Tag: Mars Hill Church

Mars Hill Bellevue Becomes Doxa Church

After incorporating as Bellevue Church, and using Eastside church for awhile, the Mars Hill Bellevue leaders seem to have settled on Doxa Church as the new name for the Jeff Vanderstelt led church. From Jason Skelton late yesterday:

If you were at any of our gatherings on Sunday, you had the opportunity to join with us in the exciting news that we have welcomed Jeff Vanderstelt as the Lead Teaching Pastor of our new church. He will begin in this new role on January 1st, 2015.

As a part of our series, Jeff preached on Sunday and also shared the new name of the church: Doxa Church. Doxa is the Greek word for Glory, and foundational to the choice of the name Doxa is Colossians 1:27 which reads: “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Jeff’s sermon was a part of the series “Jesus: Gift of God” and the focus of this sermon was on the name “Immanuel,” which means “God with us”, showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of  Isaiah’s prophecy. We encourage you to watch the entirety of the sermon to understand the deep meaning of our church name.

We look forward to seeing you this Sunday, December 28th, as we celebrate the work that God has done through Mars Hill Church. We will have one special service together at 10am. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has prepared a special message that will be shared.

On behalf of the elders, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas. See you on Sunday!

In Christ,

Jason

Have $100,000? You Could Own TheResurgence.com

It is for sale. Asking price $100k.
The following is from an email sent to prospective buyers from a law firm in Texas.

You are being contacted because it is my understanding you have inquired about purchasing select assets related to the resurgence.com website and domain name.  We appreciate your expression of interest and are reaching out to interested parties and soliciting offers for this website content, technology, accounts, etc.
The asking price is $100,000 and the Resurgence content will be sold to the best offer subject to an undisclosed reserve.  Your offer may be more or less than the asking price.
  • We will be taking offers until 1/05/2015
  • We will choose an offer on or before 01/15/2015
  • Please direct any questions and offers to me, Steven Goodspeed
Here is what you can have for $100k:

Included is:

 

Rick Warren to Preach Final Sermon at Mars Hill Church

Knock me over with a feather.

This Sunday, December 28th, will be our final Sunday as Mars Hill Church. We hope you will join us as each of our churches will be holding worship services.
As we reflect on over eighteen years of ministry, and ultimately close the doors on Mars Hill Church, we are thankful that many of our churches will continue as new independent, autonomous churches. While Mars Hill Church will cease to exist, God’s work through his people will continue.
Our dear friend Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church has graciously offered to preach the final sermon for us. Each of our churches will be showing a special message from Pastor Rick, based on John 12:24.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
Our hope is that this timely message will be an encouragement for the people that have called Mars Hill Church their home, as we reflect on the great impact our church has had on the kingdom of God, as well as an ecouragement (sic) for the new churches emerging out of Mars Hill, and the potential they have to continue bearing much fruit.
Please join us this Sunday. We hope to see you there.

That’s one way to close down a church.
 

Mark Driscoll Launches New Official Website

Looking just like the Mars Hill Church website, Mark Driscoll has launched MarkDriscoll.org.
Incorporated in Texas, the bio begins:

Pastor Mark Driscoll is a Jesus-following, mission-leading, church-serving, people-loving, Bible-preaching pastor. In 2010, Preaching magazine named him one of the 25 most influential pastors of the past 25 years. He’s grateful to be a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody.
Pastor Mark is the author of many books, has written for CNN, Fox News, and The Washington Post, and has been featured as a columnist for The Seattle Times.

I suspect the first line will really inflame the Mars Hill in exile folks. The more complete picture includes a church-leaving, elders’-avoiding ex-pastor. I know anyone can take the title pastor but one often thinks of it in relationship to the pastor of a church.
This line is ironic since Driscoll was removed from the network earlier this year:

He is the co-founder of the Acts 29 Network, which has planted over 400 churches in the US and 13 other nations.

Then there is this line:

With a skillful mix of bold presentation, accessible teaching, and unrelenting compassion for those who are hurting the most—particularly women who are victims of sexual and physical abuse and assault—Pastor Mark has taken biblical Christianity into cultural corners rarely explored by evangelicals.

I’ll let readers react to that one.
Pretty amazing really to start the make-over so quickly.
Reminds me of the ServPro commercials; like it never even happened:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/BghyifwhQ4c[/youtube]
An interesting about the website: it is registered to Mars Hill Fellowship (go here and look up the domain name).

Domain Name:MARKDRISCOLL.ORG
Domain ID: D104853693-LROR
Creation Date: 2004-09-07T15:38:06Z
Updated Date: 2014-12-10T02:19:44Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2015-09-07T15:38:06Z
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 48
WHOIS Server: 
Referral URL: 
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID:24938753-NSI
Registrant Name:Mars Hill Fellowship Seattle
Registrant Organization:Mars Hill Fellowship Seattle
Registrant Street: 7758 Earl Ave NW
Registrant City:Seattle
Registrant State/Province:WA
Registrant Postal Code:98117
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2067066641
Registrant Phone Ext: 
Registrant Fax: 
Registrant Fax Ext: 
Registrant Email:[email protected]

The domain was created in 2004 but renewed this month. The email contact uses a domain name not now used by Mars Hill Church. According to Wenatchee the Hatchet, Mars Hill Fellowship may be separate from Mars Hill Church. I don’t understand the legal issues here, but this information makes me wonder if Mark Driscoll might make a come back as pastor of a Mars Hill Fellowship.
This information also increases the pressure on the church to explain how they are stewarding their present resources. They just spend thousands to investigate Driscoll and found that he should step down and enter a restoration program. Now he shows up with an asset registered to what looks like was the forerunner of the church. Dud they hand over the domain to him? Mars Hill Church is still listed as the contact.
On the site, Driscoll asks for “tax-deductible” gifts which apparently go to something called Learning for Living, described as “an application-pending registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible in full or in part.” Nothing by that name comes up in a search of charities in Washington state.
I suspect this news adds new urgency to the recent challenge by former elder Jon Krombein to release the Driscoll investigation results.
Click here to read the incorporation paper. The attorney is Anthony and Middlebrook, who represented them in their fuss with Santa Ana, CA when the church refused to obey the city’s zoning laws.