Update on the Status of the Mars Hill Locations

On the Mars Hill website, an update has been posted about the direction of each of the locations. Where appropriate, I will interrupt the narrative to add any information I have on the location.

Mars Hill,

As Mars Hill Church closes its doors at the end of the year, and each of the churches plan for what the new year will bring, your local elder teams will work through decisions related to their location. Each church is unique and each elder team has unique decisions in front of them. They will be updating you over the next eight weeks about their upcoming steps.

Several churches have already made announcements this week and have held members meetings to explain where they are feeling led. Below is an update on the next steps of these churches. As we learn more about the future for each church, we will continue to update you.

ALBUQUERQUE

Albuquerque announced this past Sunday that they have invited Pastor Dave Bruskas to return, and he has accepted the position as their teaching pastor. Pastor Dave will stay to serve Mars Hill Church in the current transition until December 31, including continuing to preach from the Bellevue church until they find a new Lead Pastor.

Read here and here for more on Albuquerque. A reliable source has informed me that Al Lobaina has resigned as pastor but will remain with the church.

BELLEVUE & SAMMAMISH

On the Eastside of Seattle it was announced that the Bellevue and Sammamish locations will be partnering together to form a single new church. They’ll plant the new church in the new year, with a core group of over 1,000 people! This new Eastside church will retain the best of Mars Hill Church, but will be a different church with new leadership and structures. Your elders are currently praying about how best to structure and lead this church moving forward and they need your ideas, suggestions and prayer as they consider this.

I have information on this merger herehere and here. Sammamish leaders were conflicted over the move to Bellevue and explored other options before deciding to merge. Initually, lead pastor Alex Ghioni told his congregation that the church was going to try to preserve the building, but as it turns out, the building (which was donated to the church by the former congregation – Evergreen Christian Fellowship) will be sold to help pay off debt.

HUNTINGTON BEACH

Huntington Beach announced that it will not continue as an independent church. Pastor Matt Wallace is pursuing opportunities with like-minded churches in the area from whom he and his family can be sent out to plant at a later time. Pastor AJ Hamilton, who was working towards planting Mars Hill Church Los Angeles, is praying with his family about pursuing other opportunities.

Huntington Beach was on the bubble due to the leaders assessment that giving needed to improve. Giving had not improved which left the church in a questionable position. Then Matt Wallace indicated that he would not lead the new church to independent status.

BALLARD

Ballard has announced that they will continue as a new independent church. Pastor Matthias Haeusel will serve as the Lead Pastor and he and the local elders are working hard to find a new name and the best place to meet each Sunday starting in January. Pastor Scott Harris will be stepping down as Lead Pastor while staying on as an elder and pursuing work in Seattle in order to remain at the church.

Just today, I posted information about Ballard from a trusted source. Ballard’s building has been on the market for awhile, initially with hopes that a buyer would lease it back to the church. This looks less promising now. At one point, church spokesperson Justin Dean said Ballard had been growing in attendance but he later retracted that impression.

EVERETT

Everett has also announced that they will continue as an independent church called Foundation Church, with Pastor Ryan Williams remaining as Lead Pastor. The Everett elders are working towards continuing in their current location.

Click here to read about Everett’s one-page summary of their plans for Foundation Church. Everett’s pastor Ryan Williams famously thanked Mars Hill Global years after the money from the Global Fund supposedly (and secretly) had been given. Now Mars Hill pastors refuse to give an accounting of the Global Fund.

RAINIER VALLEY

Pastor Ed Choi has said he will continue to lead the people of Rainier Valley, and together with the congregation they have chosen Rainier Valley Church as their new name.

SHORELINE

Shoreline will continue under the leadership of Pastor Aaron Gray. He and his elder team will be announcing their new name soon, and they are working towards trying to secure the same location they are in now to meet on Sundays.

TACOMA

Tacoma will continue under the leadership of Pastor Bubba Jennings and the current elders. They have chosen the name Resurrection Church and are working towards staying in their current location. The leadership team in Tacoma is spending time in prayer and seeking Jesus’ wisdom, guidance and discernment for the new plant. They are excited to keep loving Jesus, preaching the Bible and making disciples while learning what it means to be a new independent church.

