Church Reorg...

When you visit the Mars Hill Church website the image on your left is what you will see. This 12 year old, 6000 member, emerging Church in Seattle is going through a corporate reorg (they are taking the gates of hell with a squirt gun... cute picture, huh). Watching from afar... I've been quite impressed at how open & public they are with their challenges and their changes.

Upon reading this 6 page letter from the elders this is what stood out to me:

(1) Plant more campuses: They currently have 3 campuses and desire to start more sites... not as just "additional services"... but more like church plants, yet still connected to mama church. While requiring more training and sending, they consider this approach as more sustainable for the body and the leaders over the long haul.

(2) Distributed Leadership: They are very open about their need to give each campus more authority and autonomy to flesh out the mission and vision of the church in their local context. This will require more communication and trust and distribution of power.

(3) More Preachers:Their main teaching Pastor, Mark Driscoll, will now be out of the pulpit for 3 full months a year. Not only is the move to save the man (Mark) from burnout... but to allow others to express their preaching gift to the benefit of the church.

(4) Open about conflict: It is pretty clear that one of their pastors/elders had a rough time with this change... so they share the story. Go to the top of page 5 and read the paragraph about Lief Moi.

It is pretty clear that leadership requires difficult decision making... even with the help of the Holy Spirit... and here is one church that is letting their people inside the situation as much as possible.