It has been hard to ignore the Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill situation. There are so many similarities to Great Commission when it comes to leadership styles and church governance. As many of you may know, in 2007 Driscoll reorganized the church by removing all meaningful accountability from the congregation (very similar to GC), hand picked new elders, fired those that disagreed with him, and, sadly, set himself up for failure. At that time, he gave his famous "pile of dead bodies under the bus" talk.
Here is a link:
http://joyfulexiles.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/preaching-paul_edits1.mp3There is so much to say, and the entire thing is profoundly sad, but one interesting development happened this week. A pastor took responsibility and appears to have sincerely apologized.
Here is a link. Read it if you have a minute.
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s296/sh/08f9a50a-34eb-4853-95df-df5dd9c6eb8d/8ff0270968e1deed574553096bc874f1Here are some key parts that jumped out when I read it:
"First of all it means that what has been happening at Mars Hill is the work of Jesus in our midst.
It means that the root of the problem is not satanic opposition or attack, nor is it social media or vocal online critics, nor is it the members or attenders of the church (past or present). Nor is it elders, deacons, staff and leaders who have called for change from within. In fact the root of the problem has been the leadership of the church who have been blindly committed to maintaining the status quo as if we simply need to push through what has so frequently been referred to as a “difficult season.” All such attempts at crisis management and damage control are futile, foolish, and in fact create more harm since they are the polar opposite of repentance. I am convinced that Jesus is bringing his word of rebuke to the leadership (including me) through the Spirit. This is his word of loving discipline. In Rev 3:19 Jesus says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” I personally must have ears to hear and a heart to respond."
And then this:
But there is another—and related—area of great sin and blindness that I need to address. I
n fact, I would say I consider this to be the darkest, most destructive and most hurtful aspect of Mars Hill’s ministry culture by far. I call it the “ad hominem” narrative. Ad hominem is the Latin term for a tactic used when facing off with an opponent over an issue, whereby one seeks to win by attacking and discrediting their opponent rather that honestly debating the issue at hand.
In one form or another ad hominem narrative (which can sound very reasonable, especially because it can contain elements of truth), has been consistently used for years to discredit voices of dissent and to silence accusation of wrongdoing and sin. What I have seen on multiple occasions is that when a leader raises an issue with Mars Hill or Mars Hill leadership, they themselves soon become the issue rather than the issue they raised. What they said, for example,
is invalidated by how they said it, or
because they did not follow proper procedure or protocol. Then, almost inevitably it is not long before they are gone from their position, their job, or the church itself.
Often, their integrity was then slandered and their character maligned. Resorting to ad hominem narrative as a response to conflict is horrible and devastating in the extreme. Ad hominem narrative is essentially to defensive one’s own righteousness rather than to trust the righteousness of Another. It never confesses or takes responsibility for sin.
It is inconsistent with humility. It resists repentance at any cost. It is therefore antithetical to the gospel."
How many times has ad hominem been used by GC leaders against posters on this forum? GCM called us detractors. Then, I am reminded of Hopler's "reconciliation letter" where he offered 3 reasons people post Internet criticisms. 1. They are misinformed and bringing up stuff from the 1970's that has been dealt with. 2. They have gone on blogs to take up personal conflicts. 3. They oppose God and his Word. Talk about ad hominem!
Whoever this Mars Hill pastor is, I can't judge his sincerity, but I take this letter at face value. He genuinely seems profoundly sorry. One can only hope that GC leaders learn from this situation.
