Since June, Christianity Today has been releasing episodes of a journalistic/investigative podcast series titled “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” The podcast digs into the once-popular megachurch Mars Hill Church that was co-founded by Mark Driscoll.
Mars Hill Church History
Located in Seattle, Washington, Mars Hill Church was founded in 1996. It grew from an in-home Bible study into a multi-site church boasting over 12 locations and averaging a weekly attendance of 12,000 people. It is estimated that over 6,000 of attendees were members.
Driscoll made headlines a lot throughout his tenure as Mars Hill Church’s senior pastor. It wasn’t uncommon for the once self-proclaimed “angry young prophet” to scream at his congregants or drop a curse word during his preaching, but in early 2014 he made headlines when he was accused of untruthfully marketing his 2011 book Real Marriage in order to gain widespread popularity and bestseller status.
The marketing company, Result Source, that Driscoll hired in order to assure his book would make it onto the New York Times Bestseller list was paid $210,000 by Mars Hill Church. A statement released by the church’s board at the time said, “While not uncommon or illegal, this unwise strategy is not one we had used before or since, and not one we will use again. The true cost of this endeavor was much less than what has been reported, and to be clear, all of the books purchased through this campaign have been given away or sold through normal channels.”
Around the same time, Driscoll was also accused by a former Mars Hill Church elder of lacking self-control and discipline. The words used to describe Driscoll were “domineering, verbally violent, arrogant” and “quick-tempered.”
The a board conducted a review of the accusations and determined they were “non-disqualifying.”
Related article: Former Mars Hill Elders Plead For Mark Driscoll to Resign Immediately
A few months later, Driscoll was removed from Acts 29, the church planting network he founded. The network cited, “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.”
LifeWay also announced in August 2014 that it was pulling Driscoll’s books off their shelves due to the multiple allegations against him.
A couple of weeks later, Driscoll announced he was taking a leave of absence for six weeks as a review took place concerning all the accusations of bullying by 21 former elders. “I’m very sorry for the times I’ve been angry, short or insensitive,” Driscoll said. “I’m very sorry for anything I’ve done to distract from our mission by inviting criticism, controversy or negative media attention.”
The board”s review of Driscoll determined that he was guilty of “arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner,” but found nothing that disqualified him from ministry.
On October 14, 2014, in a shock move, Driscoll announced his resignation from the church and stated in a letter to the elder board, “By God’s grace I have pastored Mars Hill Church for 18 years. Today, also by God’s grace, and with the full support of my wife Grace, I resign my position as a pastor and elder of Mars Hill. I do so with profound sadness, but also with complete peace.” Driscoll cited that the recent months were unhealthy for his family and even physically unsafe at times, therefore they felt it was time for Mars Hill Church to appoint new pastoral leadership.
Less than three months later Mars Hill Church was gone. Most of the locations became independent, while others dissolved. All of Driscoll’s sermons were transferred to him and can be found on his site Real Faith.
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast
The Christianity Today podcast series includes nine episodes, all but one close to an hour in length. Host Mike Cosper digs into “Who Killed Mars Hill,” “The Things We Do To Women,” “The Brand,” and other things regarding the history of Mars Hill Church.
The written lead-in for the series reads: “Founded in 1996, Seattle’s Mars Hill Church was poised to be an influential, undeniable force in evangelicalism—that is until its spiraling collapse in 2014. The church and its charismatic founder, Mark Driscoll, had a promising start. But the perils of power, conflict, and Christian celebrity eroded and eventually shipwrecked both the preacher and his multimillion-dollar platform.”
The talented Cosper invites guests like Jessica Johnson, who is the scholar in religious studies at the College of William & Mary; Ed Stetzer,who is the professor and dean at Wheaton College, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center and editor-in-chief of Outreach Magazine; and many others, including former Mars Hill Church staff members to lend their voices and experiences regarding Mars Hill Church.
Related article: Costi Hinn Weighs In on Mark Driscoll: ‘The Drug of Power Is Addicting’
Cosper even does a bonus episode with Christian deconstructionist Joshua Harris titled “I Kissed Christianity Goodbye.” The episode dives into Harris’ story as someone who rose to fame in the culture of the church around the same time.
Mars Hill Church’s Former Communication Director
Justin Dean served as the Mars Hill Church’s communications director from 2011 until it disbanded. Dean is the creator of That Church Conference and SundayU, a company that creates tools and resources to assist churches.
Dean recently shared on his social media accounts that he had turned down an invite by Cosper to be a guest on the “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast series.
The former Mars Hill Church staffer also shared the letter he sent to Cosper declining to be part of the podcast. Dean said after catching up on all the episodes, that although they are very well produced, he found “the narrative is not very truthful, or helpful” and said he doesn’t want to be a part of it. Read Dean’s entire letter here.
