THE RISE AND FALL OF MARS HILLEPISODE 7|1 hrState of EmergencyMIKE COSPER AUGUST 9, 202100:44:22COSPER: That same day, Scott Thomas was assigned to lead an Elder Investigation Taskforce looking into charges from Driscoll that Paul and Bent had disqualified themselves as elders.SCOTT THOMAS: What we determined, with a group of godly men, who were coming together, and what we determined was Paul nor Bent had done ANYTHING to disqualify themselves from eldership and that was our [brief pause] report. I've got the full report right now but we determined there was nothing to disqualify them from eldership.
COSPER: You would think with a conclusion like that, that it would be a sort of open and shut case with the rest of the elders but there's a weird disconnect that happens in the middle of this. The team that Scott Thomas was leading, investigating Paul and Bent, did clear them of wrongdoing but they didn't communicate that to them directly. Instead, in all of the formal communications that I've seen, they simply said the investigation was complete and that Paul and Bent didn't need to attend their own trial before the rest of the elders. ...
SCOTT THOMAS: 00:46:12Both came and spoke and thought we were saying they were guilty and they approached it that way and began to blast, you know, most everybody in the room. And so it didn't help their cause and so the elders said, "Well, we gotta take action now." And it was a different way from what the team that was investigating it, WE said they did nothing to disqualify themselves from eldership. And, uh, but after they spoke we said, "Well, maybe they should, at least, be reprimanded."
From: Pastor Jamie MunsonSent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 5:41 PMTo: Pastor Paul PetrySubject: meeting tonightImportance: HighPaul – I need you to join me for a meeting tonight at 8:15 in Bill Clem’s office. It’s mandatory so please confirm you have received this, I’ll try and catch you in person if you don’t read this.
From: __________________To: _________@qwest.netSent: Monday, October 01, 2007 11:39 AMSubject: Your accusersTo: Elders of Mars Hill ChurchFrom: Pastor Jamie MunsonSubject: Termination of Employment of Paul Petry and Bent MeyerDate: 9-30-07Tonight a brief meeting was held with Pastor Jamie Munson, Pastor Mark Driscoll, Pastor Bubba Jennings, Pastor Scott Thomas, Bent Meyer and Paul Petry. Paul and Bent were informed of their termination from employment of Mars Hill Church and given the option to resign from staff and eldership or be fired from staff and be subject to a full and open investigation of the elders to determine their eldership status. They both have chosen to be fired and undergo a full investigation of the elders. Paul and Bent will be given severance pay and benefits through the end of December. I am grieved for them and their families and will contact them tomorrow in hopes that they are repentant and choose to resign from eldership rather than be subject to what will be a painful and personal 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 details or questions to Pastor Scott Thomas....The grounds for their termination are listed below with further details and documentation supporting these grounds contained in the investigation report.
Pastor Paul Petry - Grounds for Immediate Termination of Employmento Continual insubordination and submission to leadership and spiritual authorityo Refusal to Ministry Coaching Programo Divisive within Mars Hill Student Ministry and undermining of Pastor Adam, Deacons and entire ministryo Blame shifting to Proxy leadership for misbehavior of childreno Public accusation of Lead Pastor regarding hiding the real bylaw documento Not following protocol and process for making bylaw comments by contacting church attorney without permissiono Ongoing contentious spirit to leadership regarding changes and directionPastor Bent Meyer - Grounds for Immediate Termination of Employment
o Total lack of trust for Executive leadership and insubordinationo Multiple unfounded accusations from Bent regarding abuse of power, power grabbing and motives of leadershipo Not following protocol and process for making bylaw comments by contacting church attorney without permissiono Showing unhealthy family favoritism by establishing son Cameron as spokesman for Salts recap meetingo No communication with elders regarding Cameron’s sin and removal of grace group leadershipSome might conclude this is a political move to gain more support for the bylaws as Paul and Bent were outspoken critics of the current direction. This is not the case, the executive team wants to conduct itself in a way that is full of integrity, walking in the light, under full disclosure and in a decisive manner that best serves Jesus and His church through Mars Hill. ...
