Orange County Churches Review & Guide

Mars Hill Church (Seattle, WA)

February 24th, 2005

http://www.marshillchurch.org

Review: I know that this church isn’t anywhere near Orange County. But I was in Seattle last weekend and went to visit this church and was thoroughly impressed.

Mars Hill meets in the “Ballard” district of Seattle, Washington, in a large warehouse painted grey. On one hand it just looks like another industrial building in the middle of many but on the front wall next to the Mars Hill Church sign are the words, “Truth, Meaning, Beauty, Community,” in large white letters. As you walk through the church doors the foyer has indie style art hanging on the walls. Throughout the rest of the building hangs large vintage style lamps from the high, black painted, warehouse ceilings.

The time of worship consisted of singing, preaching, and the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The time of worship in singing was led by a tall young man with a long goatee. The music was a sort of an inventive rock style with electric guitars, drums, a fiddle, and a accordian. The songs were not the normal pop Christian worship songs you hear at most churches. I discovered later that they write most all their own lyrics and music. The lyrics had a distinctly doctrinal focus. One song was almost word for word the Nicene Creed.

The time of worship in the study of God’s Word was lead by Mark Driscoll, one of the founding pastors of Mars Hill. We studied Gen.19:30-38. Mark was rigorous in his work with the text. He did not use it as a spring board to talk about himself but rather spent much time attempting to demonstrate why this text was in the Bible. He spoke openly and honestly about the issues the text raised like incest, rape, drunkenness, homosexuality and sexual abuses. He challenged the men of the congregation to be strong spiritual leaders in their home by following hard after God. He concluded by showing how despite the wickedness of the sin in the passage that God Sovereignly used the family line that resulted from the sin of Gen 19 to be the line from which Christ was born. The thrust was we are all screwed up but there is hope for us in Christ and that what is evil God means and uses for good. At that point he prayed and invited people to come to Christ and worship by partaking of the elements which communicate his body and blood.

After the service I discovered that Mars Hill Church also has an art venue and a music venue where many “secular” artists are invited share their creativity. There was a mixed range of people present at the service I attended. I read an article in the newspaper about Mars Hill which said that it has a reputation for being a popular church for outcasts who smoke, are tattooed, have piercings, are gay and many other things. The article also said that Mark Driscoll has a reputation in Seattle for being the “cussing pastor.”

The overall experience at Mars Hill was very good. There was a strong artistic presence and open welcoming of all different types of people. At the same time there was high view of God and His Word communicated throughout the service. They seem to have a very good grasp of both doctrine and mission.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2005 at 9:45 pm and is filed under General, 5 Star Churches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Mars Hill Church (Seattle, WA)

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