Tacoma (soon Resurrection Church), like some of the others, has a major issue with the debt on their building. There is some optimism among the churches but most are starting out with lots of debt and very little experience in running a free standing operation.

PORTLAND

Pastor Tim Smith has put together a transition team of elders and deacons who will lead the people of Mars Hill Portland in a new church plant starting in January. They are working towards choosing a new name and assuming the loan for their current building.

Last Sunday a transition team was announced (see here). Portland rivals Bellevue for being the church most nostalgic for Driscoll. This coming Sunday, the church will have a camera set up for people to record their good wishes to send to the Driscolls.

From Deacon Kevin Kelly:

Hey There PDX!

I hope that you are all trying to stay warm and dry at the beginning of a threatened winter storm in our area.  Please be safe when traveling and plan ahead today.

I wanted to make you aware of a small project that some members have requested.  They wish to record short video testimonials, to send to Pastor Mark and his family.

This Sunday, Nov 16th, after second service (and only if you are interested), we will be set up for you to sit and record a brief message of thanks or encouragement for Pastor Mark and his family.

SPOKANE

Pastor Miles Rohde is continuing his work in Spokane to start a new church in the heart of downtown. Together with a core team of around 120 people they are moving forward with launching a new church in the new year, named Redemption Spokane.

Spokane was one of the first church’s to file papers of incorporation.

OLYMPIA

Pastor Seth Winterhalter, along with his pastoral team, will be planting a new church in Olympia called Harbor Church that he says will be “a safe harbor for the broken, hurting, and hopeless people of our region introducing them to their Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.”

I have written twice about Olympia, but don’t have much to add to this description.

WEST SEATTLE

Pastor David Fairchild will also continue leading the charge for a new church plant in West Seattle, called Trinity West Seattle. They have 3 elders and 5 elder candidates who will soon be installed to help lead the church. Together they are working out the details of keeping their current location.

David Fairchild is one of the few Mars Hill pastors who has interacted with me since the decision to close the church. He doesn’t disclose much but seems willing to discuss issues with people on the blog. However, when asked about Global Fund, the investigation of Driscoll, and other hard issues, he quiets down.

PHOENIX

As an update on Phoenix, which was the first to transition to its own independent church, they are doing well under the leadership of Pastor Tim Birdwell. Now the Phoenix Bible Church, they continue to see growth and many new people meeting Jesus.

Phoenix was the trail blazer and went independent as Phoenix Bible Church when Mars Hill announced it was closing three locations.


In addition to updates on The City, you can continue to follow updates on each church’s Facebook and Twitter through the end of the year, when those accounts will be renamed and transitioned to the individual churches.

We are excited for these new church plants. People will continue to have Bible-believing church homes where they are served and loved, and where they can serve and love others, and that’s something to celebrate. In areas where churches are closing or have closed, we know there are plenty of Bible-believing churches in those areas and we are helping families stay connected in community with other believers.

Our hope and prayer is that these new churches will flourish in connecting people to Jesus in some of the least churched regions of the country. Please continue to pray for each church and their leaders, as they still have a lot of decisions and lot of planning ahead of them.

I will add information to this post as it becomes available.

Mars Hill Ballard Moves Toward Independence Amid Unanswered Questions

Last night, a trusted source attended an organizational meeting at Mars Hill Ballard. Several changes were announced with information provided about the move toward becoming an independent church.

According to the source:

Scott Harris is stepping down as lead pastor. It was announced that he plans to find employment and stay on at the church as a lay elder. The preaching pastor will be Matthias Haeusel. Adam Christiansen (paid) and Kirby Langley (lay) will remain as elders. Cam Huxford will remain as worship pastor. Anthony Ianniciello was described as “very tired” and will thus step down. He will continue as a church member and lead a community group. Joe Stengele feels called elsewhere.

The elders gave out paper to use to suggest church names. However, Harris said that the elders will choose the name. As the papers were distributed, the elders promoted “Seven Hills” Church. Seven was described as a “contextualization” specific to Seattle with Hills paying deliberate homage to the old Mars Hill name.

