tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43586497695672664362024-03-13T08:35:05.456-07:00U N R E F O R M E DViews on Faith and Christian CultureUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-79563911090220826152014-10-08T10:08:00.016-07:002020-10-26T17:12:41.414-07:00Shine a Light Into Darkness<br />
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It seems like a fair amount of my blogging these days is reacting to the SOLID journalism work that Warren Throckmorton is doing over at <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/10/01/mars-hill-global-fund-help-the-helpless-or-use-the-helpless/">Patheos</a> but I want to maybe say things in a more aggressive tone than Warren may be comfortable with.... Warren is a journalist looking to report on a story on and dig for truth with the ongoing controversy at Mars Hill.... I am the MSNBC or Fox News to Warren's Nightline.... I am more about opinions... Since I don't have the resources, time or reach to gain access to people and documents that he does, I'll make do calling it like I see it, no filters, no whitewashing, no regrets.<br />
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The issues surrounding Mars Hill's behavior relating to the Global Fund are, to me, some of the darkest and most telling on record.<br />
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Last week that record grew stronger and darker all in one fail swoop.<br />
Check the Patheos link above to read the memo.<br />
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I have long contended that the Global Fund was nothing more than dishonest and clever marketing by Mars Hill using the cause of abject poverty and starving Ethiopian children as a stepping stone to gaining access to the pocketbooks of people all over the world who consumed Mars Hill's online sermon library, blog posts and Resurgence leadership videos.<br />
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What is more is they wanted to get an extra 5% or 10% more from their rank and file members by portraying the Global Fund as a special mission to help spread love and support to poor, starving orphans and widows in 3rd world economies.<br />
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To execute the plan, they sent Sutton Turner down to Ethiopia. It would appear in the videos they shot and aired as though they sent Sutton down to operate as an executive who would embed himself in the communities and could quarterback long term support networks and supply lines for the hurting and starving people in Ethiopia. But the trip was really about capturing good video, sound and photo ad copy that could be used in an aggressive marketing campaign. With the goal being extra money from members and more giving from online web lurkers.<br />
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To me, this is about a rich church in a rich nation with an ultra rich leader, leveraging starving children to get richer.<br />
<br />It is exploitation of the disenfranchised, the the starving, the poor, for your own personal gain. Morally bankrupt for anyone let alone Christians. <br />
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There are many issues of morality for which viewpoints differ from culture to culture. Repression based on gender or sexual orientation are a couple that have cultural context, but writ large, everyone on earth agrees that the exploitation of the poor and suffering is wrong if not evil.<br />
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What is even worse is that it was a church flying the flag of Jesus Christ engaged in exploitation of the poor.<br />
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My critique of Mars Hill on the Global fund has, up until this point, been a hunch or opinion since there was no smoking gun. They could still hide behind their veils of secrecy and deny access to financial records showing just much money was generated and how it was spent.<br />
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And while we still don't know the numbers, the contents of the memo detail in no uncertain terms what their motive was.<br />
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It has become clear that the lion's share of aid provided to Ethiopia was a box of Bibles in Ethiopian native tongues, but questions still surround the other 2.99 million of the 3 million they claim to have raised (although I have heard people quote figures as high as 8 million before.<div>
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Understand that the trip to fly Sutton down with cameras and all the resources he needed to get all the marketing material and copy, likely cost more than the actual box of bibles that ultimately made their way to Ethiopia.<br />
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Good God Man! How do you justify that?<br />
<br />Early on in the memo is states that of all the money that comes in, a certain percentage will go to highly marketable (ETHIOPIA) missions for things like orphans and widows but that this percentage should be "Flexible" and "Not communicated to the public"... so if they decide early on that 5% of the money generated will go to Ethiopian missions, but opt to lower that figure to 1% or .05% they can do that without an ounce of back lash.<br />
<br />At the end of the memo Mars Hill's true color shine bright in the "Benefits" section. Benefits does not refer to what benefits the global fund will be able to provide to hurting communities, or how many basket of fish and bread the Global fund will be able to hand out around the world, No!<br />
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Benefits means; How will setting up a web site and marketing strategy portraying Mars Hill Global Fund as being involved in world missions with all these photos of poor people in Ethiopia <b>help Mars Hill</b>!?</div><div><br />
And one brilliant angle that the Mars Hill men saw, was that once they had their fake "pet issues" set up, it would be easier to say "NO" to requests from real outreaches and missions... "Sorry, we can't get involved in Children with AIDS in Africa... we've already got too many resources tied up in our support of Ethiopia."<br />
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You see this isn't about helping others. Just like it's not 'ALL ABOUT JESUS', and it has nothing to do with the GOSPELS.... It's about money and growing an online network so you can get money from all those people you can't get a face to face with... It about getting access to an endless ocean of cash that is out there online. If Sutton hugging starving kids in Ethiopia will be our meal ticket then lets get rolling!<br />
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The Great Commission has been twisted into something that resembles cancer.<br />
Gain access to more money to finance network growth to Gain access to more money to finance network growth to Gain access to more money to finance network growth to Gain access to more money to finance network growth.<br />
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AKA Church Planting, Outreach, Missions, or Movements.<br />
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It is a perfect illustration of why Western Church is so broken beyond hope. The cancerous growth of arbitrary non-denominational churches has permeated our culture for decades now... These non-denominational churches, like Mars Hill, sell the invisible Pie in the Sky on Sunday to 100 or 10,000 followers without an ounce of accountability or regulation.<br />
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It really is the Christian Wild West.<br />
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We've gotten used to churches wanting to plant churches, wanting to grow above all else, wanting to do outreach from one suburban middle class communities into another suburban middle class community rather than reaching into places that really appear to need it. We've gotten used to a Church in Suburb A wanting to reach the people of Suburb B and then Suburb C and Suburb D and calling them all campuses beholden to Suburb A and calling that 'Outreach' or 'Missions' or 'Church Planting'.<br />
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Call it what it is.... Conquest!<br />
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And Mars Hill may be under the microscope right now, but they are by no means the only Church who operates this way. I'd argue that many a small time Pastor are envious of Driscoll and his empire and would jump at the chance to ascend Mark Driscoll's role. There are hundreds of churches that operate in the same way, with a charismatic preacher with unfettered power and a cult of personality surrounding them, with a top down hiearchy and demands for submission and discipline and arbitrary membership and are focused on growth and more growth.<br />
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It's called Empire Building!<br />
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<b><u>What needs to happen is Mars Hill's non-profit status needs to be challenged.</u></b>... <b><u>And someone who put down some serious cash on the Global fund needs to think about charges of fraud.</u></b>... If there are any Christians out there who really care about the sanctity of scripture and God's name and the power of the Gospel, then these challenges to the modern system need to be made.<br />
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Mars Hill was premeditated in their scheme to portray themselves as Global missionaries with the sole purpose of enriching themselves.... I find it hard to believe the same "drive" isn't festering in hundreds of churches all over America today. And it is part of why I can't offer a heroes welcome to every leader who walks out of Mars Hill now.... because for years you were privy to Memos like this one and were complacent because you were willing to compromise the moral underpinnings of the Gospel and saw something that is supposed to be spiritual, Church, as very objective in value.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-32491377062977475082014-09-11T09:07:00.006-07:002020-10-26T17:19:58.670-07:00Housekeeping - Giving Credit Where It Is Due<br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">First I want to tip my hat to Dustin Kensrue, former Mars Hill Worship leader, for stepping up and walking out.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dustin penned <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/08/28/nine-current-mars-hill-church-elders-take-a-bold-stand/"> a letter </a>signed by nine elders last week that demanded that Mark Driscoll step down. Not for a prescribed period of time, but according to a restoration plan developed by the elders. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was a ruthless shot to Driscoll on the heels of Mark’s victorious standing ovation that Sunday. Dustin sucked the air out of the victory by siting Dr. Paul Tripps words on Driscoll and Mars Hill. In Tripps own words, Mars Hill is the most toxic, fear mongering, dysfunctional church culture he has ever experienced.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dustin’s letter also pulled back the curtain on discussions internally with Michael Van Skaik and his refusal to investigate the charges brought by Dave Kraft. In Dustin’s letter he describes Van Skaik as unwilling to come clean until backed into a corner by multiple elders at the elder retreat. When cornered Van Skaik finally admitted that a formal investigation was never opened.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I’ve taken shots at Kensrue before for allowing himself to be seduced by Driscoll and subsequently abandoning his friend Nick Bogardus at the Mars Hill OC Church. Dustin’s departure was a “raiding of the cupboard” by Driscoll, who stole the single strongest asset Bogardus had in OC… Bogardus had brought the former Thrice front man on as Mars Hill OC worship leader because of an established long term friendship that predated any involvement in Mars Hill. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Driscoll saw what an asset Kensrue was with a cult following and seduced him up to Seattle to be the opening act for Mark himself. Mark’s raiding of OC’s fresh talent left the OC Church hobbled. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bogardus lost his job shortly after Kensrue’s departure. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But last week Kensrue put his money where his mouth is and when Driscoll and the executive elders did not appear to be budging on his demands, submitted his resignation. He subsequently released a scathing indictment of the Mars Hill executive elders that Warren Throckmorton published.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Make no mistake…. A pit viper blogger like me, with my crude ;) tactics doesn’t carry very much weight with current Martians. But a well liked elder of Dustin’s stature… when he joins the chorus of critics... well the congregants take notice. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So hat tip to Kensrue…. It is a brave thing to step out in faith and let your convictions and integrity trump financial well being. I hope that he and Shadley and their kids are ok and that they find support locally to keep their family above water.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mark Driscoll and the executive elders could learn a thing or two from Dustin’s courage and commitment to truth.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I also want to give a hat tip to the Community Group leader (who’s name I have never divulged) who was a sort of catalyst for this blog. To read about that experience you’ll have to read <a href="http://twocleareyes.blogspot.com/2012/01/mars-hill-altar-of-doctrine-and-occult.html">this post</a> and<a href="http://twocleareyes.blogspot.com/2014/07/re-generation-my-story-inside-cult-of.html"> this post</a>. But he recently reached out to me to apologize for his behavior. I respect that.</span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So between Kyle and he apologizing, there is a certain feeling of closure with that whole experience. I want to thank that CG leader for doing that and want to thank Dustin for taking up the cause of righteousness. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The reason we left, and the reason we spoke out and continued to speak out against Driscoll wasn’t because local community group leaders or pastors were reckless and foolish… Those were just symptoms of a larger problem. It was because we saw a twisted sort of theology that actualized itself in a perverse hierarchical church structure. A power structure flowing from the top down that emphasized submission and subordination, oppressed women and was designed to enrich, empower and elevate one man…. Mark Driscoll. </span><br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-16059025779100436792014-07-21T11:48:00.001-07:002022-12-13T21:18:37.838-08:00Driscoll Finally Speaks to Issues.... The Easy Ones.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mars Hill Church and Mark Driscoll have released a video on their <a href="http://marshill.com/2014/07/21/the-weekly-7-21-14"><b style="background-color: white;">website</b></a> in which Mark Driscoll attempts to address and or contain the multiple fires that are burning his church down. The video is extraordinarily long and on first glance I was hopeful that because of the length of the video that Driscoll was going to get his hands dirty and speak substantively to the issues at hand.<br />
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I understand that it was an optimistic view to take given his track record over the last few years but maybe... I thought... he has realized that this is wrong... enough is enough. Maybe he realizes you can't be a God honoring human and run a church this way or act like this.<br />
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Sadly the video does little to set straight anything. Mark speaks to a few issues like the team of leaders led by Dave Kraft and Kyle Firstenberg who brought charges against Driscoll. He also mentions the order to preserve documents issued by a lawyer representing a team of former employees. But he does little to provide details beyond broad sweeping generalities. Mark is expecting that everyone just trust that he knows best and that he has this under control.<br />
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What about suddenly seeking to delete 10 years worth of church records and communications?<br />
What about falsely advertising the MH Global Fund as an Ethiopian mission when it was used to grow domestic campuses?<br />
What about directly addressing the theft of $210,000 of church money for personal use?<br />
What about those 30 some odd pastors and their charges?<br />
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Driscoll does not address either of the financial impropriety issues that have been brought to light in recent months. I know that he addressed the Result Source Media issue in his letter... but only that he did not identify soon enough that the "campaign" was not God honoring.... He has never addressed the fact that he and Sutton Turner unilaterally funded that campaign with $210,000 in church tithes. Amazing how he can scoop up a quarter million dollars in church money and there is literally no blow black.... no one can hold him accountable unless Turner and Bruskas choose to.... and we all know why Turner and Bruskas were selected for their jobs.... because they never say no.<br />
