Sutton Turner’s Last Day at Mars Hill Church

If the Board of Advisors and Accountability announcement is accurate, today is Sutton Turner’s last day at Mars Hill Church. On September 19, the BOAA told the church:

Earlier this month Pastor Sutton Turner informed our board of his intention to resign from his current staff and elder position. His personal decision is a sober acknowledgement that it would not be financially feasible for him to stay on staff as the church rightsizes itself, and secondly, not emotionally prudent to subject his family to what has been an ongoing season of personal attacks. We want to be clear: there are no disqualifying factors related to his decision.

Although there were rich days during his time at the church, Turner leaves the church where he came to it: in financial crisis. In 2012, Turner revealed to his fellow executive elders and lead pastors that the church, financially speaking, was “in a big mess.” Today, I reported that Mars Hill Church’s chief financial officer Kerry Dodd said the church is in “the most trying circumstances in our church’s history.” Layoffs and location closings preceded Turner’s announcement.

Turner has already removed references to Mars Hill Church from his Linked In profile, writing instead that he worked for a “non-profit organization.”
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Turner leaves a gap on the executive elder board with no public announcement about how that vacancy will be filled. As the chief operating officer of Mars Hill, Turner oversaw the day to day operations. It is not clear who is doing that at present.