Then there are these old posts.
Scott Thomas' departure from Acts 29 in light of his role in the 2007 MH firings
Scott Thomas is officially Pastor of Ministry Development at The Journey and ...
The transition of Scott Thomas from Mars Hill/Acts 29 to The Journey
Where are they now? A Scott and Derrin Thomas follow-up
Scott Thomas at The Journey? Maybe?
Scott Thomas and Ray Ortlund Gospel Coalition connection? Well, we'll have to wait and see
Here's a sermon Scott Thomas preached on November 11, 2012
This is another sermon Thomas preached. Having quoted from this one earlier:
Well, good morning. It's great to see you and be with you. My name is Scott Thomas, I'm the newest pastor at The Journey. I oversee pastoral development, and so I oversee all of the different sites, the campus pastors, and such. And I also reach out to the church-planting, the missions, serve on the executive leadership team. And so I have quite a bit that we're doing and I'm glad to be here with you.
I most recently came from Seattle. We just moved here. In fact we just moved into our house on Monday this week. ... We came from Seattle where I served as President of the Acts 29 Network for the last six years. ... Also served as executive elder of Mars Hill Church. ...
But what took place was Acts 29 was relocating down to Dallas. ... I sensed this was going to take place for about a year.
Is there any sign of his role at The Journey in his LinkedIn profile lately?
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-thomas/44/a4b/7b
No. Scott Thomas managed to be President of Acts 29 Network from April 2006 right up to roughly a week or two after the publication of Joyful Exiles in March 2012. He doesn't even list his role at Darrin Patrick's church any more. A handful of sermons are still available at the moment to testify to the role he briefly played there.
Scott Thomas is significant because Jamie Munson informed Paul Petry that Scott Thomas would head the investigation
If they decide to go the investigation route an elder taskforce will be formed and led by Pastor Scott Thomas with the assistance of Pastors Dave Kraft, Gary Shavey and Steve Tompkins. If you have anything to add to the investigation please send the etails or questions to Pastor Scott Thomas
From emails sent by Jamie Munson in October 2007
... If they decide to go the investigation route an elder taskforce will be formed and led by Pastor Scott Thomas with the assistance of Pastors Dave Kraft, Gary Shavey and Steve Tompkins. If you have anything to add to the investigation please send the etails or questions to Pastor Scott Thomas. ... [we'll get to Kraft, Shavey and Tompkins some time later]
... In lieu of resignation as an elder you have elected to go through the process outlined in the Mars Hill bylaws regarding an investigation into your status as an elder and potential removal. This is independent of your employment status. A task force headed by Pastor Scott Thomas is conducting the investigation. He will contact you regarding your opportunity to discuss your eldership status with the task force. ...
Paul Petry wrote to Scott Thomas and the EIT on October 10 with the following:
Just wanted to confirm that the hearing originally scheduled for October 29 has been moved up to this Monday October 15, and some clarification regarding the hearing on Monday. When you started the meeting this morning, you said (I am paraphrasing here, I know) something to the effect that tthe reason the taskforce wanted to meet with me in person today, instead of just giving me questions to answer, was because it is difficult to discern a person's heart in the matter from just a written statement. So my question is, will I have an opportunity at Monday's hearing to present my statement to the elders in person and to answer any questions they may have? Also, will the elders submit their votes by secret ballot?
Scott Thomas replied as follows:
All four of us agree that we adequately heard your response to the charges/accusations and yor presence will not be necessary. We believe that in so doing, we are fulfilling the requirements of the Bylaws. This is something that we discussed and consulted on with the lawyer. The elders will submit their vote by show of hands.
So Paul Petry was told that his presence at his own hearing would not be necessary. Scott Thomas stated that he, Dave Kraft, Gary Shavey and Steve Tompkins all agreed that Paul Petry did not need to attend his own trial.
Here are references Petry makes to Scott Thomas' activity and statements prior to and during the investigation process from Paul Petry's statement for his trial.
http://joyfulexiles.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/09-14-2007-statement-for-trial.pdf
... I only received an e-mail from Pastor Scott that he was heading up the Investigative Team, and later, an official employment termination letter from Pastor Jamie. ...
Pastor Scott told me that I could submita a astatement, adn that it would be submitted along with the findings of the investigative taskforce to all the elders on my behalf. I would have preferred to address you all in person to testify on my behalf so you could perhaps hear my heart - but Pastor Scott informed me that I am not allowed to be present at my "trial", nor would I be allowed to testify or to personally answer any questions you may have. When I asked Pastor Scott if I could be provided with the findings and conclusions that the taskforce would be presenting to you, so that I could specifically respond to them, he told me that was not possible. I have not been provided a list of who my accusers are, nor the names or testimony of corroborating witnesses - let alone being able to question any witnesses or face my accuser(s). ...
