Megachurch Pastor Resigns Over Internet Trolling (Among Other Things)

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**jasper76**

The online trolling aspect of this story seems like something new to me in the world of megachurch resignations.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/us/driscoll-megachurch-pastor-resigns/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

'Mark Driscoll, top megachurch pastor, resigns' by Daniel Burke (http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/us/driscoll-megachurch-pastor-resigns/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)

(CNN) -- Less than a year ago, Mark Driscoll, an evangelical pastor, was flying high.

His hometown Seattle Seahawks were in the Super Bowl, and the brash pastor scored a big, faith-fueled interview with five of the team's top players, including quarterback Russell Wilson.

But in a remarkably fast fall from grace, Driscoll resigned Tuesday as pastor of Mars Hill Church, a congregation he founded 18 years ago and turned into a force in the mostly secular Pacific Northwest.

In a statement, Mars Hills' board of overseers said Driscoll hadn't committed any acts of "immorality, illegality or heresy" -- sins that have felled many a powerful pastor.

Instead, the board said, Driscoll is guilty of "arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner."

Driscoll was not asked to leave, the board added, saying they were "surprised" to receive his resignation letter.

In that letter, obtained by Religion News Service, Driscoll says: "Recent months have proven unhealthy for our family -- even physically unsafe at times -- and we believe the time has now come for the elders to choose new pastoral leadership for Mars Hill."

The 43-year-old pastor acknowledged that, "There are many things I have confessed and repented of, privately and publicly, as you are well aware. Specifically, I have confessed to past pride, anger and a domineering spirit."

Before his resignation, a number of Mars Hills leaders fled the church, saying that Driscoll was not fit for leadership. He has also been accused of plagiarism and using a complex scheme to pad book sales. The pastor has apologized and said "mistakes were made."

The broader beef with Driscoll, though, seemed to be his more-macho-than-thou approach to fellow Christians.

According to Christianity Today, the pastor had trolled online discussion forums under the pseudonym "William Wallace II," and lambasted the supposed rise of "male lesbians;" "feman," (men who act like women, in his definition); and "men who allow their wives to nag at them."

"While the discussion board itself was a bad idea," Driscoll said in a letter obtained by Christianity Today, "my decision to attack critics who were posting there (I did so by posting under the character 'William Wallace II') was an even worse idea."

Even before that revelation, Driscoll was highly controversial and almost comically outspoken.

He once said that mainstream Christians had turned Jesus into a "Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ," and a "neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that ... would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell."

In a book he wrote with his wife in 2012, Driscoll delved into serious detail about his sex life, leaving some reviewers, and almost as many Christians, a bit uncomfortable.

For all that, though -- or maybe, because of all that -- Driscoll was pretty successful by many measures. He built Mars Hill into a mini-empire, with 15 satellite locations and even a couple of universities. His books and sermons were read and heard by millions.

In his resignation letter, Driscoll hints that his pastoral career isn't dead yet.

"My journey, at age 43, is far from over," he writes, "I believe (God) has brought me a long way from some days I am not very proud of, and is making me more like him every day."

**d-usa**

A church should always re-evaluate itself anytime the pastor becomes bigger or more important than the church itself.

**Frazzled**

Thats a fair point.

**d-usa**

There are a fair number of mega-churches where you can find more pictures of the pastor on the wall then Jesus. I have always found that troubling, it just screams cult of personality to me.

You should always remember that your pastor is just another human and could be wrong, putting them on a pedestal can hurt that. That's when you end up with people who will question everything about their faith because their pastor fell from grace, because their religion was about that pastor and not about the actual religion.

**Frazzled**

Its not a problem where I'm at. I routinely fall asleep during the sermon. I have standing orders to be awakened when they pass out the booze and yum yums.

"Dear God did you just swallow half the communion wine?"

Frazzled: brrrp "I slipped."

**MrDwhitey**

They know you slipped because you didn't drink it all.

**Frazzled**

Thats a true statement.

**Da Boss**

The idea of megachurches is fascinating to me, and it seems so quintessentially American. I'd love to visit one, or attend a sermon.

**easysauce**

Da Boss wrote:
The idea of megachurches is fascinating to me, and it seems so quintessentially American. I'd love to visit one, or attend a sermon.

actually the true mega churches are/were mostly in europe,

palces like the vatican and all the huge cathedrals through out europe put any mega church in the states to shame.

And D-usa makes a good point, it cannot be about the pastor, or even the church for that matter.

spending resources of pics of the paster, or another gold fillagree for the pews does less good work for god then using those resources to help others or engage in other spiritually enriching things.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Frazzled wrote:
Its not a problem where I'm at. I routinely fall asleep during the sermon. I have standing orders to be awakened when they pass out the booze and yum yums.

"Dear God did you just swallow half the communion wine?"

Frazzled: brrrp "I slipped."

this is why they swapped to grape juice around here....

**Da Boss**

Hah, that's a good point about the cathedrals. But I think nowadays it's quite different, and the big congregations are in the US.

**easysauce**

Da Boss wrote:
Hah, that's a good point about the cathedrals. But I think nowadays it's quite different, and the big congregations are in the US.

yeah you are right that most of the really big ones in europe are more museums/tourist locales then places where people actually go to church no a days, but the ones that still hold regular congregations are pretty massive to see,

A lot of the old druidic/celtic cultures would also have some really massive congregations, so big that they had them outside as no building was big enough.

**d-usa**

South America and some places in Asia have giant places that out ours to shame as well. I think one of the definitions for a "mega church" is an attendance of 2000+, so there are probably some cathedrals in Europe that manage to hit that number.

My church qualifies as a mega church (about 2,800 attending over three services on the weekend) and I think it does an excellent job when it comes to not making it about the pastor. There are no pictures anywhere, there is not a "Mr. Smith, Pastor" anywhere on the signage, and we often rotate and have junior pastors and student pastors teach in different services and nobody ever thinks "why isn't our regular pastor teaching today". Having a teaching church that is not about a single person is one of the things that attracted me to this church.

I also don't have a problem with mega churches themselves, as long as it doesn't turn into a cult of personality. A single big building and a single set of staff can cost a lot less than ten smaller church buildings and ten sets of staff. That means more money that is freed up towards those less fortunate. That's also where my church is very transparent, with all financials being release publicly each month and with the whole congregation voting on important decisions. But it can be easy for a non-transparent church run by a powerful pastor to take the offerings and use it for personal gain.

**jasper76**

Da Boss wrote:
The idea of megachurches is fascinating to me, and it seems so quintessentially American. I'd love to visit one, or attend a sermon.

I have gone to one service before. The one I went to was sort of like a rock concert. Lots of contemporary Christian rock performances, with sermons intermingled, choir performanes...alot of stuff to look at. Coming from a Catholic background, it was very very different than anything other kind of service I'd been to...really nothing like any other Protestant services I'd ever attended before either.

There was also commerial services available...kiosks, a coffee shop, a daycare IIRC.

**SBG**

As a Canadian, I see a lot of things in America as having gone through the 'can we make it bigger' process. Nothing wrong with that, very efficient in many cases! Staffing, as said above, makes sense in that regard.

Cinnabon, in particular, has done well with this philosophy of size.

**Frazzled**

Only the biggest mega churches here get close to the big cathedrals in Europe.

**Ahtman**

Frazzled wrote:
Only the biggest mega churches here get close to the big cathedrals in Europe.

I think one of the differences is that theirs are actually cathedrals whereas ours are sports stadiums.