Tag: Mark Driscoll

Press Release: Suspended Naturopath Special Advisor to Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church

As part of his media defense, John Catanzaro has issued a lengthy media kit. According to the release available from John Catanzaro’s Facebook page, the naturopath provides wellness consultation for Mars Hill executive pastors, serves on an Advisory Board Council at Mars Hill Church and is a special advisor to Mark Driscoll. Catanzaro lost his license to practice naturopathic medicine in January of this year due to allegations of administering unapproved cancer vaccines to his patients.  He has a hearing scheduled for August of this year and has been mounting a media campaign in his defense. On page 6 of the release, Catanzaro claims to be helping Mars Hill and Acts 29 develop a ministry model for wellness integration:

 
Then on page 9, he claims to be a special advisor to Mark Driscoll:

I have contacted Justin Dean at Mars Hill about these claims. I will post any response I get.
Catanzaro was once a featured writer for Mars Hill Church’s Resurgence website. When his licensed was suspended, all of his articles were pulled from the website. Mark Driscoll has mentioned Cantazaro as a naturopath who helped him overcome his “adrenal fatigue” (not an actual medical condition) and provided an introduction to Catanzaro’s book on marijuana.
It is hard to tell if the claims in the media kit are accurate. On one hand, I have heard from internal Mars Hill sources that Catanzaro administers vitamins and various costly interventions exclusively to Mars Hill executive elders as a part of the wellness plan. On the other hand, Catanzaro also has claimed a research partnership with the University of Washington and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard. According to spokespersons for the U of W and Dana Farber, the claims of a partnership were never true. Dana Farber expressly demanded that Catanzaro cease using the name of the clinic in his materials.  It is not clear how Catanzaro could provide naturopathic services to Mars Hill since his license has been suspended.
In addition to his media campaign, Catanzaro has launched a fund raising effort he says will benefit his patients.
 
 
 

Based on Mark Driscoll's Missing Video, Christianity Today Asks Theologians "Did Jesus Make Mistakes?"

Beyond the implausible explanation from Mars Hill Church leaders about why the Mark Driscoll’s sermon was edited, Christianity Today wanted to know what some theologians thought about the accuracy of the missing material.  So CT’s Kevin Emmert asked for opinions and reported six. Emmert started with a theologian who largely agreed with Driscoll’s missing six minutes and ended with someone who did not. Since he started at one end, I’ll get you started at the other:

“We can distinguish between mistakes and sins. Suppose I write about Jane Austin on social media. My friend corrects me: ‘It’s Austen, not Austin.’ I made a mistake, yet no sin was committed, surely. However, sin involves a mistake of some sort—failing to meet the mark. Jesus could not sin, because God cannot sin, and he is God incarnate (Hab. 1:13; Heb. 4:15). His divine nature is perfect, and a perfect being cannot make mistakes. So Christ the God-man could not make mistakes.”
~ Oliver Crisp, professor of systematic theology, Fuller Theological Seminary

Go read the whole thing at CT.

Fund Set Up to Help Pastor Abruptly Fired By Mars Hill Church (UPDATED)

UPDATE (6/3): In a surprising move, Mars Hill Ballard pastor Scott Harris alerted Phil Smidt that the church leaders had reversed themselves and will provide a severance for Smidt.
UPDATE (6/1): The goal has been accomplished.
In less than a day, the fund is now over half-way toward the goal of $20k. Many of those giving are former Mars Hill members and leaders. In a sense, there seems to be two Mars Hill churches, one that is run by the current executive elders and then another one in exile.

……………..
Without explanation, Mars Hill Ballard’s lead pastor Scott Harris asked popular biblical living pastor Phil Smidt to step down from his staff position. Then yesterday Harris thanked Smidt for his service and told the congregation that the church was still supporting Smidt financially. Tonight, there is reason to question that claim. Smidt’s friends have set up an account on Gofundme.com to help provide financial support and health insurance for the Smidt family over a three month period.
Another former Mars Hill elder, Jon Krombein, created the account because:

We love Pastor Phil Smidt and want to support him and his family in this time of transition since being fired from Mars Hill.

Apparently, the leadership of Mars Hill declined to give Smidt transitional support after abruptly dismissing him this week (an email I sent to lead pastor Scott Harris has not been answered). Sources say Smidt declined to sign the non-disclosure agreement.
Smidt’s departure comes amid other high profile staff changes (e.g., Mike Wilkerson) and dismissals of well loved lay leaders (e.g., Dalton Roraback and Phil Poirier). Roraback was dismissed for raising questions about the executive elders and Poirier was relieved of his position because he declined to sign a promise not to serve at a church in a 10 mile radius of any Mars Hill church.
Harris informed the church that Smidt was asked to step down “after many conversations along with much prayer and deliberation.” I have obtained the email that sources say came from Harris to various leaders at the church:

CG & RG Leaders:
Leaders,
I wanted to let you know about a transition on our Ballard elder team. After many conversations along with much prayer and deliberation I have decided to ask Phil Smidt to step down from staff and eldership, and today is his last day. Phil has been a valuable member of the Ballard leadership team, and has contributed greatly to the counseling and marriage ministries of our entire church.
We are very thankful for his many years of service. We will continue to support Phil financially and through prayer while he seeks what the Lord has next for him. Please join me in praying for him and his family as they make this transition.
We will do our best to keep you informed as we seek someone to take on the Biblical Living Pastor role. In the meantime, myself, Pastor Cliff Ellis, Ballard elders along with other leaders will be taking on this responsibility. We wanted to let you know about this transition as soon as we could so that you would be prepared to discuss this with your groups as necessary. If you have any questions, I along with any of the elders would be happy to discuss this further with you.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
 

Another Mars Hill Church Pastor Fired, Reportedly for Questioning Executive Elders (UPDATED)

This was just posted on Twitter:


Phil Smidt is still listed as a biblical living pastor at Mars Hill Ballard campus (this page has now been removed; I have a copy of it and will put it up soon) and his wife is a deacon (link probably dead on arrival). I have heard this news from several sources but am working to confirm.
According to sources, the Smidts were one of the first families to attend Mars Hill Church. Phil’s wife is the sister of former executive elder Jamie Munson. Munson is still an elder at Mars Hill and Co-President of Storyville Coffee in Seattle.
The Mars Hill website says this for now:

Jen Smidt is a deacon at Mars Hill Ballard where she and her husband, Phil, teach regularly on marriage and dating. Together they have two sons and a daughter. They were part of the original core group when Mars Hill Church was planted in 1996.

I have obtained the note from Mars Hill Ballard franchise lead pastor Scott Harris announcing the dismissal of pastor Smidt:

CG & RG Leaders:
Leaders,
I wanted to let you know about a transition on our Ballard elder team. After many conversations along with much prayer and deliberation I have decided to ask Phil Smidt to step down from staff and eldership, and today is his last day. Phil has been a valuable member of the Ballard leadership team, and has contributed greatly to the counseling and marriage ministries of our entire church.
We are very thankful for his many years of service. We will continue to support Phil financially and through prayer while he seeks what the Lord has next for him. Please join me in praying for him and his family as they make this transition.
We will do our best to keep you informed as we seek someone to take on the Biblical Living Pastor role. In the meantime, myself, Pastor Cliff Ellis, Ballard elders along with other leaders will be taking on this responsibility. We wanted to let you know about this transition as soon as we could so that you would be prepared to discuss this with your groups as necessary. If you have any questions, I along with any of the elders would be happy to discuss this further with you.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott

Another Reason to Question Mars Hill Church's Official Explanation of Mark Driscoll's Sermon Edits

On May 24, I wrote that past members of Mars Hill Church’s Media team dispute the official explanation of the deletion of about six minutes of a recent Mark Driscoll sermon on Acts 6:1-7.  After I posted the missing content, Mars Hill spokesmen told the Christian Post that the edits of Mark Driscoll discussing the mistakes of Jesus were in part due to time constraints and not unusual. Furthermore, they stood behind the deleted material. In contrast, former members of Mar Hill who once had responsibility for sermon editing tell me that such edits were not common when they were involved at the church.
From another source, I can provide additional reason to question the official explanation. I have obtained notes preparing franchise campuses for weekly church services. These notes list the duration of the sermon and an outline of Driscoll’s sermon points. The duration listed in the notes for May 18 is about six minutes longer than the edited version of this sermon.

Note the date the sermon was recorded and the scheduled date of playback. The duration of the sermon is 63:45. The version online is 56:41. In fact, the online version presentation on May 18 is much shorter than the comparable videos on May 11 (62:00) and May 25 (63:39). Clearly more was edited from the May 18 presentation than the others in the series. Going back to the initial sermons in the Acts series last year, the video duration when Mark Driscoll preached ranged from 66 to 73 minutes. The only one under an hour from last year is the Sunday Dave Bruskas preached. All of sermons on days Driscoll preached are over an hour. In the entire series, the only online video less than an hour on a Sunday when Mark Driscoll preached is May 18, 2014. In contrast to the claims of the church, the May 18 edits were not business as usual.
I also have the presentation notes for the May 11 and May 25 sermons (click the links to view the relevant sections of the production notes). The procedure is the same for the May 18 sermon. The objective is to edit the sermon (all over 60 minutes) to about 60 minutes. This allows for the initial Mars Hill Global commercial or sermon trailer to take the online video presentation to just over an hour. The initial plan was to edit the sermon slightly to get to about 60 minutes. However, in contrast to normal practice, the May 18 sermon was edited in such a way that the message was cut to about 54 minutes in length, much shorter than any other sermon in the series.
Thus, Mars Hill’s statement to the Christian Post was a half-truth. Yes, they regularly edit the sermons to get the messages to about 60 minutes. However, much more time was taken from the May 18 sermon than any other sermon in the series. If the content was really fine with the leaders then why was that particular 6 minute section removed? There were many pauses throughout the sermon were the video could easily have been trimmed to about 60 minutes without eliminating any content.