The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill--"The Tempest"--some observations and thoughts

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/tempest-mars-hill-driscoll.html

 

There's an awful lot of material in 2.5 hours of podcast and at the moment I'm sharing a few things that jumped out for me.

Door of Hope site updated with Tim Smith listed among staff and elders

It took a while, but Door of Hope now lists Tim Smith as among their staff and elders, per earlier announcement.

http://www.doorofhopepdx.org/about/staff-elders/

Tim Smith
ASSOCIATE PASTOR
timsmith  @  doorofhopepdx.   org

a brief update by way of links to the Redeemer PDX merger with Door of Hope. In the Staff/Elders page for Door of Hope there's no sign of anyone named Tim Smith

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq_merger.login?p_btr_rsn=19460380&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1400943&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1729861&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq_merger.login?p_btr_rsn=19460379&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

filed October 30, 2018

http://records.sos.state.or.us/ORSOSWebDrawer/Recordpdf/6309341

For those who have kept tabs on this particular topic at this blog ...
https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2018/08/an-update-on-redeemer-church-portland.html
http://www.doorofhopepdx.org/redeemer-faq/

What would Tim Smith’s role at Door of Hope be? Would he be an elder?

Tim would serve as an associate pastor, working alongside our other pastors in shepherding the church. Additionally, he’d play a key role in helping the Redeemer congregation integrate into DoH. He would not be coming on as an elder. [emphasis added]

http://www.doorofhopepdx.org/about/staff-elders/

Since the merger was consolidated and filed slightly more than a month ago perhaps there has not been time to officially add Tim Smith to the listed staff and elders, or perhaps an associate pastor would not be listed on the website?

As we'd noted in the earlier post, the numbers for what used to be MH PDX looked like they were dropping before the formal closure and while we never had access or were given much by way of information here at WtH about MH PDX post closure of MH it seems that the downward spiral of numbers got to the point where a merger happened.  Back in 2012 at its peak, Mark Driscoll was blogging about how Jesus loved church mergers and so should you.  The irony of a former Mars Hill campus merging with another church and giving them a building would be hard to overstate for those who at any point called the church their home church. 

Thus ends, apparently completely, the story of what was once Mars Hill Portland. 

Door of Hope Church/Redeemer Church (former Mars Hill Portland) merge moving forward

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2018/08/an-update-on-redeemer-church-portland.html?showComment=1533586516624#c7207190693071088518

It’s Official – As of August 4th Door of Hope Elder Meeting - Door of Hope has jointly decided with Redeemer Church that their congregation will become part of DoH

See link for additional details - http://www.doorofhopepdx.org/redeemer-faq/   (updated version)
 
For those who have never heard of Door of Hope church before just now (probably a few of you).
http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1400943&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

Articles of Incorporation date 7-9-2009
Administrative dissolution 9-3-2010
Reinstatement amended 8-30-2011
Amended annual reports dated 5-31-2012, 5-28-2013, 6-11-2014, 06-24-2015, 06-27-016
Amendment to annual report/info statement 3-8-2017
amended annual reports 06-20-2018 and 7-10-2018

President Joshua A White
Secretary James R Lacy

Now being a Presbyterian I admit I'm not the best person to try to dig into the history of real estate in Portland that may have more Baptist history but there's some coverage on Door of Hope as part of a somewhat long story about a church that has, well, a bit of a long story. That said, readers who have stuck with this blog from the very beginning may recall that Wenatchee The Hatchet grew up in Oregon so ... it's not like I can't look things up.  But to try to get a sense of what this recently chosen merge entails it may help to briefly revisit some Mars Hill history.

For people more familiar with the local history of what was once Mars Hill there was a West Seattle property that Mark Driscoll had wanted to launch Mars Hill that he was not able to get ahold of back when Mars Hill was founded.  Years later some Acts 29 associated men were leading a church plant that had ended up in that West Seattle real estate.  When Driscoll approached the men in leadership of what was Doxa at the time, Bill Clem and James Noriega agreed to let Mars Hill assimilate the West Seattle property and fellowship.  Mars Hill took on the operational and remodeling expenses incurred and added to the Mars Hill multi-site paradigm a piece of real estate Mark Driscoll had said from the pulpit he'd wanted for years. 

That's a thematic transition, because in the case of Door of Hope it looks like it's a church which is a johnny-come-lately to a piece of real estate with a complex history.  If it turns out that what used to be Mars Hill Portland has been on a decline in the last four years assimilating into that real estate site may be a pruden tmove in light of the complex and. according to at least one author, possibly shady means by which an old church in Portland ended up being able to be a home for Door of Hope to begin with.  With the caveat that any kind of counter-story or counter-account might be hard to pull up from up here in Puget Sound, here's a long-form account of how a historically black Baptist church ended up being the residence for a younger and mainly white church, the aforementioned Door of Hope that has agreed to add Redeemer to its flock and will reportedly take up the formerly Mars Hill Portland real estate.

https://atticusreview.org/the-theft-of-a-black-baptist-church-in-rip-city-an-investigative-report-part-1-of-5/
https://atticusreview.org/the-theft-of-a-black-baptist-church-in-gentrified-rip-city-an-investigative-report-part-2-of-5/
https://atticusreview.org/the-theft-of-a-black-baptist-church-in-gentrified-rip-city-an-investigative-report-part-3-of-5/
https://atticusreview.org/the-theft-of-a-black-baptist-church-in-gentrified-rip-city-an-investigative-report-part-4-of-5/

Since we live in a world with too much TL:DR the take away is that Door of Hope and Redeemer are probably a relatively solid fit.  There's no indication Tim Smith is going to be an elder in any capacity at Door of Hope.  About 100 people from Redeemer are anticipated to join Door of Hope.  The last service for Redeemer is coming up this Sunday on August 12, 2018.

Having written somewhat extensively about the decline of Mars Hill Portland (now Redeemer) in the wake of Mark Driscoll's resignation in 2014,  I don't plan to recycle the numbers already mentioned.  It is ironic to consider that Redeemer has become the declining church that has voted to let a newer more up-and-coming church take up their real estate.  It would appear that the real estate Door of Hope came into earlier may have some baggage in historical terms.  Since Door of Hope seemed to already be in the Portland community by way of occupying an existing church it was a bit puzzling why it would need to be said that " Having Redeemer Church join DoH enables us to hold Sunday services in a building that aligns with our philosophy of being present in the local community, while joining with the people of Redeemer to make Jesus known in our city."

Grace City Portland ...

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1782913&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

is the church that looks to stay at the Fremont building and there are plans on the part of Door of Hope to plant a church at that site along its mission aims. 

It's ironic that it's Mars Hill Portland as Redeemer that has voted to give its real estate to another church years after Mark Driscoll published his "Jesus Loves Church Mergers" pitch in which Mars Hill was the church to which dying churches with killer real estate and not enough money to keep them operational might consider giving their assets.

Smith isn't going to be an elder ... that just around100 are anticipated to join Door of Hope through the merger makes it sound like Redeemer's attendance or membership took a nosedive since the peak of Mars Hill circa 2012-2013.  It makes sense why the merger would be taken up for the former Mars Hill campus.  But it also, to go by the coverage linked above, might be a prudent merger for Door of Hope.  With questions as to how legitimately the real estate Door of Hope came into was obtained and conveyed further development in the Portland area might be on surer footing if it continued at a piece of real estate voted on to be given to DoH by a board, interim board, but if you read all the Atticus coverage there were some questions as to how above board the other real estate was handled.

