Financial:
In October of last year, the church purchased the building that formerly housed the Tabella nightclub for $3.95M, keeping all details secret from the congregation until the deal closed. Why? Whose money were they spending? Who is this church serving, if it needs to bully its members? The church leadership had stopped publishing and distributing weekly financial updates to the congregation, and while members worried, they were given no details on the churches financial situation…until…

Last December this appeared on the church website:
“Multiple pastors request prayers for our financial state. With the deep deficit, it is a test for all the staff to choose Jesus over anxiety when ministry funds are cut short and the possibility of lay-offs and additional budget cuts is on the horizon. Please pray for repentance by those who are disobeying God in their giving, and pray to Jesus to make generous and faithful hearts of our body.”
Manipulative. Ludicrously manipulative, passive aggressive, just childish…

Mars Hill Bylaws
In September of last year Mars Hill fired one pastor and placed another on probation. At the time the church was in the process of rewriting the church bylaws. According to Mark Driscoll, these two men “curiously were among the least administratively gifted for that task, and chose to fight in a sinful manner in an effort to defend their power and retain legal control of the entire church.” In a sermon shortly after, he also talked about the men: “There are a few guys right now, if I wasn’t going to end up on CNN, I would go Old Testament on ’em. There’s no, like, attorneys and blogging, just like I punched you in the mouth, now shut up. That’s clean; it’s simple.”

Here is a discussion of the bylaws point by point from a legal perspective:
http://prayingheart.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/lets-discuss-the-new-by-laws-of-mars-hill-church/

The author provides a summary of what the bylaws do:
*The full council of elders has been reduced to only 5 ruling elders.
*These Ruling 5 are self-appointed and serve for life without effective accountability.
*There is no effective oversight of Mark since he serves as his own supervisor on the Ruling 5.
*These by-laws were voted in by the former full council of elders thus revealing the inability of these men to critically read, voice any comments, or express any substantive opinion.
*Since a quorum is only 50%, effectively only 3 Ruling elders govern the church.. These Ruling 5 may only be supervised by those whom they hand pick, as they also control the slate of those who may be appointed.
*No scriptural basis is necessary to discipline any member of the Mars Hill body.
*There remains no protection and no recourse for any member so disciplined, as has already been demonstrated when our very leaders have been subjected to having their character inpugned in public.

My personal favorite quote from the bylaws:
“Please respect the sensitive nature of a document like this and do not distribute it outside of the membership. There is nothing to hide, but our intent is to answer the questions of our members only, and not take the massive number of hours that would be required to also answer the questions regarding our legal governance to people for whom Mars Hill Church is not home.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zm1vzM2FAc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mmTXVTil8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kayRXtITyw&feature=related

I don’t think I need to go into some of the serious issues with this form of church governance. Secrecy, unquestioned authority, unchecked power…

I do not believe that it is over the line to say that this church is, frankly, beyond misogynistic. This is abusive. This goes against everything preached by Jesus in their gospel. Believing that women should be submissive is not just a cultural difference. It’s about recognizing women as intelligent human beings. It is very, very frightening to me as a female, and just as a human being, that this sort of hateful rhetoric and outright abusive treatment of women is going on here in Seattle. My prayers for all the young women of this church.

An interesting blog post:
http://www.monkfish-abbey.org/blog/20060308/grid-blog-for-international-womens-day-hammer-time/

Quotes from Mark Driscoll’s “Spiritual Gifts VI: (1 Corinthians 14:26-40)” sermon:
“No woman wants a man to treat her like another man because if we do, you cry.
Men are horrible to other men. And they don’t cry. And if they do we mock them and tell everyone. That’s probably not what you want. True story, right men? Right? My wife she tells me all the time, “I’m not one of the guys,” which means I do not treat her like a man, does that mean I treat her with– no, I treat her like a lady. See this whole gender conflict is if men– you know, we’re not about chauvinism, we’re not about feminism, we are about chivalry. Men loving women in their femininity and not treating them like men but treating them like ladies. That’s what we’re about.
The problem with women, though, who want to be treated like men, is as soon as you do, they say, “You know what, you hurt my feelings. I’m a girl.”
Does it say, “Ladies, don’t have any questions”? Does it say that? No. Does it say, “Ladies, don’t disagree.” No. Does it say, “Ladies, don’t think for yourself.” When you disagree, when you’re super-theological, when you’re all fired up, the first thing you don’t do is start yellin’ at the pastor and yellin’ at the church, firin’ nasty e-mails, and declarin’ war and puttin’ together a, a, little group of, you know, feminist women with guns who are gonna make a difference.”

“If you’re married, you go talk to who? Your husband. You say, “Sweetheart, I was readin’ The Bible, I think it’s ridiculous.” And he would say, “We should probably talk.” “Honey I was readin’ the Bible, I don’t understand.” He should say, “Let’s, let’s study that together. Let’s take some time, and study — together. Now some of you will protest and say, “THAT is SEXIST!” As a married man, I will tell you, it is sexy. That’s what it is. There is nothin’ hotter than a wife with a great new testament, commentaries, concordances, and questions. That is theological foreplay. It’s awesome. Because now you’re connecting at the level of then heart and the soul and god is honoring of that.”

Other Driscoll quotes:
Women’s place is in the home
“Women will be saved by going back to that role that God has chosen for them. Ladies, if the hair on the back of your neck stands up it is because you are fighting your role in the scripture.”

Women should not hold leadership positions
“There is no occasion where women led a society and were its heads and the men complied and followed. … It’s a matter of Biblical creation”

Women are responsible for their husbands’ infidelity
“Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness.”