.
Maybe spring of 2015 will be the “best season,” two years after the research was conducted. If Tyndale waits much longer, it will be hard to make a case that the book is “groundbreaking.” Some research is timeless or at least has a longer shelf life, however; it is hard to make a case that trends among the unchurched fall into that category. On reflection, Tyndale’s reason for delaying the book doesn’t seem like much of a reason, certainly not a reason for waiting for another season to pass.