From Mark Driscoll's A Call to Resurgence: "When a guy shrinks his church, leaves his church, and is no longer participating in any church, the last thing we should consider him is an expert on anything related to the church."

Fellow music nerds, this is where you cue up the sludgy guitars playing riffs in the Phrygian mode!  Astonishingly this video is still up (as Bane would say, "For now").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdxPgNwGV4Y

1:35ish The average person doesn't do anything until they're really ticked off. You gotta get to a certain point where you're just frustrated, you're annoyed by it, it's gotten under your skin, you're a little sick of it, you can't do it anymore and something needs to change and then all of a sudden you move to action. That's the point of the book.

We're on our way to a church that was part of Christendom's civil religion. It was all about good works and not very much about good news . That church died and in God's grace we obtained it just a few years ago, and I want you to see tonight what happens after the funeral. There is, in fact, a future as where people who were not worshipping Jesus, tons of young people are meeting Him, and you're gonna meet some of them tonight.    
That slow-motion shot of Driscoll walking up to the campus (if you watched the video) ... was which campus?

The former U-District campus, which Cross and Crown recently bought from Mars Hill, a deal sealed earlier this month.

So, there's still a church there with connections to Mars Hill.  But there's an irony at work here in that the campus was the site in a promotional video for ...

A Call to Resurgence
Resurgence (November 5, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1414383622
ISBN-13: 978-1414383620

This used to be connected to Tyndale.
Copyright (c) 2013 by On Mission, LLC and Mark Driscoll.
Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP
ISBN 978-1-4143-8362-0
ISBN 978-1-4143-8948-6
What's the irony, you ask?

"Likewise, when a guy shrinks his church, leaves his church, and is no longer participating in any church, the last thing we should consider him is an expert on anything related to the church."

A Call to Resurgence, page 192

 

Sure, Driscoll managed to lead in a way that ultimately shrunk Mars Hill; then he left Mars Hill; then Mars Hill announced formal dissolution and just a few weeks ago the corporation formerly known as Mars Hill Church died ... but Driscoll's still considered some kind of authority on things related to the church? 

After all, he was talking with Perry Noble at a conference not so long ago.

 

There's something else ... ten years ago Mark Driscoll published a book in which it kind of seemed like he was almost celebrating the demise of what has been called Christendom.  It meant a decline of merely nominalist Christianity and could be a sign that only those who were really committed would stay the course.  Did anybody read ...

Confessions of a Reformission Rev
Mark Driscoll, Zondervan 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27016-4
ISBN-10:0-310-27016-2

 

Because it seemed ten years ago Mark Driscoll was talking about how Christendom was dead and that meant there was room for the Emerging church movement to grow.

 

By the time of A Call to Resurgence Driscoll's tune had changed slightly.

A Call to Resurgence
page 12

Due to the ongoing existence of American civil religion, many evangelicals are oblivious to the fact that Christendom is dead and real Christianity is in serious decline. Those in the United States may have a general sense that Christianity is struggling in Europe, but many remain fairly optimistic about our "one nation under God." As long as we see Christmas trees on government property, as long as The Bible miniseries gets good ratings, and as long as we hear public figures talk about "faith", many believers naively assume that real Christianity is alive and well and respected by the majority of our people.

Brace yourself. It's an illusion.

 

Because absolutely nobody prior to 2013, not even Mark Driscoll himself, ever suggested that whatever Christendom might have been, was in decline? 

 

And here we are in 2016 and there is no Mars Hill Church.  Ten years ago the close of Confessions featured talk of how Mars Hill was reloading the squirt gun and was gonna charge the gates of Hell.

 

A Call to Resurgence, promoted to the soundtrack of sludgy Phrygian guitar riffs in a video where Mark Driscoll talked about Mars Hill amidst saying there WAS a future after the funeral ... well, where's Mars Hill?

 

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article25890799.html

 

The announcement that Mars Hill would formally dissolve made headlines October 31, 2014.

 

That was just a couple of days before the one year anniversary of the publication of A Call to Resurgence.

 

If Perry Noble took Mark Driscoll's own axioms to be truly be axiomatic ... .

