I noted this a couple of years back but by the time Mark and Grace Driscoll's Spirit-Filled Jesus was released most of the campuses of the former Mars Hill Church had survived to relaunch as new churches.
Showing posts with label rainier valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rainier valley. Show all posts
Friday, November 19, 2021
Saturday, January 16, 2021
in light of Haynes' dissertation on Mars Hill musical culture, there's a book called Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels that caught my eye
"Punk Rock Calvinists Who Hate the Modern Worship
Movement": Ritual, Power, and
White Masculinity in Mars Hill Church's Worship Music
Saturday, November 18, 2017
MH Rainer Valley postlude, David Daniels article at Rapzilla about ex-MH pastor 50-track album, discusses his exit from ministry
For those who have read this blog a long time, even you might not recall that one of the topics we looked at was the short-lived pastoral stint of Willie Wilson.
https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/10/mars-hill-rainier-valley-and-willie.html
You'll get a 404 error for this content if you try to follow the link but it was preserved in an earlier post here at Wenatchee The Hatchet. a donniehalbgewachs weebly entry indicated on January 27, 2013 that Willie Wilson was the new lead pastor for Mars Hill Rainier Valley.
http://donniehalbgewachs.weebly.com/1/post/2013/01/pastor-willie-mars-hill-church-seattle.html
January 27, 2013
Willie Wilson is the new lead pastor for Mars Hill Rainier Valley. Scripture is filled with "one another" statements such as: encourage one another, serve one another, love one another, and bear one another's burdens. That's what life in the church looks like. Pastor Willie has a passion and vision for building community in the name of Jesus. Find out more information on Mars Hill Rainier Valley.
In case you missed it, watch last month's Mars Hill Monthly and read about what Jesus did at our student camp.
What do you think about urban church planting?
that absence was first noted at Wenatchee The Hatchet in a comment
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/09/follow-up-on-follow-up-nathan-burke-is.html?showComment=1379933273461#c279481577807274760
Anonymous said...
Lead pastor Willie Will from Rainier Valley Mars Hill left around 9/16. On 9/17 Mars Hill erased all links and content of him on there website and on the City.
In light of that comment, we took a look at the departure announcement.
https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/09/mars-hill-church-rainier-valley-willie.html
For those who didn't read it at the time, here's a WayBack capture of Wilson's departure, announced in a blog post published August 5, 2013:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130824135027/http://marshill.com/2013/08/05/running-the-race-with-duffel-bags
Running the race with duffel bags
Are you tired of running your race? Are you tired of serving? Tired of loving people? Tired of giving of your time, talent, and treasure? It’s probably because you are carrying some things that you shouldn’t be carrying while running a race. In Hebrews 12:1, we’re instructed to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” What are you carrying that you need to lay aside or cast off? When you’re not carrying a huge load, you’ll see that you have more stamina and endurance to run the race that has been set before you.
This is a race of faith, and Jesus is both the founder and perfecter of it. This means that he is the starter and the finisher of it. He caused you to start this race by calling you to himself, saving you, and placing you in a loving family who will run alongside you, be there to help you up when you fall and when you hobble along all the way to the finish line. He will make sure you finish and he will make your faith perfect. Jesus is our example of how to run this race, because we see how he ran his race with endurance, enduring the cross. We were his prize, the “joy set before him.”
Brothers and sisters, run your race with endurance, keeping your eyes on the prize. You’re not running alone, but with tons of witnesses on the sidelines.
So run wholeheartedly, with all your might and all your strength, and when you finish the race, you will be able to speak the words of the Apostle Paul: “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
At the time there was no explanation as to why Wilson had departed, though the text of the announcement leaned hard on duffel bags and the metaphor of baggage that keeps you from running the race.
Mars Hill as a culture tended to reduce everything sinful, everything, to pride. I've written in the past about how I do think we can regard pride as a kind of stem cell for sin, that it can transform into any number of sins but that to treat those cells of sin as just being "pride" in some generic Mars Hill sense is damaging and dangerous. To belabor the metaphor, if stem cells become a liver that has liver poisoning you won't help if you just say the problem is with what happened to the stem cells, man. Treat the liver. Not everyone has sins that are realized by pride in the same way. Some people lie, some people still, some people commit adultery. Mileage varies.
By March 25, 2016 it looks like Wilson was willing to talk about how and why he was fired by Mars Hill. I'm not going to quote from the entire article, though it's short, but I will highlight a couple of things.
http://www.rapzilla.com/rz/features/13011-adultery-of-ex-mars-hill-pastor-sparks-50-track-lp-about-gospel
David Daniels
Created: 25 March 2016
...
Willie Will released 78 tracks over four albums from 2006-2009 — including Reflection through Beatmart Recordings, a subsidiary of Sony Records — but he said none of it was Christ-centered. His music started to change after a friend invited him to Mars Hill in 2009 to serve with its worship team. Mars Hill introduced him to reformed theology and pastors like Driscoll, John Piper and Paul Washer, who heavily influenced Willie Will and whose sermon snippets act as interludes on The GIFT. [WtH--no offense meant, but if folks want to go Reformed there are vastly better theologians to go with than Driscoll, Piper or Washer but I digress]
“I was not a theological dude at all,” Willie Will said. “I was listening to Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen — a lot of prosperity cats — so everything [Mars Hill] got me around, it’s really my first time hearing. But it’s blowing my mind as far as, I felt like I had been in church for so long, and I never heard of this stuff being preached. I had never heard so much about sin, the cross and the person and work of Jesus. You felt like, man, I’m kind of just now becoming a Christian.”
From this inspiration, Willie Will began to write the original version of The GIFT. He embraced what he learned so much that he also pursued pastoring, which Mars Hill paid for his schooling to do. However, he admitted that he failed to apply his book smarts to his life.“My theology was changing. My mind was being changed. But my heart had not yet been changed,” Willie Will said. “My heart was set on becoming a pastor, rather than being a follower of Jesus and being a Christian and knowing and living out what that means.”
...
In 2012, Willie Will became the lead pastor of Mars Hill’s Rainier Valley campus. The following year, his wife informed church elders that he had committed adultery. [emphases added]
“I know I hurt so many people,” said Willie Will, who shared that he and his wife's marriage is still recovering, “people who trusted me as their leader, as their pastor, as their shepherd. I know they feel betrayed ... I was so riddled with guilt and covered by sin to where I just wanted to run. I just wanted to hide because I was so embarrassed. I felt every negative emotion to the point to where I felt hopeless.”
...
“I may never pastor again,” Willie Will, who's now an Apple Store technician, said, “but I do have a passion for the Gospel to see people changed by it because I was changed by it, because of what God did in me. I’m one who can say, ‘Look, I know the depths of sin, and I know the intenseness and the magnitude of God’s love in the Gospel.’ That’s what I want others to experience with [The GIFT], to see the magnitude of God’s love.”
...
So, fairly self-explanatory as these things go. Frankly it's okay if men who were once pastors at Mars Hill do not pastor again. There are a handful of men who served in pastoral ministry at Mars Hill who are still pastors and have shown themselves to be men I regard as actually fit for ministry, but I have to confess that number is pretty small. I've mentioned one of those men at this blog enough times I probably don't need to explicitly name him.
But what I want to highlight about what is shared in this brief story is that we see a man who was, by his own account, steeped in more of a prosperity Gospel before being exposed to teaching at Mars Hill that was different. Now my friend Wendy Alsup and I have blogged about how inside the culture of Mars Hill there was a kind of secret prosperity Gospel but it was of a sort you couldn't have noticed from the formal preaching and teaching. But in a sense the nature of that prosperity teaching can be inferred from cases where men who come into what they regard as a real Christian faith do so after arriving at Mars Hill and then find themselves fast-tracked into leadership. For those unfamiliar with the history of Mars Hill 2009 was a pivotal year in educational terms, it was when Resurgence Training Center was announced and kicked off, back in the middle of 2009.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/mars-hill-church-to-open-school-39256/
http://theresurgence.com/2009/10/08/the-resurgence-training-center
Mars Hill Church has started a school to serve as the leadership development engine for our global vision. As of August, the inaugural year of The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) is well underway.