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One of the most troubling things about this last season to me, has been Driscoll's refusal to take any of the issues that his church is facing, head on. and his failure as a leader to address his followers face to face.<br />
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He has resorted to writing letters released on social networks and video recordings where he is able to control the environment around him. The closest we could argue he has come to addressing the issue with his congregation was his now infamous 6 minute diatribe about Jesus making mistakes.... but even then he isn't speaking directly to the issue and only breaches the subject once he has established his kinship with Jesus.... Jesus made mistakes.... so I am allowed to to.<br />
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Just in case anyone is confused.... That isn't a contrite heart.<br />
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But is this how a leader acts?..... Hiding away, unwilling to face the very people that allow you to live like a king? the people who fund your $900,000.00 a year salary and the people who, unbeknownst to them, gave you a quarter million dollars to assure that your book landed on the NYT Best Sellers list.<br />
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Are you afraid to look them in the eye? Are you afraid of the questions they may ask? Or are you so far gone that you see yourself as their KING and they are your subjects and you are free to sequester yourself away in personal luxury while they struggle to make sense.... as long as they continue to pay their tribute.<br />
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The worst monarchs in history locked themselves away in their castles while their subjects fought to survive... But true kings, real leaders inspire their followers by being in their midst... fighting their struggle with them.<br />
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I sound surprised but am not... Mars Hill was set up as a heirarchy for this very reason.... so that accountability only flowed one way.... and no matter how many thousands of members and parishioners are infuriated by Driscoll's actions, no one can displace him.<br />
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No one.<br />
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Sutton Turner was hired by Mars Hill right ahead of all these improper financial decisions. Sutton Turner certainly appears to have been hired because he has no problem making these questionable financial decisions. Hell, he spearheaded the falsely advertised Ethiopian 'Global Fund' initiative. And Turner unilaterally deciding to support Mark's "Book writing" ministry with a quarter million dollars to fund a book buying scheme isn't just poor judgement... It's stealing from parishioners.<br />
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And these are just two things that have made it to light.... I can only imagine what he has done in the shadows where no one can see.... Transferred titles into Driscoll's name? Set up trusts so that Driscoll receives all the bounty should Mars Hill ever be liquidated?<br />
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It really is a fascinating thing.... You start preaching... you tell everyone it is their church.... by the Bible's own guideline the church is universal... so the parishioners show up and give their time, treasure and talent to the cause because they believe in the cause. But what is the cause? MORE! Driscoll, uses your money to build more churches for more followers and more money to build more churches for more followers an slowly builds an empire without risking a dollar of his own money. And by simply preaching every Sunday has amassed a fortune in real estate.... Where does it all go if they close the doors?<br />
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It's not HIS money and it's not HIS church.... But he is the President... and he can't be displaced. He talks about accountability but thus far Dave Kraft's charges were salient, laser sharp charges... There was no confusion about it. There is no possible way anyone could argue that they weren't true.<br />
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But the board of accountability did.... Unanimously..... so it may be that it really is HIS church and it really is HIS fortune.<br />
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Fact is that Driscoll's video message is no different than the letter he wrote earlier this year. And I do not doubt that his truest believers will buy it.... but for those of us for whom the spell was broken.... we see that it is an elegantly crafted manipulation. Worded to somehow satisfy without saying much of anything.<br />
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Driscoll never even mentions the fact that Warren Throckmorton has exposed them for funneling millions of dollars into the general fund so they could launch a church in Phoenix or Spokane that was presented to parishioners and online supporters as being a "Global Fund" to directly support missions in poverty stricken Ethiopia. He ignores this issue completely.<br />
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THINK ABOUT HOW WICKED THAT IS!<br />
DEVELOP AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN..... SO GIVERS THINK WE'RE GOING TO SUPPORT ETHIOPIAN CHURCH'S:<br />
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SEND SUTTON DOWN THERE SO THIS THING LOOKS LEGIT.<br />
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PEOPLE WILL THINK WE ARE TRYING TO HELP STARVING KIDS.... </div>
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BUT WE'LL ACTUALLY USE THE MONEY TO LAUNCH MORE CHURCHES....<br />
MORE CHURCHES = MORE MONEY = <span style="font-size: large;">MORE CHURCHES</span> = <span style="font-size: large;">MORE MONEY</span> = <span style="font-size: x-large;">MORE CHURCHES = MORE MONEY!</span><br />
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The Global fund took in millions of dollars... MILLIONS!<br />
What did they give back to Ethiopia in return for this generous outpouring of support?<br />
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As best I can tell a couple boxes of Bibles.<br />
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So people give $10 million dollars to help spread hope and love through Jesus in a place where people are dying of starvation and aids daily... by the THOUSANDS!<br />
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THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN ETHIOPIA ARE DYING EVERY DAY OF STARVATION....<br />
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Mars Hill church uses its online presence and a Turner trip to Ethiopia to gather millions of dollars unto itself.... what does it do? Launch a new campus in Phoenix.... launch a new campus in Spokane, launch a new campus in Dallas.<br />
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How many churches do you think there are in Phoenix? Spokane? Dallas? Does each town have 50? 100?<br />
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I know that neither Mars Hill nor 10 Million dollars are going to solve the problems facing Ethiopia.... but how horrible is it to pretend to be trying to help so that you can soak a little extra cash from your followers?<br />
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It's despicable.<br />
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And what is really scary is that when you listen to the message... what has Driscoll learned from all this? Lamenting.... he's learned lamenting. He has been reading lamentations. And he's learned to have greater empathy for men (but he mentions this need to have greater empathy for men after reiterating twice that he normally has greater empathy for women and children.<br />
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So it almost sounds like Driscoll views these men who's feelings are hurt as..... overly sensitive.... I am a leader of men.... but usually serve women and children.... but apparently have not been as empathetic as I should would men.<br />
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Take away? There are some men in Mars Hill who are needy.<br />
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The video is a PR attempt... I am curious now that Mars Hill members are sharpening to his tactics, if this video will satiate or if they will see it for what it is.....What is very worrisome to me is that Driscoll frames this season that he is in as a sort of second 2006/07 when he made "substantive organization changes".<br />
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It is shocking because it means Driscoll only views the problems facing Mars Hill as incidental and things that they will soon be clear of.<br />
<br />
You see this isn't a root problem, a core problem, a structural deficiency in Mars Hill ecclesia, it's not a deep heart problem... This is just a cyclical pattern... We make changes, people get upset, I grow, some people leave a lot more come....<br />
<br />
Nothing to worry about.<br />
<br />
Mars Hill is unhealthy... It is a toxic environment for workers and if you want to view the church as a body it is sick right now.... But Driscoll, despite being in a period of upheaval and controversy and mistrust and an exodus of leadership has got plans to grow this thing! Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles.... Hell Yeah! You would think, circling the wagons, lamenting (couldn't help it) on the problems and finding lasting solutions would be the way to go.... But the goal has always been growth... More buildings = more followers = more money = more buildings = more followers = more money. Who gives a shit if the church is a mess? Mark feels stronger than ever!<br />
<br />
When something grows without consideration for the life forms around it.... without consideration of the damage it is doing.... You get where I am going. Mars Hill is started to resemble cancer.<br />
<br />
It should be crystal clear from Driscoll's response, that after all that has happened, he is not coming off of it. He does not take true ownership of the wrongs... And his first order of business is growth.<br />
<br />
He's going to ride or die, no turning back.<br />
It it his way or get the fuck out!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-9084103073361171792014-06-23T14:26:00.000-07:002022-12-13T21:18:45.390-08:00When Theology Attacks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wvCrqHtUBmE/U6xEcPGU-RI/AAAAAAAAAbM/H1NuRo5x3Yc/s1600/1-Timothy-16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wvCrqHtUBmE/U6xEcPGU-RI/AAAAAAAAAbM/H1NuRo5x3Yc/s1600/1-Timothy-16.jpg" height="257" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
I know quite a few Christians who view theology…. and a person’s subsequent doctrine as being benign. Meaning that beyond spiritual world viewpoint and academic discussion regarding truth claims a person’s doctrinal views do not impact other people in a harmful or negative way.<br />
<br />
That would certainly be nice, but it's not true.<br />
<br />
While the obvious and most socially relevant doctrinal sledgehammers in use today have to do with sexuality, gay marriage and the subsequent dehumanization of gay people, there are other doctrines that are just as insidious and harmful to individuals in ways that Church’s neither want to nor will acknowledge.<br />
<br />
Enter complementarian theology.<br />
<br />
Complementarian theology holds that men and women complement each other through their masculine and feminine roles in marriage, life and family. It contends that men are the headship and women are the submitted followers. Men are priests, kings and heads of their homes... Women are submitted, and follow. Complementarian theology is called so as a way to use semantics to twist truth... They are different but complementary... It leverages this word to establish an irrational, illogical and nonsensical argument that even though men are the leaders, priests, kings etc... of their home and women are to be submitted to their leaders that because they live in "complementary roles... they are equal.<br />
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Neat trick eh?<br />
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I’ve always viewed this argument as nonsense propaganda.<br />
You can use words to craft BS just as easily as you can use words to craft truth... In this case it is the former.<br />
<br />
Because no matter how you want to portray things through written words.... It doesn't look anything like that in real life. Never have I been in a relationship with anyone where I was required to be a follower and was required to submit to their leadership with whom I felt “equal” to. Beyond the loose global writ large humanity context that all humans are equal it is a false principle in practice. In the context of personal relationships, I am not equal to anyone to whom I must submit and follow…. No matter if he or she (oh no!) is a service minded leader or not….<br />
<br />
That is the push back that you will get 99% of the time... "But if a man is leading with a spirit of service then they are equals." Problem is that I have never.... NEVER seen a man live like a humble servant in life when endowed with absolute authority. They will use words that sound like servant leadership... but action is where the principle falls apart.... action is everything.... Words are meaningless.<br />
<br />
Few who take on leadership roles do so with a “Servants spirit” as evidence by the hundreds and thousands of US Pastors who are supposed to serve as Jesus did but end up gathering a church's attention around themselves. Some of our nations most prolific pastors are living examples of just how rare servant leadership is.... They say they "live to serve" they talk about "loving their sheep" but truth is they are the center of attention... they are the single largest benefactor from a given church or organization...<br />
<br />
It would be absurd of Mark Driscoll, or Rick Warren or TD Jakes or Steven Furtick or John Piper to say their church's are more about the sheep than them.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gqc6dpiZtN0/U6xKXRPIEDI/AAAAAAAAAbc/mawuIQiFtbw/s1600/Piper-in-dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gqc6dpiZtN0/U6xKXRPIEDI/AAAAAAAAAbc/mawuIQiFtbw/s1600/Piper-in-dark.jpg" height="260" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standing in the Spotlight</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OmvMgmGXm8M/U6xMeS6e60I/AAAAAAAAAbo/Ul2Vf1NxSJI/s1600/Driscoll-family-1024x368.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OmvMgmGXm8M/U6xMeS6e60I/AAAAAAAAAbo/Ul2Vf1NxSJI/s1600/Driscoll-family-1024x368.jpg" height="228" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Driscoll Has His Own TV Channel.. Mars Hill? Jesus? Nah - Pastor Mark TV</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
These guys sell God and get rich doing it... The servant leader angle is just more propaganda the church has culled up to make the complementarian ideology more digestible despite the fact that it is just a load of horse shit.<br />
<br />
So thousands upon thousands of women are told from a very young age that their role in life is to be humble, listen but don't speak, follow, submit, serve… But here is the catch…. You are equal!<br />
<br />
Wha?<br />
<br />
Women’s role is promoted as supporter to the leader, cook, clean, massage, sex up… etc… you know every man’s dream house wife.<br />
<br />
But because women’s roles are limited to that of supporter, they have no self… their role within the church is exclusively linked to supporting a man. Because of this women are encouraged to marry early, marry young and to not waste too much time sampling the local fare. Certainly they are not to sample what the local market has to offer in any way that the Church would not appreciate. Sex before marriage is a sin.... Why? Because an antiquated 5000 year old stone age book seems to imply it.<br />
<br />
This harms woman in a multitude of ways. First and foremost because a woman is without value on her own… A single, working woman who is not offering her domestic support to a man holds no value in the church on her own merits… The church wants women barefoot and pregnant. Sadly church’s have gone so far as to discourage women from seeking higher education, and promote a culture of marriage and domestication. Despite the Church's very aggressive ideas on how a woman should live her life.... It excludes her from the majority of roles within the church even if she is in complete conformance with its standards for lifestyle.<br />
<br />
What is scary (to me anyway) is that a large number of women are proponents of this viewpoint. And though I am sure there are any number of women for whom domestication is a satisfying existence, there are other's for whom I am certain it is not. But these women do not get a vote. And if they want to stay in the Christian community, do not get a choice. It is heartbreaking when a woman who followed along with the choices her church chose for her for years, comes to the realization that her most vital and important life choices have been made by an organization that actively seeks to oppress her.<br />
<br />
I know of multiple couples in recent months where the woman did not hold the same beliefs as she did when she was a teenager and when Mars Hill church specifically (in one case) encouraged and pretty much told her and the man she was dating that they needed to get married QUICKLY. Because the church assumed their courtship would end in sin if they were allowed to just keep on dating. Because they were both subject to the leadership of their community group leader/ deacons and since they were both members it was an obvious and perfect union. But things like compatibility, personality types, interests outside of church etc… did not matter. You’re a girl, he’s a guy, you are both Mars Hill members, no porn addiction, no drug addiction... Ok were good. Let’s get you two married so you don’t run the risk of sin. <br />
