Nine Current Mars Hill Pastors Tell Mark Driscoll To Step Down from All Ministry
(UPDATED) While megachurch’s rules ‘greatly restrict our authority, we believe we must act like elders none-the-less,’ write 9 of 65 pastors.
Nine of Mars Hill Church’s 65 pastors, including the lead pastor of one of its 15 campuses, have called for Mark Driscoll to step down not for six weeks but for a full year, and for church elders to play a more prominent role in restoring the health of the Seattle megachurch.
“It is time to take responsibility for our church, regardless of how much our current bylaws prevent us from exercising that authority,” they wrote in a 4,000-word letter (full text at bottom). “It grieves us that the only voice that has never been heard in all of this is the voice of the current elders.”
The letter was circulated within Mars Hill last Friday, before Driscoll’s big Sunday announcement of eight next steps while the church investigates charges against him by 21 former pastors. The letter was first obtained by Patheos blogger Warren Throckmorton, and published as part of a Religion News Service report today.
Despite a current Mars Hill governance structure which places disciplinary authority in the hands of a hybrid internal/external Board of Advisors and Accountability (BOAA), the letter argues that Mars Hill’s elders “are called to lead our people and the church from a position of truth and love,” and consequently the pastors “do not believe that looking for answers, asking questions, and trying to discern the truth is a divisive or sinful thing.”
“To ask us not to do so would only be to further exasperate the ‘culture of fear’ that we so desperately want to move away from,” they continued.
The nine pastors—who include Drew Hensley, lead pastor of Mars Hill’s U-District campus, and four pastors from the Bellevue campus where Driscoll …
Nine Current Mars Hill Pastors Tell Mark Driscoll To Step Down from All Ministry
(UPDATED) While megachurch’s rules ‘greatly restrict our authority, we believe we must act like elders none-the-less,’ write 9 of 65 pastors.
Nine of Mars Hill Church’s 65 pastors, including the lead pastor of one of its 15 campuses, have called for Mark Driscoll to step down not for six weeks but for a full year, and for church elders to play a more prominent role in restoring the health of the Seattle megachurch.
“It is time to take responsibility for our church, regardless of how much our current bylaws prevent us from exercising that authority,” they wrote in a 4,000-word letter (full text at bottom). “It grieves us that the only voice that has never been heard in all of this is the voice of the current elders.”
The letter was circulated within Mars Hill last Friday, before Driscoll’s big Sunday announcement of eight next steps while the church investigates charges against him by 21 former pastors. The letter was first obtained by Patheos blogger Warren Throckmorton, and published as part of a Religion News Service report today.
Despite a current Mars Hill governance structure which places disciplinary authority in the hands of a hybrid internal/external Board of Advisors and Accountability (BOAA), the letter argues that Mars Hill’s elders “are called to lead our people and the church from a position of truth and love,” and consequently the pastors “do not believe that looking for answers, asking questions, and trying to discern the truth is a divisive or sinful thing.”
“To ask us not to do so would only be to further exasperate the ‘culture of fear’ that we so desperately want to move away from,” they continued.
The nine pastors—who include Drew Hensley, lead pastor of Mars Hill’s U-District campus, and four pastors from the Bellevue campus where Driscoll …
Major Missions Agency Picks ‘Radical’ New President
Megachurch pastor David Platt is now the younger face of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.
Eight years ago, David Platt became one of the youngest megachurch pastors in America. Today the 36-year-old was announced as the next president of one America’s largest missions agencies: the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Platt, who has ministered in India, Nepal, Indonesia, and an unspecified country in the Horn of Africa, replaces Tom Elliff, who at 70 is nearly double Platt’s age.
Platt has pastored the 4,500-member Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, since 2006, and has called Christians to a movement of radical obedience and discipleship through his ministry Radical and bestselling books Radical and Follow Me.
As head of the IMB, described by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability as “one of the leading ministries making disciples of all people to fulfill the Great Commission,” Platt will oversee 4,800 Southern Baptist missionaries serving among 787 people groups worldwide.
“We talk all the time about laying down a blank check with our lives before God, with no strings attached, willing to … do whatever He commands in order to make His glory known among the nations of the earth,” he told his church. “Over these past months, God has made it abundantly clear… He is filling in that blank check in our lives and family with a different assignment.” [Full video statement below]
Angelia Stewart, a spokesperson for Radical, spoke to Platt’s past international experiences in a statement to Christianity Today.
“David Platt has traveled extensively to teach the Bible throughout the United States and around the world. His travels overseas have taken him to places like East Asia, …
Major Missions Agency Picks ‘Radical’ New President
Megachurch pastor David Platt is now the younger face of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.
Eight years ago, David Platt became one of the youngest megachurch pastors in America. Today the 36-year-old was announced as the next president of one America’s largest missions agencies: the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Platt, who has ministered in India, Nepal, Indonesia, and an unspecified country in the Horn of Africa, replaces Tom Elliff, who at 70 is nearly double Platt’s age.
Platt has pastored the 4,500-member Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, since 2006, and has called Christians to a movement of radical obedience and discipleship through his ministry Radical and bestselling books Radical and Follow Me.
As head of the IMB, described by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability as “one of the leading ministries making disciples of all people to fulfill the Great Commission,” Platt will oversee 4,800 Southern Baptist missionaries serving among 787 people groups worldwide.
“We talk all the time about laying down a blank check with our lives before God, with no strings attached, willing to … do whatever He commands in order to make His glory known among the nations of the earth,” he told his church. “Over these past months, God has made it abundantly clear… He is filling in that blank check in our lives and family with a different assignment.” [Full video statement below]
Angelia Stewart, a spokesperson for Radical, spoke to Platt’s past international experiences in a statement to Christianity Today.
“David Platt has traveled extensively to teach the Bible throughout the United States and around the world. His travels overseas have taken him to places like East Asia, …
Mark Driscoll Steps Down While Mars Hill Investigates Charges
(UPDATED) Driscoll offers 8-step solution to followers: ‘Current climate is not healthy for me or for this church.’
[Updated with eight “next steps,” direct quotes, video of announcement.]
In Mark Driscoll’s first public statement since Acts 29 rebuked and removed him from the church planting network he founded, the embattled Seattle pastor announced he will temporarily step down as leader of Mars Hill Church while charges submitted by 21 former pastors against him are investigated.
He offered his church a list of eight next steps he plans to take [see bottom of this post, along with video link], acknowledging that some charges are “simply my fault, and I will own it, confess it, and move on from it as God continues to redeem me.”
“I have requested a break for processing, healing, and growth for a minimum of six weeks while [Mars Hill leaders] conduct a thorough examination of accusations against me,” Driscoll told his congregation today. “I believe that review can best be performed without me being in the pulpit or in the office.”
The decision by Driscoll, whose current challenges made the front page of The New York Times yesterday, echoes past sabbaticals by two other popular Reformed pastors—John Piper and C. J. Mahaney—amid concerns not of sexual or financial sins, but of pride and other character flaws.
“I hope Mark Driscoll feels a tidal wave of hope-filled prayer for a new day and a new man in this season,” tweeted John Piper in response to the news. “Pray for @PastorMark Driscoll and wife Grace and their precious children in this season of trial. And the fine people at Mars Hill Church,” tweeted Jack Graham.
Driscoll, echoing his last major apology, said he has “submitted to the process described by church bylaws … for addressing …
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