Mars Hill Church closes sale of former U-District campus real estate to Cross & Crown Church as of March 10, 2016

Well, regular readers know by now that here at Wenatchee The Hatchet we try to keep track of the history of real estate acquisitions associated with what will soon (at some point) be the corporation formerly known as Mars Hill Fellowship/Mars Hill Church.

Last year we saw that what has become Trinity West Seattle ended up buying the real estate for what was once Mars Hill West Seattle.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/west-seattle-follow-up.html

Ironically a decade ago Mark Driscoll shared how faithful people who were at that church at one point ended up buying back the real estate from a church/denominational organization that went off the rails.  It looked vaguely like history could have been repeating itself ...

Mars Hill Church ended up doing a deed in lieu of foreclosure/contract forfeiture for what was once the Mars Hill corporate headquarters.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-end-of-mars-hills-ballard-corporate.html

We're approaching the tenth anniversary of Confessions of a Reformission Rev, the book in which Mark Driscoll confidentally predicted a bright and bustling future for that real estate that not too long ago was a case of, it seems, handing the property back to the lender because nobody's buying it. What was going to be Ballard campus 2 seems to have amounted to not a whole lot more than a boondoggle over the last ten years ... just WtH's opinion there.

But ... there's been a piece of real estate up until recently unaccounted for.  Wenatchee The Hatchet figured at some point the real estate that was formerly Mars Hill U-District might end up subject to a transaction.  It appears that as of March 10, 2016 Cross & Crown Church managed to buy the real estate from Mars Hill for a gross sale price of about $1.8 million. 

 4554 12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
http://blue.kingcounty.com/Assessor/eRealProperty/Detail.aspx?ParcelNbr=6746700035
 

Excise Number	Recording Number	Document Date	Sale Price	Seller Name	Buyer Name	Instrument	Sale Reason
2783889	20160310000351	3/10/2016	$1,778,633.00	MARS HILL CHURCH	CROSS & CROWN CHURCH	Statutory Warranty Deed	None
2453849	20100811001258	7/16/2010	$2,499,000.00	UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH OF SEATTLE	MARS HILL FELLOWSHIP	Statutory Warranty Deed

We noted not too long ago that Mars Hill Church is not yet listed as "Inactive" as a corporation and that this suggested the possibility that some transactions needed to be complete before the corporation could finally and truly dissolve.  The era of Mars Hill is not quite officially over yet, but it could be soon if there are no further real estate or other kinds of transactions to be dealt with.

Meanwhile, the Mars Hill Foundation for Planting Churches is still active:
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603349072
at least through the end of October 2016.  This might take some time.

Where the roughly nine million bucks from the sale of the former Ballard campus to Quest has ended up is as yet unknown. 

So even though a whole lot of people in the press or on blogs have acted as if the era of Mars Hill has somehow become "over" because Mark Driscoll quit, that's hardly the case in corporate or transactional terms.  It might be over soon, though, but it remains to be seen.  After all, plenty of people figured things were "over" already by now and yet there couldn't have been a sale of real estate by Mars Hill Church to Cross & Crown if there was no such thing as a Mars Hill Church by March 10, 2016.

For those who haven't checked recently, the new expiration date for Mars Hill Church is now ...

https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819

MARS HILL CHURCH
UBI Number 601677819
UBI Number 601677819
Category REG
Profit/Nonprofit Nonprofit
Active/Inactive Active
State Of Incorporation WA
WA Filing Date 12/22/1995
Expiration Date 12/31/2016
Inactive Date 
Duration Perpetual


asdf

Throckmorton reports what WtH has heard, that there's been a buyer interested in the MH Ballard complex, Quest Church

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2015/02/15/quest-church-to-occupy-old-mars-hill-ballard-building/

Actually living in Seattle WtH had heard a week or so ago that there was a buyer interested in purchasing the Mars Hill Ballard complex.  The post is as follows:

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.

When the press release emerges that will be interesting to see.  As noted before, Wenatchee heard that this lately announced development was in the works.  Before today there was nothing close to a formal verification of the report so it didn't merit a post before.  Now it does, and it will certainly merit a post when the formal press release appears.

Whether the purchase of the Ballard campus will include the purchase of the corporate HQ real estate has not yet been cleared up.

sort of update
UPDATE 02-15- 07.43PM
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2015/02/15/quest-church-to-occupy-old-mars-hill-ballard-building/#comment-1857469908

from one mapleleaf1234

Mars Hill has been unable to sell the U-District Church due to zoning regulations. (It can be used as a church and nothing else). Mars Hill has gifted that church building to Cross and Crown, who will be moving there. Not sure if Quest is buying or leasing the Ballard building.