<br />
At 19 it seemed harmless. She was happy and glad to be making the commitment through her church to God.<br />
<br />
Fast forward 10 years and her faith has been shaken. In part by Mark Driscoll’s psychotic behavior of late and partially because she has grown older, wiser and views life through a different lens. Looking upon her marriage now she sees that she did not make the best decision in choosing a mate. She made the decision far too hastily. They were incompatible in a lot of ways, but she did not have license to express that. She did not respect him as a leader over her.<br />
<br />
This made no difference to him or the church because he was the one with the penis after all so she HAD TO SUBMIT & RESPECT HIM! <br />
<br />
This girl is in her 30’s now. She was never allowed to date anyone else and was funneled into marriage with the first guy who ever showed interest in her. She opted to quit college and let him complete his schooling. She now has 2 children who would be devastated if she broke up the family because of her own unhappiness.<br />
<br />
Some Pastors would say she is possessed of an evil spirit, a spirit of selfishness, or a spirit of malcontent… a spirit of divisiveness or a spirit of Jezebel. But the truth is that she should never have been forced (ever so gently) to marry the first guy who asked her out simply because her community group leader was hyper focused on sex before marriage.<br />
<br />
Think about it.... it is one of life's most important decisions... Who you are going to spend the rest of your life with... and What do you want to be when you grow up?<br />
<br />
She didn't really get to make those decisions for herself. Her church chose housewife for her and decided to whom she would be a housewife. Because she grew up in church she just accepted their decision. But she has realized that these same men who applied the subtle pressure to marry also stand in front of the sheep on Sunday and proactively seek to oppress her from doing anything but being a domestic housewife focused exclusively on making her husband happy. Despite all the propaganda, her happiness is not a part of this equation.<br />
<br />
This scenario plays out constantly in countless churches around the country. You can write it off as her being dissatisfied but imagine if you had been forced to make specific decisions about your future because some guy 20 years older than you who's house you visited on Thursday night placed himself OVER you and happened to believe a certain way about what you should or should not be allowed to do.<br />
<br />
And because the woman has no value outside of marriage… it is her end all be all. Period.<br />
<br />
She should not aspire to change the world, be an astronaut, President, scientist, PASTOR (CERTAINLY NOT A PASTOR!) The woman’s place is at home cheerfully supporting and submitting to the man her church often chose for her.<br />
<br />
This church model, complementarian model, undulates around archaic ideals from a book written long before the stone-age, when women were viewed as a form of currency... human livestock if you will.<br />
<br />
And it doesn’t seem to bother too many that we are using a 5000 year old book, coupled with a 2000 year old book to establish the allowable behavior of women in a modern society.<br />
<br />
I do understand the value of the Bible... and I appreciate many things about it... but even your most crunchy robust orthodox pastor knows context has value.... and social norms are always a part of properly contextualizing the Bible.<br />
<br />
There is a long list of societal norms from the Bible that we no longer adhere to.... somehow male pastors still believe a woman's core role in life remains unchanged. We don't allow rapists to buy virgins anymore, and we frown upon concubines and multiple wives but beyond marriage dynamics and relational dynamics her role in society as domestic support is unchanged.<br />
<br />
Mark Driscoll is well documented in having a chauvinist viewpoint regarding women. He’s stated that a woman runs the risk of unnecessarily burdening her husband with student loans if she pursues a higher education degree (we don’t want women who can think for themselves now do we?) He has made statements characterizing women as illogical, irrational, prone to hyper emotional behavior and in stories he often tells of past experience with women who aren't living joyful domestic lives as promiscuous and tawdry.<br />
<br />
Driscoll’s creepy grey haired theological uncle John Piper has said that women should be submitted to men even if the man has displayed fundamentally poor leadership and lack of compassion for his mate. He has even commented on certain unhealthy dynamics in stunningly crude ways. He has said that if a man is asking his wife to sin that she should say no but do so honoring his authority over her... He has said that if her husband forced her to sin, she should immediately contact her pastors. However if it was just a circumstance where he "smacked her around a little" she should probably wait it out and contact her pastor when convenient.<br />
<br />
If he is forcing you to sin... whoa, whoa whoa... no way... you contact me immediately. But if he is just smacking you around a bit... eh? Just let things cool down and see what things look like in the morning.<br />
<br />
Just so we are crystal clear here you don’t call your pastor in these circumstances…. You Call the Cops!<br />
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There is also growing evidence that churches with a lot to lose (aka celebrity pastors and big money) are sweeping sexual assault cases against women under the rug to protect the church’s name.<br />
<br />
How can they do this? How can a man attack a woman and the Pastor’s decide to counsel the woman but not report her attacker?<br />
<br />
First and foremost to protect the Pastor (err church)! Because the Pastor is the senior leader who must be protected to advance God’s kingdom… a woman is just a servant. Collateral damage. Plus she was wearing those tight jeans which certainly played a part in encouraging the man. <br />
<br />
Another scary way of thinking that has surfaced in the Celebrity Pastor circuit is whether a woman owns her own body. Some men, like Mark Driscoll don’t think she has a right or claim to her own body.... In cases like this, if a husband raped his wife it wouldn't be rape. It would be that she did not submit her body as demanded.<br />
<br />
This is damaging!<br />
<br />
Even church’s that label themselves as “soft-comp” as though they take a lighter tone with complementarian viewpoints refuse to allow women leadership roles within the church.<br />
<br />
When we were attending Mars Hill the women decided they wanted to do a Bible study (some of these women were coming up on 40) but this young lady (20 maybe 21) was made leader because her husband was a deacon and she was not allowed nor were any of the woman allowed to develop there own Bible study…. The deacon decided which book they were going to read and a developed a weekly list of questions that they were allowed to discuss for each book. Woman can’t be trusted to read the Bible on their own. <br />
<br />
Another “soft comp” church I know scolded women in the congregation on Sunday because the Pastors were holding meetings in the evenings and they couldn’t get enough women in the church to volunteer to cook dinner for them when they were going to be having their meetings as the church. <br />
<br />
There weren’t any men scolded for the poor pastors having to order KFC… It didn’t even dawn on the pastors that it was their own responsibility to feed themselves. A church that views itself as soft comp theorized that it was the fault of lazy women in the congregation not stepping up to make them meals... And this was actually so important to the pastor that he felt it needed to be addressed at Sunday service.<br />
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Not only that but the Church has largely set it self at loggerheads with women's rights groups.... How many times have you heard the term Feminazi? Femi-nazi.... Nazi....<br />
<br />
What do these Nazi's want?<br />
<br />
Crazy shit!<br />
Equal work for equal pay.<br />
They want to promote the idea that a woman can do whatever she wants with her life.<br />
<br />BLASPHEMY!<br />
<br />
It’s that bad. Why would a woman want to be President or an activist or a lawyer or a doctor or a scientist or an engineer when she could gain true satisfaction by fulfilling her Biblical role as home maker?<br />
<br />
Just ask all the male pastors!<br />
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They’ve thought and prayed and meditated on this issue long and hard and have concluded that women find the deepest fulfillment and satisfaction in life when living out their feminine God given role serving ME!<br />
<br />
Church’s are harming people… These seem like nuanced social issues but for women the stakes could not be higher.... It can and will impact what her life is going to look like, where she'll be, what she'll be doing and how much joy she experiences in life.<br />
<br />
She could end up in a joyless marriage to a man with whom she is incompatible. She could end up in a marriage to a man with a deep rooted regret that she didn't finish college. She could end up in a marriage with a deep rooted regret that she didn't pursue her own dreams.<br />
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And that is the long and the short of it.... Everyone... EVERYONE deserves the right to pursue their dreams without limitations being placed on them.<br />
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And the last placed on Earth people should be getting restrictions placed on their role in life is Church.<br />
<br />Enough.<br />
<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-21221178728393956422014-05-29T12:53:00.001-07:002022-12-13T21:18:53.363-08:00Cult Watch - Non Compete Clause the Antithesis of "Spreading the Gospel"The last few months have been some of the most eventful at Mars Hill Church since I and my wife and our friends started watch dogging Mars Hill in late 2011 early 2012.<br />
<br />
Back then we were a small collection of voices that could do little to impact the Christian media juggernaut that is Mars Hill.... Only after local Seattle paper The Stranger ran it's article <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/church-or-cult/Content?oid=12172001">Church or Cult</a> and after Slate Magazine ran it's article about <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/faithbased/2012/02/mars_hill_pastor_mark_driscoll_faces_backlash_over_church_discipline_case_.html">the shunning of Andrew Lamb</a> did Mars Hill respond with it's smug "A Call to Reconcilliation (which like most any link on Mars Hill disappeared at some point).<br />
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After Andrew's story died down, things appeared to the outside world to be somewhat ok.... But gnarly stuff was still happening... Strong leaders within the church were being fired left and right and no one would explain why so many good leaders were suddenly being either fired or having radical changes of heart.... In my post from January of 2013 <a href="http://twocleareyes.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-leader-decides.html">"The Leader Decides" </a> I postulated that Mars Hill MUST have a non-disclosure agreement in place to gag fired leaders from speaking out against the church and also argued that it should be alarming to members of the church that upper level leaders were dropping like flies.<br />
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Instead people at Mars Hill said I was divisive and spiteful and jealous...<br />
<br />
Since then former Pastor Kyle Firstenberg and Dave Kraft came out openly and challenged Mark Driscoll to answer for his sins.... Behind them stood 20 or so fired pastors who had been axed in just the last 2 years.<br />
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This ROCKED the boat and people inside Mars Hill with half a brain are starting to.... question their leadership....... This is not part of the Mars Hill recipe. One of the cornerstones of Mars Hill's success is "submission to elders" so when the "sheep" start questioning the men who are tasked with tamping down insolence.... It makes for a dangerous place.<br />
<br />
Recently the questions from inside have grown louder and because of such, the body count is growing higher.<br />
Pastor Phil Poirier was fired for refusing to sign the annual Unity of Mission statement when he wrote to Mars Hill's leadership about newer language in the unity statement that essentially states that Pastors/ elders/ etc... are not allowed to work at churches or be part of ministry at churches within a ten mile radius of ANY Mars Hill church...<br />
<br />
Gospel centered? Or old fashioned economics?<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-61724764004846997142014-04-04T17:32:00.010-07:002020-10-26T17:24:09.789-07:00Today in Christianity - Mark Driscoll Frantically Destroying Evidence
and 16 Pastors are Filing RECO Charges?Mark Driscoll issued his well worded and self gratifying apology letter just a short couple weeks ago.<br />
Earlier this week, Warren Throckmorton exposed a new email policy being suddenly implemented by Mars Hill where they will be destroying ALL, not some, not fluff, ALL emails older than 90 days... Anyone on staff who has email on external drives, cloud storage etc... was instructed to destroy these as well.<br />
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In the letter they suppose it is to reduce email storage cost, but why would someone's external hard drive effect that either way?<br />
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In the letter they also mention being good stewards and limiting risk associated with storing old emails.<br />
<br />Risk..... It's a loaded word.<br />
<br />
Some would say, there is no risk...<br />
Any viral threats would long ago have wreaked havoc on your servers and network.<br />
And the cost of data storage is at a historical low... so there isn't any financial risk.<br />
<br />
The Risk isn't IT related... It is Driscoll related. And you bet your bottom dollar he has some financial risk if these emails aren't swiftly flushed down the toilet before the cops break down the door. You can just picture a sweating panicked Driscoll running to the bathroom pulling hard drives out of his Harris Tweed vest pocket, and the pockets of his cuffed selvedge denim jeans.... frantically stuffing them in the toilet as the slams against the door get louder and louder.... 'Come onnnnn Come onnnnn!'<br />
<br />
Over 14 years of Mars Hill's history is stored on that email server. Being a tech savvy Seattle based church they probably have email dating back to at least the early 2000's. Tons and tons and tons of information..... Some of it probably important and pertinent to ongoing issues of the non-salacious type. And some of it apparently is dangerously incriminating.<br />
<br />
Building and equipment warranties and invoices. Personal matters relating to members. Performance evaluations. Contract and legal correspondence....... Communications with financial institutions, municipal agencies, contractors.... BURN ALL OF IT!<br />
<br /><br />
What is remarkable also is how drastically short the tail is moving forward. I have 90 day old emails that are still flagged for follow up.... I have contract issues that will be alive for 2 or 3 more years tied to correspondence in my email inbox.... Men like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban view their email as an ongoing living archive of all of their business dealings.... year after year, decade after decade.... it's all there.... as admissible in court as a document that's been signed and sealed.... It's all there to protect and in some cases incriminate.<br />
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And I imagine that is what is bothering Driscoll.<br />
<br />
What really rocked the boat today was when <a href="https://www.worldmag.com/mobile/article.php?id=29771">WORLD MAG</a> Mars Hill critic Warren Colesmith reported that 16 pastors had their attorney Brian Fahling deliver a letter requesting that Mars Hill cease and desist in its sudden and drastic new email policy. Fahling says the letter is an attempt at preservation of evidence ahead of possible charges being filed by the 16 pastors in a RICO case?<br />
<br />
RICO? Like Gambino crime family RICO? John Gotti RICO WTF?<br /><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-72002377080877092912014-03-10T14:29:00.002-07:002022-12-13T21:19:12.713-08:00Speak No Evil! - Mars Hill Non-Disclosure Agreement Finds Light of Day! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L3zsxGyypNg/Ux4uH31RLpI/AAAAAAAAAZM/3sA1SAZQGPc/s1600/speak-no-evil-michelleisms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L3zsxGyypNg/Ux4uH31RLpI/AAAAAAAAAZM/3sA1SAZQGPc/s1600/speak-no-evil-michelleisms.jpg" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
I have long contended that the reason Mars Hill Church has been able to use and abuse employees and then fire unilaterally once it has gotten what is wants without fear of retribution is because they have legal leverage over the people they terminate.... I've said on more than one occasion on this blog that Mars Hill likely uses a non-disclosure agreement tied to a severance package to buy silence from employees who've been treated brutally.<br />
