Thoughts on The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

Usually, I try to avoid “hot take” articles. If I’m addressing a trending cultural issue, I like to give a few weeks or months of space before addressing it. But I’ll break that pattern here because I recently finished listening to the twelve-part serial podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill from Christianity Today and my thoughts on this story are fresh on my mind.

The podcast has enjoyed a lot of popularity. It chronicles the rise and fall of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA, and specifically the rise and fall of its celebrity pastor: Mark Driscoll.

There’s so much that could be said about the podcast. And even more could be said about the story it tells. But here, I’d like to offer my initial thoughts on what I learned from the story, how we can think critically about the podcast, and how I would recommend people listen to the podcast for themselves.

Overview of the Story

I’ll let you listen to the podcast yourself if you want, and there’s far too much to summarize here. But a brief overview of the podcast looks like this:

The podcast follows the story from the beginning of Mars Hill Church to the bitter end. It examines how Driscoll’s teachings on masculinity, sex and gender, spiritual deliverance from demons, and more influenced the church and its members. It also dives into the weeds of church government disputes, issues of domineering leadership, and spiritual trauma from those who dared to question Driscoll’s leadership. And how all these things contributed to the eventual demise of the church.

Driscoll is the central character, albeit villain, of the story. In fact, one wonders if the original vision of the story gets lost and the series should be titled “The Sins of Mark Driscoll”. That title might be more accurate to what the focus of the story is, especially as time goes on.

And certainly, there were glaring issues with Driscoll’s “ministry”. One interviewee maintains that Mars Hill was a cult, with Driscoll as its unquestionable and unassailable leader. And to be fair, it’s not gross exaggeration. Driscoll is quoted throughout the series as declaring that “I am the brand [of Mars Hill].” And the organizational structure that Driscoll oversaw was undoubtedly toxic.

The show also takes issue with Driscoll’s teachings, though it expresses its displeasure by showcasing the stories of former members who were led astray and confused by Driscoll’s teaching. The show doesn’t come out and refute the teachings biblically. And there can be a case that it doesn’t have to. It’s a work of journalism after all, not theological principle. (More on that below.) In particular, Driscoll’s teaching on gender roles and sex take fire from the show’s creators and interviewees.

The final episodes zero in on the ultimate collapse of the church: Driscoll’s resignation, the splintering of the many campuses, and the lives impacted by the spiritual trauma.

What I Learned From the Podcast

A Sobering Warning

Listening through the series was sobering and humbling.

As I consider the Lord’s call of my life and the possibility of future pastoral ministry, it was sobering to see what bad spiritual authority in action looks like. It’s sobering to see what charisma without character yields. It’s a humbling warning that ministers who minister for their own gain, in their own arrogance, and in their own model, will wreck the lives of many.

Driscoll created God in his own image, rather than conforming himself to the image of Christ. There’s hardly any trace of the Jesus who is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29) in Driscoll’s ministry. Instead, he’s a fighter who would rather hang out with the warrior Jesus of Revelation 19. The podcast really underlines this pugilistic aspect of Driscoll’s ministry.

Driscoll’s aggressive personality, his stretching of biblical Complementarianism to extremes, and his unshakeable arrogance are all warnings to pastors and church members alike. And while it’s not “good” to see it impact lives like it did, it’s worthwhile to see the consequences. We shouldn’t ignore them.

Listening to the podcast drove me to a desperate dependence on God’s word and the Holy Spirit, lest I should follow Driscoll’s footsteps into hubris and self-preaching.

The Narrow Road

While the actions, attitudes, and words of Mark Driscoll, as laid out in the podcast, paint a dark picture of spiritual leadership gone completely wrong, the podcast itself isn’t without its own issues.

There’s always a danger, especially in stories like these, to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And it seems that Christianity Today isn’t as careful with the baby as it should be.

The podcast paints Driscoll as a conservative fundamentalist whose teachings on sex and gender were particularly toxic. And in some sense, that’s accurate. But the show fails to point out how these teachings are wrong biblically. As I stated above, I understand that the creators of the series aren’t biblical scholars whose purpose is to refute Driscoll’s theology. But to claim journalistic “objectivity” while judging the pastor’s teaching but offering no biblical basis for that critique, is still building on man’s doctrine.

Maybe it’s just me, but the way “complementarian” is said on the show makes it sound like a dirty word. And perhaps it seems like one to those who sat under Driscoll’s misguided teaching. But the Bible is clear about the roles of men and women and the design that God gave us. And one man’s unbiblical teaching doesn’t change what is biblical.

Another issue I have with the podcast is its preoccupation with Driscoll. Obviously he’s at the center of the story as the church’s pastor, but after awhile, you start to wonder if this is just the “Bash Mark Show”. The series began to feel more like an expose on Mark Driscoll than a well-rounded examination of the church’s rise and fall. Once again, it makes sense that Driscoll is a big part of the story but the series seems to place inexplicit blame solely on the shoulders of Mark Driscoll. In a way this maximizes Driscoll’s power in the story, making him out to be a King Kong character that terrorizes the city, leaving wreckage in his wake as the innocent civilian victims flee before him.