Which wouldn't be a surprising seeing as how not thoroughly investigating zoning restrictions on real estate was how the MH elders bought the boondoggle that the MH corporate HQ estate turned out to be.  Whether Quest is buying that 51st street property hasn't been addressed yet but the zoning restrictions have "probably" not going away. 

Meanwhile, it seems plausible that the U-District real estate hasn't managed to sell or can't sell and could get gifted to Cross and Crown.  It's not "that" far from MH Ballard as it was. 

One of the last things to get fielded about the MH U-District real estate would have been ... from September 7, 2014

Revisiting the promotion of 2013's A Call to Resurgence in light of a recent campus closure announcement.

oh, looks like the U-District real estate is on the market, too. Colliers UPDATE, short run-through of campuses

http://www.commercialmls.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=property.detailFS&ln=544988
Steve Pelluer - Colliers International WA, LLC
Phone: (206) 914-3382 | Fax: 425-453-4540 | Email: click here
Co-Listing Agent: Kim Hutchins - Colliers International WA, LLC
Phone: (425) 453-4547   

Why does that name seem familiar?

Oh, yeah, that's right.  These two.
http://www.churchadvisors.net/our-team/

Kim Hutchins graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Finance. He also holds a law degree from Southern Methodist University and a Masters Degree in Counseling from Colorado Christian University. Kim spent 10 years developing and brokering commercial real estate in Texas, Colorado and California and since 1989 has worked extensively with churches, private schools, and nonprofit organizations. He was founder and publisher of Mars Hill Review, a Christian literary journal offered in Barnes and Noble stores nationwide. Kim was co-founder and charter board member of Mars Hill Graduate School, a Seattle-based seminary, and has served as an elder in his local church. He is a licensed real estate broker in Washington state and in California. He and his wife and two children live on Bainbridge Island. 

Steve Pelluer graduated from the University of Washington. He received a  bachelor’s degree in Building Construction in 1985 and also received a Masters Degree in Counseling from Colorado Christian University in 1994. Steve spent eight years in professional football and after retiring in 1996, moved back to the Seattle area. He is a licensed real estate broker in WA with Steve Pelluer Real Estate, Inc.. Steve and his wife and four children live in Bellevue.

Given how remarkably insider the history of MH real estate can be could anyone confirm whether either or both Kim Hutchins and Steve Pelluer have had any memberized association with Mars Hill?  This entity has a history of securing sales of/for real estate for Mars Hill that seems to go back to Tabella (aka the first Mars Hill Downtown campus). 

These two guys seem to have quite a history with Mars Hill real estate.  It would not be a surprise if at least one of them at some point was/is a member ... but that would need to get some kind of confirmation and it is, admittedly, more a question than a hunch. 

For sake of review, red indicates property for sale.  Italics are (at the moment) indicators of owned real estate. 

Bellevue  (MH may still be trying to secure the 10700 Northrup space)
Everett   (new digs courtesy of Mars Hill Global, see here to establish ownership)
Olympia (WtH needs to get to this one, looked like a lease to own and launch for a fixed site)
Sammamish (up for sale)
Ballard campus proper  (for sale)
Ballard corporate HQ    (for sale a while)
Rainier Valley (lease)
West Seattle (owned and with an interesting history)
Shoreline  (lease seems larger history, Shoreline School District permits suggest rent)
Spokane  (moving forward, purchase confirmation pending)
Tacoma (new home courtesy of Mars Hill Global, bought)
Huntington Beach (may still close, OC county inaccessible at the moment)
Portland (probably owned but rusty on this)
Albuquerque (entity handed off to MH but may not own real estate.

U District (up for sale, former campus)

Let's assume for sake of conversation (and future correction) that all the italicized real estate is already owned.  Olympia is a little fuzzy and Spokane may be a lock but let's suppose that seven to eight pieces of real estate are owned.  If the number is higher, corrections welcome, but if the ownership number is eight then half of the stuff they own outright is up for sale.  Even if we assumed that Mars Hill Church owned twelve pieces of real estate it still looks like a third of their holdings are on the market.  Trying to count the Ballard campus and Mars Hill corporate HQ as a single lot would obscure the historic tendency within Mars Hill to treat and discuss them as unique and separate things if for no other reason than zoning and use issues. 