<br />
There are numerous circumstances that point to this. One is the curious case of Nick Bogardus. Bogardus came to work for Mars Hill in Seattle hoping to train under them and eventually launch his own Acts 29 church in Orange County, CA where Bogardus grew up.<br />
<br />
Orange County is a hell of a mission field... i.e. 'The California Conservative Christian Wildlife Preserve'. Orange County plays host to more Churches than ANY other county in California.... So the notion of planting a church is a two fold thing. First... with the right celebrity pastor on board it should be an absolute cake walk to launch a church that will swiftly grow. There are simply too many middle class conservatives running around OC for a church to fail... The other side of this is without a big name, a church must have a dynamic marketing scheme (especially at the beginning) in order to separate oneself and draw attention to your church in such a vast ocean of strip mall churches. But Bogardus had an ace in the hole... a big one.<br />
<br />
Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill were on board. Hell Yes we're with you Nick! Just one thing... lets not raise the Nick Bogardus/ Acts 29 Banner.... lets raise the mother effing Mars Hill banner on this one!<br />
<br />
And so Driscoll and Munson sat Nick down and broke the news to him that they thought his idea was so good, they were going to steal it for themselves. They'd rather move ahead with a Mars Hill plant rather than an Acts 29 plant. When Bogardus resisted the idea, he was told he was being selfish and seeking after his own will. Nick responded like a good Christian... he folded like a taco. And so Nick Bogardus's life's dream, was swiftly co-opted by Mark Driscoll.<br />
<br />
Nick was given token "lead Pastor" duties at <b>Mars Hill Orange County</b>. And Driscoll even came down to a meeting to say how Nick was a great preacher and he wanted 50 men like Nick leading an army of Mars Hill Churches. But weekly preaching and teaching duties on the Jumbotron and rocking and starring duties were retained by Mars Hill's own mucho macho superstar Mark Driscoll.<br />
<br />
And so it was a neutered Bogardus who headed down to Orange County under the banner of House Driscoll. They put together a core group team that included one of Bogardus's closest friends.... i.e. the 'Ace in the Hole'. Dustin Kensrue.<br />
<br />
Kensrue was a true rock and roller. And his band Thrice enjoys a cult like status in and around Orange County. If ever there was a worship pastor that could pack the pews on his own, it was Kensrue....<br />
<br />
And so everything was perfect.... The lead singer of Thrice was the opening act for Mark Driscoll and Driscoll got exposure and a foothold in one of the largest markets in the country.... But Driscoll must've wanted more..... Kensrue was such a great asset that Driscoll offered him fat stacks and freedom to utilize his "NOT FOR PROFIT" Christian Record Label to do his bidding.... All Kensrue had to do was dump his lifelong friend and former band manager in Orange County and come up to Bellvue to be the opening act for Driscoll himself.....<br />
<br />
Kensrue dropped Bogardus like a hot potato and took his family up the coast to Seattle. From here Bogardus was pretty much doomed.... His power to effectively lead had already been neutered before he arrived... but now Driscoll had raided the best assets Bogardus had going for him. Not surprisingly it was only a short few months after that that the announcement came down that Bogardus had been fired by Mars Hill..... amicably of course. And Bogardus termination was on the heels of his site executive Kyle's termination just a few short months earlier. Mind you both of these men were the ones who quarterbacked the plant. And both were out of the picture by the time MHOC hit it's first birthday.<br />
<br />
ALL HAIL THE KING!<br />
<br />
The Mars Hill timeline reads like this same story.... Bill Clem signed over a 50,000 SF building to Mars Hill under the impression that he would remain senior pastor over the "campus"... WRONG!<br />
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BILL.... YOUR FIRED!<br />
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Jamie Munson re-structured Mars Hill's governing documents firing many an elder himself along the way and consolidating power around Driscoll. He thrived as a good little sycophant for a while but even Munson's role ran its course when Driscoll got his hands on Sutton Turner. Turner is a Harvard educated financial executive who managed real estate development firms in Abu Dhabi and Qatar... Sheik money. BOOYAH!<br />
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JAMIE.... YOUR FIRED!<br />
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Paul, you're fired!<br />
Bent you're fired!<br />
James you're fired!<br />
Dave you're fired!<br />
Dave you're fired!<br />
Kyle you're fired!<br />
Nick you're fired!<br />
Bill you're fired!<br />
Jamie you're fired!<br />
Lief you're fired!<br />
Mike you're fired!<br />
.... on and on.<br />
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But recently Dave Kraft was fired around the same time he brought charges against Mark Driscoll for sinning..... Kraft brought charges of sin against Driscoll and wanted Driscoll to suffer one of those infamous "discipline contracts" but instead the church fires Kraft.<br />
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Who says Mars Hill doesn't hold Driscoll accountable?<br />
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You can check out the Mars Hill non-disclosure agreement posted by Warren Colesmith <a href="https://www.worldmag.com/media/docs/marshillchurchnda.pdf">HERE</a> or you can read another one released to Warren Throckmorton over at Patheos <a href="http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/files/2014/03/MH-Separation-and-Release-Agreement-1.pdf">HERE</a>.<br />
Now everyone can read just how dark and twisty it is....<br />
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I do not believe you can legally require an employee to sign a waiver or release of claim regarding equal employment opportunity regulations. If a violation exists for which a claim can be made, a company can't make you sign a waiver... especially under the duress which a severance package and subsequent termination produce.<br />
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What is interesting to me is that not only does Mars Hill require you to NOT make any statements disparaging Mars Hill, but by signing the document your wife, your kids etc... are all bound as well. And even more interesting is that even mentioning the existence of the NDA is forbidden....<br />
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I work in the heavy civil construction industry... We often are dealing with public agencies on design build projects where our team will invest 1 million dollars or more in a proprietary design to better execute the project..... prior to the actual project tendering, you still have to communicate with subs, vendors, suppliers, consultants etc.... regarding the scope and thus the design.... this is big money at play and you can't have a sub going to another team and mentioning design elements of our work... When you are dealing with $500 million dollar contract... those little slips can be dangerous.... so we ask subs to sign NDA's so that our hard work doesn't fall into a competitors hands.... But we certainly don't play this game of secrecy and silence...<br />
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This document is a powerful revelation.... Until now... dozens upon dozens of men have been unilaterally and suddenly fired for no apparent reason. Mars Hill has one of the most cut throat employee turn over ratios I have ever seen. And its not a construction company, a hi-tech firm, a computer development firm... it's a friggin church! Some amount of turn over is needed.... it is healthy to have a certain level of turn over.... But the ratio which Mars Hill hires and fires is toxic.... no other way to look at it....<br />
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If I were job hunting and a company that I looked at, had their turnover ratio, their employment record... My knee jerk response would be "NOT A CHANCE". The number of people fired shows these guys have systemic problems.... and/ or a toxic culture.<br />
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What makes it worse is often these people are fired for raising objections about the toxic culture itself... so the systemic problem feeds on itself... It is an inability by management to self reflect... a stubbornness and inability to consider viewpoints that are at loggerheads with their own position.<br />
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This is a deadly cocktail for a business.... even worse for a church.<br />
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Weakness is a poor business trait. I am not going to try to sell the notion that weakness can lead in business it can't. It allows itself to get run over, forced into roles one doesn't want.... not too mention weakness cannot lead.... <br />
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But hyper alpha leadership that is overly stubborn won't entertain dissent, objections or criticism is a far more dangerous place.... because the end cycle is that all the talent and quality people leave.... unable to utilize their talents effectively.... all that is left is those who stroke the alpha's ego.... sycophants who please him.... who are by their nature weak.... So you end up with one strong and a hundred weak. Because the strong one cannot handle having other strong people around him because they will eventually challenge him to do better, be better act better, think outside the box... etc... They will call him on his shit, they will accuse him of wrong doing when he is doing wrong.<br />
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Great managers and great leaders are inspiring and strong, but can also eat crow or express humility with grace and warmth... When a good idea or a viewpoint completely opposite of their own resonates... they welcome it.<br />
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Based on the non-disclosure agreement alone.... Mars Hill is already well past ever being lead by great men.... Being so worried and paranoid that you need to control what people say once you've fired them.... Is expression of tremendous ego, mistrust, and insecurity....<br />
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Think about it, how much pathos is there in a mindset that requires ex employees to sign a document limiting what they say about you.<br />
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You love to micromanage people, you love to control the content, the image of your company.... but when you fire someone.....<i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">oooohhhhh I won't be able to control them anymore.... eeeeeeeyyy </span></i><br />
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<i>Ok we'll write up this document that says you can't ever say anything bad about us ever again for the rest of your life!</i>.... <i>ooohhh but what if they don't sign it? AH we'll pay them to sign it! So we pay them a big chunk of money.... and in order to get the money they have to sign a document that says you can't ever say anything bad about me or my company ever!</i><br />
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That is twisted!<br />
That is Mark Driscoll<br />
And he's been firing talented strong men who challenge him and his ideas for years.... until he widdled down his leadership team to Dave Bruskas and Sutton Turner.... Are they the ultimate sycophants? Turner appears to be..... but will this sick circle continue to fire talent and strength because it eventually gets in Driscoll's face and calls him on his bullshit?<br />
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That is what Dave Kraft did.... He levied charges at Driscoll's feet.... Contended that Driscoll was in sin... and needs to repent.... So one of the nicer, kinder wiser people at Mars Hill straight up brought charges against Mark Driscoll.<br />
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What was Driscoll's response? YOU"RE FIRED!<br />
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Sick culture.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-52916714370852857012012-02-24T13:49:00.087-08:002022-12-13T22:10:04.473-08:00THE CASE AGAINST AUTHORITY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><u><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">THE CASE AGAINST AUTHORITY</span></u></b></div>
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<span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">First I want to apologize for being late on submitting this. I have a day job that requires a lot of me and we’ve been very busy these past couple weeks developing our final work for a monster proposal that we are turning in so please bear with me. The well being of my family and my job are more important than my blog. <br /><br />In regard to authority and hierarchy I want to give a little context here. In an American culture that has deep strains of protestant evangelical thinking it can be a very slippery slope to keep leadership from becoming hierarchical. We in America operate in a much more tribal manner regarding the nature of the church. We are extremely denominationalized. We are extremely segmented and we are prone to lifting up “OUR” church and “OUR” leaders as best. We have a very “I follow Paul or I follow Apollos” mindset. Also because a lot of parishioners grow up in our culture conditioned to respect clergy or church leaders, it is all the more important that a healthy understanding of leadership’s role and structure is understood to limit abuses, limit runaway human agendas and ultimately to make sure God is worshipped and glorified and not men. <br /><br />Hero worship and cult of personality around pastors can lead to both spiritual degradation on the part of the pastor, who becomes prideful as he is idolized, and on the part of the congregation, who can skew the lens through which they view separation between church and God. With either a prideful pastor, or a smitten congregation the chance that spiritual abuse and hierarchical leadership can start to take over is exponentially greater. <br /><br />Just about any and every Biblical Scholar in America views the Biblical model for church leadership to be Christ as the cornerstone and foundation of the church, and a plurality of elders within the church to provide care, teaching, and guidance. Unfortunately this is not always the case and with more modern movements within the church it seems that just like the sort of celebrity driven pop-culture we live in, pastors are looking a lot more like celebrities and less like humble servants. <br /><br />With some of your more fundamentalist neo-reformed, neo-calvinist movements a more disturbing trend is rising. They are structuring their churches with a pyramid type hierarchical leadership, drafting submission to leadership into church requirements and advancing a very rigid and dangerous agenda for membership and discipline within the church. <br /><br />Now to understand the mindset that goes into a leader both demanding submission from parishioners and feeling entitled to impose discipline on members to authenticate repentance, you need to understand the mindset these men have regarding themselves. Mathew 16:17-18 the so called “keys to the kingdom” verse is the verse most commonly used or viewed in hierarchical churches to justify the endowment of a broad scope of power to leadership. <br /><br />Church leaders, pastors and elders view Mathew 16 as giving them special authority over church parishioners and in authoritarian churches see it has putting them in a position to be representatives of God on Earth. In Mathew 16 Peter confesses that Jesus is “the messiah” and in return Jesus says he will build his church “upon this rock” which in the skewed view of a leader means that the leaders of the church are therefore the foundation, the critical part, the important part and the ones who decide whether or not parishioners are fit for kingdom citizenship. They see this verse as Jesus handing the “keys to the kingdom” to leaders. View the <a href="http://www.9marks.org/blog/what-are-keys-kingdom">“Keys to the kingdom post” here.