Member - Portland 2012-14

Gender

Female

Which describes your role at Mars Hill?

Member

What Mars Hill location(s) did you attend?

Portland

What years were you involved / attending?

2012, 2013, 2014

How did you first hear about Mars Hill?

Through a friend at another church.

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

We were in Seattle visiting friends and decided to visit.

What were your first impressions?

Pretty fun, liked that children's community was so secure and enjoyed hearing Bill Clement speak.

Why was Mars Hill your church home?

We liked the people and felt cared for by our first community groups.

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

We've learned to trust people more cautiously and God more wildly.

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

After three and a half years (we continued for a while after it was changed to a local church) we realized that we had no lasting friendships. That as much as people said they cared about us there was no interest in us or interaction outside of church. We also realized that the staff had always, to some extent, unconsciously or consciously, seen members and attendees as potential enemies, rather than as family.

What would you like to have changed about Mars Hill?

More trust in God, less self-protection, and more vision of the whole church as a team.

Which describes you?

I stayed at Mars Hill through closure.

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

We saw that people we cared about were struggling and we felt that God wanted us to stay to support and love them.

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

The leadership was full of distrust and self-protection. They self-protected themselves to the destruction of the church.

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

I believe that older generations are vital to the well-being of the church. That we are not called to protect ourselves but to follow Christ. We will be safe for eternity, now we are called to radical faith in Christ.

Please write anything else you'd like to add.

Before we left the church that continued post-Mars Hill we realized that, for years, we had heard about how to be a Christian more than about who Christ is
More about moral living according to the Bible than about the God who gave it to us. The teaching and moralistic focus was slowly crushing our joy. We wanted to stay, but in leaving we found more delight and peace than we had while we were there.