So, anyway, such as it is, that's another update on what used to be Mars Hill Portland.  Whether or not Door of Hope has any SBC connections is something that perhaps industrious readers and commenters can help out with.  The usual warning applies that all comments kick straight into moderation and get published when I see them if I consider them appropriate to publish. 

an update on Redeemer Church Portland (former Mars Hill Portland) merger with Door of Hope, an ironic turn of events in light of Driscoll's 2011 "Jesus Loves Church Mergers" post in is Pastor Mark TV period

It's axiomatic that you're not supposed to trust anonymous comments on the internet.  But that caveat has a few provisos.  When I was a journalism student one of my professors said that "in general" you will find that anonymous sources aren't often going to share things with you that you couldn't find out from the public record if you just looked harder.  That said, anonymous tips are still worth considering if the information they share can actually be verified.

So, in that spirit, a person who left an anonymous comment about the recent changes at what was formerly Mars Hill Portland and then Redeemer that provides an update that can be vetted by a publicly available source, the Door of Hope church that has agreed with an interim board at Redeemer to assimilate Redeemer.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2018/03/redeemer-church-in-portland-has-filed.html?showComment=1533393264375#c9203292765554535516

Anonymous said...

UPDATE ON REDEEMER CHURCH Portland OR as of 8.3.2018
Redeemer church Portland OR voted unanimously to join Door of Hope Effective July 19, 2018 see the following for more information - http://redeemerpdx.com/ Thought you might like to know about this – Additional Info & the transition timeline is on Redeemer’s Facebook Page.
Facebook Announcement of Transition Schedule dated July 24, 2018 at 3:37pm
Hey Redeemer! As was announced on Sunday, our Board voted to join Door Of Hope. Here are some dates to remember over the next few weeks until we join them at Revolution Hall:
-Sunday, July 29 - Josh White will be preaching on their core values and lots of other information on how to serve in and connect to DOH - you won't want to miss it
-Sunday, Aug 5 - Tim will be back preaching in Psalms
-Sunday, Aug 12 - Tim will preach our last service as Redeemer Church. We'll have a family style celebration of what God has done in and through our church
-Sunday, Aug. 19 - join DOH for Sunday services at Revolution Hall
**Please like and share this post so word gets around!**
Door of Hope's FAQ Regarding Merger can be found on Door of Hope's website - http://www.doorofhopepdx.org/redeemer-faq/

7:34 am

 

and here is the Door of Hope FAQ about the merger.  It's fairly extensive and provides background for the recent decision. 

 

http://www.doorofhopepdx.org/redeemer-faq/

In Brief

Door of Hope is currently in talks with Redeemer Church regarding the prospect of their congregation becoming part of DoH. [emphasis added] If we go forward, the Redeemer congregation would begin attending DoH services, and DoH would take ownership of Redeemer’s building, a beautiful historic church in the Sunnyside neighborhood of SE Portland. After some helpful repair and upgrade work, DoH would move Sunday services from Revolution Hall to the Redeemer building.

 

How did the discussion with Redeemer begin?

Josh White and Redeemer pastor Tim Smith were put in touch with one another through a mutual mentor at Western Seminary. In recent months, it became clear that this was an opportunity that could benefit both church bodies and help further our shared mission of serving the city of Portland. [emphasis added]

 

How does this opportunity fit into Door of Hope’s vision for its future?

We desire to plant churches in Portland that hold to Christian orthodoxy and express Door of Hope’s four pillars. Having Redeemer Church join DoH would enable us to hold Sunday services in a building that aligns with our philosophy of being present in the local community, while joining with the people of Redeemer to make Jesus known in our city. Additionally, this move would open up potential space for a future church plant in our Fremont building.

How many people are part of Redeemer? Do we have the pastoral and volunteer capacity to care for all of them?

At the moment, we’re expecting around 100 people from Redeemer to join Door of Hope. This would translate to an increase of around 10% in our Sunday attendance, which fits comfortably within our current capacity. [emphases added] We anticipate that we’ll need to expand our existing Children’s Ministry volunteer team, but are happy to say that the Redeemer building will offer a dedicated Children’s Ministry space that exceeds the capacity of our space at Revolution Hall.

 

Who is empowered to make decisions on behalf of Redeemer’s congregation?

Redeemer has an interim board that was established to make decisions regarding the future of the church. After prayerful consideration, the board unanimously voted in favor of joining Door of Hope’s community.

Are there significant theological differences between Redeemer and Door of Hope? Will this change the feel of Sunday services?

Door of Hope and Redeemer are aligned theologically, and share a common commitment to Christian orthodoxy and to proclaiming the Gospel in our city. Our approach to ministry will not be changing, and the new church building will still retain the distinctive feel and values of DoH. In fact, this building aligns even more closely with our desire to be a visible, welcoming presence within the local community.

Will the staff or leadership structure of Door of Hope change?

There will be no change to the leadership structure at Door of Hope. We would be hiring Redeemer’s current lead pastor, Tim Smith, as an associate pastor on DoH’s pastoral team, but Tim would be the only Redeemer staff member joining DoH. [emphasis added]

What would Tim Smith’s role at Door of Hope be? Would he be an elder?

Tim would serve as an associate pastor, working alongside our other pastors in shepherding the church. Additionally, he’d play a key role in helping the Redeemer congregation integrate into DoH. He would not be coming on as an elder. [emphasis added]

What will happen to leaders currently serving at Redeemer?

Ministry leaders at Redeemer would not automatically become leaders at Door of Hope. However, we’re excited to welcome in all members of the Redeemer congregation and help them discover opportunities to serve with their unique gifts.

What is the proposed timeline for Redeemer’s integration into Door of Hope?

We’d love to see Redeemer join Door of Hope before the sign-up process for the Fall community group season begins. The DoH elder board will be voting on August 4, and we’re currently looking at August 19 as a potential integration date. [emphasis added]

What still needs to happen before Door of Hope’s leadership makes a definitive decision?

While the DoH leaders are excited about the prospect of having Redeemer join our family, we want to take time to effectively communicate with our body, carefully evaluate the needs of the Redeemer building, and prayerfully plan the transition.

What work will be done on the Redeemer building?

A thorough building inspection has been completed, with no significant findings outside of general maintenance needs. The building is functional and safe as it is, but we want to do a number of improvements, including installing an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system and upgrading the existing Children’s Ministry space.

Would Door of Hope be assuming the mortgage on the new building?

DoH would either assume the mortgage with Redeemer’s current bank or refinance it with our own bank. The value of the building currently exceeds the deficit on the mortgage, meaning that the assets would exceed the liabilities. The repayments would be significantly less than what we currently pay for the use of Revolution Hall, which means this would not only be a financially sound move, but a financially beneficial one. [emphases added]

How would this decision impact Grace City Portland?

We’re excited about the work that Grace City is doing and are happy to see the way that the Fremont building has served their needs as a church plant. Having Door of Hope move into the Redeemer building would mean that Grace City could continue to use the Fremont building for the foreseeable future.

What is the plan for the long-term future of the Fremont building?

Our long-term goal would be to plant a church into the Fremont building that would reflect our pillars and form part of a Door of Hope family of churches.

 

Who the mutual mentor may have been would have to be a guess here but someone at Western seminary is established.  Smith will be an associate pastor at Door of Hope.  Door of Hope would be assuming the mortgage on the Redeemer building, it seems, and the value of the building currently exceeds the deficit on the mortgage meaning the assets would exceed the liabilities.  So ... it would appear the merger makes sense in terms of a real estate pivot.   

 

The number of people who would be anticipated to join Door of Hope from the Redeemer side is stated as 100 people. 

 

100 people? 

 

Let's look at a snapshot of the Mars Hill FY2012 report

 

 

and from FY2013

 

since Mars Hill collapsed in 2014 there wasn't a big incentive to list the number of people in attendance in the annual report.  But ... there was a circa April 2014 financial slide in a document passed along to Wenatchee The Hatchet we can consult.

