Sutton Turner Releases Notes from the 2014 Mark Driscoll Elder Investigation

Sutton Turner today placed on his blog about 30 pages of material from the 2014 investigation into the formal charges against Mark Driscoll. Here is how he introduces the post:

On October 14, 2015 Mark Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill while under investigation from elders of Mars Hill Church based on formal charges and the governance by-laws that Driscoll helped to create.  The resignation was a surprise (as you will see below) to the leadership of Mars Hill.  Secretly, Mark Driscoll had coordinated with Mark Demoss and Religious New Service (Driscoll’s statement) to drive the narrative that would put Driscoll in a positive light so he could plant a church in Phoenix and sell books in the future.  The night before Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill he discussed his decision and received advice from both Robert Morris and Larry Osbourne. 

At the time Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill in 2014, he threatened legal action towards anyone that shared details of the investigation including me and many of the elders who had investigated the formal charges against him.  To this day, many of us are still fearful of Driscoll. Even so, it is time to share these details.

Indeed there are many details. I cannot do justice to them today. At this point, I simply encourage you to pour yourself a beverage, maybe get a snack and find comfortable reading position.

Investigating the Formal Charges: Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill Church

I hope to have observations and comments in a future post but for now, those who have followed the saga can click through and take it in as you have time.

22 thoughts on “Sutton Turner Releases Notes from the 2014 Mark Driscoll Elder Investigation”

  1. Thank you, Mr. Turner, for bringing this information forth as your efforts truly make a difference. I was a Mars Hill Global member & financial supporter starting around 2012 and my family and I reside in the Midwest. As a husband and father of four kids, I try each day to raise my kids to follow after Jesus and feel connected with a church. We didn’t go to a local church during this time period because my daughter was fighting cancer and we stayed home during her treatment. We followed Mars Hills church weekly and I started to have my own concerns about what I saw during the sermons and read regarding Mr. Driscoll’s behavior. The behavior from the pulpit at times was down right absurd and some of the stories Mr. Driscoll said that come from the Bible were clearly expansions from his own mind.

    I began reading Mr. Throckmorton’s work and also the “Joyful Exiles” blog prior to 2014. (Thank you, Mr. Throckmorton, for all of your efforts.) When Mark “resigned” and then showed up at Gateway Church a week later, that was the final straw for me. I was actually watching the Gateway conference live when Robert Morris brought out Mr. Driscoll and claimed the whole issue was that Mark “worked too hard”. Then to hear the crazy stories about their house being under siege, was Mr. Driscoll being flamboyant, a poor is me attitude, and again, lying. I also have heard and watched nearly all the interviews Mr. Driscoll has done saying “it was a trap” if he stayed at Mars Hills, etc. For Mr. Driscoll to set up in Phoenix and never speak of Mars Hill again is down right bazaar. I even watched a few of his first sermons in Phoenix to see what he would say about Mars Hill and he acted like it never happened.

    As an outsider from Mars Hill and to see it go down in flames, it was hard at times to know where the truth was at, yet in my heart I knew Mark had hurt many and done some horrible things. Mr. Sutton, by you coming forth helps bring closure for my family and I on this issue and we continue on with our relationship with Christ.

    I am even more saddened that Mr. Driscoll’s behavior continues on and can cause pain and hurt to others in his new location.

    Thank you, Mr. Throckmorton and Mr. Turner, for all you have done to help heal the wounded and restore what has been damaged.

    God bless,

    Luke

      1. Ironic, thinking about today; it’s like MD and my former sociopath, psychopath fear whoremongering, control freak of Pastor; it’s like they came out of the same School. Learned, to look at like Robert Morris and ALL ministries who put them in position and groomed and discipled them and where did the FUNDING come from; as Religion is Big Business. Look at all the Genre on Spiritual Abuse and Lies and Truth Speakers exposing.

        Not to mention, anyone who has MD in their pulpit, hmm; all keeping monies in their empire as behavior is more John 8:44. Former Pastor behaved like The Occult didn’t live in truth, lived in darkness, hides sin, sweeps sin under the carpet and made church inane, inept, ineffectual and irrelevant. Bible NOT taught in fullness but stories and rhetoric, no life skills but horrific spiritual abuse. NO Holiness, Righteousness, Repentance, Humility, Prayer, Bible except using like Divination or Tarot Cards to beat the sheep for money as God doesn’t get any money. Worse, content to live without Holiness as NOT been modeled like A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, Arthur Aaron Katz. Could have sat in any and all movements/regimes and they would have NEVER gone through the Bible completely once from Birth to Death; so it made me look at Religion as a whole which is NOT of God. Galatians talks about and Bible, false teachers, false shepherds. Majority of us NOT judging fruit and where did ALL the money go and did any of them live James 1:27; Matthew 25:21-end EVER? How healthy were people that attended and tithed and replaced God with all these King Saul types and what were you going to learn? Look at our present current Society vs. Pastors/Church. People are the church NOT the Building! Proverbs 9:10!

        1. “Where did ALL the money go?” Is that not the big question? John 8:44 refers to Jesus calling the scribes and teachers of the law as children of the Devil who do his bidding and not God’s. Has anything changed? Turner sure made some pretty coin for some years as part of a system that fleeced a flock. That is why I will keep telling him that if he wants to complete his repentance that he needs to feel so sorry about that that he gives the money back. That is why greedy tax gatherers like Zacchaeus make it into the Kingdom before the religious elite. Jesus said that we all have to choose a God to serve and you cannot become rich in Mammon by serving the real Jesus. Their actions showed which God they are serving.