If Mars Hill owns eight parcels then wouldn't they be putting half their real estate on the market as of now?  Anyone got some clarity on this?  Even a buy to lease back arrangement ... whatever that means, doesn't seem to bode well for Mars Hill.  They can try to reconsolidate back into Ballard and make it the hub that it was before Mars Hill tried multisite again in 2007.  Yet if they do let's remember that the 50th street HQ was supposed to be the second campus.  Driscoll went on about it in Confessions of a Reformission Rev.  That 50th street property was, according to Driscoll, scoped out by Jamie Munson.  Munson, if you'll recall, was a younger guy who came to Jesus under Mark's preaching and in spite of the fact that Driscoll would go on to say he made the mistake of submitting to new and young and green elders at the start he made Munson legal president in 2007 and in 2008 described it as the best decision he made.  Munson scouting the HQ building that is up for sale is an interesting thing because as MH closes campuses and tries to reconsolidate that merely invites an opportunity for Wenatchee The Hatchet to point out that had the leadership bothered in 2005 to investigate the land zone limitations before sinking $1.5 million into some real estate a great deal of self-caused trouble might have been avoidable. 

If Mars Hill is putting between a third to half of its owned real estate holdings on the market then their financial situation might be dire indeed. 

Now that MH U-District is closed, revisiting a revisitation of promoting A Call to Resurgence

At this point the irony has to be pretty bitter.  There's been so much going on with Mars Hill this year Wenatchee The Hatchet may be revisiting old material and adding some tags.  "real estate and mars hill" is a tag that now spans 83 posts.  That's too much for readers who may want to read about a specific campus.  So WtH is going to see about adding tags that specify which campus of Mars Hill would be under discussion for easier background research.  This might take a bit of time. 

Meanwhile, in revisiting what was fodder for reading earlier this year, it's ironic that having talked about getting the real estate from a church that didn't love Jesus and that there was a hope and a future "after the funeral" that Mars Hill U-District is no more.

Here's the material from a September post.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/revisiting-promotion-of-2013s-call-to.html

Mars Hill University District
4554 12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Let's set aside for the moment that in this video Driscoll was talking above sludgy amplified guitar riffs and talking about how the average person doesn't do anything until ticked off, pertinent though that late 2013 statement is for Mark's assurances that his "angry young prophet" days have ended at the tender age of about 42.

Naw, let's focus on the real estate in the shot in the promotional video. The transcript presented starts with that passage about anger but Driscoll elides seamlessly into which church he's on the way to circa later 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdxPgNwGV4Y
1:35ish

The average person doesn't do anything until they're really ticked off. You gotta get to a certain point where you're just frustrated, you're annoyed by it, it's gotten under your skin, you're a little sick of it, you can't do it anymore and something needs to change and then all of a sudden you move to action. That's the point of the book.

We're on our way to a church that was part of Christendom's civil religion. It was all about good works and not very much about good news . That church died and in God's grace we obtained it just a few years ago, and I want you to see tonight what happens after the funeral. There is, in fact, a future as where people who were not worshipping Jesus, tons of young people are meeting Him, and you're gonna meet some of them tonight.    

That slow-motion shot of Driscoll walking up to the campus ... which campus?

What does that look like?

There's a resemblance.

And Mars Hill U-district was acquired a few years back, per the comment from Driscoll in the video promoting A Call to Resurgence.

 

So it is with this context in mind, that it's possible to more fully appreciate Dave Bruskas' announcement this morning.

https://marshill.com/2014/09/07/changes-at-some-of-our-churches
By: Pastor Dave Bruskas
Posted: Sep 07, 2014
...

Downtown Seattle & U-District

Throughout the day today our pastors at Downtown Seattle and U-District are informing those churches that they will be soon be consolidating with Mars Hill Church Ballard. The first Sunday that all three churches will meet together at Mars Hill Ballard will be October 12.

It's not even a year later since the promotional video and before the first anniversary of the promotional video for A Call to Resurgence ... and the campus closure has been made official.