 

 

Giving households obviously can't be construed as attenders since peoplecan give to a cause even if they aren't members.  Still, the numbers do suggest that there was some kind of numeric decline that could be measured going on.

 

For the former Mars Hill Portland to reach a point where its operational liabilities make a church merger seem like a good idea and 100 people are anticipated by Door of Hope to join them if the merger goes through, that could seem to tell a story of Redeemer on the rocks.  As Justin Dean has been telling things in podcast interviews promoting PR Matters he's been saying all the churches are doing well, thanks. 

The Redeemer Portland merger that looks like it gets voted on today reminds me of something Mark Driscoll once wrote the following that we'll quote a large chunk of.  Keep your eyes peeled for references to Leadership Network people or the Vanderbloemen group while you're reading this 2011 chestnut that you may not be able to dig up at Driscoll's newer web presence.

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20111201225737/http://pastormark.tv/2011/11/29/jesus-loves-church-mergers-and-so-should-you

 

...

 

Missional Mergers

The mergers we’ve been a part of at Mars Hill, and some of the mergers other churches in the Acts 29 network have been a part of, have by God’s grace been missionally focused mergers. By this I mean that they’ve been the result of two churches coming together to ask how they can work together to accomplish a shared mission, to see many people come to Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20). Underlying this is the belief that if Jesus' name is made much of in the building, then it does not much matter whose name is on the sign of the building.

Each of these mergers has had different details surrounding them. Sometimes there are financial struggles, such as with Sammamish. Other times, there is a devastating loss to the leadership, as with the case of Pastor Bill and his wife at Doxa. These mergers were akin to an adoption, where a hurting church in need was adopted by a healthy church to work together as brothers and sisters in Christ to the glory of God to accomplish his mission.

Sometimes there is simply a desire to be more effective and to have greater reach as a church, which leads healthy churches to join together to see greater impact for the gospel. Such was the case when we merged with City on a Hill in Albuquerque and with The Vine. These types of mergers are like marriages, in which two churches come together with strengths that complement each other to accomplish the mission of God. As within marriage, there is a leader in the merger, but unlike an adoption type merger, there is health on both sides.

Here’s the painful truth—the calls we are getting lately from churches we have not yet merged with are often cases where the senior leadership was disqualified because of sin, often sexual. Once the leadership leaves, often the best people remain and try to save their church, and a merger is a way to help such people save their church from death.

Other calls we are getting are from churches where the leadership has gotten off-track theologically and moved into false teaching and error. These churches are seeking help to right their ship.
And, sometimes the pastors of smaller churches are so burdened by the administration of running their organization that they want to merge with a bigger church like ours so that we can take those burdens off them and allow them to focus on serving people and making disciples, which is why they went into ministry in the first place.

Often times the whole story behind a merger is not told because of the painful circumstances that need not be made public. As a pastor who loves churches and God’s people, some of what I see and hear is heartbreaking, and if a merger can save a church from death and support godly people giving their all to keep yet another church from the grave, then I am certain it makes Jesus happy no matter what the critics may say.

In each case, the situation is never one of a larger church coming in to pick up the remains of a smaller church but rather of two churches wanting to be as faithful to God’s calling as possible.
These types of mergers are not unique to Mars Hill and are, in fact, growing around the country. Leadership Network research has indicated that 2 percent (6,000 churches) of US Protestant churches merge annually, and another 5 percent of churches (15,000) say they have already talked about merging in the future.

The good news is that a vast majority of churches that have merged with a shared mission in mind have experienced new vitality and growth, seeing their influence and ability to minister in the community grow exponentially. This is something we can attest to at Mars Hill and something I’ve personally seen in many churches across the country.

Granted, these mergers are never without their hardships and struggles, but by God’s grace they’re resulting in a great harvest.

Facing the Facts

The reality is that church mergers will only continue to grow. As the baby boomers begin retirement, there will be a growing decline in Protestant churches in attendance and a very real need for leadership at declining churches. Unfortunately, the upcoming generation is not only smaller in numbers demographically, but also less likely to be involved in church, and especially less likely to be involved in church leadership and the ministry as a vocation, according to some sources. This is creating and will continue to create a great crisis in which many long-standing, God-fearing, and Bible-loving churches who have a great heritage and a history of gospel work in their city, face the prospect of closing their doors for good—often selling their property to commercial interests or even other religious expressions. And once those churches close, the zoning changes and a church may never be able to reside in that community again.

The following are some sobering statistics from the upcoming book by Warren Bird and Jim Tomberlin of the Leadership Network, entitled Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. I thank them for sending me an advance copy of the manuscript and encourage you to read the book when it comes out in April.

• Roughly 80 percent of the three hundred thousand Protestant churches in the United States have plateaued or are declining, and many of them are in desperate need of a vibrant ministry.

• Roughly three thousand of these declining churches (1 percent of all churches in America) will close their doors permanently nationwide in the next twelve months.

• Among the 20 percent of growing congregations across the United States, many are in desperate need of space. These conditions present a potential win-win for forward-thinking church leaders who believe that “we can do better together than separate,” and it is revitalizing church topography.

• Church foreclosures, virtually unheard of in the United States before the Great Recession of 2008, have recently increased in number. According to a Wall Street Journal report, nearly two hundred churches have had their properties foreclosed on by banks in 2008, 2009, and 2010, up from only eight foreclosures in the two years prior to that and none in the previous decade.

• One recent study found that the percentage of congregations reporting some or serious financial difficulty more than doubled to nearly 20 percent since about 2000. From 2000 to 2008—before the recession’s toll was felt—congregations reporting “excellent financial health” had dropped from 31 percent to 19 percent. They dropped further to 14 percent in 2010. The recession only exacerbated their economic situations, according to survey compiler David Roozen, director of The Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

• The biggest elephant in church boardrooms in the United States is the topic of senior pastor succession. It is a difficult conversation for most aging senior pastors to have with their boards and staff, so usually it is ignored until too late. Many are predicting a tsunami of church turnovers during the next decade as the aging baby boomers turn over the reins of U.S. churches to the next generation. According to William Vanderbloemen, founder and president of the Vanderbloemen Search Group, senior pastor succession “might be the biggest unspoken crisis the church in the US will face over the next twenty years.”

• About 30 percent of churches going into a merger do so without pastors in both of the churches, according to the Leadership Network 2011 survey of church mergers.

At some point, the American church will have to face the facts that in order for many churches to survive and continue ministry and service to their community, it will take thinking differently about local churches working together and sometimes merging together.

 

 

So the irony of Mars Hill Portland becoming Redeemer in the wake of the implosion of Mars Hill Church without a clear line of succession within Mars Hill, and then Redeemer Portland getting to the point where it agreed to merge with Door of Hope and having the prospect of ... 100 people joining Door of Hope if the vote goes through ... that irony is hard to overstate.  Mars Hill Portland may have become in the mere four years after the demise of Mars Hill a church that's dwindling away and that has found it advantageous to agree to a church merger. 

 

POSTSCRIPT

08-06-2018

06.17PM

 

There's a confirmation on the Redeemer side of things, too, and, per a recent comment, the hand-off/transfer has become official.

https://redeemerpdx.com/

 

On July 19, 2018 the Board of Directors of Redeemer church voted unanimously to join Door of Hope in order to further the Gospel in the city of Portland. As of August 19th we will start meeting with them at Revolution Hall for worship for several months. During this time The Castle will undergo some much needed renovations and after they are finished, Door of Hope will move into the building. We are excited for this opportunity and thankful to the Father for His provision during our time of transition as a church.

 

Stay tuned here for further updates on when Door of Hope will be starting services here at The Castle.

