Member - Downtown Seattle 2002-14

Gender

Male

Which describes your role at Mars Hill?

Member

What Mars Hill location(s) did you attend?

Downtown Seattle

What years were you involved / attending?

2002, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

How did you first hear about Mars Hill?

Sister was going to the Ballard church which was at the time, the only location

What was the circumstance of your first time attending Mars HIll?

Heard that it had solid teaching

What were your first impressions?

Solid teaching based on the Word. Sermons were rich and unfiltered. No candy coating.
Worship was more band-ish. A bit too showy and thus hard to enter into worship.

Why was Mars Hill your church home?

It’s where I felt home was.

What about your time at Mars Hill has had a positive impact on you?

Challenged and encouraged spiritually on sundays and in community.

What about your time at Mars Hill has had a negative impact on you?

Getting involved in community was always difficult. Assimilation was one of MH's weakest areas I felt. Poor follow through. I spent a lot of time trying to get plugged in....MUCH longer than in comparison to other churches of similar size.

What would you like to have changed about Mars Hill?

Reduce the negative items listed above

Which describes you?

I stayed at Mars Hill through closure.

Please describe why you stayed at Mars Hill and what that experience was like.

Because it was my church. I don't abandon my family even if it goes through tough times. While Mark played a central, leading role,the church was still bigger than him. So it was really sad that the church as a body with its leadership (even with Mark ousted) failed its congregation. The leadership bailed. And what was left decided to close MH..rather than be transparent and continue to press onward.

How would you describe the reason for Mars Hill's closure to an outsider.

Mark ultimately failed to lead as God has called us to lead. He let pride and arrogance take the best of him. The manner of which he was ousted was wrong as was the manner (and extent) of which the public and worst of all, Christians judged him, was the worst and saddest part of it all. While we all know that sin is sin, the gravity in which he was judged was inappropriate.

What's changed for you since your time at Mars Hill came to an end?

It’s been an incredibly difficult year looking for a new church home and church body. While I take responsibility for where I am, I do recognize that there was collateral damage from Mark, the board, disgruntled former leaders and leadership team that subsequently decided to shut down MH.

Please write anything else you'd like to add.

The manner in which the church was shut down was the worst part of it all. The leadership was too wrapped up in public opinion and disregarded the congregation itself.

The investigation was never completed. THIS WAS AND IS STILL A PROBLEM!!!! And what’s worst is that the church no longer exists so the leadership removed the avenue for the people (as a church body) to get closure and healing from hearing the resolution of the investigation and subsequently, healing as a body.

Furthermore, this has prevented the possibility for Mark to go back to the church to seek genuine forgiveness and reconciliation....because the church does not exist....there is no effective, appropriate means for him to do so.

This could have been best accomplished by having independent MH churches with the backbone/support structure of MH Church as a large body of smaller MH churches.

That’s what I honestly expected to happen...churches would become independent but yet interdependent. When I got the email that MH was dissolving, I was shocked and numb.