What is Re:Train?
The purpose of the school is to train missional leaders to lead churches to transform cultures for Jesus. Our goal as a church is to start 100 new campuses and 1,000 new churches (in partnership with Acts 29) by 2019. In order to achieve this vision, we need as many men—trained and equipped—to be pastors and leaders within the movement. Pastor Mark Driscoll began The Resurgence a few years ago as a website with lots of free theological resources for missional leaders and the broader church in general. Re:Train is a further extension of this idea, offering premier missional leadership training and education.
What sort of classes does Re:Train offer?
Currently, Re:Train students participate in a yearlong graduate program that culminates in a Master of Missional Leadership. Participants are divided into "cohorts" based on area of interest. Once a month, all 75 students spend a weekend under the teaching of a nationally recognized professor. These classes are taught by men including John Piper, Bruce Ware, Gregg Allison, Ed Stetzer, Sam Storms, and Mars Hill Church Pastors Mark Driscoll and Bill Clem [emphases added]. Lord willing, beginning in the Fall of 2010, Re:Train will also offer university-style courses to equip the Mars Hill Church body in theology, biblical studies, missions, counseling, worship, biblical living, and other areas.
Who can attend Re:Train?
Re:Train participants come from all around the US and Canada. International students are expected next year, and our current student body includes a lot of Mars Hill leaders and members; we hope that many more will step up from within our community. Are you a future campus pastor? A future church planter? A faithful member who will be sent out as part of a core group to help start a new work? If you're interested in attending Re:Train in order to better prepare, we'll soon begin accepting applications for next year's graduate program (info at retrain.org).
Despite the fanfare the Resurgence Training Center had at most a couple of academic years and then seemed to just disappear. Those people in the best position to explain how and why it failed may not be, and may never be, in a position to really explain what went on but when and if they are there's some chance they know who to get in touch with.
Mars Hill had a culture in which ambitious young men with lively Christian convictions felt called to be in leadership, and some not-so-young but still eager men who wanted to participate in what they regarded as a unique move of God.
One of the things that eventually came to light was that by the time Sutton Turner was looking at the books of Mars Hill financials in earlier 2012 he was concerned that the church was in a big mess.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/09/10/sutton-turner-in-2012-on-mars-hill-churchs-financial-situation-we-are-in-a-big-mess/
http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/files/2014/09/Current-Financial-Situation-March-17-12.pdf
We'll probably never know where all the money raised by and for Mars Hill Church over it's roughly twenty year run went, altogether, but the feature about Willie Will suggests that one of the things that was purchased by Mars Hill Church could include the education of some of its pastors, although the Rapzilla article didn't seem to mention where Wills education was, but then I might have missed that detail.
The most striking quote from Willie Will/Willie Wilson from the Rapzilla article is his mention that he was so set on becoming a pastor he had not set his heart on being a follower of Christ and understanding what that meant. It seems tragic that he managed to receive a theological training while at Mars Hill paid for by Mars Hill and yet to go by what was publicly disclosed about the length of time he was formally a pastor at Mars Hill he was only a pastor for months before being removed.
The more and more stories that are shared about people who were in the leadership culture of Mars Hill the harder it is to ignore that some men were fast-tracked into some kind of pastoral role within the leadership culture of Mars Hill who were relatively new Christians, either altogether or new to what they would identify as a serious evangelical form of faith. Men who in a more traditional and tradition-minded Christian community would not be considered for pastoral service seemed able to get a green light within Mars Hill. Back in 2006 when James Noriega was added to the Mars Hill leadership roster as a pastor reports of his second marriage and four felonies were a matter of public record thanks to the reporting of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and yet these did not seem to be red flags to anyone in the culture of Mars Hill leadership in 2006 that perhaps Noriega, though a brother in Christ, should not have been installed in a pastoral capacity then, or perhaps ever. Informally it seems that Mars Hill culture prized entrepreneurial drive first and theological education second and character ... well ... consider Driscoll himself and what his own Board of Advisors and Accountability had to say about him.
But if Willie Will/Willie Wilson is working a standard day job and working on repairing his marriage rather than being a Mars Hill pastor or the Mars Hill kind of pastor, God bless him. Of the many men who have come and gone through the ranks of Mars Hill pastorship there have been a handful I don't doubt have the heart of a shepherd. I've been cumulatively proposing that Mars Hill Church as a corporate culture may be best described as a church culture in which elder qualification was viewed in terms of entrepreneurial drive and media savvy more than doctrinal fidelity or character. Men were given roles for which they were not yet ready or possibly for which they would never be ready.
One of the warnings Paul gave Timothy was that men appointed to being bishops should not be recent converts or they would be vulnerable to pride, becoming conceited and fall to condemnation incurred by the devil. I have had doubts that Mars Hill leadership considered the real gravity of such a warning, give a recent convert of a man the responsibility and role of an overseer too quickly and to too recent a believer the man may become as conceited as a demon. I've had enough people tell me I've got a cold-blooded arrogant streak that the last thing I'd ever want to be is a pastor. I've never wanted to be a pastor anyway.
So over the years Mark Driscoll has claimed he started too soon and too young, that he wished he could go back and do things differently. Nobody familiar with the bulk of what he wrote and said in the 1990s and early 00s would get the impression he thought he started too young and too soon. What's more, as stories about pastors who rose and fell within the mercurial Mars Hill system suggest, not only did Driscoll not seem to take seriously the implications of starting too soon for himself, there was a culture of leadership within Mars Hill that seemed able to reward those who leapt into the quest for a leadership role. If a man like Willie Wills can look at himself and conclude he may never be fit to be a minister of the Gospel again after his sins that man may have more spiritual insight and appreciation of who he is in Christ than a guy more like Mark Driscoll.
I wasn't planning to write about this or about Mars Hill this weekend but stuff sometimes comes up. The actual catalyst for writing about Mars Hill again was something else involving a recent arrest.
https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/10/mars-hill-rainier-valley-and-willie.html
You'll get a 404 error for this content if you try to follow the link but it was preserved in an earlier post here at Wenatchee The Hatchet. a donniehalbgewachs weebly entry indicated on January 27, 2013 that Willie Wilson was the new lead pastor for Mars Hill Rainier Valley.
http://donniehalbgewachs.weebly.com/1/post/2013/01/pastor-willie-mars-hill-church-seattle.html
January 27, 2013
Willie Wilson is the new lead pastor for Mars Hill Rainier Valley. Scripture is filled with "one another" statements such as: encourage one another, serve one another, love one another, and bear one another's burdens. That's what life in the church looks like. Pastor Willie has a passion and vision for building community in the name of Jesus. Find out more information on Mars Hill Rainier Valley.
In case you missed it, watch last month's Mars Hill Monthly and read about what Jesus did at our student camp.
What do you think about urban church planting?
that absence was first noted at Wenatchee The Hatchet in a comment
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/09/follow-up-on-follow-up-nathan-burke-is.html?showComment=1379933273461#c279481577807274760
Anonymous said...
In light of that comment, we took a look at the departure announcement.
https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/09/mars-hill-church-rainier-valley-willie.html
For those who didn't read it at the time, here's a WayBack capture of Wilson's departure, announced in a blog post published August 5, 2013:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130824135027/http://marshill.com/2013/08/05/running-the-race-with-duffel-bags
Running the race with duffel bags
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1–2
Imagine this: You’re about to run your first marathon. You’re at the starting line with hundreds of other people who will be running with you. You’re wearing a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, boots, and a parka. You’re also carrying a duffel bag, a briefcase, a suitcase, and a bag of groceries. You look ridiculous, but you don’t want to run this race without all the things that you find comfort in.
