Mars Hill Church – Page 30 – Warren Throckmorton

Relevant Magazine Asks What We Can Learn From the Downfall of Mars Hill Church, No Voices From Exiles

Ruth Moon writing for Relevant Magazine interviews Jennifer McKinney, Gerry Breshears, Samuel Rodriguez, Francis Chan, Kate Bowler, and William Vanderbloemen to seek answers to her question.
Seems like it all comes down to celebrity and business. Don’t worship the pastor and don’t make church a business.
While those are two important components, I hope there is more to learn than that.
Some observations:
Breshears is described as Driscoll’s mentor from 2000-2010. According to Driscoll’s 2012 job description, Breshears was still mentoring him in 2012. Note this excerpt:

External Accountability
o James MacDonald, Darrin Patrick and Larry Osborne.
o Gerry Breshears will serve as a theological accountability/consultant to Pastor!Mark.
o Dr. Catanzaro will serve as health accountability for Pastor Mark.

In December 2013, when I contacted Gerry Breshears about plagiarism in his book with Driscoll, he told me that Driscoll’s apology via Tyndale House about Call to Resurgence was sufficient, even though Driscoll never addressed plagiarism in subsequent books.
Breshears now has lots of observations about Driscoll and Mars Hill. For instance, he opines:

“The goal was always, ‘We’re going to win more people for Jesus.’ The goal was good. And Mark as a preacher was pretty much right on target, but the high-pressure, performance-driven, get-results culture was deadly,” he says. “The underlying culture increasingly became, ‘We must be business efficient in all we’re doing.’ More and more, Mars Hill became a brand.”

So Mars Hill was the brand? Those familiar with the church, especially those in the media and communications team, know that Driscoll called himself the brand.
The article is interesting and I appreciate the observations but I think former members should have been interviewed. Their voices are missing. They are still waiting for the shell of Mars Hill Church to provide answers and accountability to be learned.
Vanderbloemen mentioned the church succession plan. Here it is.

Former Mars Hill Church Spokesman Justin Dean Gives Advice About Dealing with the Press

Former Mars Hill Church spokesperson offers advice to churches on how to handle the press in his new gig with Ministry Communications Association.
He certainly has had experience doing so and it appears he has taken some valuable observations away from his time at Mars Hill.
When I read this tip, I thought of the ResultSource New York Times Best Seller list fiasco.

If you know press may start poking around about a certain topic, gather your team and come up with approved messaging and basic principles ahead of time. That way your spokesperson can be prepared. It’s a good idea to write down approved answers to common questions about your church’s beliefs, and have those well prepared in advance as well.

Mars Hill had three messages in response to inquiries about Mars Hill Church’s financing a book buying scheme, all offered in the space of about a week. In March, I wrote:

This is the third reaction from Driscoll/Mars Hill to the ResultSource scheme. First, Justin Dean told World Magazine that the RSI-Mars Hill relationship was an “investment” and an “opportunity.” Then the Board of Advisors and Accountability said the scheme was “unwise.” Now Driscoll says he first saw it as a way to maximize book sales, but now sees it as manipulative and “wrong.” The vacillation about whether gaming the system is a good opportunity, unwise or wrong is confusing and won’t do much to convince people that Mars Hill and Driscoll can be candid.

It appears that there was an internal struggle about how to message the revelation to the public. I have asked Justin about the discrepancies and will add any information from him to this post.
The bottom line advice is to have a pastoral staff that doesn’t place the PR person in a position to defend the indefensible.

Quest Church Has Purchased the Building Formerly Known as Mars Hill Ballard

It is official: Quest Church in Seattle has purchased the old Mars Hill Ballard location. In a press release out late last night, the church announced that it will rent the building to Cross and Crown Church, the current occupant until they can move into a new facility.

Sources in a position to know have told me that Cross and Crown Church leaders (formerly Mars Hill Ballard) plan to move into the old Mars Hill University District building sometime later this year. Mars Hill Church is in the process of selling and distributing assets, including this sale and the distribution of the University District building to Cross and Crown. Mars Hill has been silent about the pace of dissolution. At one point since the announcement of Mars Hill’s closing, executive elder Dave Bruskas told me that the [email protected] account was being monitored. However, no answers have come as the result of inquiries to that account.

Quest Church to Occupy Old Mars Hill Ballard Building

Although details are few, an announcement in church this morning indicated that Quest Church, pastored by Eugene Cho, will occupy the old Mars Hill Ballard building.
An unidentified staffer indicated that a press release would come out later this week with more details. It is not clear at this time whether Quest Church will purchase the building or enter into some other kind of relationship with what is left of Mars Hill.
Mars Hill Church ceased holding services on the last Sunday of December 2014. The church continues to function as a legal entity to dispose of property and other assets. Church sources have gone silent about the pace of dissolution. The potential lawsuit is still potential.
Mars Hill Ballard became Cross and Crown Church in 2015. For now, Cross and Crown still meets at 1401 NW Leary Way in Seattle. I wonder where they will go next.

UPDATE: Several reliable sources have informed me that the current plan is for Cross & Crown Church to take control of the old University District church.

Another Former Mars Hill Church Pastor Posts to Repentant Pastor Website

Demonstrating that the fall out from Mars Hill’s demise is ongoing, former Mars Hill pastor James Harleman posted an essay of confession on Saturday. It begins:

I sat on a bed upstairs in our room at the retreat home, my head in my hands, asking my wife if our lead pastor was fit to be an elder… if the state of his marriage was in a place wherein he needed a sabbatical, and if his verbal evisceration of another elder’s wife – simply for offering a gentle word of counsel – was anything but deplorable. I didn’t know what to say, or even what to think.

All the elders had been there and seen it. No one had countered or interceded in any way.

It was summer 2006, more than a year before the infamous bylaw change and terminations at Mars Hill Church that many would see as the first sign of a problem. I was just over a year into my tenure as a pastor but still felt like the new guy. The unspoken acceptance of all the other pastors at that elders’ retreat became a justification for my own omission.

Not a true justification, mind you – simply in my own mind.

Harleman is apparently speaking about Mark Driscoll in the first paragraph. He is also one who was involved in trying to bring change internally before he decided he could not.