The church will probably not remain in the current location. The building hasn’t sold and the lease-back provision from the listing has been removed. They expect to take between 3 months to a year to find a suitable location. It was disclosed that the Ballard and Sammamish buildings are being liquidated to cover Mars Hill’s debts. The seed money then will be given to the different churches according to the location’s former budget and their attendance throughout this last year. Some locations will get cash, and others will get an improved equity position in their building.

The leaders promised that the new church will be “elder led, congregationally informed.”

Questions were asked about severance pay for executives and the Mark Driscoll investigation. The elders claimed they didn’t know.

I find that hard to believe, but if true, it lends some credibility to a comment made by MHInsida on another post that seed money from sale of properties and any remaining tithes and offerings is conditioned on silence and lack of disclosure. Perhaps, the pastors don’t want to know. However, it is stunning to me that the elders could go before a group of people, ask for their support, and not have answers to those questions.

Another implication of the possibility that the elders don’t know what’s happening in their own church is that the Board of Advisors and Accountability is still in charge and desires to run out the clock on the questions that have arisen about the Global Fund, severance pay, the credibility of BoAA statements about Acts 29 and Paul Tripp, and the Driscoll investigation.

John Piper on Lessons Learned from the Mark Driscoll Controversy; ECFA, Are You Listening?

In an audio presentation out today, John Piper doesn’t regret partnering with Mark Driscoll but does see some of the problems identified by Mars Hill’s elders. In this audio, Piper briefly admits that he could have done more to help. He also says that perhaps pulling Driscoll’s book from sale, as Lifeway has done, is a defensible temporary response to the controversy. I can’t get the embed code to work so click the link for the audio)
Most of the audio is about lessons learned. Piper identifies eight lessons:
1. People are complex and we can’t always see our own flaws.
2. We need to take seriously what wise counselors tells us about ourselves. Listen.
3. Sometimes you can see what others are saying and sometimes you can’t. Driscoll might not have agreed with his elders just because he didn’t see it. To me, it seems obvious that Piper hasn’t talked to many, if any, former elders at Mars Hill.
4. Churches should be led by a team of elders with all having one vote. Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, are you listening? Paul Tripp called the structure you require for accredited churches unbiblical, and now John Piper does as well.
5. The salary of pastors should not be treated as one treats the CEO of a corporation. He opposes pastors having salaries “in the 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 hundred thousand dollar range.” Well, that is the range for all of the Mars Hill executive elders. Again, ECFA, are you listening? The ECFA requires church boards to use salary comparison studies to set executive salary. All this does is create salary inflation when the same small group of churches examine salary ranges. A range from $200k to $1.2 million became a reason to bump Driscoll’s salary to $650k, and the other executive elders to the high $200,000 range. No governance is perfect, but the Mars Hill meltdown has exposed fatal flaws in your guidance to churches. Churches are not non-profit corporations and the ECFA’s guidance in area is deeply flawed.
6. Right theology can’t keep a person from sin.
7. God’s purposes are not foiled by one man.
8. Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls.
 

It's Official: Mars Hill Sammamish to Join Bellevue Church

I reported last week that Sammamish elders were talking to Mars Hill Bellevue (Bellevue Church in January 2015) about merging. According to this City posting by Bellevue elder Jamie Skelton, the decision to merge has been made.

From Pastor Jason Skelton:
Mars Hill Family,
Over the last two weeks, we’ve announced on Sundays that Mars Hill Church will be coming to a close at the end of 2014. Its last act will be to plant new independent churches. Bellevue will be moving forward as an independent church, with hope to retain the best of Mars Hill Church and grow in areas where God is calling us to change, mature, and grow.
We are also excited to announce that after much prayer, our friends from the Sammamish church will be joining us. Together, we’ll have one church on the Eastside. Many of you know we planted Sammamish out of this Bellevue church and we’re excited to reconnect with old friends, worship together as a larger family and join together on mission for Jesus on the Eastside.
Your elders are currently praying about how to best structure and lead this church moving forward. We need your ideas, suggestions, and prayer as we consider this. Over the past several weeks we’ve met with many leaders and volunteers to share some direction and learn more about questions that you may have.
If you want to learn more about this new effort, please join us this Sunday, November 16th at 12:30p for our Eastside Vision Meeting. We’ll be sharing details as they become available on vision, structure, location, and also provide outlets for feedback and questions.
We look forward to seeing you this Sunday
On Behalf of the Bellevue Elders,
Pastor Jason Skelton

If my email inbox is any indication, this will not be a welcome announcement to many at Sammamish.