The gun bangs and you’re off! Hundreds of runners take off and you’re running alongside them. You’re off to a great, quick start. But 100 yards in, you’re already drained, tired, and ready to quit. The other runners are gone ahead of you. You’re now dragging your feet. You want to give up . . . because you’re carrying too much to continue.
The gun bangs and you’re off! Hundreds of runners take off and you’re running alongside them. You’re off to a great, quick start. But 100 yards in, you’re already drained, tired, and ready to quit. The other runners are gone ahead of you. You’re now dragging your feet. You want to give up . . . because you’re carrying too much to continue.
Suitcases stuffed with pride
A lot of times, we find ourselves in this very situation in our spiritual lives. We’ve started running the race of faith, but because of the load we’re carrying, we’re not running well. We’re shouldering unconfessed sin, secrets, and things we haven’t repented of but are holding on to. And it’s all weighing us down and holding us back. We’re carrying bags of guilt from past sin, backpacks filled with shame from sin that was committed against us, and suitcases stuffed with pride that keep from admitting that we’re tired and we need help. Jesus already carried our junk and nailed it to the cross, but for some reason, we choose to try and carry it anyway.
Are you tired of running your race? Are you tired of serving? Tired of loving people? Tired of giving of your time, talent, and treasure? It’s probably because you are carrying some things that you shouldn’t be carrying while running a race. In Hebrews 12:1, we’re instructed to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” What are you carrying that you need to lay aside or cast off? When you’re not carrying a huge load, you’ll see that you have more stamina and endurance to run the race that has been set before you.
He’ll finish what he started
Verse 2 gives us our motivation for running the race in such a way to win the prize: “ . . . looking to Jesus . . . ”
This is a race of faith, and Jesus is both the founder and perfecter of it. This means that he is the starter and the finisher of it. He caused you to start this race by calling you to himself, saving you, and placing you in a loving family who will run alongside you, be there to help you up when you fall and when you hobble along all the way to the finish line. He will make sure you finish and he will make your faith perfect. Jesus is our example of how to run this race, because we see how he ran his race with endurance, enduring the cross. We were his prize, the “joy set before him.”
Run with all your might
Now as we run our race, he is our prize! He is the joy set before us!! At the finish line, we will see Jesus face to face. He will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master” (Matt. 25:21, 23).
Brothers and sisters, run your race with endurance, keeping your eyes on the prize. You’re not running alone, but with tons of witnesses on the sidelines.
So run wholeheartedly, with all your might and all your strength, and when you finish the race, you will be able to speak the words of the Apostle Paul: “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
At the time there was no explanation as to why Wilson had departed, though the text of the announcement leaned hard on duffel bags and the metaphor of baggage that keeps you from running the race.
Mars Hill as a culture tended to reduce everything sinful, everything, to pride. I've written in the past about how I do think we can regard pride as a kind of stem cell for sin, that it can transform into any number of sins but that to treat those cells of sin as just being "pride" in some generic Mars Hill sense is damaging and dangerous. To belabor the metaphor, if stem cells become a liver that has liver poisoning you won't help if you just say the problem is with what happened to the stem cells, man. Treat the liver. Not everyone has sins that are realized by pride in the same way. Some people lie, some people still, some people commit adultery. Mileage varies.
By March 25, 2016 it looks like Wilson was willing to talk about how and why he was fired by Mars Hill. I'm not going to quote from the entire article, though it's short, but I will highlight a couple of things.
http://www.rapzilla.com/rz/features/13011-adultery-of-ex-mars-hill-pastor-sparks-50-track-lp-about-gospel
David Daniels
Created: 25 March 2016
...
Willie Will released 78 tracks over four albums from 2006-2009 — including Reflection through Beatmart Recordings, a subsidiary of Sony Records — but he said none of it was Christ-centered. His music started to change after a friend invited him to Mars Hill in 2009 to serve with its worship team. Mars Hill introduced him to reformed theology and pastors like Driscoll, John Piper and Paul Washer, who heavily influenced Willie Will and whose sermon snippets act as interludes on The GIFT. [WtH--no offense meant, but if folks want to go Reformed there are vastly better theologians to go with than Driscoll, Piper or Washer but I digress]
“I was not a theological dude at all,” Willie Will said. “I was listening to Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen — a lot of prosperity cats — so everything [Mars Hill] got me around, it’s really my first time hearing. But it’s blowing my mind as far as, I felt like I had been in church for so long, and I never heard of this stuff being preached. I had never heard so much about sin, the cross and the person and work of Jesus. You felt like, man, I’m kind of just now becoming a Christian.”
From this inspiration, Willie Will began to write the original version of The GIFT. He embraced what he learned so much that he also pursued pastoring, which Mars Hill paid for his schooling to do. However, he admitted that he failed to apply his book smarts to his life.“My theology was changing. My mind was being changed. But my heart had not yet been changed,” Willie Will said. “My heart was set on becoming a pastor, rather than being a follower of Jesus and being a Christian and knowing and living out what that means.”
...
In 2012, Willie Will became the lead pastor of Mars Hill’s Rainier Valley campus. The following year, his wife informed church elders that he had committed adultery. [emphases added]
“I know I hurt so many people,” said Willie Will, who shared that he and his wife's marriage is still recovering, “people who trusted me as their leader, as their pastor, as their shepherd. I know they feel betrayed ... I was so riddled with guilt and covered by sin to where I just wanted to run. I just wanted to hide because I was so embarrassed. I felt every negative emotion to the point to where I felt hopeless.”
...
“I may never pastor again,” Willie Will, who's now an Apple Store technician, said, “but I do have a passion for the Gospel to see people changed by it because I was changed by it, because of what God did in me. I’m one who can say, ‘Look, I know the depths of sin, and I know the intenseness and the magnitude of God’s love in the Gospel.’ That’s what I want others to experience with [The GIFT], to see the magnitude of God’s love.”
...
So, fairly self-explanatory as these things go. Frankly it's okay if men who were once pastors at Mars Hill do not pastor again. There are a handful of men who served in pastoral ministry at Mars Hill who are still pastors and have shown themselves to be men I regard as actually fit for ministry, but I have to confess that number is pretty small. I've mentioned one of those men at this blog enough times I probably don't need to explicitly name him.
But what I want to highlight about what is shared in this brief story is that we see a man who was, by his own account, steeped in more of a prosperity Gospel before being exposed to teaching at Mars Hill that was different. Now my friend Wendy Alsup and I have blogged about how inside the culture of Mars Hill there was a kind of secret prosperity Gospel but it was of a sort you couldn't have noticed from the formal preaching and teaching. But in a sense the nature of that prosperity teaching can be inferred from cases where men who come into what they regard as a real Christian faith do so after arriving at Mars Hill and then find themselves fast-tracked into leadership. For those unfamiliar with the history of Mars Hill 2009 was a pivotal year in educational terms, it was when Resurgence Training Center was announced and kicked off, back in the middle of 2009.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/mars-hill-church-to-open-school-39256/
http://theresurgence.com/2009/10/08/the-resurgence-training-center
Mars Hill Church has started a school to serve as the leadership development engine for our global vision. As of August, the inaugural year of The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) is well underway.
What is Re:Train?
The purpose of the school is to train missional leaders to lead churches to transform cultures for Jesus. Our goal as a church is to start 100 new campuses and 1,000 new churches (in partnership with Acts 29) by 2019. In order to achieve this vision, we need as many men—trained and equipped—to be pastors and leaders within the movement. Pastor Mark Driscoll began The Resurgence a few years ago as a website with lots of free theological resources for missional leaders and the broader church in general. Re:Train is a further extension of this idea, offering premier missional leadership training and education.
What sort of classes does Re:Train offer?