</a> In this ‘9Marks’ blog post from Mark Dever’s church, Jonathan Leeman takes this exact position. It is a frightening view of scriptural interpretation, as he believes that he is allowed to decide whether or not you or I are allowed into Heaven. <br /><br />“The apostles had heavens authority for declaring who on earth is a kingdom citizen and therefore represents heaven” <br /><br />By this line of thinking, which is becoming increasingly commonplace in your average new Calvinist, neo-reformed, ultra-fundy church, leaders are bestowed with the following authority: <br /><br />· They can judge whether or not someone’s confession is legitimate and/ or whether or not someone really is a Christian with a truly rich spiritual life. <br /><br />· They are God’s official representatives on Earth <br /><br />· They can decide whether or not someone is fit or qualified for God’s kingdom <br /><br />· They can decide whether or not someone is truly repentant <br /><br />· They can exercise discipline on the flock as a means for reconciling them back into the body <br /><br />· They have the authority to reconcile or in the case of stubborn troubles cast people out of the body & God’s kingdom forever. <br /><br />It seems absurd that Pastors could think they can judge someone before God does or that they can alter his decision based on their own view. Right about the time Mars Hill’s nasty mess with Andrew hit the air waves, the men from Mark Dever’s church issued a glowing compliment to the new wave of disciplinarian type churches and offered up the suggestion that if someone wants to leave or resign from a church that the pastors should not let them decide for themselves and should put it to a vote of the congregation, these are all <a href="http://www.9marks.org/blog/pastors-don%E2%80%99t-let-your-people-resign-thin-air">supporting ideas</a> that pastors have special powers and special authority. <br /><br />The whole idea of church as spiritual daddy, who will spank you if you’re naughty, is based on a fundamental misuse 16: 17-18 and Mathew 18:15-18. But what is worse is that now they feel that have more power than to just discipline you. <br /><br />They feel they have the authority to cast you into a cosmic hell for all eternity because they got a degree from seminary! <br /><br />So Jesus came to earth to tear down the Pharisees and set up his own team of leaders who after studying at a university for a few years and doing some time as youth pasturing etc… would be given the crown of absolute authority to act as his official referees on Earth. Throwing people into hell and crowning others with eternal life? <br /><br />Also because churches are favoring a top down leadership model, these poisonous ideas from one or a few cannot be tamped down by others because, as is often the case, there is always one kingpin who is not to be questioned and you often see vitriolic behavior by these men when lower tier leaders are <a href="http://youtu.be/YE3FHMTAWHY">“displaying an unhealthy distrust in senior leadership”</a> <br /><br />Hierarchical leadership models are based on viewing Peter as the foundation and therefore as Peter is above the others so the prophet or visionary pastor at churches (or the most charismatic one who packs the seats) is often seated at the top of the food chain. He in turn has two or three trusted executive pastors answering to him, with church specific or ministry specific leaders answering to them and so on and so forth. Not only does this create a despot at the top, but it creates a pyramid of loyalty. Often the men above those below, appoint them to their position. And they appoint them after they have developed friendships and certain level of intimacy and brotherhood so the loyalty from one rung on the ladder to the next is seamless, straight to the top. <br /><br />And in churches with “submission” stated a dozen times in membership covenants, these men have significant power right down to claiming whether or not you are repentant, living a fruitful life or even whether they believe you are a true Christian. <br /><br />We saw this on display Mars Hill. The two senior pastors at our site were somewhat aloof and showed very little of the shepherd’s heart that you expect to see in a shepherd. They consulted with the deacons almost exclusively. The deacons in turn were the ones shaking hands and pressing the flesh with the congregation and appointing community group leaders. <br /><br />We also learned that the deacons passed information along back channels up the ladder to more senior members regarding parishioners. Essentially at our site everyone knew that if you wanted to be a part of the core group, or be a community group leader or get in with the “in crowd” you had to gain favor with this one particular deacon because he was the one who blessed or condemned any person’s promotion further up the ranks at Mars Hill. He did this at weekend meetings with the 2 senior pastors and it got out because someone who wasn’t beholden or loyal was brought along to one of the meetings. <br /><br />Also along this ladder you could not question something someone did with another either horizontally or vertically without knowing full well that you were opening yourself up to possible retribution. Everyone along the ladder was appointed by another higher up in the ladder. If you just smiled and kept your mouth shut it was all good, but if you did happen to question something someone said or did somewhere along the way or if you felt the leader “placed over you” was not qualified or of good character it didn’t matter, you are REQUIRED to “SUBMIT”. <br /><br />This is a cultural thing at Mars Hill now. Since the re-writing of the by-laws in 2007 when Paul Petry and Bent Meyer were fired for supposedly <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004020898_webmarshill18m.html">"displaying an unhealthy distrust in the senior leadership" </a>what has essentially happened is ministry gone wild. Mark Driscoll is now tenured for life at Mars Hill and cannot be fired, he now has 20% say in all matters of the board at Mars hill and truly has majority rule as 3 of the 4 other votes are hand-picked executive members by Driscoll himself. <br /><br />I would love to say that this doesn’t affect things at the parishioner level but it does, it is cultural, it is something that has been permitted or “loosed” within this church and so therefore is permeating every part of it. In our own circumstances all we were trying to do was kindly say we were leaving. We reviewed the wording of the final letter a little more closely, paying attention to the wording more than the tone and identified accusatory words like “divisiveness”, “insubordination”, “hurting the church” and in hindsight can see how they were building the groundwork for a disciplinary case... And their demand for a sit down meeting was to bear down on us and cow us back into the fold... and for a couple of weeks, we easily could have been coerced. It took nearly a month for the fog to lift and for us to realize as 30 something year old adults with children, that we had personal agency over our own life and could choose to go wherever we wanted. Mind control is no joke.</span><div><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><br />It is important to note that these new “reformed” churches cannot seem to expunge old Catholic ways from their DNA. Discipline is a Catholic stronghold, leaders as earthly representatives of God is a Catholic stronghold. If you replace discipline with penance and replaced pastor with priest, you have nearly the identical church only the priest is wearing a robe and the pastor is wearing blue jeans. Typically some high end Japanese selvedge blue jeans. <br /><br />Ultimately God is our highest and utmost authority, and Jesus is our senior pastor. Jesus said that with his church his leaders must be servants. That they would not lord it over their flocks but that they would humbly serve them. Problem with that is we all operate out of prideful ambition. We all want to sit at the head of the table, we all want the status. And leadership these days has more to do with working your way up the ladder and finding favor with gatekeepers than it does with have a genuine calling and anointing on your life. But that doesn’t mean we allow distortions of the truth to continue just because they already do. <br /><br />Leaders have value in the church. But they should never be allowed to build a government on earth where they sit in the seat of power. This is distortion of God’s word for man’s gain. <br /><br />We need to require wisdom and character from leaders, not just entertainment and charisma. Otherwise God’s kingdom is simply a proving ground for ambitious young despots using religion as a vehicle to build their own little fiefdoms.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-38806560110044036742012-01-24T14:14:00.000-08:002020-10-26T17:00:45.228-07:00RE.GENERATION - My Experience Inside The Cult of Mars Hill - PART 1<br />
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EDITORS NOTE: This Post has been revised since I initially published it in January of 2012. Since it typically draws so much attention from people, I wanted to be more than fair in my assessment of the events that transpired. What follows is a revision developed over 2 months in 2013 with a majority of the body from the original post in January of 2012.<br />
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SALAD DAYS<br />
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To qualify my statements so no one thinks I am drawing conclusions from the outside looking in, I was one of maybe 60 or 70 people that showed up in the first month after Mars Hill began holding core group sessions for one of their recent church plants. I was relocating to the area from another location because of my job. Prior to coming to Mars Hill I had spent 5 years sitting under what I thought to be wonderful teaching from a Pastor who taught us Biblically sound doctrine, theology etc…. but more importantly in whom you could see the a deep rooted love for and of Jesus emanating. I grew tremendously during that time in maturity and faith. I knew many with troubled pasts (including myself) who found healing, and who were living examples of God’s power through the transformations taking place in their lives.<br />
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That being said, when I left I thought I was walking into something similar with a slightly different feel to it at Mars Hill. Mars Hill was known for its sharp, crunchy, orthodox theology, its zealous approach to the sanctity of doctrine and its national reputation for being socially relevant in an era when most churches are losing influence with each passing generation.<br />
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I was initially enthusiastic about the constant stream of orthodox exposition within the church and found myself in the first weeks feeling very comfortable with the changes. This would eventually begin to wear on me as the doctrine never seemed to give way to love, mercy or grace. The orthodox, rigid doctrine never gave way to freedom or transformation. It seemed locked in a hard loop rotating back around the same orthodox doctrine as the fundamental idea/ principle involved in salvation with Driscoll dictating the conversation at all levels.<br />
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Worship at Mars Hill (at our location during our time) was heavy and somber. The worship team opted to sing Mars Hill copyrighted songs and old heavy sounding hymns that felt neither celebratory nor done in a spirit of worship. It was the first time in years where I felt like we just waited through a couple songs to get to the good stuff… Driscoll videos! What I had been used to was a full sanctuary of people, engaged in the period of worship without worrying about pretension, appearance or pride & posture. Prior to coming here it was typical to look around the sanctuary of my old church and see an ocean of outstretched hands with the congregation often drowning out the voice of the worship leader on stage. I also often felt some of my most powerful communion with God in these moments. <br />
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Mars Hill was different. The people were stiff, looked uncomfortable and impatient, no outward expressions of worship at all… It was a room 100+ strong of people standing dead silent and unmoving. The word that came to my mind was sterile.<br />
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If this was supposed to be our attempt at ushering the Holy Spirit in to our gathering with adoration and worship, I would say it was a lukewarm attempt at best.<br />
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About two months in, Pastor Mark came down to hold what they were calling a “vision casting” for the local church. He discussed the future of Mars Hill and how they wanted to raise up 50 leaders to lead 50 churches and they specifically wanted dozens of leaders in Mars Hill leading an army of God.<br />
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Driscoll made a point to give the local pastor a vote of confidence. That he was fully confident in the local pastor’s ability to successfully plant a church. He also stated that because it was a new church plant, that he (Mark) would be preaching from the pulpit here locally often to help gin up support for the new site.<br />
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There was something that made me uneasy about the vision casting. I wasn’t sure what exactly it was but felt it in my gut. I also randomly late one night felt the spirit draw my attention to the fact that this Mars Hill church plant that I was a part of could draw certain distinctions from the campuses up in Seattle because it was in fact a “church” plant and not a new campus. I didn’t think much of it at the time but did remember it. </div>
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As the weeks went on, Mars Hill began holding community groups. My wife and I made it a point to attend the week after we were fully relocated since we were new to the area and felt that a group of close friends was going to be easiest to find within the Church body. We began attending CG with the third member of the church planting team that made the trip from the home church.<br />
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At the first community group, we were a little disheartened. It seemed more like a theological debating session. I coined the term “Doctrinal swordplay” with my wife to describe what seemed to be guys in the group trying to constantly “one up” each other with the studied gravity of their positions. I was also guilty of this in the first couple weeks. However after I while I felt like it was never going anywhere and my wife and I were trying to stress a relationship with God whereas everyone viewed it almost as an academic principle that you could, with enough effort and study, master. Also the discussions were horribly weighed down by “reformed” context. We talked Calvin, we talked ESV, we talked the Elect, we talked about Calvin’s lesser known notes, we talked about Paul’s views on legalism, we talked as though this was a theory and not a God.<br />
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As the weeks went on, some things started to bother me about the tone of our discussions. They were written in my notebook paraphrased here:<br />
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· Holy Spirit is never mentioned. We’ve only opened our Bibles twice as a group. We’re always talking about things Driscoll said and never about the word of God. <br />
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· ESV is promoted too heavily. Deacon stated that ESV is the “church’s translation”. <br />
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· Over emphasis on Calvinism and “Reformed Theology” and no focus on Jesus, the power available in the Holy Spirit today and a communicative, relational faith. <br />
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· Deacon is very young, lacks strong leadership, and shows overt favoritism to members with whom he is most comfortable/ similar aka (young, white and Christian College educated). He seems insecure and competitive. <br />
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· Everyone talks about Driscoll like he’s a genius. There is a definite cult of personality surrounding him. <br />
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We had been going to CG for a few months and understood the dynamics of the group pretty well by then. There was maybe 3 or 4 couples in their 30’s maybe 40’s that showed some knowledge, relative wisdom and character. And there was a larger number of very young singles but there was also one couple that was outspoken, extraverted and clearly favored by our 20 something deacon. The young man was of a similar background to the deacon. He was young, white and Christian college educated. However looking at his character and his overall motive (this stuff spills out your eyes most of the time) he did not have the wisdom, life experience, maturity and restraint that some of the other couples did. If anything he was the most dogged in needing to be right on issues of debate but he did not have the heart or the temperament that I would qualify as a leaders.</div>
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On a couple of occasions it seemed like we were just going around in circles on one idea or another…. Finally my wife cut in with the reality that this isn’t just “book knowledge” and these aren’t just theories to discuss that the Holy Spirit is HERE with us TODAY. The young man and his wife concurred saying they always feel the Holy Spirit telling them if they’ve done something wrong…. To me it sounded like an admission of legalism and bondage. God’s spirit is not just an extension of my conscience. It does more than just tell me when I’ve sinned. Later when the men were alone, the same young guy shared his recent experiences with the Holy Spirit. He used images of warfare and torture and likened the work the Holy Spirit was doing in him to ‘tearing his fingernails from his fingers by the root, one by one’.<br />
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I was bothered by the statement. That may be a spirit, but not the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is not akin to a torturer. But no one seemed phased by the statement, and later that night we were informed that he had been chosen by our deacon as the next community group leader. <br />