 

former Mars Hill Portland aka Redeemer Church still in some kind of flux, 404 error for leadership page

We've briefly discussed how Redeemer (formerly Mars Hill Church Portland) seems to be in a transitional state of some kind this year.  There's not a ton of new information. Here's a sampler of what we've managed to chronicle from earlier this year.

https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2018/03/redeemer-church-in-portland-has-filed.html

As of today ... you'll get a 404 error if you try to pull up the "leadership" page.
http://redeemerpdx.com/about/leadership/

exactly what's going on with what used to be Mars Hill Portland and precisely why there's no trace of Tim Smith anywhere in the more recent documents as yet has no explanation and may never get one.

However ...

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1729861&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

REINSTATEMENT AMENDED 03-14-2018

UPDATE
05-09-2018

Thanks to the WayBack Machine there is a way to see what the leadership page used to look like and may, or may not, at some point look like again.
https://web.archive.org/web/20171002191650/http://redeemerpdx.com/about/leadership/

...

Elders, who are the Pastors of our church, are responsible for the general spiritual and operational oversight of the local assembly. They provide pastoral care of the flock as well as teaching and equipping of the saints for ministry.

 

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.

...


As yet there's no updates

former Mars Hill Portland aka Church at 3210 Taylor Street subjected to administrative dissolution as of last month, reincorporation process to officially be Redeemer Church as a corporate entity undertaken

One of the things we've had going on here at Wenatchee The Hatchet is a side project of keeping tabs on the campuses that spun off from the implosion of Mars Hill.  While Justin Dean has made the rounds on the podcast circuit promoting his book and talking about how most of the spin off campuses are doing fine, it's ... not entirely clear how up to date Dean's information is.

Take the former Mars Hill Portland that became Redeemer in doing-business-as but was known by another name in the Oregon Secretary of State records, documented with some help from commenters over at this blog post earlier.

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1516831&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1729861&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

 

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-portland-to-redeemer.html

Then there's this. Check out the more recent entries.

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1729861&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

Administrative dissolution as of January 11, 2018? 
Notice Late Annual November 22, 2017.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2015/08/from-mars-hill-portland-to-redeemer.html?showComment=1453346527342#c8750312120294652858

In November 2015, according to official State records, Redeemer Church, AKA: The Church at 3210 SE Taylor Street, changed the number of it's officers from 7 down to 2.http://records.sos.state.or.us/webdrawer/webdrawer.dll/webdrawer/rec/4251309/view/SOS%20-%20Corporation%20-%20Business%20Entity%20Filing%20Records%20-%20106294895.PDF

So the officer roles do look like they dropped down to just two people playing three roles, president, secretary and registered agent respectively. 

Now according to the Oregon Secretary of State there are a number of grounds for administrative dissolution

https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/65.647

The Secretary of State may commence a proceeding under ORS 65.651 (Procedure for and effect of administrative dissolution) to administratively dissolve a corporation if:

(1) The corporation does not pay when due any fees imposed by this chapter;

(2) The corporation does not deliver its annual report to the Secretary of State when due;

(3) The corporation is without a registered agent or registered office in this state;

(4) The corporation does not notify the Secretary of State that its registered agent or registered office has been changed, that its registered agent has resigned, or that its registered office has been discontinued; or

(5) The corporation’s period of duration, if any, stated in its articles of incorporation expires. [1989 c.1010 §138]

 

https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/65.651

One of the most salient changes in the governance of what used to be Mars Hill Portland is that Tim Allen Smith isn't listed as any of the officers in the newly reconstituted Redeemer Church. 

http://records.sos.state.or.us/webdrawer/webdrawer.dll/webdrawer/rec/5197666/view/SOS%20-%20Corporation%20-%20Business%20Entity%20Filing%20Records%20-%20118647494.PDF

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1729861&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

At the moment what may be happening is that the entity is reincorporating so as to officially be known in corporate terms what they have advertised themselves as being on their website.  That seems like the best guessed based on the available documentation so far.

"If" something else has been or is going on that's not something that we can address here at Wenatchee The Hatchet at the moment.  But, since we've been documenting stuff by way of LLC listings and so forth for years now, we can, at least, do that much.

As yet the elder roster looks pretty much the same as it has been. 
 

 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.

If something is going on down in Portland here's hoping someone can tackle that closer to the site itself.  Wenatchee The Hatchet hasn't been to Portland in about a dozen years.

IF you want to get caught up on a few things connected to mars Hill Portland and its post-MH existence or the role Tim Smith played in the history of Mars Hill there are tags for that now. For folks who might want to revisit the history of Mars Hill attempts to create a music label/record label go to the posts with this tag.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/search/label/resound%20and%20other%20MH%20music

For a more comprehensive index of tagged posts about various aspects of Mars Hill and its history go over here.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2017/02/for-those-interested-in-researching.html

The later history of what was once Mars Hill Portland got volatile at a few points and Warren Throckmorton has blog posts about that.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/tag/mars-hill-portland/




 

 

Mark Dunford releases statement, explains Tim Smith's role in recent dismissal

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/09/06/mark-dunford-explains-dismissal-from-mars-hill-church/
https://www.facebook.com/dunford.mark/posts/10152930946657345
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zjdmzp7wr060f5/StatementFromTheDunfords.pdf?dl=0

Apparently few if any Mars Hill staff or volunteers take it upon themselves to date letters, which means it would be difficult to know for certain what date this letter made available via Dropbox was written.  On the other hand, the vintage of this letter is clearly recent.

Given the statements in the letter by Mark and Melissa Dunford it becomes impossible to not discuss Tim Smith's role in the dismissal.

from page 5 of

MARRIAGE CONCERNS

 

So, where do the concerns about my marriage come out of all of this? On Thursday, September  4th, I received phone calls from elders associated to three different churches asking about the condition  of  my marriage. Those churches are Phoenix (Tim Birdwell), Ballard (Scott Harris) and Tacoma (Bubba  Jennings). Each of the pastors in parentheses had direct conversations with Tim Smith about the apparent  condition of my marriage and subsequently communicated that to several members and leaders of their  respective churches. Tim Birdwell, in a phone conversation that I had with him thought it might have  simply been his misinterpretation. While that is possible, I am concerned that three different churches had  leaders contact me with the exact same concern. I directly confronted Tim Smith about this and he denied  having led anyone to believe this, though he admitted that he had said that my wife and I were “going  through some things in our marriage.” I had previously been told by someone at Mars Hill Portland that  Tim had told him that my wife “hated Mars Hill and was a mess.” Both statements were reckless,  characteristically unclear, unrelated to any decision to dismiss me, and slanderous.

 

While at the retreat, during our meeting with the Portland elders and Tim Birdwell, my wife and I had discussed concerns about margin in my schedule. I had recently completed a seminary paper on the subject and my wife and I were discussing the content of that paper. As a result, we proposed to the Portland elders that we now take the break that was initially promised us. We still didn’t feel rooted in Portland and wanted to take the time to do that going into the fall. That, and our clearly laid out concerns with the state of Mars Hill were the extent of any issues in our marriage. My wife and I have been married now for five years and we are in the healthiest, closest season of our marriage. That is what enables us to have such conversations. I am disgusted that after having been told that those conversations were “safe and private” that anything of that conversation left the confines of a discussion between elders. That it was used as a justification after the fact to help explain my dismissal is equally gross.

 

Actions such as this are nothing new to Mars Hill Church. When leaders have previously resigned, similar comments have been made. In fact, while at the Full Council meeting, an elder who left early having submitted his resignation Tuesday evening was presented in the same light. Those who were present for that meeting are aware that those statements were not an accurate reflection of his issues. That elder has since rescinded his resignation and will remain nameless here as a result. Still, the pattern is important. If I was to have been removed as a result of the condition of my marriage, Tim would have had biblical grounds to file formal charges. Given that it was made abundantly clear then, and today that I have not in any way disqualified myself, I am further frustrated by the insinuation.