Currently, Re:Train students participate in a yearlong graduate program that culminates in a Master of Missional Leadership. Participants are divided into "cohorts" based on area of interest. Once a month, all 75 students spend a weekend under the teaching of a nationally recognized professor. These classes are taught by men including John Piper, Bruce Ware, Gregg Allison, Ed Stetzer, Sam Storms, and Mars Hill Church Pastors Mark Driscoll and Bill Clem [emphases added]. Lord willing, beginning in the Fall of 2010, Re:Train will also offer university-style courses to equip the Mars Hill Church body in theology, biblical studies, missions, counseling, worship, biblical living, and other areas.
Who can attend Re:Train?
Re:Train participants come from all around the US and Canada. International students are expected next year, and our current student body includes a lot of Mars Hill leaders and members; we hope that many more will step up from within our community. Are you a future campus pastor? A future church planter? A faithful member who will be sent out as part of a core group to help start a new work? If you're interested in attending Re:Train in order to better prepare, we'll soon begin accepting applications for next year's graduate program (info at retrain.org).
Despite the fanfare the Resurgence Training Center had at most a couple of academic years and then seemed to just disappear. Those people in the best position to explain how and why it failed may not be, and may never be, in a position to really explain what went on but when and if they are there's some chance they know who to get in touch with.
Mars Hill had a culture in which ambitious young men with lively Christian convictions felt called to be in leadership, and some not-so-young but still eager men who wanted to participate in what they regarded as a unique move of God.
One of the things that eventually came to light was that by the time Sutton Turner was looking at the books of Mars Hill financials in earlier 2012 he was concerned that the church was in a big mess.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/09/10/sutton-turner-in-2012-on-mars-hill-churchs-financial-situation-we-are-in-a-big-mess/
http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/files/2014/09/Current-Financial-Situation-March-17-12.pdf
We'll probably never know where all the money raised by and for Mars Hill Church over it's roughly twenty year run went, altogether, but the feature about Willie Will suggests that one of the things that was purchased by Mars Hill Church could include the education of some of its pastors, although the Rapzilla article didn't seem to mention where Wills education was, but then I might have missed that detail.
The most striking quote from Willie Will/Willie Wilson from the Rapzilla article is his mention that he was so set on becoming a pastor he had not set his heart on being a follower of Christ and understanding what that meant. It seems tragic that he managed to receive a theological training while at Mars Hill paid for by Mars Hill and yet to go by what was publicly disclosed about the length of time he was formally a pastor at Mars Hill he was only a pastor for months before being removed.
The more and more stories that are shared about people who were in the leadership culture of Mars Hill the harder it is to ignore that some men were fast-tracked into some kind of pastoral role within the leadership culture of Mars Hill who were relatively new Christians, either altogether or new to what they would identify as a serious evangelical form of faith. Men who in a more traditional and tradition-minded Christian community would not be considered for pastoral service seemed able to get a green light within Mars Hill. Back in 2006 when James Noriega was added to the Mars Hill leadership roster as a pastor reports of his second marriage and four felonies were a matter of public record thanks to the reporting of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and yet these did not seem to be red flags to anyone in the culture of Mars Hill leadership in 2006 that perhaps Noriega, though a brother in Christ, should not have been installed in a pastoral capacity then, or perhaps ever. Informally it seems that Mars Hill culture prized entrepreneurial drive first and theological education second and character ... well ... consider Driscoll himself and what his own Board of Advisors and Accountability had to say about him.
But if Willie Will/Willie Wilson is working a standard day job and working on repairing his marriage rather than being a Mars Hill pastor or the Mars Hill kind of pastor, God bless him. Of the many men who have come and gone through the ranks of Mars Hill pastorship there have been a handful I don't doubt have the heart of a shepherd. I've been cumulatively proposing that Mars Hill Church as a corporate culture may be best described as a church culture in which elder qualification was viewed in terms of entrepreneurial drive and media savvy more than doctrinal fidelity or character. Men were given roles for which they were not yet ready or possibly for which they would never be ready.
One of the warnings Paul gave Timothy was that men appointed to being bishops should not be recent converts or they would be vulnerable to pride, becoming conceited and fall to condemnation incurred by the devil. I have had doubts that Mars Hill leadership considered the real gravity of such a warning, give a recent convert of a man the responsibility and role of an overseer too quickly and to too recent a believer the man may become as conceited as a demon. I've had enough people tell me I've got a cold-blooded arrogant streak that the last thing I'd ever want to be is a pastor. I've never wanted to be a pastor anyway.
So over the years Mark Driscoll has claimed he started too soon and too young, that he wished he could go back and do things differently. Nobody familiar with the bulk of what he wrote and said in the 1990s and early 00s would get the impression he thought he started too young and too soon. What's more, as stories about pastors who rose and fell within the mercurial Mars Hill system suggest, not only did Driscoll not seem to take seriously the implications of starting too soon for himself, there was a culture of leadership within Mars Hill that seemed able to reward those who leapt into the quest for a leadership role. If a man like Willie Wills can look at himself and conclude he may never be fit to be a minister of the Gospel again after his sins that man may have more spiritual insight and appreciation of who he is in Christ than a guy more like Mark Driscoll.
I wasn't planning to write about this or about Mars Hill this weekend but stuff sometimes comes up. The actual catalyst for writing about Mars Hill again was something else involving a recent arrest.
Monday, January 04, 2016
2016, a new year, and the MH re-plants share their respective histories ... or not, an overview of which MH spin-offs have leaders who were on the BoE that was investigating Driscoll
sadf
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-shoreline-to-sound-city.html
http://soundcitybiblechurch.com/about-us/history/
In 1996, a pastor named Mark Driscoll started a new church in Seattle called Mars Hill. Mars Hill Church grew rapidly, and in 2006 decided to plant its very first remote campus, a video location called Mars Hill Shoreline. The pastor who launched the new location, Steve Tompkins, put it this way: “God kept bringing more people to hear the gospel. Even five Sunday services [in Ballard] back-to-back didn’t address our need for more space.”
God did many amazing things in and through Mars Hill Shoreline: people were saved, hundreds were baptized, families were started, lives were transformed. However, there were also many issues that built up over the years which all came to a head in 2014, a year of great difficulty for the church. Facing mounting criticism as the church investigated formal charges against him, Mark Driscoll submitted his resignation as vision and preaching pastor on October 14, 2014. Shortly afterward, it was announced that each local campus of Mars Hill would have the opportunity to launch out as their own fully independent church.
After much prayer and discussion, the elder team of Mars Hill Shoreline did make the decision to re-plant Mars Hill Shoreline as Sound City Bible Church. The elders made the commitment to learn from the sins and mistakes of the church in the past while focusing on a fresh vision to help people hear the good news of Jesus all throughout the north end of the greater Seattle area.
Sound City Bible Church is not simply Mars Hill carrying on under a new name. It is a new church with a new elder team, a new doctrinal statement, a new mission and a new set of values. This church has been through some difficult times, but through it all is more convinced than ever that Jesus truly is the one who is worth placing ultimate hope in. We hope and pray that God would give us many years together to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus, receiving grace, being disciples, and making disciples.
Trinity West sort of doesn't have a history page
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-west-seattle-to-trinity.html
http://www.trinityws.com/
Some of these churches are starting from scratch and disconnected from Mars Hill so it might make sense to not have a history that states up front the Mars Hill lineage while formally declaring a different set of goals is in order. Now Fairchild was not on the BoE, for those who remember what the Board of Elders was.
But ... if your church says one of its core values is "legacy" then not mentioning a legacy connected to Mars Hill becomes more puzzling.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-tacoma-to-resurrection.html
http://www.resurrectionchurch.com/about/
For those who don't remember, Bubba Jennings was not just on the Board of Elders, he was also an executive elder around the time the 2007 firings and trials occurred.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-3-pastor-bubba.html
So he may not only be able to answer questions about investigation into Mark Driscoll from 2014, he is one of the only people who had a connection to the termination and trials of Meyer and Petry from 2007 that has not publicly recanted/repudiated involvement of any kind in that process.
