[Hostage]

Smells like scientology.......(holding nose)

[hoagy62]

From the stories coming out now, it sounds like Driscoll is a wanna-be cult leader who enjoys exercising an iron grip on his congregation.

That is not what Christ had in mind for the Church.

[GeronL]

bump

[Salvation]

Maur Hill = Catholic High School in Kansas

[Jan_Sobieski]

Sounds like a Nicolaitan to me...

Nico-, combinatory form of nīko, "victory" in Greek, and laos means people, or more specifically, the laity; hence, the word may be taken to mean "lay conquerors" or "conquerors of the lay people". However, "Nicolaitan" (Greek: Νικολαϊτῶν; Νικολαΐτης) is the name ostensibly given to followers of the heretic Nicolas (Greek: Νικόλαος)—the name itself meaning "victorious over people," or "victory of the people," which he would have been given at birth.

[Nevadan]

I have known many godly pastors who work very hard to serve God and minister to their congregations. unfortunately, there are some pastors like Driscoll who believe that God rubber stamps their every decision and whim. Disagreeing with this mentality results in such ministers claiming that you are opposing God's will.

[freeagle]

I am an evangelical Christian who has been in professional church ministry (I am no longer) and learned from many of the contemporary big successful and some failed leaders as well as just the everyday followers of Christ. Bottomline: they are, we are all human and fall short of the glory of God.

I’ve noticed numerous articles written by evangelical Christians bashing Mark Driscoll, his ministry, his people - God’s church. So far I haven’t read or heard from any leader I respect in the “business” bash him.

There’s plenty of scripture that should guide leaders and church members in behavior and problem resolution. And, most importantly, God’s Word is there for us to read, prayerfully discern what Christ wants us to do in our own lives. If there’s failure, let’s look to ourselves first.

It took awhile, but I learned that in every church, every church leadership situation, there’s room for big problems. Gee whiz, there’s a crapton of stuff I need to attend to with Christ first, before I beat up on my church leadership.

I wish we would stop beating up on the church - God’s church, BTW - and those leaders trying to keep the church going - particularly in these days.

[zeestephen]

I walk by the Bellevue church almost every day.

I thought it was kind of cool that a large Evangelical style church suddenly appeared in ultra liberal downtown Bellevue a couple years ago.

I had no clue there was a civil war going on inside until I read an article at a local TV news website a few weeks ago.

[cloudmountain]

Pastor Mark Driscoll seems to be another “Dr. EEEEeugen Scott, that is, a fraud and a blasphemer.

[HarleyD]

This is what happens when people submit to other people in this fashion. This was a train wreck waiting to happen. Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the nature of man-Christian or otherwise.

Pro 30:8-9 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

[Abigail Adams]

They’re just starting to question him now? Kinda slow if you ask me. Shoulda questioned him years ago.

[ravenwolf]

Driscoll continued: “Johnny is now so terrified of women and his own penis that he sits in his room alone each night on the internet hoping to get some… because he’s so afraid of women and has no idea how to take one, or love one, or serve one, or take one to bed and make the Song of Songs sing again. One day Johnny finally gives in to the pressure of his pre-humpers singles ministry and gets stuck with some gal left on the shelf long after her expiration date… And so the culture and families and churches sprint to hell because the men aren’t doing the job and the feminists continue their rant that it’s all our fault and we should just let them be pastors and heads of homes and run the show.

---

I don`t know about the rest of it but I agree with the above, kids don`t know if they are supposed to be boys or girls.

[Lee N. Field]

From the article:

After the dustup, Driscoll canceled the entire congregation’s memberships and told them they had to reapply with a special addendum specifically agreeing to the new bylaws he was proposing.

From Justin Taylor's blog:

So, when our attendance was at about six thousand people a few years ago, we did something unprecedented. We canceled out the membership of everyone in our church and I preached the Doctrine series for thirteen weeks. Each sermon was well over an hour and included me answering text-messaged questions from our people.

Those who made it through the entire series were interviewed, and those who evidenced true faith in Christ and signed our membership covenant were installed as new members. We had always had a high bar for membership, but I wanted to raise that bar higher as we pursued our goal of becoming, by God’s grace, a church of fifty thousand. In so doing, we lost about a thousand people, dropped to five thousand total, and missed budget for the first time in our church’s history.

--An Interview with Mark Driscoll on Doctrine

If you go there, you'll note comments are gone. Shock over the mass membership cancellation came to dominate the comment list. I still have most of them in my gmail account, because I'd commented and had responses emailed to me.

I remember thinking at the time, what a strange thing that was to do, as if you get a divorce from your spouse for a week to decide if you want to continue being married.

This is an interview with Driscoll, and puts his spin on it. The Stranger article, if true, puts it into context with some behind the scenes political stuff, at the same time as Dricoll's "pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus" comment. (The sound clip for that, BTW, is not difficult to find. Here, for one.)

Which is true?

With what kind of ecclesiology can leadership cancel everyone's membership en-masse, and fire elders? Answer, a top down, personality dominated CEO model ecclesiology. Driscoll's not as "Reformed" as people might think he is.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Pastor Spends $200,000 of Church’s Money to Buy His Own Book to Make it a New York Times Best Seller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-gZ3bcBZs

[af_vet_1981]

Now new documents have been unearthed from 2000, when the church opened up a we'll-take-all-questions message board and Driscoll published some vicious rants under the macho pseudonym William Wallace II/>a?

This particular post shows him unfit for any leadership role whatsoever and in need of repentance and reconciliation.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Thanks for contributing this important article!