Riffing off of the previous post…
Mark Driscoll and his executive acolytes fired found Pastor Bent Meyer on guilty of a single charge: “unhealthy distrust” of the Mars Hill Church Elders. This “unhealthy distrust”plus the grievous sin of showing the unapproved draft of the new bylaws to a single member, were the charges leveied against Paul Petry at his trial. PH is stepping out on a limb here, but is willing to venture that the 2d charge was simply an opportunistic attempt at bolstering the grievousness of the situation.
As mentioned in the previous post, PH has yet to find the sin of “unhealthy distrust” mentioned in the Bible…but…
Even if “unhealthy distrust” was a sin worth de-eldering a pastor, the timing of the charge was highly suspect. It appears that the two pastors suddenly succumbed to “unhealthy distrust” shortly after expressing their strong dissent with the agenda of Pastor Mark Driscoll and the execs, and shortly before the vote on the new bylaws. Fascinating – Bent Meyer was a Pastor at Mars Hill for a good number of years prior to getting canned, and Paul Petry was a pastor at Mars Hill for somewhere between 2-3 years. How on earth did these men keep this besetting sin of distrust under wraps for so long? And aren’t we members grateful that the sin raised its head prior to these older men influencing some of the younger pastors to entertain such distrust while reviewing the proposed church governance changes?
Seeking Justice & Reconciliation at Mars Hill Church 
PH,
Pastor Bent was fired for a list of reasons. The investigative task force investigating them decided that all of the charges bar one were not credible. The only credible charge turned out to be having an unhealthy disrespect for senior leadership. Nothing has happened to those executive elders that levied false charges against Pastor Bent.
Pastor Paul sharing the proposed by-laws with a single member was only discovered after he was fired. This was not a factor in his firing but it did become a factor in his trial and was one of the charges levied against him.
Thanks for maintaining this forum.
Factchecker…thank you for correction. In the post “fired” was conflated with “de-eldering”. Accuracy is critical, and the post has been edited accordingly.
A couple of other corrections and observations:
Pastor Bent was accused and found guilty of “distrust” not disrespect.
Pastor Paul was found guilty of “disrespect” and violating elder protocol in that he contact the church attorney without “permission” and shared confidential information (the proposed by-laws) with a single member of the church.
Both pastors freely and open;y stated in their concerns about the new by-laws that they had talked to the church attorney. This action was amongst the charges that both men faced. Neither man – both of who were directors of Mars Hill Church with every right to contact the church attorney and who did so regularly due to the nature of their duties – did so covertly or saw anything abnormal about this act. Furthermore the other elders have not been able to tell inquiring members exactly what the much acclaimed “elder protocol” is. It turns out that such protocol is presumed and arbitrary.
So here is a stunning fact. Both Pastor Paul and Pastor Bent were fired because of their contacting the church attorney. Both men were charged with this as a charge levied against them by the executive elders. BUT. The charge against Paul was found to be credible while the charge against Bent was found NOT to be credible.
So why was Pastor Paul found guilty of violating elder protocol by contacting the church attorney while the exact same charge was found to be not credible against Pastor Bent when both men did contact the attorney?
Sounds like the elders at best were inconsistent and worst had no idea what they were doing except rubber stamping what is clear partiality.
i’m really sorry to hear of the troubles your community is dealing with.
my girlfriend was canned from her job at a church (www.westridge.com) last year because she didnt “fit anymore” (the actual words from the executive pastor’s mouth.) what seemed to be me was that the lead pastors and elders had an agenda and when she questioned them, they dismissed her. The same thing happened to the student pastor. He was leaving the following year to plant a church and when the lead pastors and elders found out… they made him pack up early and go… a whole year early!!!!
It just troubles me when church leadership becomes untouchable….
thanks for the blog.
jason
Although the way in which Paul and Bent were treated was abhorrent, you have to remember that they ARE human. In the situation of standing up to the policy changes I give them much credit. In the ability to pastor and shepard while they were pastors at MH, I give them little to none from personal REPEATED experience. No one is free from guilt in this situation. The entire system is corrupt.
And to all the MH “apologists” that are “saddened” by all the criticism of MH leadership; why don’t you express the same amount of sorrow over those that have been trampled?
hi
i am not part of mars hill,but am deeply saddened by the recent storm you are going through. I was at one time part of a church plant that grew from 50 of us to over 900 people in 10 years. I am no longer part of that church. The recent trouble your facing sounds very familer to our sittuation. I was a elder through alot of the trouble. The situation was so bad it nearly destroyed our family. It was very frustrating to to spend endless hours in board meetings making gut wrenching decisions based on facts that we had gathered only to bring these decisions to people who had half the info and had made up there minds about what the outcome should be. Looking back there are two things I learned the hard way. God is soveriegn, and his glory matters most. I’m serving in a new church, my kids (who are grown)are loving Jesus, Unfortunatly many many young christians & non christians left the church shaking there heads while I was proving how Right I was. There are no winners in this except our enemy. Dan the bad speller
I had stopped going to Mars Hill for about five months before this happened. I stopped because it was growing too large, and I felt uncomfortable with the new format of taping Mark and sending it off to other sites. Now I think Mark is amazingly gifted and has done great things for the city of Seattle, but to me this got away from the idea of a community in the church.
After I left shortly after I heard about Pastor Petry being fired. I knew Pastor Petry and his kids, and was very shocked to find out about his being fired. Also I remember Lief Moi had quit because he was uncomfortable with where the church was going, so I think for me since, the only pastor I knew at Mars hill, and the other pastor (Lief moi) who was my favorite were gone, I think it was good I left when I did, because now I don’t have any hard feelings towards Mars Hill, but just understand that like Lief Moi, and Paul Petry, is not the place for me.
Me Says:
If you read this – do you know what aspect of the direction of the church that Lief Moi was uncomfortable about?
Lief Moi did not leave because he was uncomfortable about the direction that the church was going in. He was actually “de-eldered” as you call it due to multiple run-ins with the law over repeat issues and no solving these issues – eventually leading to his arrest. Also within this, he did not walk in the light regarding these issues, thus breaking the accountability that elders in Mars Hill are to have. Anyone who is a member at Mars Hill can read about it on The City…
thanks for the clarification, Jeremy. Such things are sad for any church to deal with. Will pray that there will be repentance and restoration and a reminder for us all to be careful when we think we stand….
I love Mars Hill but I would have to learn more about this from both sides before I was part of a Mars Hill church plant. I hope that’s okay.
no I can’t read about it on the city! A founding pastors stuff is gone off the mars hill site with out a word? That’s kind of a big deal right? as a member ahh WTF? Why is there not more people concerned?
Driscoll is a washed up pile of crap!!!!!!!
I am so grateful to Mark Driscoll for his ministry. God’s definitely used his sermons to speak to me and friends, getting us back on track, fully walking with Christ again. THAT is reality.
driscoll is sent by the enemy.
Mars Hill is a freak show. Mark is a *sshole!
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