Whether or not Tim Smith will opt to make any public statements or response is not yet known.  Given that Wenatchee The Hatchet has already done some blogging on the history of Smith's role within Mars Hill, now seems as good a time as any to re-present those materials for public consideration.

Where are they now part 6D, a Tim Smith follow up, documenting his role as worship team administrator in 2000

This was originally published in June 2014.  Again, in light of the recent Mark Dunford dismissal and a report that Tim Smith made the decision, some background on Tim Smith's history with and at Mars Hill may be in order.

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/06/where-are-they-now-part-6d-tim-smith.html

Well ... one of the things noted in part b was how Smith made a case to Mark Driscoll to let him run the entire worship department.  Exactly when this conversation transpired is not entirely clear and to some degree a screen capture from the old marshill.fm site makes things even less clear.

According to the WayBack Machine screen capture from December 10, 2000 Tim Smith was already the worship team administrator.  Now let's recall that Mark Driscoll described letting go the worship leader from the earlier years of Mars Hill in the following way:

CONFESSIONS OF A REFORMISSION REV
MARK DRISCOLL
(C) 2006 BY MARK DRISCOLL
ZONDERVAN
ISBN-13:978-0-310-27016-4
ISBN-10:0-310-27016-2CHAPTER FIVE, 350-1,000 PEOPLE
page 135
We had to quickly reorganize all of our systems and staff.  Our administrative pastor, Eric, left, which we all recognized was God's call on him.  And our worship leader was a great guy and great musician but was unable to coordinate the multiple bands in the three locations, so we let him go. This was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made because he was a very godly man who had worked very hard and would have been fine if the church had not gotten so crazy so quickly, and he and his very sweet wife were both close personal friends of mind. But I needed a worship pastor who could lead multiple bands, coordinate multiple services in multiple locations, and train multiple worship pastors while keeping up with a church that was growing so fast that we had no idea exactly where it was going. I had no one who could possibly fill this role but felt compelled to wait until God let me know, so I just left a gaping hole in our leadership to create a crisis that would force a leader to emerge. [emphasis added]

As established from earlier posts on this topic (Mr. Smith) actual musical competence was not really a requirement for Mark Driscoll.  That could be paid for once someone with suitable leadership potential as far as Driscoll assessed that had finally been found. 
Let's remember that the eighth season was basically 1998.
http://web.archive.org/web/20001210191200/http://www.marshill.fm/who/our_history.htm
Seasons of Grace: The Story of Mars Hill
By Pastor Mark Driscoll

... In the eighth season, our worship ministry was in great disarray and I had a dream that Brad Currah, who had been a member of our core group before the launch, was leading worship. I repeatedly informed Brad that he was to be our worship leader and after numerous conversations he began volunteering time overseeing the worship and arts ministries. [emphasis added] Brad had spent a few years playing the club scene with his band Springchamber, but was quickly overwhelmed with the demands of his first time pastorate and quit his job at Microsoft to free up time for ministry and hoped to live off of his wife Devonna's salary. But, she soon became pregnant and needed to quit her job. I then got a call from a pastor in Florida who had a network that funded church plants. Grace and I met with Pastor David Nicholas at Spanish River Church, and his church planting network agreed to help us financially. This gift allowed us to bring Brad on full-time, which has culminated in a fantastic independent worship album, multiple worship teams, and an aggressive set of new songs written by some of our many gifted artists. [emphasis added]

So despite what would appear to have been a dream Mark Driscoll claimed he had that Brad was leading worship and despite even going to the trouble to convincing David Nicholas to part with enough money to bring Brad Currah on full-time for ministry in his first time pastorate ... by the year 2000 Tim Smith was publicly listed as the administrative person organizing things.  By Tim Smith's account Mark Driscoll claimed God had given him a dream that he and Smith would be working together.  Apparently divine oracles were relatively common for Driscoll in spite of his tendency during this period to self-identify as a cessationist?


http://theresurgence.com/authors/tim-smith

Tim Smith came to Mars Hill Church in the summer of 1999, never having owned an electric guitar, been in a band, or written a song. Somehow, by God’s grace, he became the worship pastor there and has been able to hang on and give shape to a movement of well over 30 worship bands leading many campuses. Tim is the husband of Beth and the father of three daughters. He also leads Re:Sound, a missional network of music and artists here on the Resurgence.

By 2000 Smith was worship team administrator.  For sake of review:


http://theresurgence.com/2008/10/04/interview-with-tim-smith
from about 5:30

MD: At the time we were at a place as a church that things were very disorganized, very loose. We had a number of good musicians but we didn't have any good leadership to really put it all together.  I remember you came into my office one day and said, "Give me the whole department, music and worship [TS smiles and nods] Let me give it a shot and if I do a good job then bring my on staff and if I don't do a good job then don't bring me on staff.  But at that point ... I don't think you ever played an electric guitar.
TS: Hnn-nn [shakes his head]
MD: You had never played in a band
TS: [smiling] No
MD: And, dude, I love you but you know you could not sing.
TS: Yeah, I was not a good singer.
MD: You know it sounded like you got captured by al-Qaeda [TS laughs] It was terrible. So I was, like, "Okay, you want to run the music department
... but you were a really good leader and I had a really, really, I loved you and had a good friendship with you and just felt like we were brothers right off the beginning of the relationship, and saw in you good teaching ability, love for the Bible, good leadership, you do have a sweet wife and you guys were getting your life put together. And so you took it and the first thing you did was fire everybody and cancelled everything. [TS laughs], bought an electric guitar, got vocal lessons  [TS laughs], put some things together. So you've been with us, then, for ten years. [emphasis added]
So in spite of Smith's lack of demonstrable musical competence Driscoll felt like he and Smith were brothers right off the bat at the start of the relationship and Driscoll saw potential in Smith, so Smith was given the whole music department.  Was this as far back as 2000?  In any case, by Mark Driscoll's account in 2008 the first thing Tim Smith did was fired everybody and cancelled everything., whenever that officially or unofficially began.  Whether or not Mark Driscoll directly let Brad Currah go or whether there was another party or two in the "we" that let the worship leader go has not yet come to light with any documentable certainty.  But it is at least "possible" that because Tim Smith, in the account of Mark Driscoll, lobbied to run the music department Smith could have been involved ... or not.  But by this time Currah had been, from the sound of things, brought on full time with a stipend of some kind provided by David Nicholas and yet Currah was, in the larger history of Mars Hill, basically canned almost as soon as everything was in place for him to even start doing his apparently Mark Driscoll's-dream-predicted job.

Where are they now part 6C: Driscoll interviews Tim Smith in 2008 about his ten years at MH

As per the earlier reprint, this is a republication of material originally published in February 2014

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/02/where-are-they-now-part-6c-driscoll.html

In the first part of part 6 we looked at how Mark Driscoll informed Tim Smith God gave him a dream that Smith would be coming and this was why Driscoll put so much time and effort into cultivating Smith as a leader.  Tim Smith's account of this is in the 2011 film God's Work, Our Witness and is discussed over at this blog post:

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/11/where-are-they-now-part-6-tim-smith.html

It also turned out that Mark Driscoll stated at marshill.fm he had a dream in which Brad Currah was leading worship and repeatedly informed Brad that this was what was going to transpire.  That will be the subject of another post.  What we'll visit here in this post is the transition from Brad Currah to Tim Smith in leading music. 

