63 Facts About Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll is the founder and primary contributor of RealFaith ministries.

Mark Driscoll is the senior and founding pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was founded in 2016.

In 1996, Driscoll co-founded Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington.

Mark Driscoll founded The Resurgence and co-founded other parachurch organizations, such as Acts 29 Network, Churches Helping Churches, and The Gospel Coalition.

Mark Driscoll has written for the "Faith and Values" section of The Seattle Times, OnFaith, and the Fox News website.

Mark Driscoll has authored a number of popular Christian books, including A Call to Resurgence.

Mark Driscoll has been described as "an evangelical bad boy, a gifted orator and [a] charismatic leader" who is "hip yet hard-line".

On October 14,2014, Mark Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill Church.

In 2021, Mark Driscoll was the subject of a popular podcast called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

Mark Driscoll was born on October 11,1970, in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Mark Driscoll was raised Catholic in the Riverton Heights area of SeaTac, Washington, which he described as "a very rough neighborhood" where serial killer Ted Bundy had picked up victims.

Mark Driscoll is the oldest of five children and the son of a union drywaller.

At age 19, as a college freshman, Mark Driscoll converted to evangelical Christianity.

Mark Driscoll later reflected that he was "not ready" when he planted Mars Hill at age 25.

The speech he made inspired many within the nascent emerging church movement and, according to Mark Driscoll, shifted the movement's focus from reaching Generation X to reaching the postmodern world.

Mark Driscoll was, by his own account, sleeping only two to three hours per night and began to fear that he would die early from a heart attack.

Mark Driscoll proposed changes to the bylaws that would grant indefinite terms of office to the "executive elders".

Rob Smith had written an email to the elders calling for a fair trial for Petry and Meyer; Smith said that in response, Mark Driscoll told his congregants to stop giving to Agathos, an independent economic development charity that Smith ran, causing donations to drop by 80 percent.

Mark Driscoll argued that a belief in both Satan and God was an essential tenet of Christianity.

On March 29,2012, Mark Driscoll resigned as President of Acts 29 and from the Council of The Gospel Coalition, turning his responsibilities over to Matt Chandler.

Mark Driscoll was a founding member of The Gospel Coalition, a fellowship of reformed evangelical churches.

Mark Driscoll indicated that he intended to devote more of his efforts to Mars Hill Church, more time to his family, and less time to travel.

Michael Paulson, writing for The New York Times, wrote that while Mark Driscoll has endured criticism from the American political left and liberal Christianity for many years, in the years leading up to and including 2014 saw the rise of criticism from conservative Christians, including Mark Driscoll's former "allies and supporters".

The reputation Mark Driscoll got for being the cussing pastor simply because he used harsh language from the pulpit was nothing compared to the swearing and abusive language he used daily with staff.

Acts 29 had attempted to "lean on" the Mars Hill's Board of Advisors and Accountability to discipline Mark Driscoll, but lost confidence in the board.

Later that week, a letter signed by nine current Mars Hill pastors which severely criticized Mark Driscoll was leaked to the public.

The letter, written days before Mark Driscoll stepped down, urged him to step down from all aspects of ministry.

Mark Driscoll was removed from the speaker roster of several planned Act Like Men conferences, which includes other Acts 29 speakers and past Mark Driscoll associates, including James MacDonald and Matt Chandler.

Mark Driscoll was removed as closing speaker at the Gateway Church Conference, an annual gathering of thousands of evangelical pastors.

Mark Driscoll maintained that he had not disqualified himself from ministry.

Church leadership crafted a "restoration" plan to help Mark Driscoll and save the church.

Mark Driscoll's resignation came as a "surprise" to the church's Board of Overseers, who said in a statement that they had not asked Driscoll for his resignation.

On October 20,2014, Mark Driscoll publicly stated that prior to his resignation, he and his family were harassed and he had received death threats.

On July 27,2015, Mark Driscoll announced that his new ministry had purchased the mailing list and assets of The Resurgence from Mars Hill Church and that he and his family had moved to the Phoenix area.

On February 1,2016, Mark Driscoll announced the opening of his new church: The Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Mark Driscoll has been described as a "gifted orator" and "charismatic leader".

Mark Driscoll told stories from his own marriage, offered statistics, and dropped jokes without their feeling forced.

Mark Driscoll is described in a 2014 profile by Salon as being the center of a cult of personality, and of using controversy to increase his visibility.

Salon has described talk fused with God talk, or titillation more broadly, [as] a key component of the Mark Driscoll brand", adding: "Mark Driscoll's stage persona at times has included tight jeans and an extra button open on the shirt.

Mark Driscoll once greeted a crowd at the University of Washington by reporting that he had gotten his genitals caught in his zipper before the show and that he would be stopping on time because his wife was at home waiting for him with a cream pie.

Mark Driscoll referenced the incident in his 2006 book Confessions of a Reformission Rev; in that book, he stated that he believed his intentions were good, but regretted having written the rant.

Mark Driscoll's publisher Tyndale House stated that they performed a "thorough in-house review" and disagreed that this was a case of plagiarism.

InterVarsity Press, publisher of the New Bible Commentary, stated that Mark Driscoll failed to properly provide quotation or attribution for the material.

The allegations soon expanded to include claims that Mark Driscoll used ghostwriters and researchers without giving them proper attribution.

Syndicator Salem Radio subsequently removed both the broadcast interview with Mark Driscoll and associated materials from Mefferd's program website and apologized for raising the matter in a broadcast interview.

Mark Driscoll clearly plagiarized and those who could have underscored the seriousness of it and demanded accountability did not.

Mark Driscoll apologized for "mistakes" related to the allegations in a statement released to The Christian Post on December 18,2013.

Mark Driscoll had used the apparent success of Real Marriage to negotiate a multi-book deal with Christian publisher Tyndale House.

The first book under Mark Driscoll's "Resurgence" imprint was A Call to Resurgence, with plans to publish five to seven books per year.

Tyndale House defended Mark Driscoll's alleged plagiarism in A Call to Resurgence, and affirmed their continuing relationship with Mark Driscoll.

Mark Driscoll was scheduled to appear at Hillsong Church's 2015 Australian and UK conferences.

Mark Driscoll believes that homosexual behavior is sinful and that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Mark Driscoll formerly adhered to four point Calvinist theology called Amyraldism, although he characterized his position specifically as new Calvinism to differentiate himself from the more cessationist and non-missional aspects associated historically with Calvinism.

Mark Driscoll denies the orthodox Calvinist view of limited atonement and believes instead that Jesus died for all people in some sense, and for some people in another sense.

Mark Driscoll believes that this position was held by men like Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, Martin Luther, and Richard Baxter.

Mark Driscoll distinguished between double and single predestination, and said that unlike John Calvin, he believes only in single predestination.

Mark Driscoll has since labelled the "five points" of Calvinism as "garbage".

On gender roles, Mark Driscoll is a complementarian, believing that men and women have equal worth, but have different roles within the family and the church.

Mark Driscoll endorses male headship of the home and church.

Male leadership of the church is crucial, according to Mark Driscoll, who believes that God called him specifically to "train men".

Mark Driscoll describes Eve's temptation by the serpent in the Garden of Eden as "the first invitation to an independent feminism".

Mark Driscoll interprets the Apostle Paul as writing that women are encouraged to be an active part of life and ministry in the church, but that only men can teach other men or become "elder-pastors".

Since Paul's prohibition of female elder-pastors appeals to the Genesis creation story for its rationale, Mark Driscoll argues that the restriction is permanent and cannot be adjusted for changing culture.