It was started in the spring of 1996 by three men. They began
meeting in homes, and then graduated to borrowing space in a local church. by
fall of that year they were up to about 160 people.
The next year they began holding two weekly services. Two years
later they were averaging about 350 in worship, and in a few more years they
transitioned to a multi-site church, with video hook-up at each campus
streaming in the sermons of Lead Pastor Mark Driscoll.
Of the three men who started up Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll
soon emerged as the front man. He was a very gifted speaker, had a strong
vision for the church and natural leadership skills. And in the early years,
Mark had a good, solid message. He was all about Jesus and what it meant to be
a disciple of Jesus. He didn’t seem to think that growth for the sake of growth
was what it was all about. In fact he was very critical of some mega churches
that he perceived as being that way. Mark wanted to keep Jesus at the center of
things and not let it become all about himself. But that changed over time.
Mark liked the power. He liked being the authority. In his sermons
he began boasting about the church’s numbers – attendance, conversions,
buildings, bank account balances. He enjoyed the success, and the people who
attended seemed to enjoy being a part of something so successful.
And then signs began showing that perhaps it wasn’t really all
about Jesus anymore. People started speaking up about Mark’s abusive behavior.
He bullied others; he was intolerant of dissent. If an elder of the church
challenged him in any way, he essentially fired them and decreed that they
should be shunned by the church. In his preaching it began sounding like he was
telling his congregation that they should submit not to the authority of God,
but to the authority of Mars Hill Church and Pastor Mark Driscoll.
It seemed pretty clear that Mark wanted not to serve but to be
served. He looked more like a tyrant than a servant leader. It is said that a
good governance model can protect the people from a bad leader, while a bad
governance model can protect a bad leader from being held accountable. Mars
Hill found itself in the latter situation.
At the top of its game, Mars Hill had 12 campuses in four
different states, with 100 paid staff. They reported weekly attendance of about
13,000. This was in early 2014. By the end of that year, Mars Hill Church was
gone.
This is not a singular tale, of course. There have been others
like Mark and there will be more to come. It is the nature of human beings to
enjoy power and all its privileges. Even little children show the signs. Power
is thrilling, intoxicating. When given the opportunity people are tempted to
abuse it.
But what’s more, and what we really can’t turn aside from seeing,
is that it wasn’t only Mark. There were thousands of people who just loved
being a part of something so big and successful and powerful. There was power
just in being a part of it all. They sat in the room and listened to his
sermons every week. When he said abusive things, they laughed. When he made
veiled threats to his elders, they laughed. It didn’t matter, they liked being
on the side of something so powerful.
James and John wanted power and privilege; even after hearing from
Jesus repeatedly that it wasn’t going to be like that; that his work would take
him not to the seats of worldly power, but right to the cross and the grave, yet
they still wanted it. It was like they didn’t really believe him. Or that the
lust for power warped their minds.
It’s not that they hadn’t heard about where things were heading.
Back in chapter 8, right after Peter proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah,
Jesus began to speak about the suffering and death that was to come for him. Peter
rebuked him for speaking this way, I suppose because that just didn’t fit into
his notion of what the Messiah is. Jesus rebuked him right back and then turned
to the crowd and said: any who want to follow me must take up their cross.
It happened again in chapter 9, where Jesus was teaching his
disciples about his suffering and death. They did not understand and
unfortunately were afraid to ask questions. Then, strangely enough, they were caught
arguing amongst themselves about which of them is the greatest. Jesus said to
them: whoever wants to be first must be last of all, servant of all.
And once again we see it happen in chapter 10. He tells them
again: many who are first will be last and the last will be first. Knowing that
they still do not understand, once again he begins to tell them about the
suffering to come – in a bit more vivid detail this time:
“See,
we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the
chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they
will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him,
and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
And right after this, James and John
get together and decide the time is right to make their demands. Jesus, we want
you to appoint each of us to sit beside you in glory.
They want the power; they want the
glory. They want to be at the top of the heap looking down on everyone else,
all the losers of the world. James and John believe that this is a privilege
they have earned, and they are boldly claiming it.
Jesus’ words in response to them are
brimming with poignancy. You do not know
what you are asking.
They did not know what they were asking, because they still did
not know what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
The others were no wiser. They got angry at James and John,
probably because they would have asked for it themselves if they had thought of
it. Everyone wants to be on top. I am strong enough, committed enough; I can
drink the cup too. Promote me, Jesus. I want to be your right-hand man.
The church has struggled with this desire for power and privilege all
throughout its history. Rather than conform ourselves to the image of Jesus, we
try to conform Jesus to something he never was and never will be. We are like
fans in the bleachers chanting, “We’re number 1!” Forgetting his words about being
last instead of first, about serving rather than being served because it feels
incongruous. And inconvenient.
It is usually preferable to serve ourselves rather than someone
else. Wouldn’t we rather sit down on the couch in the evening and watch TV or
read a book than to go to a church meeting? Wouldn’t we rather go out for lunch
with friends than spend that hour serving a meal to the homeless?
Wouldn’t we rather complain about the way others are doing things
than to step in and join the effort to make it better? Wouldn’t we rather
complain that the church isn’t doing enough to meet our needs than to stand up
and say, Hey, I see a problem and I want to be a part of the solution?
It’s just too hard to make a difference, we would rather someone
else do that. It’s too hard being a part of a team. Other people might shoot
down your ideas. You might have to submit to the group consensus, or else quit.
There really isn’t enough glory in it.
And yet, whoever wishes to be a Christian must know this: to be a
follower of Jesus is to lift others up, rather than to lift ourselves up. It is
to work for the well-being of the whole – especially the weaker parts of the
whole. It is to, in some sense, lay down one’s life so others may live.
This fall as we come home to our sanctuary, how is Christ calling
you to lay down your life? As we begin to rekindle the life of this church
after a harsh and difficult 20 months, how is Christ calling you to serve? How will
we join together to be the church Jesus is calling us to be?
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