Mars Hill Huntington Beach Won't Continue As An Independent Church

As expected, Mars Hill Huntington Beach will not become an independent with Matt Wallace at the helm. From Wallace, Lead Pastor at Huntington Beach:

From Pastor Matt Wallace:

Church family,
A typical Sunday does not see everyone who calls Mars Hill HB home in attendance. If you were unable to join us, you will find below the announcement made by the elders this past Sunday regarding the future of our church community.
I hope to see you this coming Sunday at one of our services. And please plan to participate in the Member Meeting at 1:30p Sunday afternoon, as we will share some additional details that will shape the coming weeks and beyond.
Pastor Matt
——————————————————————-
Mars Hill HB,
It is with heavy hearts that the elders announce our determination not to move forward as an independent church.
I want to publicly acknowledge the profound commitment demonstrated by my fellow elders, Brian Jonkman and Steve Zietlow, in faithfully loving & leading this church family, especially over the course of the past year. Since the announcement that Mars Hill Church will dissolve on December 31, 2014, we have talked & prayed together as a team. I can say emphatically these men have also demonstrated a profound commitment to love me and my family.
The Spirit of God has convicted me, as I have wrestled with the future of our church, to listen to the wise counsel of the Spirit-filled men God has place around me. My fellow elders, as well as godly pastors outside of our church community, have consistently expressed concern about my fitfulness to lead at this time. The decision to move forward primarily rested upon my shoulders. While the call & desire to shepherd are present, the health & strength I need to do so at this time are not.
The Spirit of God has also convicted me that the pace at which I have handled my pastoral responsibilities is unsustainable. One poignant result of my unwillingness to slow down is an undue burden on my family for 13 years, especially the last 5. It is beyond time for me to listen to the Spirit and slow down.
On one hand, I am deeply heartbroken at this conclusion, as I’m sure many of you will be as well. This is not the outcome we had envisioned or hoped for and, consequently, there is a grief that accompanies this decision.
On the other hand, I am greatly encouraged by the resilience and response of our church family. You have loved one another well. You have loved your leaders well. You have persevered through many hardships and, without a doubt, have grown in your devotion to Jesus and in your affection for the church, both of which we will carry forward into the church communities God provides for us.
Please know that your elders remain unified & resolved in our commitment to shepherd you in the coming weeks. If you would allow us to lead you through the remainder of this year, here is what we as elders would call you toward:
  1. Continue to love one another by gathering together here on Sundays and during the week in CGs. Jesus has blessed us, as we’ve all learned, with the community of the church. We will need the support, encouragement, insight and prayer from one another as we seek direction from Jesus.
  2. Although the coming days are sure to be bittersweet, let’s commit together to celebrate the abundance of God’s grace we’ve experienced together as a church. Each time we gather, on Sundays & in CGs, take the time to recount & retrace the numerous ways we have witnessed Jesus at work among us. On our final Sunday in December we will gather for one service and we’ll invite any who have participated in our community to join us for a party in Jesus’ name.
  3. Plan to join us next Sunday, November 16 for the Member Meeting at 1:30p. While the decision regarding a new church community rests with you as individuals and families, the elders encourage you to talk and pray together as community groups. We are also here to pray with you and help you discern the Holy Spirit’s voice. In addition, there is some direction for you to prayerfully consider that we are actively working on, which we will share in detail at the Member Meeting.
We love you, Mars Hill HB. Thank you for loving us and allowing us to participate in the work Jesus has accomplished in your lives.
Pastor Matt and the elders of HB
While it appears there is some room for members to form a core group of a church, this leadership structure won’t continue as is.