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It was odd to me at first as I thought it to be cronyism but today I believe that younger, less mature and more impressionable people are sought for leadership positions at Mars Hill because they are more susceptible to control. <br />
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QUESTIONS<br />
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The next week, Jamie Munson released a memo on the City that they would be renaming all of the Seattle campuses “Churches” since there was no mention of a ‘campus’ in the Bible… My mind was immediately taken back to the late night experience I had regarding the differences between our church and the Seattle area campuses. This was the first real red flag that I noted.<br />
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With nothing other than the Holy Spirits guidance, I was being shown that there was something deliberate in the actions the church was taking and that they were not necessarily God’s will. <br />
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Shortly thereafter we were told that our local Pastors would not be preaching anymore except in an auxiliary role and that we would be on the same video feed as the churches in Seattle being fed Mark Driscoll videos. <br />
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This was without a the reason they changed the names from campuses to churches in Seattle, to wipe away any distinction between Seattle area campuses and churches in other states and was obviously why the Holy Spirit showed this to me. It was also in conflict with the statement at the vision casting that they wanted 50 Mark Driscoll’s to be raised up. <br />
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There was nothing abnormal about Driscoll being broadcast in and around Seattle, because they were all campuses connected to one regional ‘Main campus’. But it is more difficult to plant churches 400, 1000, and 1200 miles away and try to call them “campuses”. So they decided to eliminate “campus” from the lexicon and the distinction disappeared.<br />
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If this wasn’t premeditated and it wasn’t done with some level of wicked intent, then why did they space out the announcements by a few weeks? I wouldn’t have caught on if I hadn’t had that “experience” late at night and been shown that our Church was different than their campuses…. so the spacing out of the announcement seemed to be a purposeful and premeditated PR maneuver.<br />
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So were we trying to plant a new church and bring a fresh movement of God to this area or were we simply expand Mark Driscoll’s influence? Why else would a church planting movement want only one man being streamed to campuses in 4 states at more than a dozen sites? There are no other church planting movements that I know of that work like this. Church planting movements send pastors out to unchartered areas to plant churches and preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. They are 100% autonomous and do not simply stake a claim in a new region only to then patch in video of the teaching pastor at the mother ship church 1000 or 2000 miles away. <br />
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From this point we started getting into Mars Hill’s “Doctrine” series. There were a few things in the first few weeks that were cause for alarm to me. The local pastor had commented that “God is On Mission, we are partnering with him in that mission….” As well as a few other things that seemed “off” to me.<br />
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That week at community group, the focus of the discussion was on the subject of “Joining God on his mission”. I commented that I didn’t see it that way. The work of the cross was finished, God was already victorious. We weren’t striving towards a victory that was unsure. The Pastor pushed back that I was wrong, but then a couple more guys chimed in saying it didn’t sound/ feel right to them either…. Rather than discuss it, the young leader got red faced and seemed to be shaking as he pointed sharply at his Bible and almost screamed “WHAT DOES IT SAY IN THE BIBLE HUH? WHAT DOES IT SAY? SHOW ME WHERE IN THE BIBLE THEN IF IT’S WRONG!”<br />
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We weren’t allowed to question anything that was in the Mars Hill “Doctrine”.<br />
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Next weekend the Pastor started talking about his plans for the area. He had big ambitions for the area. He expected 200 churches, 50 branches of Mars Hill, 10,000 community groups. And all of it, this vast empire/ network of organized religion was going to be spawned in this room. He needed men to step up as leaders. Want to be a Pastor? We’ll train you. Want to lead a community group? We’ll train you. All by engaging members in their host of Mars Hill branded programs. ReTrain, ReLearn, Re.Lit, Re.deemed...Re:tarded!<br />
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That week at community group, no one cared about anything other than what the Pastor had said about growth. It was as plain as day. We weren’t people looking to be stewards of Jesus love and teaching here on Earth. We weren’t empowered to go into the world and serve the broken, the lost and the damned. We were all filled with ministry ambitions. Guys talked about being Pastors over their own church, names they’d thought up for their church, ministry focuses they’d like to have… We weren’t spiritual people flooding the world with God’s love. We were ambition driven men who had gotten in on the ground floor with an organization that was going to explode like Facebook and we were already counting our future riches. <br />
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This was also the time the church started making a push towards core group attendees taking the membership covenant. We came from a church that did not believe in membership so we looked into what it was about. The membership covenant was scary to read. (Mars Hill Has Since Removed Access to It From Their Website) You swear allegiance to Mars Hill and to their doctrine and among others things that are made clear, swear submission to church leadership, swear submission to elders and submit to discipline when administered by leadership. I was a little alarmed by the overt demand for submission so did some research on the subject.<br />
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It is important to note that most churches that do include membership also include a vote with that membership. Driscoll contemporaries Tim Keller's & John Piper both offer membership at their church, but membership comes with a vote towards decisions made in the church. Mars Hill does not offer votes. It has been embroiled in controversy over claims by elders who were removed from their positions a few years back because they felt Mark Driscoll was consolidating power on the board of elders. He has waffled ridiculously on his reasons for this but his latest is that because as an organization gets larger it needs to be able to make decisions more streamlined and so shrunk the size of its executive board. Someone may want to float this concept by the hundreds and thousands of major for-profit companies who when going through periods of expansion INCREASE the size of their board so specific board members are delegated to understanding specific parts of the company. Driscoll and his contention that they needed to shrink the size of board in order to make decision making easier is downright dangerous when you consider these decisions cannot be tested by a vote of members.<br />
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Also part of membership is making an annual pledge for giving. In order to track your progress with your pledge, giving is done online. Someone in our group shared with us that if you aren’t meeting your pledge by say the first fiscal quarter, the church will have your community group leaders sit you down to give you a talking to so you get back on schedule. Although it seems harmless enough, the propensity for abuse is great here. If MH were thoughtful about who was installed as CG leaders it may work, but the two men we had dealt with did not give us much confidence.<br />
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It is also important to note that nowhere in the Bible NOWHERE is there anything whatsoever that includes description of membership in a church. Elders were chosen by democratic vote in Acts to be in charge of dispensing food to the poor. But that's about it.<br />
<br />
Tim Keller tried to provide Biblical justification for membership but it was weak sauce in my book. The best he could come up with was that pastors must have had a list of names of people at their church. <br />
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A list of names is a far cry from requiring someone to sign a legally binding contract and covenant. Keller's position by his own admission was dependent on a large number of assumptions that are improvable through scripture. What pastors need to say or least be honest about is that membership is a relic of the historical church, has no Biblical justification.<br />
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Then my wife started listening to the “Peasant Princess” series and over the course of listening to it started showing some disturbing signs of paranoia. Driscoll tells woman that sex is critical to a happy marriage and unless they 'put out' they are allowing Satan to sleep between them and their husbands, he directs woman to pleasure their men orally, pleasure them daily and be submissive to their needs. My wife became insecure & fearful. She began having dreams about me cheating on her and began quietly checking up on me out of fear. It was as though she was worried about meeting Driscoll’s expectation for her in our marriage more than my own. <br />
<br />
Only later did we discover that Driscoll did this entire series in a period of deep sexual frustration in his own marriage. He was projecting by telling the women of Mars Hill to act like he probably wanted his wife to be acting. His wife was made to come up on stage to “Answer For Herself” after each service regarding a marital issue she herself was struggling with. The wickedness of that is troubling to me. But what mattered in that moment is I saw what it was doing to my wife. I connected the dots quickly since her concerns and fears were all in sexual context so told her to stop listening to the series.<br />
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We also saw a series of videos where Driscoll claimed to see visions of peoples past like it was a television playing in front of him. He states in the video that it “may” be a gift of the spirit but ALL of the “visions” are of a deeply erotic and sexual nature…. So what spirit? The Holy Spirit?<br />
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The description he gave of the "vision" he had regarding his wife is borderline pornographic. So it begs the question whether or not these are visions from God or another spirit. I have never known the Holy Spirit to operate in this way on such a point blank consistent basis. But no one is challenging Driscoll on this. Realize this is a man who now claims to have all the gifts of the spirit. A "gift" of teaching, a gift of pastor and a gift of apostleship as church planter. And now is being shown the unknown. A convergence? Or a man who has discovered that he isn’t just a pastor or a shepherd or a teacher or an apostle, no he is a Prophet! This is the slippery slope that men find themselves standing on when surrounded by worshipers and admirers and when they are lifted up to idolatrous levels by their congregations. Certain species of pride radically magnify into something dangerous.<br />
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We were close to the church launch, the holiday season was approaching and our Community Group had taken over our lives and was suffocating any other relationships we could have in our community. We were always tied up with something relating to Mars Hill and our children were starting to pay a price as they had no friends in our neighborhood to play with, only kids from CG and at least a couple times a week we were getting home far too late for them to get proper sleep for school. At some point near the end my wife got into an argument with our CG leader about the meaning of covenant. She was asking in terms of membership covenant and was speaking to the gravity of the term. He was whitewashing it by likening it to a cell phone bill. It was the first time, and if I have anything to do with it, the last time a man has told her to pipe down as though she needed to know her place. This was right after I had had a really discouraging talk with the men in the group about cigarettes.<br />
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I still smoked cigarettes and asked for PRAYER to help me quit. Instead they started telling me I was guilty of IDOLATRY, which I rebutted and told me that I needed to REPENT to the group. I pushed back and told them I didn’t feel any spiritual conviction but wanted to quit for health reasons not spiritual. They tried likening cigarette smoking to porn addiction. Which I now feel was a purposeful tactic to try to elicit more guilt than my behavior warranted, and from that point on, week after week, I had to “check in” on my smoking status with them like they were my fucking parents. They continued badgering me saying it was “idolatry”. And I started to get the sense that they want you saddled with guilt, they want you saddled with shame and sin and self loathing and offer repentance through themselves and their words of kindness and forgiveness. On at least one occasion a guy would talk about some remarkable sin or thing he was ashamed of and the leader and other men would act as though they had forgiven him, so he could put it behind him. I was the stubborn hold out who wouldn’t share my deep sins and develop an addiction to the group. The CG leader actually got visibly angry with me that I wouldn’t accept HIS decision that I was in SIN through IDOLATRY! and needed to repent to the group. I GOT OUT OF THE ROOM FIRST CHANCE I GOT, AND NEVER WENT BACK.<br />
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The next week the CG pulled the bullying stunt with my wife since I didn’t go and that weekend she came to me very pensively and asked if I had any concerns about Mars Hill. I wasn’t sure if she wanted my honest answer so gently told her I had some “concerns here and there”. We began comparing notes and found almost perfect uniformity in our concerns. The Holy Spirit showed these things to each of us independent of each other. Before we made the decision to notify the church that we would no longer be attending, we spent the weekend and early part of the next week seeking clarity through prayer and God's word. God took us to the many of the same scriptures independent of each other, to the level that there could be no mistake it was divine providence. By early the next week it was abundantly clear that we needed to leave. <br />
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We knew we couldn’t continue on with this church. The actions at CG led me to believe bondage is part and parcel of life at MH. The more dirt you spill, the more they admonish and reconcile you of your dirt, the more emotionally dependent on the group and the church you become and the more you sort of wallow in your filth. For men it’s a comfortable dependency because Driscoll is preaching a masculine manly gospel, completely off base with the glory, power, sovereignty and grace of God who is the architect of the universe and author of creation, but comfortable for the flock nonetheless.<br />
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We thought it best not to talk it out with members of our CG since our questions and problems were severe, they were not minor issues. We also didn’t want to be divisive by sharing major problems we had with others at MH. We figure the Holy Spirit will reveal the same truth to others if they look and didn’t want to get ahead of God on this by trying to win others to our side. So we drafted up a kind and simple form letter stating family reasons for leaving and let everyone know that we would no longer be attending Mars Hill.<br />
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DISCLAIMER TO THOSE INTERESTED!<br />
THIS SHOULD HAVE AND COULD HAVE BEEN THE END OF THIS STORY. AND IF IT HAD BEEN THEN THIS BLOG POST WOULD NOT EXIST. BUT IT'S NOT.<br />
<br />
PART 2 <br />
When we sent the letter I was immediately (I mean within seconds) contacted by the CG leader who wanted me to sit down with him and talk about our decision. I knew the community group leader pretty well by this point and knew that this wasn't going to be a fond send off. I had now seen how the group was operating and didn’t want to be engaged in a bully pit with CG leader and I wasn’t confident he would keep the conversation to just us thinking he may invite senior members or other's from CG to our supposed sit down. I also had a very strong impression from the tone of those messages that this wasn't going to be about our decision to leave as much as it was about our reasons, whether our reasons were valid, and whether or not they needed to "set us straight". I have since learned that these reconciliation/ type meetings can become intensive lines of questioning where members are forced to admit wrong doing, submit to church authority and possibly discipline as though the church has authority to make decisions in their life. <br />