It is important ot note that Pastor Scott was also one of the four Executive Elders who sat in the room the night of September 30, when Pastor Bent and I were "terminated". And, that previousto that, on September 11, Pastor Scott approached Pastor Bent and me as we were eating lunch in a nearby park and told us, "If you men do not agree with the new bylaws that are being proposed, then you need to resign." This was more than two weeks before the September 26 deadline for submitting comments regarding the proposed new bylaws.
... When Pastor Jamie asked if I was accusing him of hiding the final draft, I said no and I followed up wthe question by asking what was negotiable, and what was not negotiable. Perfectly legitimate questions in the context of any board meeting. When Pastor Scott confronted me the next day and said he found my questions to be very offense to Pastor Jamie, I immediately went and spoke to Pastor Jamie and apologized for causing him offense and that I intended no offense and asked him to be patient with me. He said he would, and I thought that was the end of it. He did not bring it up again. That evening Pastor Scott suggested that I had offended all the elders and should write a letter of apology to all theelders, but this seemed "over the top" to me making it a bigger issue than was warranted.
On October 11, 2007, days before the trial, Scott Thomas informed a member of Mars Hill Churchm "A team of elders just concluded a conciliatory process with these two men." That Scott Thomas replied to a question about the termination of two pastors of Mars Hill from his Acts 29 Network email was a puzzle in itself. The email Scott Thomas replied to was sent to scott@marshillchurch.org per the written statement Jamie Munson gave about who to contact and where. But Thomas' reply came from his Acts 29 Network email. This is not a mundane detail.
Thomas' role as the head of the Elder Investigative Taskforce is significant because given everything Petry has stated it looks like Scott Thomas informed Meyer and Petry in mid-September that if they didn't agree with the bylaws being proposed they should resign. Why two of roughly 24 men "should" resign for not agreeing with bylaws has never been explained to this day.
While Scott Thomas is no longer President of Acts 29 or at The Journey his publications are still available as resources at Acts 29 Network.
Per Mark Driscoll's February 7, 2012 statement
7 February 2012
1 comments
Dear Acts 29 Members
We're excited about the future of Acts 29. In a recent letter to the network, Pastor Mark Driscoll detailed some changes to the network leadership that will position us to plant more churches and make more disciples. We've posted the letter below. February 6, 2012 Dear Acts 29 Members, This letter is intended to provide some clarity about where we are, and Lord willing, where we are going. I hope you find it encouraging, compelling, and unifying. Under the leadership of Pastor Scott Thomas we just completed our most amazing year of God’s grace yet. In the US alone we are now over 400 churches! This is a wonderful gift of God. I want to sincerely and personally thank Pastor Scott for juggling so many duties so graciously. Our prayer is that this tremendous momentum continues, ...
You won't be able to keep reading because by now that's all there is to read. The link to "Keep Reading" just bumps back The letter was discussed where it referred to Scott Thomas back here.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2012/06/driscoll-to-acts-29-members-on-scott.html
So, for sake of review, Scott Thomas seems to have been a prime mover in the termination process, not merely present at the event, not merely the head of the EIT as appointed by Jamie Munson, but also someone who made statements to Paul Petry and Bent Meyer in September telling them that if they did not agree with the new bylaws that they ought to resign. Why Munson and company selected Scott Thomas to head the EIT remains to be explained. If what Scott Thomas was in charge was, as he claimed in an email to a member, a conciliatory process then what was the deal with Mark Driscoll's October 1, 2007 statement "There's a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus ..." ? Scott Thomas was president of Acts 29 at that point and seems likely to have known what Driscoll said at that address. Driscoll said that they'd fired two guys for the first time in the history of Mars Hill and that the guys weren't on mission so they were unemployed. Munson insisted the terminations were not a political move to get more support for the bylaws and in the sense that 2 of 24 could not have turned the tide that is true, but it also rendered the terminations completely unnecessary for that same reason, didn't it?
Taken together the cumulative evidence of Scott Thomas' role in Mars Hill in 2007 does not suggest he was heading up a conciliatory process so much as a kangaroo court.
It's worth noting that Scott Thomas gets a name drop in a footnote in Confessions of a Reformission Rev, over on page 198
Confessions of a Reformission Rev, page 198, Mark Driscoll, Zondervan 2006
From the footnotes to Chapter Zero: Ten Curious Questions
2. The following discussion and the categories of traditional and institutional, contemporary and evangelial, and emerging and missional churches summarizes the work and ideas of Scott Thomas, who is a friend, an Acts 29 board member, and the pastor of the Encounter Church in Colorado.
In case it wasn't clear by now it's impossible to consider the terminations of Bent Meyer and Paul Petry from employment at Mars Hill Church in 2007 without considering the role Scott Thomas played in Mars Hill Church and in Acts 29. Of all the men in eldership at Mars Hill Church in 2007 Scott Thomas' role is arguably most easily documented. If Mars Hill Church wants to take A Call For Reconciliation seriously then discussing Scott Thomas' role in the 2007 termination and trial process will be difficult to avoid. Scott Thomas is apparently tackling a church plant in Nashville, TN.
