Megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll announced to his Seattle-based congregation, via a pre-recorded message in late August, that he is taking a six-week leave of absence from his position as lead pastor of Mars Hill Church while various charges against him were formally investigated. Driscoll said he would take the time to seek council about the next season of his life.
Driscoll, along with Mike Gunn and Leif Moi, planted the church in 1996. Mars Hill grew to more than 13,000 people and stretched across 15 locations in five states: Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Arizona. Attendance has slumped over recent weeks to between 8-9000, and the church has announced the closure of at least three of its locations, and staff cuts of 30-40%. This leave of absence has come after a series of events which found Driscoll being confronted with significant questions about his character and leadership.
Plagiarism?
Driscoll was accused of plagiarism in 2013. He was challenged over his failure to attribute some of the ideas in the book as coming from the work of Peter Jones. Driscoll didn’t admit to plagiarism, but did admit to problems with ‘sourcing and attribution’. In March this year, World Magazine reported that Mars Hill Church spent at least $210,000 with a firm that sought to get Driscoll’s Real Marriage book on the New York Times bestseller list. According to a document obtained by World Magazine associate publisher Warren Smith, Mars Hill contracted with ResultSource Inc. (RSI): ’To conduct a bestseller campaign for your book, Real Marriage, on the week of January 2, 2012. The bestseller campaign is intended to place Real Marriage on the New York Times bestseller list for the Advice How-To list’.
Through the efforts of RSI, the book indeed, became a New York Times bestseller. Upon the release of the World Magazine story, Driscoll once again apologised and ordered the publisher to remove any mention that Real Marriage had become a New York Times bestseller.
Once the information had become public and verified that Driscoll had both plagiarised and used church funds inappropriately to promote his book, individuals begun to come forward questioning various aspects of the Mars Hill ministry. For example, Smith claims some questioned how Mars Hill Church used donations to its global mission fund, Mars Hill Global. ‘Mars Hill had to refund to some donors some funds and had to admit that money was not being used for global missions, but being used in the Seattle-based church,’ said Smith.
Driscoll also faces charges from 21 former Mars Hill Church pastors about his character and leadership style. The accusations are concerning violations of I Timothy 3, Titus 1 and I Peter 5 and Driscoll is accused of: 1. Not being self-controlled and disciplined. 2. Being domineering. 3. Being verbally violent. 4. Being arrogant. 5. Being quick-tempered.
Asked to step down
More recently, nine other existing elders have also written asking Driscoll to step down from ministry because of on-going concerns about him. At least three of them are no longer in office.
In early August 2014, Acts 29, the church-planting network Driscoll co-founded, issued a statement announcing the removal of Driscoll and Mars Hill Church from its membership. Part of the statement says: ‘It is our conviction that the nature of the accusations against Mark, most of which have been confirmed by him, make it untenable and unhelpful to keep Mark and Mars Hill in our network. In taking this action, our prayer is that it will encourage the leadership of Mars Hill to respond in a distinctive and godly manner so that the name of Christ will not continue to be dishonoured’.
Very sorry
In his address, Driscoll explained that his decision to step aside would allow for a review of circumstances: ‘I want to say to my Mars Hill family, past and present, I’m very sorry. I genuinely mean it. I’m very sorry for the times I’ve been angry, short or insensitive. I’m very sorry for anything I’ve done to distract from our mission by inviting criticism, controversy or negative media attention’.
