Nearly 40 elders who once worked at Mars Hill Church and served alongside Mark Driscoll during the most tumultuous years of his career have released a public statement outlining their dismay that their former leader has continued his abusive tactics at his new church; calling on him to step down and to enter into a process of conciliation with those he abused.
Comprising of “the majority of the pastors who served at the church between 2011 and 2014, when formal charges were raised against Driscoll” and released to Christianity Today, the letter comes in light of several reports- covered extensively by us here and here – which detail that Mark Driscoll has devolved even further since Mars Hill imploded on account of his abusive behavior. As time has progressed, and as the new church he founded in 2016, The Trinity Church, has grown to nearly 1000 people, his better angels have transformed into crooked and decrepit demons, and he has carried on many of the same practices, and worse.
Key among the grievances of the signers, which include members of the highest levels of his executive team, is that Driscoll, after being put under discipline by his elders at Mars Hill, has now set up a new kingdom where he has no elders at all, only a mysterious board of unspecified people that oversees operations from afar.
With no accountability or anyone telling him ‘no’, it creates a fertile hunting ground where he can locate any sheep that he deems as disloyal or insufficiently submissive and compliant, and repeatedly smash its head with a rock.
His previous elders further warn that it would not be “be prudent or healthy” for Driscoll, having fled his previous post rather than to submit to accountability and church discipline,” to be in a position of spiritual authority in a church or ministry setting for the foreseeable future.’
We could not agree more.