          This is not a petty thing. The year my brother died I was shown a holding cell in hell reserved for goat Christians. The most real place I have ever experienced. I would not wish this place on men as evil as Turner and Driscoll. I hope Turner does the right thing and renounces his religious based greed. I can see Jesus pointing me out to him on Judgment Day and asking him, “why did you not listen to truth?” “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his very soul?”

  2. Seeing as Marky has put away millions to sue people at will you have to wonder if Turner is going to get served sooner instead of later. That would just stir up more bad press but this snake could care less about that. He is obviously into petty revenge, though I will not feel sorry for anyone who profited off of Marky’s fame who gets in the crosshairs. Playing with a viper is dangerous business. The love of money is a root for all kinds of evil and those who sow to the wind will reap the whirlwind.

    1. threatening a lawsuit and actually filing one are 2 different things. Has Driscoll ever filed a lawsuit?

      1. Not that I know of. But I saw it over and over again, then he threatened me and BOE members at the end of MHC.
        His culture of fear was real, I can not explain it.
        Seeing Jesperson’s comments brought back that fear in a real way – but I really wanted to get this info out there.

        1. As long as you haven’t lied or otherwise misrepresented the facts, or violated some type of confidentiality Driscoll won’t have any grounds to sue. Even if there was some sort of confidentiality expected of the BOE hearings, there is a public interest argument for violating that.

          Even if Driscoll wants to sue you (keep in mind it will open him up to x-examination on the stand), he may have a hard time finding a lawyer willing to do it. Esp. if he bragged to others about having a “pot of money to sue people” because that indicates vindictiveness in his intentions.

          1. I see no upside to Driscoll suing anyone involved in his former Ministry at this point. All it would do is generate publicity for his past misdeeds and bring them further to the attention of his current congregation. Then there would be the pesky problem of defendants’ attorneys filing discovery motions against Driscoll.

  3. Haven’t finished reading the whole thing but this line:

    “No one criticizes Bill Gates.”

    Had me laughing, clearly Driscoll has no idea what he is talking about.

  4. An interesting read. One thing that stod out to me was the quote from Carey Niewhofs interview with Mark Driscoll. If true, that shows how Mark Driscoll just makes up things as he goes along and says whatever he thinks is beneficial at the moment without thinking about the consequences or realizing that it’s not convincing.
    There is no way that the question of transgenderism was such a hot topic in 2014 that it could split churches. Unfortunately that particular podcast program is no longer available so I can’t double check if he really made that claim.

    1. I transcribed that podcast (Rev.com) as soon as it happened. Then I reached out to Carey to tell him what he had done by given Mark a platform.
      It was one of Carey’s top 10 podcasts from that year. He took it down when Rise and Fall came out.

      Message me on twitter your email address and I will send it to you. @suttonturner

        1. I reached out to him the week it went live. I was interested to hear how Mark was twisting the story and what other lies he told. The rest of the stuff on there was very similar to other talks he has given when he talks about his family and how hard it was on them. Once again, he never talked about anything he did wrong or people he hurt. He always is the victim of Mars Hill.

          Carey’s response was basically surprise that there was so much negative response for the podcast and I pointed out the specific statement about transgender comment and how totally false it was.
          I am surprised, but not surprised, that he kept it up so long. He is in the business of clicks and it provided top 10 clicks for him that year. It was not until the negativity about Driscoll from Rise and Fall came out did he bring it down.

          1. I suspect that it wasn’t getting that many clicks for him any more as well and that factored into the decision to take it down when he did.

      1. Learn from my mistakes. Had read OVER 140 Hours on a Ministry of just horrific, evil, vile, wicked abuses and gave it to the RCAL (Report Church Abuse List) and the majority of it got removed/scrubbed and NOT even in the way back machine; know ANYTHING can be retrieved as seen in a Court Case. Make copies of everything, forced me to look at entire Ministry and all their Jezebel (satanism) in other Ministries; unreal what discovered as NOT living in truth is The Occult. Even Dr. Ron Enroth had done Clarion Call about wanting to know about this Ministry. Bait, was saying they were an Apostolic and Prophetic Ministry when they were NOT; lies of all that.

        Found out that Satanist/Luciferians and Mormons and Catholics are funding Churches/Pastors makes a Book. Think it’s pretty bad, as someone sent me a Worship Video where singing to the Blood of satan and interviewed Reporter who interviewed the whistleblower. Even a Lawyer contacted about “as had documents on desk satanist entire time in ministry”. “NOTHING gives it away more than lifestyle”, Jesus Christ attributes vs. “playboy evangelist/pastors”. “Apostolic Foundations, Prophetic Call; Reality the Hope of Glory” by Katz and Why Revival Tarries/America is Too Young to Die-Ravenhill; as it’s all in the Bible. Explain the OVER 60 year horrific homosexual, child molestation/pedophile cover-up in Hillsong by “assassins of their god” as really appreciated “why our church no longer, listens to bethel, hillsong and elevation music” finally had true church. What gets me, is you can be in heinous sin and still be in ministry and live the lifestyle and yet NEVER live James 1:27/Matthew 25:31-end or LOVE!!

Comments are closed.