Megachurch Closed to Biblical Authority, Open to New Age Anything Goes
Pastor Dale Morgan
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*Megachurch Closed to Biblical Authority, Open to New Age Anything Goes*
Church attracts the trendy, the tech-savvy and controversy
The Associated Press
Sun, Feb. 18 2007 12:04 PM ET
SEATTLE (AP) - Minutes before the pastor walks to the pulpit, loud indie
rock blasts from speakers to a crowd of mostly 20-somethings. The band
on stage wears black, and the lead singer, with his scruffy five o'clock
shadow and hair slicked down in rock-star style, croons about Emmanuel
and rejoicing.
Welcome to a new age Sunday service at Mars Hill Church, where the
worship band plays indie rock, churchgoers smoke outside, and the pastor
looks more like the head of a fraternity than the head of an evangelical
church.
In a liberal city notorious for being "unchurched," and at a time when
mainline Protestant churches have been in decline nationwide, this
non-denominational mega-church has grown to about 6,000 people since it
started in 1996. It's a mostly young crowd who come to hear the music,
charismatic preacher and conservative theology at Mars Hill.
With his football-player stature, clean-cut hair and jeans torn at the
knees, 36-year-old pastor Mark Driscoll could easily fit into most
Seattle bars.
And he sounds like it too.
His sermons refer to everything from Mac & Jack's beer to women foiling
their hair.
"Boaz has no game at all," said Driscoll at one Sunday sermon, referring
to a Biblical figure who was unresponsive to his wife, Ruth, when they
first met.
"The way we do things has a very Seattle vibe to it, from technology,
music to style," said Driscoll, a Seattle native.
Driscoll preaches at the church's flagship black warehouse in the trendy
Ballard neighborhood, but people can also watch him preach through
streaming video and read his blog on the church's web site.
For members like Joy Pinkham, Driscoll's New Age teachings are
culturally relevant.
"He teaches what the Bible preaches - he doesn't sugar coat it," said
21-year-old Pinkham, a preschool teaching assistant and hair stylist,
who wore a mod bob with side-swept bangs.
Tattoos, punk rock and alcohol aren't banned for this predominantly
white congregation where more than half are between ages 21 and 30 and
where many look like college students or yuppie hipsters.
"We take the Bible as literally true," Driscoll said. "If the Bible
doesn't forbid something, we believe there's a lot of freedom in
cultural issues."
It's part of Driscoll's conservative theology - a literal interpretation
of the Bible where heaven and hell are very real, Mary was a virgin, and
where sex before marriage and homosexuality are sins.
And it's this theology, along with Mars Hill's views on women, that have
mired Driscoll and his church in controversy.
Women can't be pastors at Mars Hill and are encouraged to submit to
their husbands.
It's raised some eyebrows on the blogosphere and among more liberal
churchgoers in Seattle.
Not allowing women in church leadership is an injustice, said Adam
Walker Cleaveland, a Presbyterian seminary student and blogger who has
criticized Driscoll on his own blog.
The Bible is about adopting the ideas of Jesus Christ - like helping the
disenfranchised - and not about taking the Bible literally, said Suzanne
Gordon, 48, who attends a liberal Methodist church in Seattle.
"It's a distortion of the Bible," she said about conservative theology.
"It's not an open, thinking, questioning, evolving type of character,"
she said.
Last year, comments Driscoll made on his blog prompted an online group
called People Against Fundamentalism to threaten to protest outside Mars
Hill, saying he was demeaning women, and bloggers to call him a
fundamentalist and a misogynist.
Writing about the Ted Haggard sex scandal, Driscoll suggested that
pastors sometimes stray because their wives "let themselves go." About
the Episcopal Church electing a female bishop, he wrote: "If Christian
males do not man up soon, the Episcopalians may vote a fluffy baby bunny
rabbit as their next bishop to lead God's men."
But Driscoll said he was misunderstood.
"I didn't say anything about his wife," he said about the Haggard issue.
"I was mortified that some people took it that way."
Driscoll said he believes God appoints men to be senior leaders but
there are many positions for women to also be leaders, including
full-time ministry.
"Sometimes that gets misunderstood or sometimes misrepresented by
people," he said.
Mars Hill isn't entirely unique - it's part of a nationwide movement
that started in the 1970s of post-denominational churches that are
technologically savvy, have charismatic leaders and provide for people
guidelines on how to live their lives, said Patricia O'Connell Killen, a
professor of American religious history at Pacific Lutheran University.
In the Pacific Northwest, evangelical forms of post-denominational
churches have grown since the 1990s, said James Wellman, an assistant
professor of western religions at the University of Washington.
It's the church's New Age theology that many at Mars Hill say they find
appealing.
Thomas James Wright said Driscoll's preaching drew him to Mars Hill
about three months ago.
"He's unwavering on what the Bible says," said the 20-year-old art
school student clad in a black beanie. "A lot of churches these days
have gone to just a positive preaching style where they kind of just
talk more about creating positive things in your life."
But critics like Gordon think it's just flashy music and a charismatic
leader that's attracted a lost generation of young people to Mars Hill.
"They've found the way of New Age marketing and remaking God in their
own image," she said.
But Driscoll argues that his young congregation wants simple answers and
a chance to decide for themselves.
"You're looking at a younger educated urban group that has been
marketed, and pitched and sold," Driscoll said. "They're tired of all
the slick marketing and pitches."