----- Original Message -----From: Pastor Scott ThomasTo: ___________@qwest.netCc: Pastor Jamie Munson ; Pastor Gary Shavey ; Steve Tompkins ; Pastor Dave KraftSent: Monday, October 01, 2007 11:55 AMSubject: Elder Investigation TaskforceTO: Paul PetryFrom: Pastor Scott Thomas (Lead Mediator in the case of Paul Petry, a terminated employee of MHC)RE: Response to reiterated e-mail request (below) to exercise Article III, Section E of the MH BylawsDated: October 1, 2007CC: Nathaniel L. Taylor, Esq., Pastor Jamie Munson, Pastor Gary Shavey, Pastor Steve Tompkins, Pastor Dave KraftPaul,
I received your e-mail sent to all of the elders requesting due process in accordance with Article III, Section E of the current MH Bylaws.
I am leading this taskforce consisting of Pastors Steve Tompkins, Gary Shavey and Dave Kraft. We will seek to state the findings objectively before the arbiters (full council of elders) on October 29, 2007. The full elder’s council will judge on whether your eldership is incongruous to the mission and vision of Mars Hill and then vote on your eldership status based on the findings. The task of the investigation team does not concern your employment, but rather your eldership.
We have a scheduled meeting today so that we can begin a fair and impartial collection of information followed by interviews with you and the accusers and presentation of the findings to the arbiters for vote.
...
Important Message from the Lead PastorArticle posted on Tuesday, October 02, 2007Dear Mars Hill Members,As we excitedly approach the eleventh anniversary of Mars Hill Church and open up 3,400 new seats with seven new services we are calling all of Mars Hill to a season of celebration, pruning and faithfulness. We celebrate what Jesus is doing and the opportunities He has laid before us as a church to expand His
Kingdom. We also need to allow Jesus to prune us through personal repentance where necessary and a renewed commitment to being on mission with Him.
Additionally we need to respond faithfully as a church body in all areas of our life. This pruning and faithfulness includes the leaders of the church and leads to difficult decisions we must make for the good of the whole church and Jesus' mission.
It is thus with sadness that I report that two Pastors, Paul Petry and Bent Meyer, are being terminated as employees. They have also been suspended as elders pending an investigation in accordance with the church Bylaws (Article III, Section E) and Scripture (1 Timothy 5:19-20). We will report more detail following the investigation and disciplinary process, but you should know now that there are no accusations of moral or sexual impropriety. Although their employment is ending and their eldership suspended, Paul and Bent will receive full pay and benefits through the end of December....Any questions or comments should be directed to Pastor Scott Thomas (scott@marshillchurch.org).With a heavy heart,Pastor Jamie Munson, Lead PastorOn Behalf of the Elders
Keep that email address for Scott Thomas in mind as we move forward. We can confirm via documents at Joyful Exiles that Paul Petry was told his presence at his own trial would not be required.
https://joyfulexiles.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/scott-thomas-10-10-2007-no-show-for-trial.pdf
Subject: RE: confusion about pastor firings, public announcement & precedentDate: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:32:36 -0700From: scott@acts29network.orgTo: _____________________________________,I appreciate your love and concern for these men. My heart is heavy right now as well. A team of elders just concluded a conciliatory process with these two men. Be patient, trust Jesus and rest in the fact that this is His church. I do not expect you to understand the gravity of the situation with limited information. This is a legal proceeding, is supervised by our lawyer and as a result, is not a familial discussion. It was what Paul and Bent specifically requested. However,
we are bound by our own judiciary system to act justly. After due process, the elders will rule according to Bylaw procedure and the members will be informed. This takes the church through a sanctification process -- elders and members. It is more painful but at the last bears the needed fruit. You have to endure as well. You have to trust Jesus and His under shepherds to complete the task assigned in the time allotted (Oct 15).
Thanks,Pastor Scott
pages 59-71SPECIFIC ELDERSresponses submitted by Pastor Scott ThomasBENT MEYER AND PAUL PETRYSummary Statements:Bent Meyer.After Bent Meyer was terminated for disrespecting other elders and displaying an unhealthy distrust for leadership, an Investigatory Taskforce was formed, per our Bylaws. During the investigation, Bent was compliant and acted humbly and was perceived as repentant. He acknowledged that his tactics were unwise. The full council of elders interviewed Bent and voted unanimously that he was guilty of displaying an unhealthy distrust in the senior leadership of Mars Hill. They also voted unanimously to place Bent on probation under the Shoreline campus elders. The conditions for his future eldership include full confession of his sin against the elders. He is under the oversight of the Shoreline elders and will not be employed by Mars Hill until his probation ends and if a need exists for his services. Our hope and prayer at this time is that Pastor Bent will be restored fully as an elder of Mars Hill Church.