CONFESSIONS OF A REFORMISSION REV
MARK DRISCOLL
(C) 2006 BY MARK DRISCOLL
ZONDERVAN
ISBN-13:978-0-310-27016-4
ISBN-10:0-310-27016-2

CHAPTER FIVE, 350-1,000 PEOPLE
page 135
We had to quickly reorganize all of our systems and staff.  Our administrative pastor, Eric, left, which we all recognized was God's call on him.  And our worship leader was a great guy and great musician but was unable to coordinate the multiple bands in the three locations, so we let him go. This was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made because he was a very godly man who had worked very hard and would have been fine if the church had not gotten so crazy so quickly, and he and his very sweet wife were both close personal friends of mind. But I needed a worship pastor who could lead mltiple bands, coordinate multiple services in multiple locations, and train multiple worship pastors while keeping up with a church that was growing so fast that we had no idea exactly where it was going. I had no one who could possibly fill this role but felt compelled to wait until God let me know, so I just left a gaping hole in our leadership to create a crisis that would force a leader to emerge. 

So this would suggest that Driscoll and other leaders at Mars Hill found Brad Currah to have been inadequate to the task of organizing multiple bands at three campuses and he was let go.  Currah would eventually be replaced with Tim Smith. 

http://theresurgence.com/authors/tim-smith

Tim Smith came to Mars Hill Church in the summer of 1999, never having owned an electric guitar, been in a band, or written a song. Somehow, by God’s grace, he became the worship pastor there and has been able to hang on and give shape to a movement of well over 30 worship bands leading many campuses. Tim is the husband of Beth and the father of three daughters. He also leads Re:Sound, a missional network of music and artists here on the Resurgence.

There's no a sign of Re:Sound anywhere save through visitations by means of a cache or The WayBack Machine.

http://web.archive.org/web/20110826020521/http://resound.org/
http://web.archive.org/web/20120116185724/http://resound.org/
In fact Re:Sound was not the talk of the town within Mars Hill by March 2012.  Driscoll wwas talking with Jon Dunn about Mars Hill starting a record label.

http://marshill.com/2012/05/02/were-starting-a-record-label-pastor-mark-interviews-jon-dunn

By this time Smith was transitioning into being a campus pastor at Mars Hill Portland, if memory serves, and by the start of January 2013 what Mark Driscoll had said was going to be the launch of a Mars Hill music label turned into Mars Hill partnering with Tooth & Nail Records.

http://marshill.com/2013/01/15/mars-hill-music-is-partnering-with-tooth-nail

But let's backtrack to how Tim Smith transitioned into leading music and worship at Mars Hill because while Mark Driscoll mentioned in Confessions that he and other leaders decided to let the former worship leader go there's no account of how Tim Smith was brought in and who was involved in that in books.  There is, however, a video interview between Mark Driscoll and Tim Smith. 

http://theresurgence.com/2008/10/04/interview-with-tim-smith
October 4, 2008

Pastor Mark Driscoll here from Mars Hill Church and President of The Resurgence with my good buddy, dear friend, and fellow elder at Mars Hill  Tim Smith.

So in 2008 there was The Resurgence and Mark Driscoll described himself as the president.  Whether it's the thing that became Resurgence Publishing Inc is something that can be left to the initiative of others to clarify for now.  Whatever The Resurgence was, Mark was it's president and in this interview he refers to Tim Smith having been at Mars Hill or connected to it for ten years. 

starting around 02:36
TS:
I ended up in St. Louis, MO, of all places. I had a friend there who asked me if I wanted to come work for a church and a Lutheran church, actually, over there. And halfway through my 18 months there I went to a conference in Santa Fe, NM where I met you for the first time.

MD: [speaking while TS is still speaking] That's where we met. 
MD: Yeah, I was teaching at a con, and that was how many years ago? ... Nine?
TS: Ten. Ten, because I showed up at Mars Hill in August of `99.
MD: Yeah, and you and Beth lived with Grace and I for a couple months. You guys were relocating to Seattle
TS: Yeah ... has anyone else just moved here, moved into your house?
MD: It's happened before. [TS laughs]  Usually we have to get a restraining order. It worked out pretty good, uh, so you guys moved up to Seattle just to hang out, just to serve. We didn't have a staff position, we didn't have any money. Mars Hill was what, 150, 200 people then?
TS: It was two years old, 200 people. The height of my ambition was to come and get back to the Northwest. I wanted to get out of the Midwest. I wanted to be at a church with people that loved Jesus that were my age because I wasn't around that in the Midwest. ...

The last thing I thought I would be when I came here was a pastor. I was not in good shape, my marriage was not in good shape. I had no idea what it meant to be a husband, biblically. There was a lot of hidden sin in my life, it was just a mess. ...

So far the narrative is pretty standard fare, man comes to the Northwest with a troubled marriage and no clear sense of how to be a proper man until he witnesses the example of proper manliness at Mars Hill.  What seems to have happened, according to Tim Smith, was he and Mark Driscoll met at a conference in 1998 in New Mexico.  For those who may not remember this detail, 1998 up through the start of 1999 seems to have been, by Mark Driscoll's account the eighth season in the history of Mars Hill:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001210191200/http://www.marshill.fm/who/our_history.htm
Seasons of Grace: The Story of Mars Hill
By Pastor Mark Driscoll
... In the eighth season, our worship ministry was in great disarray and I had a dream that Brad Currah, who had been a member of our core group before the launch, was leading worship. I repeatedly informed Brad that he was to be our worship leader and after numerous conversations he began volunteering time overseeing the worship and arts ministries. Brad had spent a few years playing the club scene with his band Springchamber, but was quickly overwhelmed with the demands of his first time pastorate and quit his job at Microsoft to free up time for ministry and hoped to live off of his wife Devonna's salary. But, she soon became pregnant and needed to quit her job. I then got a call from a pastor in Florida who had a network that funded church plants. Grace and I met with Pastor David Nicholas at Spanish River Church, and his church planting network agreed to help us financially. This gift allowed us to bring Brad on full-time, which has culminated in a fantastic independent worship album, multiple worship teams, and an aggressive set of new songs written by some of our many gifted artists.
This was when Mark Driscoll said he had a dream of Brad Currah leading worship and repeatedly informed Currah he was to be the Mars Hill Church worship leader.  But apparently during this same season Mark Driscoll met Tim Smith at a conference in New Mexico.

Confessions of a Reformission Rev
Mark Driscoll, Zondervan 2006Excerpts from page 146-148
...
I first met Tim [Smith] while teaching at a conference in New Mexico for Leadership Network. He had been raised in a Baptist home in Portland and was working as a youth worship leader at a Lutheran church in Missouri. Tim and his wife, Beth, moved to Seattle simply hoping that Tim would become a guitar player in one of our worship teams. Tim and his wife lived with Grace and me for a few months until they got settled, and I saw in Tim some very strong leadership qualities that had not been cultivated. So I spent a lot of time investing in Tim, as I was with Jamie. Tim had never played in a band, written a song, or played an electric guitar. Additionally, he did not know how to sing, and it sounded like he'd been hit by a car when he tried to hit high notes.
So Driscoll had met Smith at a conference for Leadership Network some time in 1998. 

For sake of review, let's go back to what Tim Smith said in the film God's Work, Our Witness about how and why Mark Driscoll literally and figuratively invested in his being a leader at Mars Hill:
http://marshill.com/media/gods-work-our-witness/gods-work-our-witness

Pastor Tim: Years later, I would ask Mark, I asked him, “Why in the world did you do that? Because I’m pretty sure you haven’t just taken anybody else in, and I’m not sure I would exactly the same way, either.” And he said that he had a dream that God told him that I was moving here, and we were supposed to work together. I had no idea what was in store, but apparently God did.