Redemption in Spokane indicates their story as connected to Mars Hill.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-spokane-to-redemption.html
http://redemptionspokane.com/whoweare/
Redemption Spokane is a new church planted in the heart of the Inland Northwest with the mission to see the work of redemption impact Spokane, seeing many people’s lives changed by the power of the Gospel. Our founding pastor, Miles Rohde, and a large number of our original core members had a heart to see a new church planted in the heart of Spokane that would reach the entire region. Originally beginning with the vision of being a church connected to Mars Hill Church, in the fall of 2014 a decision was made to become a fully independent church with our soft-launch in January 2015.
The church building, located on the corner of 2nd Ave and Division Street, has been a bastion of the gospel in Spokane since the first church building was constructed at this important crossroads in downtown Spokane. Having moved into this church building, right in the heart of Spokane, Redemption Spokane desires to continue the legacy of the Gospel being faithfully preached to all.
As a church, we had our official launch at our Easter service in 2015.
For those who may have forgotten ... somebody was on the Board of Elders assigned to investigate Driscoll, if memory serves.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-7-pastor-miles.html
One would already have to have known that the Rainier Valley Church had a Mars Hill history to observe it's still at the Union Gospel Mission site.
http://www.rainiervalleychurch.com/about-us/
Given the obscure but swift disappearance of Willie Wilson from its leadership that this church even still exists at all could seem like a feat of community cohesion.
Choi was also mentioned as a member of the BoE
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-1-pastor-ed-choi.html
Former Mars Hill Portland is now Redeemer in Portland and has nothing much to say about its history. They will, however, be nominating deacons soon (and may possibly have already)
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-portland-to-redeemer.html
http://redeemerpdx.com/about/leadership/
...
The Elder board of our church currently consists of: Pastor Eric Appleby, Pastor Jon Crist, Pastor Kevin Kelly, Pastor Ryan Mount, Pastor Dan Ortega, Pastor Tim Smith and Pastor Jim Swanson. Two of the Elders of Redeemer Church are also paid staff. They are: Tim Smith, in the role of Lead Teaching Pastor and Kevin Kelly, in the role of Executive Pastor.
God has called all of these men to lead by example and to serve with love, humility and grace, placing care and service to the flock over their own interests. Should you wish to speak to any of our Elders, please email redeemer@redeemerpdx.com indicating whom you wish to speak with and they will get back to you promptly.
Since Tim Smith was one of the members of the Board of Elders assigned to investigate Mark Driscoll maye an elder can lead by example by answering questions about what was in the report/investigation from later 2014?
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-8-pastor-tim-smith.html
or maybe field questions about statements made about Mark Dunford?
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/mark-dunford-releases-statement.html
https://www.facebook.com/dunford.mark/posts/10152930946657345
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zjdmzp7wr060f5/StatementFromTheDunfords.pdf?dl=0
Olympia ...
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-olympia-to-harbor-church.html
http://www.harborolympia.com/leadership/
Not a whole ton of history there to share. Although Mars Hill Olympia was where the Mars Hill Military Mission was once based, which was a ministry that basically distributed Mars Hill authored books to soldiers. The Military Mission was shut down in early 2012 after having been moved, for reasons not necessarily clearly explained, from Olympia to central HQ or thereabouts. As discussed at this blog, the book distributional aims of the defunct Military Mission could have made sense as an easy way to handle the bulk orders for the bulk order side of the Result Source strategy.
There are churches that were once Mars Hill that clearly believe it's best to lead up front with the line of descent. Other chuches seem eager to avoid this still unavoidable element of their history, at least for now.
For those who don't remember the name of Matt Rogers, who was pastor at Mars Hill Bellevue in 2014 and on the BoE and eventually appointed to the BoAA ...
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/08/26/is-matt-rogers-the-newest-member-of-the-mars-hill-church-board-of-advisors-and-accountability/
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-6-pastor-matt.html
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-bellevue-to-doxa-church.html
http://doxa-church.com/servant-leaders
There's not a lot of evidence he's connected to Doxa Eastside lately. There's no trace of him if you do a search for his name on their site. Given Rogers' role on both the BoE and the BoAA and what he was willing to say about public criticism of Mark Driscoll a hard reboot without him might seem beneficial. The hard reboot might also extend to not really sharing much by way of establishing the historic connection between Doxa and the former Mars Hill.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-ballard-to-cross-and.html
http://crossandcrownseattle.com/home/about/
4554 12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Cross and Crown has left the Ballard site and taken up at what was once the U-District Mars Hill site.
It has, if memory serves, taken on people from the sites that were formerly Mars Hill Downtown, Ballard and the U-District. As reported a while back by Wenatchee The Hatchet and Warren Throckmorton some of the campuses had been losing attenders or members in the months running up to Driscoll's formal resignation. Consolidating those who were left at some of the campuses to what used to be Mars Hill Ballard made some sense. In a way the consolidation process was a kind of mirror to the 20007 dispersion process in which people were sent out to launch campuses for the multi-campus process. And it's tough to forget that the multi-site approach became appealing as Mars Hill central leadership realized the second campus idea for what became the central headquarters was either impossible or wildly impractical. In th ehistory of Mars Hill it is worth stressing that when we consult the talks of Mark Drsicoll about multi-site compared to what he published in Confessions of Reformission Rev about a decade ago, the entire multi-site approach was a kind of epic Plan B.
So, anyway, Cross and Crown does not have a very detailed history for itself yet.
Then there's the somewhat shortlived Mars Hill Albuquerque.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-albuquerque-to-north.html
Not only does there not seem to be any history for the church you can't even tell who the leaders are as you can with just about any of the other churches, unless you go digging up the sermons.
You can learn more if you fill out a form, though.
http://northchurchabq.com/connect/
So, having reviewed a few of the sites that were once Mars Hill and having noted which applicable names showed up in the Board of Elders ... let's revisit a statement quoted by Warren Throckmorton.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/10/19/mars-hill-church-board-of-elders-mark-driscoll-resigned-instead-of-enter-restoration-plan-to-deal/
The investigation of formal charges against Mark Driscoll has revealed patterns of persistent sin in the three areas disclosed in the previous letter by the Board of Overseers. In I Tim 5:20, it requires that an elder be rebuked for persistent sin. Our intention was to do this while providing a plan for his eventual restoration to leadership. The Board of Elders in agreement with the Board of Overseers are grieved, deeply grieved, that any process like that was lost to us when Mark Driscoll resigned in position and left the church. Now is the time to move on and consider what God is calling us to next as a church as we participate in Jesus’ mission to make disciples in His name. [emphasis added] Today begins a new chapter in the history of our church which has proceeded in one direction under one leadership for many years now, but I want you to understand this, God is our Father. That does not change. Jesus is the chief shepherd of the church and that has not changed.
The elders of Mars Hill Church acknowledge as we’ve gone through all of this investigation, and heard all of these stories, we acknowledge that we have personally led in some of the same ways that demonstrate some of the same ways that Pastor Mark had. And those things require repentance and forgiveness and restoration. We realize that there are ways that we have led as elders in ways that have been domineering, sometimes arrogant and sometimes boastful and at least for my part, I want to say I deeply regret those sins and I ask for your forgiveness. We want to lead you into the future in a way that displays more grace, more love as we speak the truth to each of you. If there are people that I have offended in ways I have pastored this church, I would welcome that you come to me and speak with me to allow me the opportunity to reconcile with you.