Paul Petry
Paul was terminated from employment and placed on probation for verbally attacking the lead pastor without remorse and for disregarding the accepted elder protocol for the Bylaw deliberation period. Paul contended his innocence all throughout the investigation. He failed to acknowledge any infraction, sin or indiscretion. When the full council of elders examined him in a formal interview, he defended himself, blamed others, and took a posture of obstinate defiance. The elders asked him to repent and he refused. They unanimously voted that he was not qualified to be an elder according to the biblical requirements (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1- 5). They also voted to remove him from office as an elder at Mars Hill. A reconciliation team was formed to care for him and his family and to walk them through the process of repentance and restoration. He refused to meet with them. He then sent a lengthy letter to all of the elders that was filled with name-calling and accusations against every single member of the eldership. He later requested that his membership be removed from Mars Hill. We are grieved for Paul and his family and continue to hope for reconciliation should he show signs of repentance. ...
page 69Q: Was Paul repentant? If so, why was he not reinstated as Bent has? Will he be reinstated if he does repent as Bent has?A: Paul failed to repent even after all of the elders ruled that he was unqualified as an elder. He failed to meet with the elders to seek reconciliation. He requested that his membership be removed. He is not in fellowship with this church and will not be recommended to another church or for employment unless he repents and reconciles.If even these efforts do not bring our brother to his senses, Jesus commands us to treat the person as an unbeliever, which means we no longer have normal, casual fellowship with him, but instead use any encounters to bring the gospel to him and lovingly urge him to repent and turn back to God.
Paul remains unrepentant and will not be extended salary beyond the stipulated time. We love his family and feel sorrowful for the repercussions affecting his family. As long as he resists the elders seeking his reconciliation and remains unrepentant, we cannot support him. We are praying that the weight of this will lead him to repentance.
A: Paul Petry publicly accused our lead pastor of lying to the elders. He claimed Pastors Jamie and Mark were deceiving the elders. When he was approached and was asked to offer an apology, he failed to repent. All throughout the investigation, Paul failed to acknowledge any wrongdoing of any kind. When the full elder board examined Paul, he further strengthened a position of innocence. The elders were astonished at his lack of repentance, even when asked for it. Paul shared confidential information with non-elders about material the elders were discussing.
The elders voted unanimously by all other 23 elders that he was not Biblically qualified to be an elder. The elders sought reconciliation and Paul refused to meet after multiple attempts. He appeared to become more obstinate with each contact. Paul wrote a lengthy letter that was described as scathing as he accused every elder with multiple charges. Unfortunately, he asked that his membership be removed from Mars Hill and curtailed his reconciliation. At this time, we are instructed to treat Paul as an outsider until he repents.
By failing to repent, this person essentially ostracized himself from the community at Mars Hill for the duration of his unrepentance. It's not so much that the church has to kick out the offender as it merely recognizes the breach that is already there. This is implied in Jesus' statement about regarding the offenders as "a Gentile and a tax collector." These people weren't literally kicked out of Jewish society. Rather, they were either by birth or by choice simply not included. There were outsiders. And so is the person who will not repent of sin when given every chance to do so.
Remember, Scott Thomas in 2021 said the finding of the EIT was that Petry and Meyer weren't guilty of anything that would disqualify them so who is this Scott Thomas who wrote the material quoted above? If this was written by the same Scott Thomas who told Mike Cosper the EIT found nothing in Paul Petry or Bent Meyer that demonstrated they were in any way disqualified from pastoral ministry or eldership at Mars Hill then Scott Thomas has to explain why what he has said in 2021 so flatly and fully contradicts what he wrote to thousands of Mars Hill members in December 2007. If the EIT found nothing wrong with Meyer or Petry why did Scott Thomas write to a church member about completing a conciliatory process with the two men which would all but require that the two men had done something that required conciliation due to some flaws on their parts, or on the part of the rest of the elders at Mars Hill, perhaps.
