It’s Time to Evacuate @marshill
Some thoughts on Gospel Community by Bryan Zug
Update: This is part of a series of posts from March 2014 that publicly noted key indicators of the toxic culture of Mars Hill and what to do about them. They played a part in the groundswell that eventually lead to the resignation of Mark Driscoll and the corporate dissolution of Mars Hill. For a post-mortem overview of events, see The Atlantic’s article “How a Megachurch Melts Down”.
In this doc…
It's time to evacuate @marshill
Ask Me Anything (AMA) about this stuff tonight, March 20, 2014 at 8pm pacific time
What are some good Gospel Communities (aka churches) in Seattle
If you stay at @marshill, you have an obligation to raise hell about…
Mars Hill will not be a healthy Gospel Community for at least 2-3 years. It’s time to evacuate it in an orderly manner. Background that lead me to this conclusion is below, along with tips and tricks for an orderly exit.
I will be doing an Ask Me Anything (AMA) about this stuff tonight, March 20, 2014 at 8pm pacific time. Details will be posted here sometime before 8 tonight.
Now that 20 former pastors have publicly acknowledged they have invited the Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability to enter into a process of mediation designed to lead to mutual repentance and reconciliation, I now feel released to advocate publicly for the calm, steady, graceful evacuation of @marshill
The public acknowledgement of this action by these 20 former pastors is one of the final steps to a long, steady, walking out of the Christian principles of reconciliation in Matthew 18.
@marshill will not be a healthy Gospel Community anytime soon.
Even if you have not seen the issues of leadership abuse first hand, you now have public confirmation by a multitude of credible witnesses that something deeply tragic has occurred – and a plurality of faithful folks believe that the actions of the Executive Elders and The Board of Advisors and Accountability, have not swiftly repented of the problems.
I believe it is wise to conclude that it will be at least 3 years before Mars Hill can return to being a healthy Gospel Community – and that can only happen if there is deep, swift humility/repentance from…
I will be doing a public ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) on Google hangouts tonight, March 20, 2014 at 8pm pacific time. Come back here for details and I will post directions on how to access before the start of the hangout.
I believe wholeheartedly that the relational, face to face, conversational process of reconciliation we see in Matthew 18 is one of the tragic things that had been suffocated in this whole ordeal.
But we have the ability to try and fix that. Here’s one thing I’d like to try.
If you are unfamiliar with AMA’s, here is background on one Bill Murray did that was awesome. I doubt I will be as awesome as Bill, but I will sure try.
Here’s the link -
https://plus.google.com/events/cep8lf6vsnug01oo4r7ljbhmj5k
One of the reasons many folks are still at @marshill is because they honestly don’t know about other sound Gospel Communities (aka churches). Here are some places I feel comfortable recommending and ones I would avoid until reconciliation takes place.
If you stay, you have an obligation to raise hell about these specific issues (and probably more, but we'll start with these)…
The kind of culture that leads men to impose such demands begets a deep misunderstanding of sound Gospel Community principles laid out by the Bible.
While repentance of this specific incident may or may not have occurred, the culture that begat it is still bearing deadly fruit.
A couple of years ago, Mark Driscoll gave a speech in the Ballard Paradox theater which is commonly referred to as the ‘I am the brand’ speech. In that speech he advocated that marketing and communication be centered on his personality, name, and brand (in lieu of the name of the great Shepherd himself).
While repentance of this specific incident may or may not have occurred, the culture that begat it is still bearing deadly fruit.
So, if you stay, I believe you have an obligation to shake the fog and think hard about becoming a True Detective.
As Newbigin says (my paraphrase), if we do not police ourselves, our Gospel Communities have no credibility to the unbelieving world around us.