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It sounds crazy but after months and months of communicating almost exclusively with people inside Mars Hill, it becomes very hard to unwind. When they started acting as though they are going to decide whether or not we should or even could leave you’ve almost lost the critical thinking skills to tell them it’s not their decision to make…. It’s hard to break the fog of “submission to authority, submission to your elders, your leaders, you are under their leadership…etc. It becomes difficult to see the truth. Think about if all your daily interactions (besides work) are focused around Mark Driscoll and his followers… You hang out with other Martians every night. You spend almost all of your free time with them. Month after month, year after year. <br />
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It was about two weeks after we had sent our parting letter and took the American Flag to snap me out of it and realize the old cliche "THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY". It was literally like this mental haze that made things unclear and fuzzy was lifted right then and there. It's scary when you realize that your freedom was quietly being suppressed by people claiming to "love you". It took nearly two or three weeks of complete separation from Mars Hill for that simple concept, 'freedom', to rise to the top and break through the clouds in my mind that were filled with MH jargon and speak. <br />
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But my CG Leader was dogged in demanding a sit down meeting, I continually refused stating that I would gladly field any questions or issues he had by email. But he refused to contact me by email and demanded again and again that I meet with him. I refused (as much because it was becoming alarming to me that it HAD TO BE IN PERSON. The purpose of doing it by email was to slow the conversation, allow processing, thoughtfulness and prayer before response. The only reason I could derive that it had to be in person is that he wanted to pressure us into something. It is kind of hard to pressure someone or bully them through email. My wife and I did make a point to contact friends that we had grown closer to than others and sent them more intimate communications. None of these communications included any negative feelings we had regarding Mars Hill one way or the other, they were exhibitions of love to people we felt we were connected with more deeply. Mine were met with silence, but my wife’s were met with immediate demands for reasons. The only contact we had with any members at Mars Hill from that point on involved wanting to know our reasons... nothing else. No offers to pray, no well wishing, no heart-felt goodbyes, no offers to hang out anyway. Just demands for reasons. After the CG's third request to meet in person I essentially told him that I had no interest in meeting with a member of Mars Hill to discuss decisions I've made regarding leaving Mars Hill. I told him I did not see how he could provide objective advice or counsel being entrenched in Mars Hill and assured him that I had numerous men much older and wiser than I that I was seeking counsel with but if he had any questions, concerns or feelings he needed to share for his self he could email them to me and I would respond promptly.<br />
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Then all communication with everyone went silent.<br />
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For a week we heard nothing from anyone. I was actually starting to feel better like it was finally over. I was sick of thinking so much about church, and not God and was excited to move forward in whatever direction God had in store for our family. My wife however was anxious and seemed to think the other shoe was about to drop.<br />
<br />
Then the community group leader finally sent me an email! Notifying me that he left a message for me and my family wife on The City.<br />
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HE HAD ISSUED HIS JUDGMENT.<br />
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· First he said he loved us.<br />
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· Then he drew into question whether we were able to discern God's will for our own family, implied that we might not be and "IF" that was the case suggested that our failure to hear the truth was endangering our family.<br />
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· Then he drew into question our motives for leaving, implied that I could not be a good father, husband or man without the guidance and "accountability" of the men of Mars Hill. <br />
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· He implied that we were running from the truth, hiding like shameful people because we knew we were wrong and were doing this for our own motives. <br />
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· Then let us know that senior leadership (pastors and deacons) were now involved and essentially called us cowards for not being willing to communicate with them. It is important to note that I never told him I wasn't willing to communicate with him, just didn't want to sit down and discuss reasons.<br />
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· He then implied that we were fake Christians, consumer Christians who were just in it for what we could get. <br />
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· Then he essentially called us wolves for causing division by contacting the weak little sheep of his flock but being unwilling to talk to him. Literally as though we were predators prowling along the perimeter picking off weaker members of their flock by sending them emails letting our friends know we loved them and would miss them. Oh the wickedness! <br />
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· He chastised us for communicating with our friends but being unwilling to submit to questioning from him, like we were supposed to honor some military chain of command.<br />
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· And wrapped it up by saying essentially that even after all that we had done, after all our cowardice, our wickedness, our selfishness, our foolishness our phony faith and our questionable character, HE STILL LOVED US ENOUGH TO ALLOW US TO SIT DOWN WITH HIM AND TALK ABOUT IT SO WE COULD BE RECONCILED! <br />
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It was serious twilight zone stuff. I do believe that if we had not had a good three weeks apart from Mars Hill before we got that letter, if I had not had that breakthrough with the American Flag, that it might have had the desired effect. But we were already going through "deprogramming" by listening to messages from trusted pastors and reading our Bible without the constant drum beat of Mars Hill rhetoric echoing in the background. What is important is that it didn't work. I responded by calling him on using tools of guilt, using tools of shame, using tools of condemnation and then offering himself as a source of reconciliation and grace giver. I called him on throwing out the word "love" recklessly when every other word in the letter was anger and condemnation. My wife then responded by undressing his points one by one.<br />
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But what is scary is that if I had received that letter 2 weeks before…. Before I had my breakthrough with the American Flag…. It could’ve worked… I might have put my head down, tail betwixt me legs and gone sheepishly back into the flock to be scolded, disciplined and punished…. And beg them to forgive me for my wickedness. The tactics he utilized were powerful…. That is why I tend to believe someone above him wrote it…. Because I don’t believe he is either that smart or that sick. But the tools and tactics were those of an expert manipulator.<br />
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He did let slip in his message that the lead pastors at the church were now involved. So this wasn’t some loose cannon, he had the full support and direction of Pastoral staff. <br />
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A few days later I used Mathew 18 as my guide and attempted to "reconcile" with him. I sent him an email. It was not apologetic, it was not pleading for forgiveness or reconciliation, but I was kind and even though there were some stern corrections in it, there was love present in it too. I let him know that we did not choose to leave because of him, in case he thought it was his actions that drove us away. I let him know that his letter had caused enormous distressed in our household and I chided him for treating supposed friends so recklessly just because they wouldn't "submit" to him and let him know that my wife felt deeply betrayed by him and the community for purposing to throw it in our face that they all sat around and compared notes. I did not attack him, I did not abuse him, but I did correct him, and I did it from a heart of Love. If I did anything I showed him how to lovingly correct someone so that next time he doesn't do the same thing to someone else that he did with us.<br />
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He never responded. I haven’t heard from him since.<br />
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After that, one of the Pastors made kind overtures through other channels to try to talk about what happened. I agreed to a phone conversation hoping we could find closure with them. We were weary and exhausted and hurt. I had watched too many tears fall from my wife's face because a church felt slighted? Because they needed to save face in a break up? My hope was that he wanted to apologize for what had gone down and how horrible our experience at Mars Hill was. If only so I could share with my wife that someone at Mars Hill realized they had gotten out of line.... to restore her faith and try to glue back together her rose colored lenses. These were women she had grown very close to over months and months of intensive relationship.... and now silence. No one called, texted, nothing. It was as though if you weren't a member of Mars Hill you didn't exist anymore.<br />
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But when I spoke with the pastor it immediately turned to our reasons. He wasn't concerned with whether or not we were okay, he didn't even remember my wife's name initially, even though my wife and his wife had grown very close. He wanted to know if we had "theological problems" first and foremost. Which was the only question we had gotten from anyone at Mars Hill since sending out our letter. And honestly we didn't!<br />
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None of our problems can really be delineated specifically to theology. They were and are ecclesia problems, church structure problems and church government problems. But all anyone wanted was the reasons and knowing how MH operates I can only assume it is so they could argue them with us. Maybe I could've shared them so he could have a go at arguing them, but I was tired no I was disgusted and weary of going through this with them. It had been nearly a month since we sent out our goodbye letter and we were still dealing with this one question! He didn't apologize either. What he actually did was assert that we didn't read the tone of the email properly and that we were equally responsible if not more responsible for the upset and implied just like the CG leader did that we may not be discerning God's will because God's will is apparently clear and obvious and if we didn't have clear direction on what church to go to next, then we were probably disobeying God. <br />
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It was clear that this wasn't going to be the conversation I expected. So I just shut down, I nodded, smiled, said yes, said no Uh Huh, Uh Huh, Yep, Okay, Okay, platitude, platitude, I hear ya, okay bye bye and hung up. <br />
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It’s Over! <br />
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It felt like getting spit on as a final act of Mars Hill. Not only did this young, idealistic leader run roughshod over us, act out of malice because we wouldn't respect his authority and question the condition of our heart, but senior leadership was saying that it was our fault that he acted that way. I should’ve just sat down with them!<br />
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Be that what it may. We are free! & they are not. <br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-64562403828862413232011-03-22T10:28:00.019-07:002022-12-13T22:18:38.738-08:00Jesus Christ Is Punk Rock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSO97LfHLDo/TrHNFagDEVI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/juGPy9rxXmw/s1600/punk+rock_bw.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSO97LfHLDo/TrHNFagDEVI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/juGPy9rxXmw/s320/punk+rock_bw.png" width="293" /></a></div>
Punk Rock is non-conformist, anti-government, anti-control, screw authority in your face culture.... at least it used to be before the Avril Lavigne's, Sum 41's, Fallout Boys, and other Chemical Romance corporate bands started popularizing it...... It was dangerous and a threat to the status quo..... <br />
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So is Jesus Christ!<br />
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Jesus was a threat to the entire order of things when he showed up on the scene.... That's why he was crucified.... because the ruling class wanted him silenced! Jesus challenged convention, disregarded the authority of both the religious ruling class, King Herod, and even the Roman Empire itself. <br />
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He offered dynamic, revolutionary ideas to the public..... that upholding the law wasn't as important as the heart that was doing so..... that there was freedom in communion with the father..... and that the religious leaders would stand at the back of the line while the so-called sinners came into the kingdom first.....And he did so with an unwavering sense of absolute authority.<br />
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He challenged thousand year old precepts, and ideas upon which the entire power structure in Jerusalem and Judeah was built and had been built for centuries.... He infuriated the religious elite so badly that they wanted him dead..... not because of blasphemy..... but because he was a threat to their power.<br />
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Jesus was a revolutionary figure and yet A man born of the most humble circumstances from an otherwise unextraordinary family with no ties to wealth or power. His circumstances dictated hat his life be spent quietly seeking a decent living and modestly attempting to improve his circumstances as a carpenter. There was no convetional reason that a common man should feel entitled to make such accusations as he did to religious leaders and challenge the order of things.... WHO THE HELL DID HE THINK HE WAS?<br />
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No man in that age would dare make the declarations Jesus made given the circumstances of his life..... But Jesus did.... acting like a man with absolute authority he challenged convention, ate with taxpayers, drank with Samaritans, enjoyed the company of sinners, adulterers, lepers, prostitutes, the wretches of society..... and yet stood before the leaders of the age and called them liars and failures "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." MT 21:31 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!" MT-23:15<br />
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Jesus was a revolutionary. Jesus was Punk Rock. He was not afraid of anything, and loved everyone.... he lived among the misfits, drank with troublemakers, and hung around with roughnecks and got in the face of authority every chance he got. <br />
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I wonder if the modern, consumer crazed, suburban driving, denim loving hipster churches of today realize the potency of the man they supposedly call king? Is he seen as a dynamic, hard core, no holds barred revolutionary God who came to earth and turned everything upside down? No.... typically he is gentle milquetoast. A watered down sing song version of himself that is easily digested by the masses without much that can offend...... The Jesus of the modern church requires little from us, and promises us much.... He offers eternal happiness in Heaven, creature comforts all our live long days, and only requires that we show up on Sunday's..... clap for songs.... smile at others while we shake hands.... maybe commit to making coffee once a month before service...... and offers us little factions of like minded watered down, milquetoast friends that we can do couples BBQ's with and bake sales and take turns shuttling kids to practice.<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-23994752427871871252010-11-09T13:22:00.054-08:002022-12-13T22:34:25.750-08:00Does God Hate Gay People?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nfMu5bLxHjI/Tyb3WyIcLSI/AAAAAAAAAJM/eWH7915Z4ws/s1600/WHOSOEVER.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nfMu5bLxHjI/Tyb3WyIcLSI/AAAAAAAAAJM/eWH7915Z4ws/s320/WHOSOEVER.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Operational Word is Whosoever</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Does God Hate gay people.....The short answer is no. It is actually is an abuse of scripture to say otherwise.<br />
