Mars Hill Church

Mars Hill Church was a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch, founded in 1996 by Mark Driscoll, Lief Moi, and Mike Gunn. It was a multi-site church based in Seattle, Washington and grew from a home Bible study to 15 locations in 4 U.S. states.^[1] In addition to services offered at its 15 locations, the church also podcast content of weekend services, and of conferences, on the Internet,^[2] with more than 260,000 sermon views online every week.^[3] In 2013, Mars Hill had a membership of 6,489 and average weekly attendance of 12,329.^[4] Following controversy in 2014 involving founding pastor Mark Driscoll, attendance dropped to 8,000–9,000 people per week.^[5]

At the end of September 2014, an investigation by the church elders found "bullying" and "patterns of persistent sinful behavior" by Driscoll. The church elders crafted a "restoration" plan to help Driscoll and save the church. Instead, Driscoll declined the restoration plan and resigned.^[6] On October 31, 2014, lead pastor Dave Bruskas announced plans to dissolve the church's 13 remaining campuses into autonomous entities, with the option of continuing, merging with other congregations, or disbanding, effective January 1, 2015.^[7] The Mars Hill network dissolved on January 1, 2015.