At this time Mars Hill Church is going to move ahead under the Board of Overseers established plan for transition. Pastor Dave Bruskas will serve as the teaching and preaching pastor during an interim period of time until we establish a direction we are going as a church. The Board of Advisors are going to be working in the weeks to come on a plan for moving forward and for how that will unfold, what the next steps are, there are a lot of things to consider. As we discover what those things are, what the spirit shows us, then we want to communicate clearly to you and transparently to you what’s happening, the directions and the changes that will be taking place.
2016 is a new year but even if there's a new man, to borrow an apostolic epistletory idiom, the old man isn't completely dead yet.
No, actually, we can be pretty literal about this. The corporation formerly known as Mars Hill Church is still technically listed as "Active" even today by the Washington Secretary of State website.
https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819
It still lists Dave Bruskas as President and Caleb Walters as Vice-President even though Kerry Dodd's been describing himself as President for a while and describes himself thus as of ... right now.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-dodd-a4174712
Recognized by who for the successful launching of 11 new independent entities? Would whoever recognized Kerry Dodd for this clarify for the record they recognized this?
and ... Caleb Walters is still mentioning he's Chief Operations Officer for the potentially still existing Mars Hill.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebwalters
Who was on the board of directors since the resignation of Driscoll that seems implicit in Dodd's verbiage? Who's been on the transition team? While many a person has assumed that things were "over" the dissolution of the company is the period in which stuff gets sold and assets get distributed. This was/is the period in which to actually pay more rather than less attention to what may be going on. Sure, Driscoll's got a church he's aiming to start up but there's no need to forget that Mars Hill hasn't ceased to exist as a corporate entity just because a celebrity threw in the towel rather than comply with a restoration plan proposed by a board.
So as 2016 moves forward we'll get to see which of the 11 spin-offs prospers or not. It remains to be seen. They may all make it but we don't know yet.
Meanwhile, we know which churches seem to feel comfortable enough to explain in their public web presence where they've come from and which aren't yet.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-shoreline-to-sound-city.html
http://soundcitybiblechurch.com/about-us/history/
In 1996, a pastor named Mark Driscoll started a new church in Seattle called Mars Hill. Mars Hill Church grew rapidly, and in 2006 decided to plant its very first remote campus, a video location called Mars Hill Shoreline. The pastor who launched the new location, Steve Tompkins, put it this way: “God kept bringing more people to hear the gospel. Even five Sunday services [in Ballard] back-to-back didn’t address our need for more space.”
God did many amazing things in and through Mars Hill Shoreline: people were saved, hundreds were baptized, families were started, lives were transformed. However, there were also many issues that built up over the years which all came to a head in 2014, a year of great difficulty for the church. Facing mounting criticism as the church investigated formal charges against him, Mark Driscoll submitted his resignation as vision and preaching pastor on October 14, 2014. Shortly afterward, it was announced that each local campus of Mars Hill would have the opportunity to launch out as their own fully independent church.
After much prayer and discussion, the elder team of Mars Hill Shoreline did make the decision to re-plant Mars Hill Shoreline as Sound City Bible Church. The elders made the commitment to learn from the sins and mistakes of the church in the past while focusing on a fresh vision to help people hear the good news of Jesus all throughout the north end of the greater Seattle area.
Sound City Bible Church is not simply Mars Hill carrying on under a new name. It is a new church with a new elder team, a new doctrinal statement, a new mission and a new set of values. This church has been through some difficult times, but through it all is more convinced than ever that Jesus truly is the one who is worth placing ultimate hope in. We hope and pray that God would give us many years together to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus, receiving grace, being disciples, and making disciples.
Trinity West sort of doesn't have a history page
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-west-seattle-to-trinity.html
http://www.trinityws.com/
Some of these churches are starting from scratch and disconnected from Mars Hill so it might make sense to not have a history that states up front the Mars Hill lineage while formally declaring a different set of goals is in order. Now Fairchild was not on the BoE, for those who remember what the Board of Elders was.
But ... if your church says one of its core values is "legacy" then not mentioning a legacy connected to Mars Hill becomes more puzzling.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-tacoma-to-resurrection.html
http://www.resurrectionchurch.com/about/
For those who don't remember, Bubba Jennings was not just on the Board of Elders, he was also an executive elder around the time the 2007 firings and trials occurred.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-3-pastor-bubba.html
So he may not only be able to answer questions about investigation into Mark Driscoll from 2014, he is one of the only people who had a connection to the termination and trials of Meyer and Petry from 2007 that has not publicly recanted/repudiated involvement of any kind in that process.
Redemption in Spokane indicates their story as connected to Mars Hill.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-spokane-to-redemption.html
http://redemptionspokane.com/whoweare/
Redemption Spokane is a new church planted in the heart of the Inland Northwest with the mission to see the work of redemption impact Spokane, seeing many people’s lives changed by the power of the Gospel. Our founding pastor, Miles Rohde, and a large number of our original core members had a heart to see a new church planted in the heart of Spokane that would reach the entire region. Originally beginning with the vision of being a church connected to Mars Hill Church, in the fall of 2014 a decision was made to become a fully independent church with our soft-launch in January 2015.
The church building, located on the corner of 2nd Ave and Division Street, has been a bastion of the gospel in Spokane since the first church building was constructed at this important crossroads in downtown Spokane. Having moved into this church building, right in the heart of Spokane, Redemption Spokane desires to continue the legacy of the Gospel being faithfully preached to all.
As a church, we had our official launch at our Easter service in 2015.
For those who may have forgotten ... somebody was on the Board of Elders assigned to investigate Driscoll, if memory serves.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-7-pastor-miles.html
One would already have to have known that the Rainier Valley Church had a Mars Hill history to observe it's still at the Union Gospel Mission site.
http://www.rainiervalleychurch.com/about-us/
Given the obscure but swift disappearance of Willie Wilson from its leadership that this church even still exists at all could seem like a feat of community cohesion.
Choi was also mentioned as a member of the BoE
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-1-pastor-ed-choi.html
Former Mars Hill Portland is now Redeemer in Portland and has nothing much to say about its history. They will, however, be nominating deacons soon (and may possibly have already)
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-portland-to-redeemer.html
http://redeemerpdx.com/about/leadership/
...
The Elder board of our church currently consists of: Pastor Eric Appleby, Pastor Jon Crist, Pastor Kevin Kelly, Pastor Ryan Mount, Pastor Dan Ortega, Pastor Tim Smith and Pastor Jim Swanson. Two of the Elders of Redeemer Church are also paid staff. They are: Tim Smith, in the role of Lead Teaching Pastor and Kevin Kelly, in the role of Executive Pastor.
God has called all of these men to lead by example and to serve with love, humility and grace, placing care and service to the flock over their own interests. Should you wish to speak to any of our Elders, please email redeemer@redeemerpdx.com indicating whom you wish to speak with and they will get back to you promptly.
Deacons
As a new church, we will soon nominate Deacons who will be responsible for taking various day-to-day burdens of service from the Elders, in order that they may focus on prayer, teaching and general oversight of the church. Redeemer Church will have both men and women Deacons, as supported by scripture.Since Tim Smith was one of the members of the Board of Elders assigned to investigate Mark Driscoll maye an elder can lead by example by answering questions about what was in the report/investigation from later 2014?
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-8-pastor-tim-smith.html
or maybe field questions about statements made about Mark Dunford?
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/mark-dunford-releases-statement.html
https://www.facebook.com/dunford.mark/posts/10152930946657345
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zjdmzp7wr060f5/StatementFromTheDunfords.pdf?dl=0
Olympia ...
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-olympia-to-harbor-church.html
http://www.harborolympia.com/leadership/
Not a whole ton of history there to share. Although Mars Hill Olympia was where the Mars Hill Military Mission was once based, which was a ministry that basically distributed Mars Hill authored books to soldiers. The Military Mission was shut down in early 2012 after having been moved, for reasons not necessarily clearly explained, from Olympia to central HQ or thereabouts. As discussed at this blog, the book distributional aims of the defunct Military Mission could have made sense as an easy way to handle the bulk orders for the bulk order side of the Result Source strategy.