Now let's get back to the 2008 interview where Mark Driscoll talks with Tim Smith about the period in which Tim Smith ascended to leadership of music at Mars Hill Church:

http://theresurgence.com/2008/10/04/interview-with-tim-smith
from about 5:30

MD: At the time we were at a place as a church that things were very disorganized, very loose. We had a number of good musicians but we didn't have any good leadership to really put it all together.  I remember you came into my office one day and said, "Give me the whole department, music and worship [TS smiles and nods] Let me give it a shot and if I do a good job then bring my on staff and if I don't do a good job then don't bring me on staff. [emphasis added] But at that point ... I don't think you ever played an electric guitar.
TS: Hnn-nn [shakes his head]
MD: You had never played in a band
TS: [smiling] No
MD: And, dude, I love you but you know you could not sing.
TS: Yeah, I was not a good singer.
MD: You know it sounded like you got captured by al-Qaeda [TS laughs] It was terrible. So I was, like, "Okay, you want to run the music department
... but you were a really good leader and I had a really, really, I loved you and had a good friendship with you and just felt like we were brothers right off the beginning of the relationship, and saw in you good teaching ability, love for the Bible, good leadership, you do have a sweet wife and you guys were getting your life put together. And so you took it and the first thing you did was fire everybody and cancelled everything. [TS laughs], bought an electric guitar, got vocal lessons  [TS laughs], put some things together. So you've been with us, then, for ten years.

So Tim Smith, by Mark Driscoll's account in a 2008 interview with Tim Smith, directly petitioned Mark Driscoll to give him complete control over the entire music department.  At precisely this point, however, Mark Driscoll noted that Tim Smith had virtually no demonstrable musical competence.  What Driscoll knew about Smith from their first meeting at a conference in New Mexico with Leadership Network, was that Tim Smith was, well, interested in leadership stuff.  People who attend leadership conferences could be construed as self-selectively being interested in leading people.  And both Smith and Driscoll seem clear that by October 8, 2008 Tim Smith had had some connection to Mars Hill for a full decade.  Tim Smith also stated that when he arrived Mars Hill Church was two years old.  That would have required an official launch of 1997.  But ...


http://web.archive.org/web/20001210191200/http://www.marshill.fm/who/our_history.htm

In the fourth season, we launched the church in October 1996 at 6pm with an attendance around 200, which included many friends and supporters. The attendance leveled off shortly thereafter, somewhere around 100 adults, and we continued meeting until the Christmas season.

Mark Driscoll said the church launched in October 1996.  Perhaps Tim Smith misremembered things.

About 7 minutes into the 2008 interview Mark Driscoll tells Tim Smith, "The church has really grown with you and, in large part, I think, because of you."  We know that Driscoll credited Tim Smith and Jamie Munson as the two guys with whom he worked to reverse-engineer Mars Hill Church to the size of 3000 people. As in from Confessions p 147-148"

So I began to reverse-engineer a plan for our church to grow to more than three thousand people with help from Jamie and Tim. In the end we decided that what was in the best interest of our mission to the city was not in the best interests of each of our elders. I knew God was compelling me to state the vision to the elders. And I knew that vision would quite possibly split the church three ways between the founders--Lief, Mike, and me. Nonetheless I met with our elders to seek their input on the recommended changes, knowing it could undo all that we had worked so hard to accomplish. We spent a lengthy day going over the proposal, and things were tense.

So as Driscoll put it in 2008, Tim Smith directly advocated to be in charge of music at Mars Hill Church.  The 2011 fundraising film God's Work, Our Witness features Tim Smith saying Mark Driscoll told him that he'd had a dream where God told him Smith was coming there.  Of course in the 2008 account Mark Driscoll says Tim Smith openly sought the role of running worship and music at Mars Hill in spite of the fact that by Driscoll's own account Tim had no obviously demonstrable competence in anything musical.  But we've established that Mark Driscoll knew by this time from having met Smith in 1998 at a conference with Leadership Network that Smith had an interest in leadership of some kind, and Driscoll surmised Smith's leadership potentially vastly outweighed his lack of musical competence.  So Driscoll paid for Smith to have music lessons and get his first electric guitar. 

What Driscoll tells Smith about 7 minutes into the 2008 interview is this, "The church has really grown with you and, in large part, I think, because of you."

So let's review, by Driscoll's account he let Brad Currah go (though he didn't directly name him) because it was believed Currah was not keeping things organized once Mars Hill had gone multi-site.  Rather than directly appoint a replacement Driscoll decided to intentionally leave the music situation in chaos to see who would rise to the top. That's the Confessions version.

But in the 2008 interview Mark Driscoll tells Tim Smith that Smith directly petitioned to run music for a short period of time and that if things went well to bring him on staff.  Driscoll then states that the first thing Tim did when he was put in charge was fire everybody and cancel everything.  Was this during the period after which Tim Smith was formally put on paid staff or did Tim Smith do all this firing as a volunteer?  By whose authority?  In any case, both Smith and Driscoll agreed in October 2008 that they had known each other for ten years, which means the two would have met in 1998.  Driscoll's dream about Smith coming to Seattle would have happened between that Leadership Network conference in 1998 and the Smiths' arrival in 1999.  Roughly during this period of time, it seems, Driscoll was grooming Brad Currah to be worship leader at Mars Hill and Mark and Grace Driscoll even went so far as to petition David Nicholas to provide funds through which Brad Currah would be able to be paid a salary.  And during this time, it seems, Mark Driscoll had some dream about Tim Smith, at least according to Tim Smith's account of Driscoll's words in the 2011 film God's Work, Our Witness.

Smith's account in the film is quite a bit more passive than Driscoll's account of his activity in the 2008 interview.  The fundraising film features Smith giving an account in which he wonders why Driscoll would have invested so much in him being a leader at Mars Hill when he had no musical background.  By contrast, the account Mark Driscoll gives Tim Smith in the 2008 interview, with Tim Smith nodding and laughing at regular intervals, is that they met at a conference in 1998 and that Tim took a considerable amount of initiative to seek control of music and worship at Mars Hill and this before he had any competency in music yet. 

So there you have it.  It forms a cohesive narrative with different emphases depending on time and place and is vetted directly by the two primary participants, Mark Driscoll and Tim Smith.  Now while there are no doubt those who might have reasons to doubt the veracity of what Driscoll and Smith might say that's not really what is germane to this post, which is to establish what Driscoll and Smith have cumulatively said about Smith's rise in the period in which Brad Currah was apparently let go. 

POSTSCRIPT:

It would seem that by Tim Smith's account in a video posted September 28, 2013 that he was the first worship pastor at Mars Hill Church, as though there was never a person named Brad Currah in the history of Mars Hill and that if there was he wasn't a worship pastor.

http://marshill.com/2013/09/28/what-god-is-doing-at-mars-hill-Portland

... I first came to Mars Hill in August of 1999. That was almost fourteen years ago. At that point in time it was about 200 people in a rented space and has grown to be an amazing movement since then. I was the first worship pastor at the church and I served for many years. ...

 

Tim Smith arriving in August of 1999 meant he arrived shortly after Mark Driscoll had recruited Brad Currah to lead worship (by at least one of Driscoll's accounts) and after Mark and Grace Driscoll had sought aid from David Nicholas to ensure Currah would have a salary to lead worship.

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20001210191200/http://www.marshill.fm/who/our_history.htm

 

In the eighth season, our worship ministry was in great disarray and I had a dream that Brad Currah, who had been a member of our core group before the launch, was leading worship. I repeatedly informed Brad that he was to be our worship leader and after numerous conversations he began volunteering time overseeing the worship and arts ministries. Brad had spent a few years playing the club scene with his band Springchamber, but was quickly overwhelmed with the demands of his first time pastorate and quit his job at Microsoft to free up time for ministry and hoped to live off of his wife Devonna's salary. But, she soon became pregnant and needed to quit her job. I then got a call from a pastor in Florida who had a network that funded church plants. Grace and I met with Pastor David Nicholas at Spanish River Church, and his church planting network agreed to help us financially. This gift allowed us to bring Brad on full-time, which has culminated in a fantastic independent worship album, multiple worship teams, and an aggressive set of new songs written by some of our many gifted artists.