“The podcast perpetuates the idea that complementarianism on its own is abusive,” Dean continued on Twitter. “So everything we did at Mars Hill was therefore ripe for abuse, and it doesn’t matter if any good came from it,” Dean wrote. “That’s not accurate or fair and leaves no room for grace. The show is littered with many false assumptions but they don’t present anyone who explains the other side of things. They’re just presented as fact with no cross-examination. Every guest so far is progressive and hateful.”
In Dean’s letter, he said he appreciated Cosper’s look back on Mars Hill Church because it is good to reflect on what happened and learn from what could have done better.
“The focus of the show so far seems to be asserting that Mars Hill was abusive, when that just isn’t the case,” Dean wrote. Speaking about the podcast, he said, “There has been little to no focus at all on the good that was done, and nothing positive so far.”
Dean said he feels like the podcast focuses solely on Mark Driscoll’s mistakes, and that although Dean was witness to many of Driscoll’s faults, he is concerned the podcast’s popularity could “spark even more shows that promote the failings of other churches.”
Adding that he is certain Cosper’s intentions are good, Dean questioned, “How does this show fit in with Christianity Today’s mission to‘strengthen the church by richly communicating the breadth of the true, good, and beautiful gospel?’ ”
Related article: New Church, Similar Stories: Is Mark Driscoll an Abusive Leader?
Dean shared his thoughts with Cosper regarding episode seven, “State of Emergency.” He said, “So far, the majority of the people you’ve interviewed are feminists, or progressive Christians, or people who don’t even consider themselves Christians at all. One of the major themes seems to be that complementarianism in itself is abusive, which is far from reality. The show criticizes a lot of different issues, but nobody is providing ‘the other side’ explaining why we did what we did. It seems the thought is that it wouldn’t matter.”
“I just don’t know how my story and perspective can possibly fit in with the narrative you’ve developed,” Dean continued. He also said he was skeptical about being well-represented as a podcast guest. “I’m afraid I don’t trust that I’d be represented well even if you were interested in having ‘the other side’ told.”
The former communications director and spokesperson for Mars Hill Church said he hopes to share his perspective soon, but believes it is better suited to do so on his own blog or podcast. Dean said, “Your episodes so far have been littered with misinformation and half-truths and assertions that go unchecked. It’s enough to warrant an episode-by-episode response if I ever find the time.”
Justin Dean Explains Misinformation He’s Hearing
A conversation that stemmed from Dean’s Twitter post involved a commenter calling the Twitter thread “gross” and said Dean proved Driscoll’s toxic influence he had on his staff. “Not speaking against what Driscoll did is an abdication of your responsibility and complicity in it,” the commenter said. Dean responded by asking what Driscoll did. “So far, all I’ve heard people say is that he yelled at people and was arrogant. And that he did some sermons and wrote a book that talked about sex. And that our complementarian and reformed views are abusive because they don’t treat women equally in their view.”
Dean’s commenter replied, “What did he do? You’ve got to be kidding me. Let’s start with abuse of his power, intimidation, egomania. Now let’s go into using church funds to get his book to a bestseller, which is full of misogyny, also encouraging women to get their husbands to church through oral sex.”
Concerning the abuse of church funds used for Driscoll’s Real Marriage book, Dean said, “It cost [Mars Hill Church] exactly $10,000 to get on the bestseller list. Way cheaper than any other book marketing campaign. In the end, we recouped that as well and profited greatly from it. Mark didn’t. The church did. So no, it wasn’t an abuse of church funds.”
Cosper chimed in, posting an image of Result Source’s invoice and calling Dean’s comment dishonest. “This is profoundly dishonest,” Cosper wrote. “The base fee for the Result Source contract was at least $25K, but also required guaranteed purchases with church funds of more than $200K worth of books.” Cosper explained the tactics, “Those books could have been bought at a significant direct-from-publisher bulk price, but were bought at full retail prices from outlets that would count towards the NY Times bestseller list. You could say that the costs were recouped from sales or repaid, as some have claimed, but your framing is wildly inaccurate.”
Dean responded: “We bought $200k worth of books (10,000 at $20 each) plus the Results Source fee. Then we sold 10,000 books on our website for $25 each (they were signed). That alone cancelled out the cost. Then we ordered more and sold them in our bookstores at 15 campuses.” Dean also shared that the books Mars Hill Church bought for its bookstores were purchased at the publisher’s discount.
“I think Cosper is a good guy and trying to do something helpful,” Dean wrote on Twitter. “I just think we have different views on what is helpful and apparently different theological views as well.”
Dean Isn’t Hiding Driscoll’s Past
It seems Dean isn’t concerned with covering up Driscoll’s past failing but is concerned about how the history of Mars Hill Church is portrayed and dissected during his tenure there.
A Twitter follower queried Dean: “Correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t Pastor Mark admit his sin, ask for forgiveness (from both the congregation and God), and seek wise counsel. Seems to me he followed the proper restoration process.”
“For a lot of things, yes,” Dean replied. Not dismissing what has been reported about Driscoll’s continued arrogant actions, he said, “Has he fully turned around and stopped a pattern of arrogance and control and pride? Doesn’t seem so, but I’m not in his circle these days.”