Sign up for the Greece & Israel Trip

Beginning August 24, 2009, Pastor Mark Driscoll will be leading a ten-day trip to Greece and Israel. Mars Hill members and attenders are welcome to participate, although the trip is open to anyone who is interested. Activities include walking where Jesus walked, where Paul ministered, where the temple stood, and where the Scriptures were penned.

If enough people attend we have been granted permission to allow one of our worship bands to play a concert in front of the Western Wall. If that happens, we will actually have a Mars Hill indie rock church service at the very wall we have spent nearly a year studying in the Nehemiah series.

How is this a part of Mars Hill’s mission?

Living for Jesus

As a church that focuses on Jesus and trusts the scriptural record of His person and work, the trip will undoubtedly help us to have greater insights into Scripture and a greater understanding of Jesus.

A City within the City

As we visit the cities from which the gospel of Jesus spread throughout the world, we trust God to give us greater insights into His love and mission for us in our own city.

Knowing Culture

One of the great controversies in the earliest days of our faith was what was to be received, rejected, and redeemed from Gentile culture. Much of our New Testament letters were written in large part to wrestle with just such cultural issues. Therefore, as we travel through the places in which Paul ministered and wrote Scripture, we will be growing in our own understanding of the biblical principles that guide our involvement in culture for Christ.

Loving People

The key to loving people is to first comprehend God’s love for us. Scriptures teach us that God’s love was poured out for us in Jesus, who entered into history to live, die in our place for our sins, and rise from the grave to conquer death. Therefore, as we see what it means that God actually entered into human history in a specific time and place, we will grow in our understanding of God’s love for people, which can only increase our love for other people.

Transforming Lives

God is in the business of changing people to reflect His glory. He does this, in large part, through His Spirit, Word, and people. On this trip, it is our prayer that as we learn more of His Word together as His people as led and taught by His Spirit, we would experience life transformation for His glory and our joy.

The total cost for the trip is $3,495 per person (payment plans available) based upon double occupancy in a room. This price includes airfare, hotels, transportation, tour guides, entrance fees, breakfast and dinner daily, and all taxes and fees, along with all gratuities.

Sign up now for the Greece & Israel Trip and take advantage of the early registration discount. Space is limited.

As most of you are going through the How People Change curriculum and undoubtedly facing some heat from the sensitive topic on Sunday, Mark has provided additional information and resources on the Pastors blog.

Yesterday I attended the the Women’s Training Day. The event was wonderful! I was blessed by the solid teaching on the characteristics of God as our Father, Savior and Help. I am also thankful for the speakers Wendy Alsup, Crystal Munson, Kelli Cowan, and Amy Lockman. They’ve pointed me, and I hope many ladies, to Christ. To read more about this event or the Mars Hill Women’s Ministry, visit Reforming the Feminine.

As Wendy announced in the opening session, curriculum is available for follow up study in small groups. I’ve included them here and under the curriculum page of Life on Mars.

Women’s Follow-up Study 1

Women’s Follow-up Study 2

Women’s Follow-up Study 3

Women’s Follow-up Study 4

I look forward to seeing you at the February Women’s Retreat: By His Wounds we are Healed at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine WA.

Community Group Leaders!

Mars Hill Ballard is requesting your help in a very important manner. We are in the process of recruiting new communion servers and wanted to present the opportunity to our community group leaders. We wanted members of our church leadership to be a visible part of this crucial element of worship. Although it is a vital part of our worship and Sunday services, it is not a huge commitment. Please let Samson know if you are available to serve communion at the service you attend. I appreciate your time and thank you in advance for your help.

Contact samson@marshillchurch.org for more information.

By  Mike O’Dea 
Mars Hill Theology Response Team

Okay!  I just gave it away.  Most folks at Mars Hill have no idea and many have never heard of the Theology Response Team.  In three years I have not seen mention of the TRT in any of the Loop Notes or handouts.  Also, no mention on the pre-service overheads, etc. Pastor Mark did mention TRT briefly in one sermon when he was preaching in 1st Corinthians while discussing Spiritual Gifts.  There was also a column that appeared for two or three months in the Vox Pop (about 18 months ago) which was called, “What The ology” but it died for reasons known to God and somebody at Vox Pop.

