Thursday, April 12, 2012

A Question for Our Readers

For those of you who left Mars Hill, has your experience caused you to question different parts of your beliefs?  Have you changed your views, theology, denomination?  Which?  Are there any beliefs that you had once held strongly that you would say have changed dramatically?

Please comment to answer.  And it is fine to remain anonymous, but please make up some kind of handle, or it will be difficult to keep track of multiple "Anonymous"...Thanks!

15 comments:

  1. Well you already know my views have changed. There was a period where I couldn't read my bible without seeing Calvinism everywhere, and/ or without hearing Mark's sermons in my head. It made me put down my bible and stop going to church for awhile. I'm back to reading my bible and attending a Pentecostal church...lol. Definite change! I'm not nearly as 'excited' or enthusiastic about God like what I was before I attended MH, and I hope that changes.

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  2. Well I left Mars Hill in 2008 and am now agnostic...so yeah, I'd say my experience led to some change in my beliefs.

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  3. I will be posting my story soon. My beliefs of Christ have not changed. I still believe 100% of the bible and I know Christ is real. Nothing will change my relationship with him. Mars Hill has caused me to be fearful of joining a church again. I don't want the control and manipulation to take place again.

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  4. Yeah, I've watched a number of ideals and beliefs that I held onto tightly, slip right through my fingers.

    Some of the more profound beliefs that have fallen are in the political sphere. After I read Jonah from the view (given by Tim Keller) that he was a hyper-nationalistic pundit/ prophet type who was forced by God, against his will, to go to Nineveh and save a group of people that he morally detested because they were enemies of Israel... and how he threw an absolute tantrum when God chose to spare the people of Nineveh from destruction.....I was forced to confront my own social & political prejudices. Muslims? Gays? Illegal Immigrants? The Welfare State?

    It was so easy for so long to be a fiscal and social conservative as well as a Christian and not see the blatant hypocrisy in those mindsets... When I tested the waters with these roiling questions at MHCG I got a sharp push back regarding immigration, the welfare state etc.... The people who I started asking questions to, simply hid stockaded in mainstream fiscal and social conservative rhetoric. I was working it out for myself but their shrill retorts made it perfectly clear that these "principles" I and they were carrying around were not Christ-like nor were they principles. It was a lie we told ourselves to keep from acknowledging the true motivators. It was an ugly sort of bigotry and prejudice that drove a lot of this thinking and was the antithesis of Christ's mission.

    And it was also anchored in greed. A good portion of "fiscal conservatives" become completely exasperated at the thought of higher taxes and justify it as an injustice forced on them by the government... But its really about my money, and not wanting anyone or anything else to have it. This too is a lie I used to tell myself. What is worse is we are morally outraged.. We consider these prejudices and covetous acts to be built upon the highest integrity, morality and honor and talk down our nose at others..... when really its just about being a bigoted, greedy little pig.... Realizing this truth was painful but also wonderfully liberating and eye opening.

    There are other more profound theological issues that I am questioning (and think I am finding answers to) but I dare not write about it because some well meaning but poorly behaving readers will descend on it as evidence of heresy.

    Heretic or not, despite having my worldview turned upside down, despite drawing into question sets of beliefs I have held for years and even decades. Towing the line for the mainstream for years and then watching it all collapse in on itself. In all of it God has sustained me. Though I am walking along a slippery slope questioning nearly everything I have been told by the church, God looms larger and closer than ever in my life.

    God is sufficient for this test!
    And in it God will be glorified!

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    1. I LOVE this post...I'll have to see if I can find Tim Keller's sermon on Jonah. A little help? :)

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    2. it wasnt a sermon it was his book... Counterfeit Gods... his book on idolatry... the first time i read it i was seeing for people around me...Oh Joey totally needs to read this!

      The second time through it started cutting into me quite a bit... so I read Jonah and started marching around the walls of Jericho... which is to say i found some major problems that happened to be inside of me and started praying for God to help me tear them down.... it all started unraveling from there.... and i am eternally grateful for it.

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  5. YES. So much so, but I don't think that is exactly new knowledge for anyone...haha

    For me it was also the final straw on the camels back of pretending to believe things that I didn't believe, or I suppose I had cognitive dissonance with.

    So I wouldn't say it was the fault of Mars Hill, but without my experience there I don't know where I would be or how I would feel now.

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  6. Mars Hill was the nail in the coffin of Protestantism for us.

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    1. Can you expound? Are you Orthodox now? Anglican? I am just curious.

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    2. We left MH at the end of September just days before the whole Petry/Meyer thing blew up. We sent our resignation on Tuesday and the Petry/Meyer thing happened on a Thursday.

      We are now happily Eastern Orthodox. Protestantism never really worked well for us. I could get into why the theology doesn't work, but that isn't what you were asking about. Mars Hill was pivotal in us swimming the Bosphorus.

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  7. Mars Hill has made me very sensitive to how much our churches have become places where we conspire against God to have our own fun. It is more about loving being with each other, the "honor" of office and position, and filthy lucre.

    It has also helped me to see the value of monastic communities, a vow of poverty, and why hermits often see things more as they really are than the rest of us.

    What I most despise about the likes of Mars Hill is that they greatly discourage those who would from actually finding Jesus. They are indeed holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans (being lords over the people) which Jesus has stated He hates. While their sin is obvious to the community (they are naked) they cannot see it (they are blind). In terms of understanding what Jesus is all about, they are impoverished. My prayer is thay they soon repent or are publicly judged. They have discouraged me, may this happen no more.

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  8. I came from a fantastic PCA church and then moved to a new city and stumbled upon MH. My story is bery similar to other exile stories, and I have since found another PCA church to join. What makes me the most upset is that people think assume that MH and Driscoll represent the Reformed faith- Driscoll has concocted his own doctrine (which is the exact name of his book) and slapped the label "reformed" on it. But it's not truely reformed, and is such a horrible misrepresentation of the amazing grace that true reformation is built on. Never again will I attend a church where 1 person thinks that they have the spiritual authority to create their own doctrinal beliefs for thousands of others to follow. I am back in the PCA, with a rich and long history of established beliefs that were formed hundreds of years ago by councils of godly men and reaffirmed throughout history; not just one man's opion. I love reciting the Apostle's Creed in church, rather than hearing myself say "well Driscoll said..."

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  9. I prefer the unadulterated Nicene Creed. ;) The filoque is actually has a pretty huge theological impact.

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  10. You guys are sad. So what, nobody is perfect. People are meeting Jesus, and lives are being changed. Stop spending all your energy and bad mouthing. and pray...

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