Mars Hill Church, tell us how much "Global Fund" money was spent on "international" outreach.

As Mark's new exec. assistant in 2002, I strongly recommended to him that MH engage in financial transparency. I had conducted an org. assessment (I have a master's degree in not-for-profit leadership and Mark had given me free reign, at that point, to survey the staff.) As a member (for 3 years) and now as staff, I realized that neither the staff nor the congregation knew how much money was being raised and, at that point, how much money was needed for the Ballard build-out. I suggested that the godly approach is to fully disclose all funds collected by the church, in order to maintain integrity and build trust. For a time, this approach was adopted, but I was only on staff for a year and left the church very shortly after that--and it is obvious that MH reverted to its original policy of keeping its financial transactions from the very members whose tithes fund their operations. otherwise the purchase of a placement on the NY Times Bestseller list would have not have come as a surprise to the congregation. As anyone with accounting knowledge is aware, those Global Funds were legally restricted, and should always have remained so; if they were misappropriated, that would be grounds for MH to lose its non-profit status as a church, but most importantly, it is an egregious breach of trust with its members because, no matter how MH justifies this, it is essentially robbing from Peter (the congregation and its desire to serve people outside of the U.S.) to pay Paul (restricted funds for global outreach being used for other than their intended purpose by Mark and those he chose to include in his inner circle.)

Home group purchased and has been using MH material. Lack of financial transparency and consequent loss of integrity means I cannot trust Mark Driscoll's teaching.

If we want the world to listen to the Christian message we have to have church leaders who show their integrity by hiding nothing. Transparency is a must.

Considering the way this group does the "bate and switch" thing I would hope to see them no longer identified with Jesus and non-profit status is not appropriate.

1 John 1:5-10