Seattle-based megachurch Mars Hill announced Friday that it will dissolve, splitting its 13 campuses into separate and self-governed entities following the resignation of embattled pastor Mark Driscoll earlier this month.
The church sold three of its locations earlier in the month, and has continued to struggle after Driscoll was investigated and found to be engaging in "sinful" behavior that mostly centered around a "domineering style of leadership," the church said when he resigned.
Mars Hill Teaching and Network Pastor Dave Bruskas said in the announcement: “The best future for each of our existing local churches is for them to become autonomous self-governed entities. This means that each of our locations has an opportunity to become a new church, rooted in the best of what Mars Hill has been in the past, and independently led and run by its own local elder teams.”
The reorganization process should be completed by January 1, 2015, Bruskas said.
The blog post said each location will have three choices — becoming independent and self-governed; merging with existing churches; or disbanding. An earlier Mars Hill property shut down in Arizona became the Phoenix Bible Church.
The Friday announcement is “essentially disbanding” the megachurch, Warren Throckmorton, a Pennsylvania college professor who
followed Mars Hill's troubles, told Seattlepi.com.
Driscoll’s resigned in mid-October after leading Mars Hill for 20 years; there had been mounting criticism over the way he was directing the church.
At the time, the church’s board was also surprised that Driscoll resigned, saying in a statement that the lead pastor had “been guilty of arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner," but had "never been charged with any immorality, illegality or heresy."
Bruskas announced that all of Mars Hill’s church properties would be sold or loans would be assumed by independent churches, central staff would be “released from their employment,” and remaining funds would be gifted as seed money to newly independent churches.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.