There are churches that were once Mars Hill that clearly believe it's best to lead up front with the line of descent. Other chuches seem eager to avoid this still unavoidable element of their history, at least for now.
For those who don't remember the name of Matt Rogers, who was pastor at Mars Hill Bellevue in 2014 and on the BoE and eventually appointed to the BoAA ...
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/08/26/is-matt-rogers-the-newest-member-of-the-mars-hill-church-board-of-advisors-and-accountability/
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-boe-members-part-6-pastor-matt.html
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-bellevue-to-doxa-church.html
http://doxa-church.com/servant-leaders
There's not a lot of evidence he's connected to Doxa Eastside lately. There's no trace of him if you do a search for his name on their site. Given Rogers' role on both the BoE and the BoAA and what he was willing to say about public criticism of Mark Driscoll a hard reboot without him might seem beneficial. The hard reboot might also extend to not really sharing much by way of establishing the historic connection between Doxa and the former Mars Hill.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-ballard-to-cross-and.html
http://crossandcrownseattle.com/home/about/
4554 12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Cross and Crown has left the Ballard site and taken up at what was once the U-District Mars Hill site.
It has, if memory serves, taken on people from the sites that were formerly Mars Hill Downtown, Ballard and the U-District. As reported a while back by Wenatchee The Hatchet and Warren Throckmorton some of the campuses had been losing attenders or members in the months running up to Driscoll's formal resignation. Consolidating those who were left at some of the campuses to what used to be Mars Hill Ballard made some sense. In a way the consolidation process was a kind of mirror to the 20007 dispersion process in which people were sent out to launch campuses for the multi-campus process. And it's tough to forget that the multi-site approach became appealing as Mars Hill central leadership realized the second campus idea for what became the central headquarters was either impossible or wildly impractical. In th ehistory of Mars Hill it is worth stressing that when we consult the talks of Mark Drsicoll about multi-site compared to what he published in Confessions of Reformission Rev about a decade ago, the entire multi-site approach was a kind of epic Plan B.
So, anyway, Cross and Crown does not have a very detailed history for itself yet.
Then there's the somewhat shortlived Mars Hill Albuquerque.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-albuquerque-to-north.html
Not only does there not seem to be any history for the church you can't even tell who the leaders are as you can with just about any of the other churches, unless you go digging up the sermons.
You can learn more if you fill out a form, though.
http://northchurchabq.com/connect/
So, having reviewed a few of the sites that were once Mars Hill and having noted which applicable names showed up in the Board of Elders ... let's revisit a statement quoted by Warren Throckmorton.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/10/19/mars-hill-church-board-of-elders-mark-driscoll-resigned-instead-of-enter-restoration-plan-to-deal/
The investigation of formal charges against Mark Driscoll has revealed patterns of persistent sin in the three areas disclosed in the previous letter by the Board of Overseers. In I Tim 5:20, it requires that an elder be rebuked for persistent sin. Our intention was to do this while providing a plan for his eventual restoration to leadership. The Board of Elders in agreement with the Board of Overseers are grieved, deeply grieved, that any process like that was lost to us when Mark Driscoll resigned in position and left the church. Now is the time to move on and consider what God is calling us to next as a church as we participate in Jesus’ mission to make disciples in His name. [emphasis added] Today begins a new chapter in the history of our church which has proceeded in one direction under one leadership for many years now, but I want you to understand this, God is our Father. That does not change. Jesus is the chief shepherd of the church and that has not changed.
The elders of Mars Hill Church acknowledge as we’ve gone through all of this investigation, and heard all of these stories, we acknowledge that we have personally led in some of the same ways that demonstrate some of the same ways that Pastor Mark had. And those things require repentance and forgiveness and restoration. We realize that there are ways that we have led as elders in ways that have been domineering, sometimes arrogant and sometimes boastful and at least for my part, I want to say I deeply regret those sins and I ask for your forgiveness. We want to lead you into the future in a way that displays more grace, more love as we speak the truth to each of you. If there are people that I have offended in ways I have pastored this church, I would welcome that you come to me and speak with me to allow me the opportunity to reconcile with you.
At this time Mars Hill Church is going to move ahead under the Board of Overseers established plan for transition. Pastor Dave Bruskas will serve as the teaching and preaching pastor during an interim period of time until we establish a direction we are going as a church. The Board of Advisors are going to be working in the weeks to come on a plan for moving forward and for how that will unfold, what the next steps are, there are a lot of things to consider. As we discover what those things are, what the spirit shows us, then we want to communicate clearly to you and transparently to you what’s happening, the directions and the changes that will be taking place.
2016 is a new year but even if there's a new man, to borrow an apostolic epistletory idiom, the old man isn't completely dead yet.
No, actually, we can be pretty literal about this. The corporation formerly known as Mars Hill Church is still technically listed as "Active" even today by the Washington Secretary of State website.
https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819
It still lists Dave Bruskas as President and Caleb Walters as Vice-President even though Kerry Dodd's been describing himself as President for a while and describes himself thus as of ... right now.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-dodd-a4174712
President and General Manager
Mars Hill Fellowship, Inc.
- Keen management to daily operations to guarantee proper handling of all legal affairs and creditor obligations
- Tactical administration to the liquidation of real property and other assets; along with the distribution of net assets
- Recognition for the successful launching of 11 new independent entities by separating the organization from its 15 operating locations
- Appointment as corporate president of the board of directors; as well as promotion to general manager, in charge of leading the transition team in settling the affairs of the corporation toward the distribution of net assets and dissolution
- Tactical administration to the liquidation of real property and other assets; along with the distribution of net assets
- Recognition for the successful launching of 11 new independent entities by separating the organization from its 15 operating locations
- Appointment as corporate president of the board of directors; as well as promotion to general manager, in charge of leading the transition team in settling the affairs of the corporation toward the distribution of net assets and dissolution
Recognized by who for the successful launching of 11 new independent entities? Would whoever recognized Kerry Dodd for this clarify for the record they recognized this?
and ... Caleb Walters is still mentioning he's Chief Operations Officer for the potentially still existing Mars Hill.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebwalters
Who was on the board of directors since the resignation of Driscoll that seems implicit in Dodd's verbiage? Who's been on the transition team? While many a person has assumed that things were "over" the dissolution of the company is the period in which stuff gets sold and assets get distributed. This was/is the period in which to actually pay more rather than less attention to what may be going on. Sure, Driscoll's got a church he's aiming to start up but there's no need to forget that Mars Hill hasn't ceased to exist as a corporate entity just because a celebrity threw in the towel rather than comply with a restoration plan proposed by a board.
So as 2016 moves forward we'll get to see which of the 11 spin-offs prospers or not. It remains to be seen. They may all make it but we don't know yet.
Meanwhile, we know which churches seem to feel comfortable enough to explain in their public web presence where they've come from and which aren't yet.