Pastor Zack Hubert is the supervising pastor of TRT and he has recently assigned me to the position of Lead.  I think that means “pointman”.  Other Marshillians on the team are Wendy Alsup, Dwayne Forehand, and Andrew Pack.  Our job is to respond to questions that come to Mars Hill by e-mail, snail mail, telephone, etc. which have to do with theology issues. Some questions come from Mars Hill members or attendees but most come from all over the world.  We have responded to inquiries from places like England, Germany, Costa Rica and even Tulsa, Oklahoma.  You are probably aware that people by the thousands (I think now over a million per year) download Mars Hill audios and videos.  Those sermons generate questions and we respond to them.

We especially enjoy responding to inquiries from local people because we know we may be able to point them to Jesus and Mars Hill.  Sometimes the questions and the responses result in an email exchange that occasionally lead people to check out Mars Hill.  I am aware of at least three people I have communicated with that became attendees.  All three joined community groups and two have become members.  I am sure the other TRT folks have similar stories.  

Back to Tulsa; a young lady was a long time member of a church there that apparently was very legalistic.  She stated that she knew at least half the people in her church drank alcohol but that nobody talked about it.  She said she was tired of the hypocrisy and wanted to know how Mars Hill handled that issue.  I pointed her to Mark’s sermon called the “Weaker Christian” (1 Corinthians 8:1-13) in which Mark discussed alcohol, pot smoking, tattoos, etc. She was so impressed that she recently came to Seattle to peek in on us.  She became even more impressed and sent an email saying she planned to move here.

At TRT we think that we are only touching the “tip of the iceberg”.  This ministry is fun to do, and it is a tremendous joy to see fruit coming forth.  Pastor Zack has a vision of creating a tie-in between community group leaders and TRT people.  Consider this as an invitation to anyone reading this to send theology questions to theology@marshillchurch.org.  This especially applies to C.G. leaders and hosts.  I have attended community groups for almost three years and I know that sometimes issues come up that do not get adequately explained and dealt with.  We want to help you with that.  We would like to see our ministry grow so we can have others join our TRT team.  Mostly, we desire Mars Hill people to know their Bibles well and to feel comfortable sharing that knowledge with others as we team up to grow the City within the City.  Any questions (theology of course)?

Do I hear an Amen?

Proverbs 3:13  “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding.”

By Mark Bergin

For the past few years, several Mars Hill members namely Alex Kim, Kristian Ellefsen and me have made regular trips to Pioneer Square to fill the pulpit at the Bread of Life Mission’s nightly chapel service. We have opened the scriptures and preached the gospel to an audience of homeless and often substance-abusing men. Some of those men have since met Jesus and become members of our church and fixtures in our community.

But many others remain unchanged, some passionately resistant to repentance, others simply callous to a message they’ve heard hundreds of times before. Tragically, a third segment of this unregenerate contingent struggles to separate truth from the twisted theological perversions of misguided teachers and preachers. Frequently after delivering a sermon, I am approached with challenges to the plain reading of scripture. These alternate interpretations typically align with the prevailing evangelical heresies of our day self-esteem, health and wealth, open theism.

Where is Seattle’s most hope-starved population hearing this junk? From myriad pastors and church leaders more enamored with the man-centered cultural orthodoxy of our day than the timeless and God-centered word of life. The solution, of course, is more Bible-teaching, Jesus-exalting churches and by extension more Bible-teaching, Jesus-exalting preachers.

So I write this post as both an admonition and an invitation to any God-fearing man at Mars Hill who’s ever watched Pastor Mark on a given Sunday and secretly wondered, “Could I do that?” Here’s your chance: Both the Bread of Life Mission and the Union Gospel Mission open their pulpits daily for teams of industrious evangelical church folk to sign up and run a service. Between our 100-plus community group leaders and countless more apprentices and Bible-loving dudes, I figure we could flood those slots with gospel preachers and crowd out any pretenders.

I’m looking to coordinate a regular circuit of preachers who will learn from watching each other, read books together on preaching and ultimately see more hope-starved men redeemed by our great King. If you’re interested, shoot me an email at mjbergin52@msn.com. I’d also love to hear from any musicians willing and able to lead in song.

Who knows where this might lead, what gifts you might discover, what vision you might catch. I happen to know of a large and rapidly expanding Seattle church always on the lookout for future campus pastors and church planters. Maybe that’s you.