And then of course, there’s the victim narrative.

The final episode of the series, released on Saturday and titled “Aftermath” dives into the havoc that the church’s collapse wrecked on the lives of its staff people and members. And it’s important to tell these stories and listen to these people share their spiritual trauma. Jesus cares about their pain and we should too.

But Jesus doesn’t attend pity parties. And that’s exactly what “Aftermath” began to resemble further into its two hour and thirty six minute runtime. Interviewee after interviewee shared the trauma they carried from their experiences at Mars Hill and Driscoll’s leadership and teaching had wrecked them. But that was it. There was little reference to healing. Or restoration and redemption. Or even forgiveness for the failed pastor.

In fact, several interviewees seemed to suggest that looking for redemption in the Mars Hill story was disrespectful to the victims of the toxic culture at the church. But I disagree. Redemption is as real as brokenness. The dawn is as real as the darkness in the dead of night. Healing is as real as pain and trauma. God doesn’t slap bandaids and smiley face stickers on our wounds. He heals them. And while we can’t demand a certain timeline for other people to heal, we should encourage them to press into Christ so He can heal them.

The narrow road of the Christian faith seemed to be forgotten in the flow of the series. The upward call of Christ to go downward. To die and suffer with Christ and find union with Him (Philippians 3:10). The series adeptly shows the lack of grace shown by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill, but it doesn’t present the challenge to suffer well. And it’s reluctant to look for redemption or tell a redemptive story.

A Tale of Two Podcasts

I’ve recently listened to another podcast about abuse in the church and the damage of unbiblical leadership. Truth Be Told from WORLD Radio is a four-part serial podcast about a case of sexual abuse in an equally cultish church in rural Mississippi. There are a lot of similarities between the two stories: men whose ministry revolves around them where they are the final authority on what it right, abuse of power in the church, and the damaged lives that result. There are also plenty of differences: one story is set in Seattle, with hipsters and feminists being interviewed. Another is set in a back country road in Mississippi where almost every interviewee has a bit of a drawl.

Truth Be Told tells a hard story. In some ways, one harder than Rise and Fall. But it tells this story in the context of redemption. It contrasts the evil abuse of one preacher with the loving care of another shepherd. And in this story, Jesus is the answer. Victims are supported by friends, family, church community, counselors, and legal help, but Jesus is the one who brings ultimate restoration.

In The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, the spiritual trauma is contrasted with…well, nothing concrete. One gets the feeling, after listening to a dozen episodes, lasting hours and hours, that Mars Hill Church collapsed and it was really bad and we should view this as a warning against what happens when bad people lead ministries. But what should Gospel-centered, loving, truthful, ministry look like? We aren’t told.

I walked away from Rise and Fall feeling like I walked away from a massive car wreck. Mangled metal burns amidst broken glass and people lie strewn across the road. And there’s a storyteller there with a camera and microphone, taking it all in. But they’re not moving. They’re not carrying the injured to safety. They’re just rolling their camera and crying “Oh, the humanity!” while zooming in for the grisly close-up.

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill tells an important and sobering story. But it tells the incomplete version. The curtain closes on the bloody aftermath without beckoning the hero onstage for the final scene. The story of Mars Hill doesn’t end with trauma and cynical deconstruction. It ends with a Savior who comes to right all wrongs and redeem all things to make them new. To cut that story short is to miss the best part.

Recommendations For Listening

If you haven’t listened to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill yet, please keep these suggestions in mind:

• Do listen to it. It’s an important story and a sobering warning. If you have time to listen to the whole series, I recommend it. It’s an excellent work of narrative journalism with a high production value.
• Listen to it with open ears. One of the issues of Mars Hill, according to the series, is how easily Mark Driscoll was able to have his way because of his charisma and the trust people placed in him. The podcast maintains that pastors should be held accountable. But so should journalists. And let’s be honest, this story is pretty one-sided. So listen to it critically.
• Supplement your listening with biblical study. Because you aren’t going to find it in the show itself. Critique Driscoll’s teaching by the standard of Scripture. Examine Driscoll’s leadership against the standard laid out in God’s word. Let your listening be Jesus-centered and Word-centered.
• Listen for good reasons. There’s a temptation here to be attracted to the carnage like the gawkers who slow down to drink in the wreckage of a car crash. We’re drawn to controversy, drama, and “oh, how the mighty have fallen” stories. So resist the urge to indulge your appetite for the carnage of a church’s collapse and listen to the story with a sober mind and a humble heart.

Finally, if you’re not ready to embark on an ambitious journey through hours of content, I recommend the above-mentioned Truth Be Told podcast as an alternative to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill if you’re looking for something in the “church abuse expose” genre. The series is four parts (part 4 releases this Saturday) and each episode is only around a half-hour as opposed to much longer in the case of Rise and Fall. Also, the series avoids sensational and disturbing details (although the story is disturbing in itself) and it focuses on redemption as much as it does the pain and trauma.

Featured image courtesy of Fight of Faith.