Church Elders Sack Pastor For “Persistent Sinful Behaviour” on October 20th, 2014 The leadership of Mars Hill Church aired a portion of its dirty laundry on Sunday, telling churchgoers an investigation revealed “patterns of persistent sinful behavior” by Senior Pastor Mark Driscoll, who was accused of bullying and intimidating behavior in a complaint by 21 former church elders. The explanation by Mars Hills’ Board of Elders left open key questions surrounding the fall of the co-founder of a church that grew to 15 “campuses”, and saw its senior pastor as guest on “The View” profiled in the New York Times Magazine.A statement told the Mars Hill faithful that Driscoll quit rather than submit to a plan that would have eventually restored him to leadership of the troubled mega-church. “The statement does not address the reasons Driscoll was asked to step away from the pulpit: Did the Board of Elders report disqualify him or not?” asked Warren Throckmorton, a Pennsylvania professor who has tracked Mars Hill inner turmoil for the Patheos website. “Having a restoration plan certainly sounds like disqualification. From what would Driscoll need to be restored, if not disqualification? Since the congregation is footing the bill for the severance, shouldn’t they find out what is happening?” The Board of Elders has not made public its report on allegations by the 21 ex-elders. Nor has it said what — if anything — it did to address a call for reform and transparency made by nine pastors within the church. All nine were fired or laid off as Mars Mill was forced to make deep staff cuts. What church members were given was this: “The investigation of formal charges against Mark Driscoll has revealed patterns of persistent sin in three areas disclosed in the previous letter by the Board of Overseers. In 1 Tim 5:20 it requires that an elder be rebuked for persistent sin. “Our intention was to do this while providing for his eventual restoration to leadership. The Board of Elders in agreement with the Board of Overseers are grieved, deeply grieved, that any process like that was lost to us when Mark Driscoll resigned and left the church.” The letter says it is time to “move on” and, in a classic understatement, said that Sunday “begins a new chapter in the history of our church which has proceeded in one direction under one leadership for many years now.” (Driscoll assumed a dominant role when he reorganized church leadership in 2007.) The elders delivered a modified, limited mea culpa.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 06:56:27 +0000
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