Mars Hill Church

This article is about the defunct church in Seattle, Washington. For the church in Grandville, Michigan, see Mars Hill Bible Church.
Mars Hill Church logo

Mars Hill Church was a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch, founded in 1996 by Mark Driscoll, Lief Moi, and Mike Gunn. It was a multi-site church based in Seattle, Washington and grew from a home Bible study to 15 locations in 4 U.S. states.[1] In addition to services offered at its 15 locations, the church also podcast content of weekend services, and of conferences, on the Internet,[2] with more than 260,000 sermon views online every week.[3] In 2013, Mars Hill had a membership of 6,489 and average weekly attendance of 12,329.[4] Following controversy in 2014 involving founding pastor Mark Driscoll, attendance dropped to 8,000–9,000 people per week.[5]

At the end of September 2014, an investigation by the church elders found "bullying" and "patterns of persistent sinful behavior" by Driscoll. The church elders crafted a "restoration" plan to help Driscoll and save the church. Instead, Driscoll declined the restoration plan and resigned.[6] On October 31, 2014, lead pastor Dave Bruskas announced plans to dissolve the church's 13 remaining campuses into autonomous entities, with the option of continuing, merging with other congregations, or disbanding, effective January 1, 2015.[7] The Mars Hill network dissolved on January 1, 2015.

  1. ^ Rose Egge (2008-07-14). "Mars Hill Church one of nation's fastest growing". Ballard News-Tribune. Archived from the original on 2008-08-03. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  2. ^ "Mars Hill Church Media Library". Mars Hill Church. Archived from the original on October 13, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  3. ^ Ronald E. Keener. "Seattle is among the least churched cities in America". Church Executive. Archived from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
  4. ^ "2013 ANNUAL REPORT" (PDF). Mars Hill Church. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 19, 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  5. ^ "Mars Hill to consolidate 3 Seattle churches, cut staff". The Seattle Times. September 7, 2014. Archived from the original on September 8, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
  6. ^ Connelly, Joel (Oct 19, 2014). "The pastor's "persistent sinful behavior": Why Driscoll quit Mars Hill". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved Oct 19, 2014.
  7. ^ Connelly, Joel (Oct 31, 2014). "Mars Hill will dissolve into 'individual, self-governed churches'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved Oct 31, 2014.