This episode is beginning of a series where Nate and Daniel are reflecting on the recent popular podcast called "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill" by Christianity Today. The podcast follows the story of a pastor named Mark Driscoll and is a cautionary tale about church growth and how celebrity effects people and especially people in power. In order for this episode to be more meaningful, we recommend first listening to "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill" episode 2. Nate and Daniel reflect on questions like:
-What is the history that fed into and led to Mars Hill and what other pastors influenced the culture at that time? Robert Schuler had a walk up/drive in church and later the Crystal Cathedral. He started the hour of power tv show and preached “The power of positive thinking”. He was a friend of celebrities and powerful people. Mark Driscoll spoke at Schuler's church and joked about yelling and screaming for an hour and a half when he preached. The Vineyard movement took a page from the McDonald’s playbook and ran with franchising the church model. All nondenominational and no systematic accountability. Willow Creek and Bill Hybels started in a movie theater preached the message of “we are better here and God is doing a special thing here that isn’t going on in other churches”.
-Mark Driscoll thought pastors were too feminine and too friendly. In the beginning he didn’t like seeker friendly or seeker sensitive churches and said he wanted to be seeker insensitive. He didn’t want to be a “have it your way” church. “We are hitting 1,000 members now and I’m wondering where my sin has come? It’s my goal not to grow. Church growth is the turning of God into a product to be marketed to a customer.” -Mark Driscoll
-Why do mega churches exist where they exist and when they exist? One commonality you find across theology and time is the SUBURBS. Moving into neighborhoods of people that make the same amount of money as you and it looks a lot like you and I have a lot in common with you. TV and radio and air-conditioning, all these technological advances allowed mega churches to become what they are today. Mega church pastors are good at playing to the predictable preferences of people in the demographic field of their suburban neighborhood and they leveraged those demographics please people. Rick Warren started before he planted his church studying demographics around California and narrowed down his plant site to four cities, then down to one city, and finally down to the fastest growing county in the city because he knew that’s where the most growth of the suburbs would be and that’s where the most people would need community and connection and he played off of that.
...And much, much more.
Credit to "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill" by Christianity Today for the content of this episode's discussion.