Mars Hill church to disband following resignation of lead pastor

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/01/mars-hill-church-disband-resignation-lead-pastor

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Two weeks after its controversial pastor resigned abruptly, the Seattle megachurch he founded has announced it will disband.

Mars Hill church announced on its website on Friday that it would dissolve its network of churches and allow them to become “autonomous self-governed entities”, in the wake of pastor Mark Driscoll’s resignation last month.

“This means that each of our locations has an opportunity to become a new church, rooted in the best of what Mars Hill has been in the past, and independently led and run by its own local elder teams,” Pastor Dave Bruskas wrote on the church’s website.

The megachurch’s controversial founder resigned as elder and lead pastor on 14 October, following an investigation into formal charges brought against him amid accusations that he bullied members and lied.

Driscoll took a leave of absence in August so church leaders could investigate whether he was fit to lead. The church said it found Driscoll had a domineering style with a quick temper and harsh speech, but it noted he was never charged with immorality or heresy.

On Friday, Bruskas said on the church’s website that central Mars Hill staff would be compensated for their work and then let go, and that church properties would be sold off or individual property loans would be taken over by independent branches.

The church currently has multiple branches in Washington, and one location each in Oregon, California and New Mexico. Last month, it closed its Phoenix location. Local leaders and pastors will decide whether to become independent, merge with an existing church or disband.

“Mars Hill church has never been about a building or even an organisation,” Bruskas wrote. “Mars Hill is a people on mission with Jesus, and that singular focus continues as these newly independent churches are launched.”

Described by some as an “evangelical bad boy”, Driscoll founded the now-14,000-member church in 1996. The pastor gives sermons the way some explain neurology in Ted Talks, and he is credited with bringing evangelicalism into the digital age.

Despite the church’s sophisticated online presence, some of Driscoll’s theological views have been cited as opposing modern sensibilities. Complementarianism, one of the church’s teachings, reasons that men and women were created by God equal in dignity, but that the sexes have specific and distinct roles to play. Men, for instance, are expected to lead the household – and their wives.

Controversy began to coalesce around Driscoll in 2007, when he attempted to reduce the power of church elders through the congregation’s bylaws, according to the New York Times. Later, the nine church elders who asked Driscoll to step down resigned or were fired, Driscoll’s books were pulled from the 186 stores of the LifeWay Christian Resources retailer, and petitions called for an investigation into financial mismanagement.

Jessica Glenza contributed reporting.