I have to confess, it is very easy to get on a witch hunt with Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill. I am guilty of losing focus on helping others like me and focusing too much on Mark's every move and then criticizing it. My original intention in starting this blog was to create a safe haven for people who have been hurt by Mars Hill. It was to collect all the stories in one place, so that someone who is questioning what they are experiencing can easily locate them. It is my hope to help people, not harm people, and that includes Mark Driscoll and my former campus pastors and elders.
It is important to tell our stories, and I hope that by telling how the authoritarian structure and gender gospel at Mars Hill has hurt me, and is hurting others, both those with stories and those involved in the stories will be helped. I would LOVE for Mars Hill to repent, change the way the church is "governed", and seek to apologize to those who have been hurt. I have many people (though they no longer speak to me) who are still there and who I care about very much.
Yesterday, I was posting a comment on a blog and attempted
to re-link to the doctrinal statement that I referenced in my story. To my surprise, the page redirected here:
and here:
Does this mean that the concerns are being heard? One of the main concerns I had was the
following statement from the doctrinal statement:
"We also believe that particular spiritual gift(s) are
neither essential, nor prove the presence of the Holy Spirit, nor are an
indication of deep spiritual experience (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11, 13; Ephesians
4:7–8). We believe that God does hear and answer the prayer of faith, in
accordance with His own will, for the sick and afflicted (John 15:7; 1 John
5:14, 15). We believe that it is the privilege and responsibility of every
believer to minister according to the gift(s) and grace of God that is given to
him"
This concerned me because it basically says, “just because
you think you are being led by the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean you actually are”. It is my greatest hope that they are reevaluating the
doctrinal statement. Being redirected to
JESUS is awesome.
A large part of me hopes that they are taking a second look at what they are doing and see that it does not benefit God's Kingdom. I hope this because it would be a nice first step.
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt from that statement you gave needs to go - it's a backhanded swipe at Pentecostalism and those that believe the evidence of the holy spirit is speaking in tongues. As Christians our focus should be on uniting the body of Christ, not being divisive on doctrinal differences. I'm not sure why you picked it out, I'll go through and look for your other blog post later. As a person that attends an Assembly of God church now, I can tell you that sometimes in other AoG or Pentecostalism churches, too much emphasis on "You don't have the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues" can be very harmful to those members as well.
Something you said elsewhere struck me - something about witch hunts. Hurting people hurt people, and there are a lot of us that hurt because of how Mark, church members, CG leaders or other Christians have treated us. We can pray for the Holy Spirit to guide Mark and the members and attendees of Mars Hill, but ultimately we should all praise God because even though what happened was wrong, God has guided us away from that harmful environment. And now we all have insight and can help others who have had similar experiences. Blessings.