Sunday, August 09, 2015
from Mars Hill Rainier Valley to Rainier Valley Church
Mars Hill Rainier Valley
Rainier Valley Church
https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/
RAINIER VALLEY CHURCH
UBI Number 603451090
Category REG
Profit/Nonprofit Nonprofit
Active/Inactive Active
State Of Incorporation WA
WA Filing Date 11/10/2014
Expiration Date 11/30/2015
Inactive Date
Duration Perpetual
Agent Name JEREMY CULUMBER
Address 3800 S OTHELLO ST
City SEATTLE
State WA
ZIP 98118
Special Address Information
Governing Persons
Title
Name
Address
Director Choi, Ed 3800 S Othello St Seattle
SEATTLE, WA 98118
Director Porter, Nate 3800 S Othello St Seattle
SEATTLE, WA 98118
Director Culumber, Kari 3800 S Othello St Seattle
SEATTLE, WA 98118
Rainier Valley Church
https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/
RAINIER VALLEY CHURCH
UBI Number 603451090
Category REG
Profit/Nonprofit Nonprofit
Active/Inactive Active
State Of Incorporation WA
WA Filing Date 11/10/2014
Expiration Date 11/30/2015
Inactive Date
Duration Perpetual
Agent Name JEREMY CULUMBER
Address 3800 S OTHELLO ST
City SEATTLE
State WA
ZIP 98118
Special Address Information
Governing Persons
Title
Name
Address
Director Choi, Ed 3800 S Othello St Seattle
SEATTLE, WA 98118
Director Porter, Nate 3800 S Othello St Seattle
SEATTLE, WA 98118
Director Culumber, Kari 3800 S Othello St Seattle
SEATTLE, WA 98118
Friday, October 04, 2013
Mars Hill Rainier Valley and Willie Wilson, one of the shorter pastoral careers in the history of the church
Wenatchee The Hatchet was notified via comments that Willie Wilson is no longer among the pastors of Mars Hill. Wilson was at Rainier Valley as a pastor and that's a campus that we've not discussed yet in much detail. Driscoll mentioned in the June 2012 financial update that Mars Hill Rainier Valley was running the lowest deficit of all the churches and he pointed out that that's where the single moms and poor people are. Ah, right, but see there may be an even more important detail that wasn't mentioned, that's a "campus" that is using borrowed real estate from the Union Gospel Mission, if memory serves. You'll run the lower deficit if your congregation only has to rent rather than own because a lot of the property upkeep can be handled by the people who DO own the real estate.
Evidence of Wilson's role can still be found in a few spots.
http://donniehalbgewachs.weebly.com/1/post/2013/01/pastor-willie-mars-hill-church-seattle.html
January 27, 2013
Willie Wilson is the new lead pastor for Mars Hill Rainier Valley. Scripture is filled with "one another" statements such as: encourage one another, serve one another, love one another, and bear one another's burdens. That's what life in the church looks like. Pastor Willie has a passion and vision for building community in the name of Jesus. Find out more information on Mars Hill Rainier Valley.
In case you missed it, watch last month's Mars Hill Monthly and read about what Jesus did at our student camp.
What do you think about urban church planting?
Don't bother with the video. It's gone.
Jevon Washington was listed as a deacon helping Wilson over here.
It looks like Wilson may have preached as recently as late July 2013 according to this cached page.
From an earlier date, a cache of content from late 2012.
The following cache is to a video that was on a post July 25, 2013. The video is now marked private.
Still just as private when linked to in a tweet by Sutton Turner over here.
The last thing with Willie Wilson's name on it that Wenatchee The Hatchet managed to spot was this:
http://marshill.com/2013/08/05/running-the-race-with-duffel-bags
No sign of Wilson in the pastoral roster these days. If he's still at Mars Hill it would likely be just as a member. Then again, it isn't always a given that just because a man isn't shown as a pastor in public listings that he isn't still a pastor at Mars Hill in some capacity. Wilson is probably no longer a pastor but ...
asdf
Evidence of Wilson's role can still be found in a few spots.
http://donniehalbgewachs.weebly.com/1/post/2013/01/pastor-willie-mars-hill-church-seattle.html
January 27, 2013
Willie Wilson is the new lead pastor for Mars Hill Rainier Valley. Scripture is filled with "one another" statements such as: encourage one another, serve one another, love one another, and bear one another's burdens. That's what life in the church looks like. Pastor Willie has a passion and vision for building community in the name of Jesus. Find out more information on Mars Hill Rainier Valley.
In case you missed it, watch last month's Mars Hill Monthly and read about what Jesus did at our student camp.
What do you think about urban church planting?
Don't bother with the video. It's gone.
Jevon Washington was listed as a deacon helping Wilson over here.
It looks like Wilson may have preached as recently as late July 2013 according to this cached page.
From an earlier date, a cache of content from late 2012.
The following cache is to a video that was on a post July 25, 2013. The video is now marked private.
Still just as private when linked to in a tweet by Sutton Turner over here.
The last thing with Willie Wilson's name on it that Wenatchee The Hatchet managed to spot was this:
http://marshill.com/2013/08/05/running-the-race-with-duffel-bags
No sign of Wilson in the pastoral roster these days. If he's still at Mars Hill it would likely be just as a member. Then again, it isn't always a given that just because a man isn't shown as a pastor in public listings that he isn't still a pastor at Mars Hill in some capacity. Wilson is probably no longer a pastor but ...
asdf
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Mars Hill Church: Rainier Valley--Willie Wilson is gone and now all the listed leaders are Mars Hill Downtown guys
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/09/follow-up-on-follow-up-nathan-burke-is.html?showComment=1379933273461#c279481577807274760
Looks like Pastor Willie has been replaced by Dave Bruskas.
http://marshill.com/rainiervalley
However, The Wayback Machine's cache has not yet been scrubbed:
http://web.archive.org/web/20130122065910/http://marshill.com/rainiervalley
The most recent thing that could be found on relatively short notice by Wilson was the following:
http://marshill.com/2013/08/05/running-the-race-with-duffel-bags
Running the race with duffel bags
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1–2Imagine this: You’re about to run your first marathon. You’re at the starting line with hundreds of other people who will be running with you. You’re wearing a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, boots, and a parka. You’re also carrying a duffel bag, a briefcase, a suitcase, and a bag of groceries. You look ridiculous, but you don’t want to run this race without all the things that you find comfort in.
The gun bangs and you’re off! Hundreds of runners take off and you’re running alongside them. You’re off to a great, quick start. But 100 yards in, you’re already drained, tired, and ready to quit. The other runners are gone ahead of you. You’re now dragging your feet. You want to give up . . . because you’re carrying too much to continue.
Suitcases stuffed with pride
A lot of times, we find ourselves in this very situation in our spiritual lives. We’ve started running the race of faith, but because of the load we’re carrying, we’re not running well. We’re shouldering unconfessed sin, secrets, and things we haven’t repented of but are holding on to. And it’s all weighing us down and holding us back. We’re carrying bags of guilt from past sin, backpacks filled with shame from sin that was committed against us, and suitcases stuffed with pride that keep from admitting that we’re tired and we need help. Jesus already carried our junk and nailed it to the cross, but for some reason, we choose to try and carry it anyway.Are you tired of running your race? Are you tired of serving? Tired of loving people? Tired of giving of your time, talent, and treasure? It’s probably because you are carrying some things that you shouldn’t be carrying while running a race. In Hebrews 12:1, we’re instructed to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” What are you carrying that you need to lay aside or cast off? When you’re not carrying a huge load, you’ll see that you have more stamina and endurance to run the race that has been set before you.
He’ll finish what he started
Verse 2 gives us our motivation for running the race in such a way to win the prize: “ . . . looking to Jesus . . . ”This is a race of faith, and Jesus is both the founder and perfecter of it. This means that he is the starter and the finisher of it. He caused you to start this race by calling you to himself, saving you, and placing you in a loving family who will run alongside you, be there to help you up when you fall and when you hobble along all the way to the finish line. He will make sure you finish and he will make your faith perfect. Jesus is our example of how to run this race, because we see how he ran his race with endurance, enduring the cross. We were his prize, the “joy set before him.”
Run with all your might
Now as we run our race, he is our prize! He is the joy set before us!! At the finish line, we will see Jesus face to face. He will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master” (Matt. 25:21, 23).Brothers and sisters, run your race with endurance, keeping your eyes on the prize. You’re not running alone, but with tons of witnesses on the sidelines.
So run wholeheartedly, with all your might and all your strength, and when you finish the race, you will be able to speak the words of the Apostle Paul: “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
So now there's not only now Willie Wilson ... all the names listed on the Rainier Valley site are people from Mars Hill Downtown
http://marshill.com/rainiervalley
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)