The problems that emerge from Scott Thomas' various accounts in 2007 and 2021 raise more questions than they answer. If Scott Thomas knew, as he has recently put it, there were no credible charges against Petry and Meyer and if he can prove by way of EIT documents that the EIT found Petry and Meyer exonerated of all charges then it becomes all the more mysterious why Scott Thomas proceeded with a set of trials he knew could only function like kangaroo courts. He also then proceeded, as we have seen at some length, to tell the members of Mars Hill Church how and why Petry deserved all of the discipline the elders subjected him to back in 2007.
Scott Thomas has signed a letter of apology to Meyer and Petry that has been published, and Thomas has signed a statement that Driscoll is not fit for pastoral ministry. That all may be, but Scott Thomas has not necessarily accounted for his own conduct during the tumultuous 2007 at Mars Hill and how active his role seems to have been in presiding over what to all appearances was a set of kangaroo court show trials within Mars Hill leadership that made examples of two men who were "not on mission, so now they're unemployed".
What's unnerving about Scott Thomas' claim that the EIT exonerated Petry and Meyer in 2007 is that he sat on that information and let the trials proceed. Scott Thomas then proceeded to tell all of Mars Hill Church Petry and Meyer were fired with cause and found unfit. If what Thomas has said in 2021 is true then he lied about everything to do with the firings in 2007 and a man who could lie about that and not speak the truth for so long is a man who could, conceivably, lie attaching his name to a public letter of apology, too. That's the conundrum, we can't know for sure. Scott Thomas' cumulative testimonies are sufficiently self-contradictory across time that absent more confirming documentation we can't assume he's telling the truth. If he has told the truth now about then why let those lies go on for so long since 2007? If there isn't a report or finding from the EIT that can be published right now, then that claim itself could be a lie.
So episode 7 sheds some light on who was involved in the trials at Mars Hill of 2007 but the new statements raise more disturbing questions about the kinds of people who were orchestrating the trials and why. "State of emergency" as the basis for power consolidation and seizure is probably the most apt title for the episode. The person who comes off worst in this episode is ultimately Mark Driscoll in a lot of ways but the one who has the most to answer for is Scott Thomas. If he really had evidence in early October 2007 that the EIT had fully exonerated Petry and Meyer then to preside over the trials and terminations when he could have cancelled everything on the basis of the EIT exoneration tells us something about the kind of person he was and possibly still is, and that's frankly terrible. The kind of man who would withhold exculpatory evidence so prosecution could proceed in what ultimately amounted to a kangaroo court doesn't sound like a man who was ever fit to be a minister of the Gospel to begin with and, if he ever was, he surely wasn't after 2007. That's my personal conviction, you're mileage might vary.
POSTSCRIPT 8-13-2021
2 comments:
"unhealthy family favoritism" seems both a sick joke and cruelly prophetic statement.
as a ground for terminating/dismissing Meyer the charge does seem like a sick joke, especially with the hindsight in 2021 of Driscoll making The Trinity Church into a family franchise and having a book out he co-authored with Ashley Chase (newly married daughter).
I have it on good authority that Munson's apology is accepted by at least one of the guys who was subjected to the kangaroo courts.
I'm going to have to circle back around to writing about the podcast series at some point but it's been a bit draining. "States of Emergency" had a lot of necessary material in it but I suspect that a whole separate episode on spiritual warfare teaching as part of a "state of emergency" ethos and praxis will be needed before the CT podcast series runs its full length because Mark's 2008 spiritual warfare session can only be fully understood as a reaction to reactions to the 2007 kangaroo courts; doubts about the executive elders, their honesty and character; and a subsequent exodus of about 1,000 members from Mars Hill Church that was so unavoidable a part of MHC history that Driscoll claimed that the reason so many people left was they upped their game among leaders on doctrinal requirements. Meanwhile, behind the scenes some folks were claiming there were reports that Muslims and Mormons were secretly trying to infiltrate Mars Hill, a claim that seemed doubtful at best and more like foolish rumors when I heard any word of it.
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