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God does not hate.... He doesn't throw people into hell because he hates them, he does it because they deserve it. And we all deserve it! That is what is so amazing about Jesus.... he gives us a chance! And he didn't exclude anyone. I cannot vouch for God's character as I have not an inkling of understanding of his nature but my best interpretation of everything we know about him, the Bible, is that he doesn't hate as we do..... That would detract from his perfectly holy character..<br />
<br />But this is human kind placing it's own biased template of understanding over God's word and using specific scriptures to support arguments without considering the totality of the teachings in the Bible. Exegesis doesn't prove anything.<br />
<br />There is nowhere in the Bible that establishes a classification system for sin. How many Christians have had a drinking problem? Or want the new iPhone for Christmas (Coveting), or have shoplifted some time in their life (stealing), or tell little white lies so they don't hurt people they love (lying)? <div><br /></div><div>God hates a lying tongue.<br />
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Or what about people who live their lives worshipping money (aka Everyone)? Or have cheated on their wives, husbands, or girlfriends or boyfriends? Or want a car like their neighbors or TV, or BBQ pit? Or who gossip about people they know (bearing false witness) or use the slang terms "God D@mn!t" or "JESUS CHRIST!" in an inappropriate way?<br />
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The truth is that we all fall short. If we could measure up we wouldn't need Jesus Christ. If we are all sinners, and we all fall short what makes sexual preference any worse than anyone else? Nothing.<br />
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We all fall short, we all sin EVERYDAY. And if there was a rating system to sin.... Then the ten commandments are the top ten. Covetousness and idolatry are far bigger problems in God's eyes than sexual preference. Oh and here is another little nugget. <br />
<br />'Whatever measure you use to judge other people will also be used on you by your God". <br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-20886312396205514272010-10-08T09:18:00.026-07:002022-12-13T21:39:40.773-08:00Evolution & Genesis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cxenAXeIRxc/Tyby7Je68gI/AAAAAAAAAIk/U6mCo50TNE8/s1600/Darwin+Shush.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cxenAXeIRxc/Tyby7Je68gI/AAAAAAAAAIk/U6mCo50TNE8/s320/Darwin+Shush.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
There is a sweeping percentage of the world population that has accepted a lie. The lie is that evolution finally and forever discredits the ideas put forth in the Bible. The idea is that since evolution is a scientifically supported theory it takes precedence over and conflicts with the ideas set forth in the first book of the Bible....Genesis.<br />
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Religious people are fighting this fight fervently.... They believe that evolution is a tool of the Devil and that if children are taught evolution that spirituality in this country and world wide will die.... They have a literal interpretation of the Bible and therefore see the two concepts....i.e creationism, and evolution, as being incompatible.... Darwin was a Christian! Many of his peers were frustrated by the fact that religion controlled scientific discovery in the late 1800's. They fought against the oppressive nature of a fundamentalist, literally interpretative church which discredited any scientific discovery that did not fit neatly in there interpretation of the Bible. But at the end of the day Darwin never felt that his discovery discredited Biblical creationism.<br />
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There are dozens of issues underlying this.... The problem of how life came into being from nothing. The statistical chances of this happening out of shear circumstance are like me going to play the Lottery and hitting the jackpot a dozen times in a row.... There are issues with how the universe just arbitrarily exploded into existence out of nothing, with a godlike (no pun intended) power & ferocious levels of energy incomprehensible to the human mind, but in a perfectly tuned way so that the physical laws that were established enabled the universe to exist and support life rather than collapse in on itself. Matter and antimatter were colliding, hot gases were churning in a superheated explosion, and yet matter established a stable structure over anti-matter, this super mega explosion seemed "perfectly tuned" and "strong forces" came into existence which were able to bind positively and negatively charged particles together to create the building blocks for everything we know.<br />
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Now I won't go into all these timeless questions....yet.... but I will say that it seems incomprehensible that such a godlike explosion and creation of the entire universe could occur and take place in perfect order by random circumstance..... The effect was our universe, our galaxy, our solar system, and our planet..... but from what cause? It just randomly happened one day?<br />
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What I want to try to convey that most Christians miss is that not only do evolution and Genesis compliment each other, but they seem to reinforce one another. Lead Scientist for the "Human Genome Project" Francis Collins wrote that scientist have climbed the mountain of truth to overcome ignorance for hundreds of years and as they reach a certain peak, they ascend the top of the mountain victorious only to find a camp of theologians sitting there who have known these very same things to be true for hundreds of years.<br />
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Modern society operates on antagonistic trends. Fights over evolution and creationism in hard line schools make the news cycle. But is a literal perspective of the Bible worth discrediting virtually the entire scientific discipline of Geology and a good portion of Biology? Do parents believe they are helping their children by stoking this? I believe you can accept and support evolution without damaging your faith.<br />
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First what one must do is look at the Bible, it's nature, it's language, it's meaning and it's purpose and ask oneself..... Is all of this really supposed to be taken literally? I don't think so, in fact if you read the Bible, you discover that it is largely comprised of riddle, simile, and metaphor and for Christians to not lend the Bible poetic license in the book of Genesis is a travesty that has done Christianity more harm than anything else. There are plenty of parts of the Bible that read like historical records, there are others that read like songs and others that read like prose. Genesis 1 does not read like a historical record.... at least not from a finite human perspective.<br />
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Did God create the entire universe in 6 days? He could have, but I believe that Genesis, just like dozens of other books in the Bible, is a symbolic representation of God's perspective<br />
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Look at it this way. How does Genesis break down creation?<br />
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1. He created the universe - It was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep<br />
2. He said let there be light..... <br />
3. He created water over the entire surface of the earth and created the sky (i.e. the atmosphere)<br />
4. Let dry ground appear <br />
5. Vegetation - vegetation goes all the way down to algae and bacteria... <br />
6. God allowed sunshine over the earth ( during the volcanic early formation of the planet, there probably wasn't a lot of sunlight)<br />
7. Water born animals <br />
8. Let birds fly across the expanse of the sky and great creatures of the sea..... <br />
9. Let the land produce livestock and wild animals along the ground <br />
10. God creates man.<br />
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If you don't twist up the book of Genesis with literal interpretation, it comes alive with the truth..... We could probably look at the story of Adam and Eve through the same perspective.... Did a snake really talk to Eve and encourage her to eat fruit from this specific tree in this specific garden? Probably not, but you could look at the story and see it as a story of man's enlightenment.... We are considered special among animals because of our tremendous mental capacity, and right in the first book there is a story of how man was made different from all creation because he ate from the tree of knowledge. Perhaps the tree of knowledge was a mushroom i.e. the stoned ape, but I still don't see a dealbreaker here. <br />
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The Bible is telling us something far more profound than we are hearing. It truly is an anvil upon which society has hammered away for centuries, and though many a man has hammered away, the Bible still stands as relevant and important as ever.<br />
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Christians get themselves in trouble when they oversimplify the message of the Bible or start inserting faith wherever there is a gap in understanding. The concept that this book is the living word of God means it is far more complex than we may actually understand. It cannot be taken at face value because our God is so much larger than us.... he cannot be taken at face value. God's penchant for speaking in parable means that talking snakes, gardens with trees of knowledge, Red Seas parting, men being carried in a fish's mouth, and men carrying every living thing on a boat during a storm might have much more profound meanings than we lend them.<br />
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Evolution doesn't discredit the Bible.... Quite the contrary. All the rest can continue to argue about what should be taught in schools and continue to fight in the political realm for equal representation..... I will take comfort in the fact that a reasoned study of Genesis played a large part in my skeptical viewpoint turning to belief..... Where many see conflict, I found awe inspiring harmony.<br />
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Go Figure.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-50252089504515949342010-09-28T22:14:00.013-07:002022-12-13T21:28:37.128-08:00The Incomplete Work?Jesus dies as a final "sin offering" on the passover....a final sacrificial lamb that was slaughtered to banish our iniquities..... Jesus during his earthly ministry, fulfilled the Levitical (Mosaic) law and died as a final offering before God to reconnect us to God through the Holy Spirit and to do away with the burden of the law....an objective representation of our conscience or the Moral Law..... and in doing so eliminated the practice of sin offerings, guilt offerings, fellowship offerings, grain offerings..... and tithes..... Wait a minute we still tithe don't we?<br />
<br /><div>The argument can also be made that in this time period... Religion was government. This is a period where the lines between church and state were far more blurry if there were lines at all. These were much closer to theocracies that most anything we see in the modern world.... So was a tithe more akin to taxes? I tend to think so.</div><div><br />Even though Jesus did fulfill the law, humanity still loves money, whether they are vocational lawyers or vocational pastors and evangelists.<br /><br />2000+ years later not a single other ritual, practice, or sacrifice from the Levitical law is employed by the Christian church except for the requirement that parishioners provide the church with 10% of their income. IE the tithe. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is not because Jesus work was incomplete it is because even preachers, pastors and priests have their hearts wrapped around money. I'm not excluding myself from this... God knows I'm as greedy as anyone, </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4358649769567266436.post-73466316080286056092010-09-26T14:28:00.000-07:002022-12-13T21:22:59.517-08:00Divine or Not Divine.....That is the QuestionThe single biggest question mark for any person who has even the slightest bit of skepticism when considering the Christian Manifesto is whether or not Jesus was just an enlightened, visionary man, or if he actually was the Son of God and the third part of the Trinity.<br />
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In the modern world it is virtually impossible to substatiate his claim because he is not here for us to question nor does God exist in our three dimensional world allowing us to point to supernatural occurences that substantiate his existence. Christians are quick to point out nuaces of their own life which seem to showcase miraculous intervention by a supernatural being and they often point to the sensation they encounter during prayer and evidence of Jesus divine nature. But these "miracles" can often be swept aside as having a realistic, pedestrian cause and the so called "holy spirit" that people claim to encounter when deeply pressed into prayer is a phenomena that also seems to be commonplace in non-religious excersizes like meditation and deep introspection. Rather we need to look more closely at what evidence we do have and use that as a vehicle to establish a REASONABLE answer rather than a waxy, dreamy eyed answer based in flawed, biased logic. Since the only historical accounts we have of Jesus are the Gospels and they are pretty much lacking in objectivity, the next best things is to look at those who most closely knew him.<br />
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The disciples were an interesting lot.... Throughout the 4 Gospels of the Bible they are described as severely flawed, selfish people who repeatedly in the midst of Jesus' amazing miracles are seen debating selfish interests. But there is a large body of historical documentation relating to these men that we can use as a guide.<br />
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Each of these men were shown to be cowards, selfish, and weak in the eyes of danger..... Simon who was the most loyal and enthusiastic of Jesus disciples, feared so much the retribution that he would face once Jesus was captured that he denied knowing him to a young child...... That is cowardice.<br />
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But Jesus told them plainly that he would die and that he would rise on the third day conquering death and ridding society of the guilt and shame associated with sin.....doing away with the requirements of the Mosaic Law.....So these men who followed him would essentially pin all their hopes on whether or not Jesus did in fact come back from the dead..... Now there are numerous conflicting accounts about what transpired after Jesus died..... A demonic Hollywood producer recently developing a fictomentary (a fictional documentary) stating that the disciples attacked the Roman guards at Jesus tomb, made off with his body and started the single greatest hoax in history......<br />
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At this point it is important to look at what happened after Jesus left the Earth.....once Jesus was gone and was no longer there to speak strength and power into these men, they eached were tortured and killed (sans one) for not denying Jesus divine nature..... Now I know the mindset behind developing a hoax......and I know that if one is attemptin to pull something of this nature off, one does not allow the authorities to render your skin from your body piece by agonizing piece and then burn you at the stake unless you were so conviced that Jesus was the son of God you were willing to die for the belief..... Now I know where the aetheist goes from here..... They point to modern hoaxes like the Halebob Comet cult or Jerry Jones who led his people to drink poison out of belief in his sham.... This shows that people are gullible and when under the influence of a powerful, charismatic personality will die for that person..... But the problem is that Jerry Jones put the cup in each persons hand, told them to drink, and reassured them that he would see them in paradise shortly...... In the case of the disciples, Jesus was long gone.... he wasn't there to support them as they endured horid torture, and he never even told them that they should die for him..... Rather all they had to hold onto was whatever they had seen happen with Jesus and what had transpired after he died..... because all their hope (and our hope) is pinned on what transpired after he was crucified..... Whatever took place, we will never know, but we do know that the eye witnesses were willing to endure unspeakable torture and finally death for the man who had promised that he would rise on the third day.<br />
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This one little nugget speaks to the mindset of the disciples..... You can read the Gospels with a grain of salt and a skeptical eye..... and easily right it off.... but when you consider that the men who wrote and played parts in the Gospels were each tortured and slaughtered for believing in this man that was long gone by the time they met death..... one has to acknowledge that they must have seen something powerful in order to sustain under those circumstances.<br />
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This is item one.... we'll discuss more as we go along, and we will also discuss how the church cheats believers and discuss just how ugly the modern church has become.......I hope you enjoy and please subscribe.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1