 

Whether or not Tim Smith was the first worship pastor at Mars Hill might depend on how literally and stringently one defines titles. 

Where are they now Part 6B: Mark Driscoll's accounts of Brad Currah's role in MH music

This material was originally published in February 2014
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/02/where-are-they-now-part-6b-mark.html

Back in a comment at a blog post that can be read here someone asked how and where Currah transitioned out.  That is a highly relevant question and it would be difficult to find someone more capable of addressing that question than Mark Driscoll himself, since he actually wrote about the transition in his 2006 book.  He also wrote there about how Brad came to have a prominent role in leading music which is ... interesting ... because the Confessions account credits Brad with taking initiative in MH music significantly earlier in the history of MH than the "Seasons of Grace" account Mark Driscoll published at marshill.fm some time around 1999.

CONFESSIONS OF A REFORMISSION REV
MARK DRISCOLL
(C) 2006 BY MARK DRISCOLL
ZONDERVAN
ISBN-13:978-0-310-27016-4
ISBN-10:0-310-27016-2
CHAPTER TWO, 45-75 PEOPLE
page 68

And we finally landed a good worship leader. Brad was a godly guy with a nice wife, who fronted a local band that was big in the club-scene heyday of flannel-wearing grunge gods like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.  Following one particularly dreadful Sunday worship set by a well-intended guy whose singing sounded like he was being electrocuted, Brad had had enough and asked to take over the worship. He soon showwed up with a bunch of guys from his band who smelled like cigarettes, including a guy with long hair and another guy with tattoos.  So things looked very promising.


Let's keep in mind that it's in the start of Chapter Three, which Driscoll helpfully indexes as attendance of 75-1500 people) that Mark Driscoll mentions, "A few weeks before we launched our little church plant in the fall of 1996, I was perplexed by an older man who had become something of a mentor to me."

In other words, by Mark Driscoll's account Brad asked to take over worship/music for the nascent church plant before it was even officially launched. Let's look back through The WayBack Machine to another account by Mark Driscoll of how Brad Currah ended up being worship pastor.

http://web.archive.org/web/20001210191200/http://www.marshill.fm/who/our_history.htm
Seasons of Grace: The Story of Mars Hill
By Pastor Mark Driscoll

... In the third season, we began a small Bible study in graciously loaned space from Emmanuel Bible Church in Seattle. The original small core of about a dozen people was a Bible study comprised largely of twenty-somethings from the college group, the Gunn and Moi families, and Chris Knutzen who had joined the Campus Crusade for Christ staff at the U.W. We began meeting weekly in an extremely hot upstairs youth room, and after a few months outgrew the space and began meeting in the sanctuary. It was during this season that the rest of our current elders - the Browns, Currahs and Schlemleins - and some singles and families joined us. It was also during this season that Pastor Ken Hutcherson and our friends at Antioch Bible Church began their generous financial support to cover my salary to ensure that I would not be a financial strain on the young church.

[WtH: let's remind readers at this point that Mark Driscoll has recently said there was no childrens' ministry at MH because there were no kids, a point that is so easily disproven by Mark Driscoll's own testimony about Mike Gunn and Lief Moi as fathers being a reason he co-planted Mars Hill with them it bears repeating.]

In the fourth season, we launched the church in October 1996 at 6pm with an attendance around 200, which included many friends and supporters. The attendance leveled off shortly thereafter, somewhere around 100 adults, and we continued meeting until the Christmas season.

... In the eighth season, our worship ministry was in great disarray and I had a dream that Brad Currah, who had been a member of our core group before the launch, was leading worship. I repeatedly informed Brad that he was to be our worship leader and after numerous conversations he began volunteering time overseeing the worship and arts ministries. Brad had spent a few years playing the club scene with his band Springchamber, but was quickly overwhelmed with the demands of his first time pastorate and quit his job at Microsoft to free up time for ministry and hoped to live off of his wife Devonna's salary. But, she soon became pregnant and needed to quit her job. I then got a call from a pastor in Florida who had a network that funded church plants. Grace and I met with Pastor David Nicholas at Spanish River Church, and his church planting network agreed to help us financially. This gift allowed us to bring Brad on full-time, which has culminated in a fantastic independent worship album, multiple worship teams, and an aggressive set of new songs written by some of our many gifted artists. [emphasis added]

http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/11/where-are-they-now-part-6-tim-smith.html

We've discussed how Mark Driscoll, according to Tim Smith, explained to Smith that he had a dream from God that said Smith was coming elsewhere.  What we haven't gotten to yet is Mark Driscoll's account of concluding he had to let Brad Currah go. 

CONFESSIONS OF A REFORMISSION REV
CHAPTER FIVE, 350-1,000 PEOPLE
page 135

We had to quickly reorganize all of our systems and staff.  Our administrative pastor, Eric, left, which we all recognized was God's call on him.  And our worship leader was a great guy and great musician but was unable to coordinate the multiple bands in the three locations, so we let him go. This was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made because he was a very godly man who had worked very hard and would have been fine if the church had not gotten so crazy so quickly, and he and his very sweet wife were both close personal friends of mind. But I needed a worship pastor who could lead mltiple bands, coordinate multiple services in multiple locations, and train multiple worship pastors while keeping up with a church that was growing so fast that we had no idea exactly where it was going. I had no one who could possibly fill this role but felt compelled to wait until God let me know, so I just left a gaping hole in our leadership to create a crisis that would force a leader to emerge. 
 
From here Driscoll went on to mention insight he was given by his friend Jon Phelps about how in any growing organization there are three types of people, risers, people who attach to risers, and people who don't cut the mustard.  By Driscoll's account he decided to leave a chasm in leadership to create a crisis that would force a leader to emerge. 

This did not, however, preclude Driscoll or others from actively recruiting potential future leaders.
As Driscoll would recount on pages 46-147 the emerging worship leader was Tim Smith who was distinguished by his alleged complete lack of musical competence at every level but whom Driscoll considered to be a dudely dude with leadership potential, and Driscoll decided to literally and figuratively invest in Smith as a leader. 

So it seems that by one of Mark Driscoll's accounts (in 2006) Brad Currah asked to take charge of music at the not-yet-planted Mars Hill Church and that Mark let this happen.  By another account (at marshill.fm via The Wayback Machine) Mark Driscoll declared that in the eighth season music was in disarray (and we see that the church launched in season 4).  Mark Driscoll states he had a dream that Brad was leading worship and recruited him by repeatedly emphasizing this experience. Driscoll even goes so far as to say that he and Grace went to meet David Nicholas to request financial support and that Nicholas' financial support allowed Mars Hill Church to pay Brad Currah a salary.  Then on to the ninth season at the start of 1999.  But by the time of about 2001 it seemed Mark Driscoll concluded that Currah was not able to organize all the bands at the three campuses Mars Hill had at the time and so by Driscoll's account they had to let Brad Currah go.

As for what happened to the other guy about whom Mark Driscoll had a dream, Tim Smith.  Nothing came of the music label Smith was working on called ReSound, it seems.  Tim Smith lead worship and music for years but by 2011 he was a campus pastor en route to Portland.  It's possible that as with other leaders before him, even Brad Currah, the growth of Mars Hill Church may have exceeded Tim Smith's gifts.  By 2006 on The Resurgence Driscoll was beginning to mention the name of someone who would eventually replace Tim Smith, Dustin Kensrue.  But having looked over Mark Driscoll's different accounts of how and why Brad Currah ended up out of leading worship in spite of the apparently divine oracle dream Mark Driscoll had about him, let's turn some attention back to the narrative of the rise of Tim Smith.