Mars Hill Church

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This article is about the church in Washington State. For the church in Michigan, see Mars Hill Bible Church.

Mars Hill Church has been one of the largest and fastest growing Christian churches in the Seattle, Washington area. It is listed as one of the top 50 influential churches in the United States.^[1]^[2] Attendance purportedly exceeds 7,000, with more than 24 pastors on staff. The church meets in six locations (Ballard, Shoreline, West Seattle, Wedgwood, Eastside, and Downtown) with a total of fourteen services each Sunday.

On October 22, 2007, it was announced that Mars Hill had purchased the building that formerly housed Tabella, a nightclub that had come under scrutiny in Mayor Nickels' attempts to crack down on violence at Seattle bars and nightclubs.^[3] The property was purchased for $3.95M. The details of the sale were kept secret from the congregation until after the deal closed, which increased concerns among members regarding the church's total overall debt load and deficit spending, since the church leadership stopped publishing and distributing weekly financial updates to the congregation.

The content of weekend services, as well as conferences and special topical teaching, is available both on the church's website and through podcasts.

1 History
2 Meta Church
3 Acts 29
4 The Resurgence
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Mars Hill Church was established in 1996 by pastors Mark Driscoll, Lief Moi and Mike Gunn. The original core group of twelve people gathered in the Wallingford living room of the rental house where Driscoll and his wife, Grace, lived. For the next seven years, Mars Hill met in various locations throughout the city until, in 2003, the church (one thousand strong) moved into a renovated hardware store between Fremont and Ballard. Within three years, however, the church had outgrown its new home.

In early 2006, Mars Hill became a multi-campus church with the opening of the Shoreline Campus. This led to the implementation of video sermons and other resources. Later in 2006, Mars Hill acquired two new properties, in West Seattle and Wedgwood to enable further ministry expansion. Newest locations are Eastside and Downtown.

According to the church's executive leadership, more than seven thousand people represent the Mars Hill congregation - although that number is empirically unverified. On Sundays, they gather in six different locations, and during the week many meet in homes from Everett to Olympia, North Bend to Bainbridge.

In 2007, founding pastor Lief Moi was removed as campus pastor of the Ballard congregation and demoted to part-time status. In October 2007, two pastors were terminated from Mars Hill Church^[4] for reasons not completely known to the public. The articles and proliferating websites indicate the firings were because the pastors opposed proposed changes that the members believed would consolidate power among a few top leaders. When the church's new bylaws were enacted in late October 2007, the majority of the church's elders were stripped of their authority to vote on key issues, and the authority of the church was consolidated in a group of five men with lifetime tenures. ^[5]^[6]

[edit] Meta Church

Church leaders claim that local building codes limiting the size of new church architecture in the Puget Sound region have forced Mars Hill Church to formulate a multi campus structure in order to accommodate the rapid addition of new members, their multiplying families, new Christian converts and continual influx of college students to the area. The so-called "meta church" structure remains connected via high-definition video to the remote campuses during weekly worship services and continually through community websites. Proponents claim that the nature of the meta church has allowed each location to further "contextualise" local ministries while benefiting from the programs afforded to them by the larger body - all under the control of the central authority. A fourth, and then a fifth, campus opened in 2007 and in 2008, a sixth location was added in Downtown.

Ballard Main Campus & Equipping Center - Pastor Bubba Jennings
Shoreline Campus - Pastor Steve Tompkins
West Seattle Campus - Pastor Adam Sinnett
Wedgwood Campus - Pastor James Harleman
Eastside Campus - Pastor Jessie Winkler
Downtown Campus - Pastor Tim Gaydos

[edit] Acts 29

Mars Hill Church is home to the Acts 29 headquarters.^[7] Acts 29 is a network of pastors from around the nation and world whose dream is to help qualified leaders plant new churches and rejuvenate declining churches. Acts 29 is currently lead by Scott Thomas, one of the five Mars Hill executive elders with a lifetime tenure.

[edit] The Resurgence

TheResurgence.com^[8] is an outgrowth of the teaching ministry at Mars Hill Church. Started after the successful Reformission Conference in November 2004 hosted at Mars Hill Church, the Reformission Conference effectively became the precursor event for the movement now known as Resurgence. The intent of the ministry is to provide a large repository of free missional theology resources in hopes of serving the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ in culture. Additionally, Resurgence have announced that starting in 2008 they will begin publishing a line of books called Re:Lit (Resurgence Literature) in partnership with Crossway.