Seattle church's Portland

site sparks controversy

even before it opens

     PORTLAND — Before even beginning services in the Rose City, a Seattle-based evangelical megachurch has become a lightning rod for controversy here.
      After The Oregonian reported Sept. 1 that Mars Hill Church would begin services Saturday, Sept. 10 in a century-old church building in southeast Portland, threats of a “kiss-in” protest there from a homosexual rights group contributed to a Sept. 6 decision to postpone the church’s debut until further notice.
     In a follow-up interview in The Oregonian on Sept. 9, Tim Smith, a Portland-area native who has returned here from Seattle to serve as pastor of the new local congregation, explained that the growing protest and media attention, combined with thousands of people who would be at a nearby street fair on Sept. 10, would have made it difficult for Mars Hill to launch services then.
     Smith added that whenever the church does begin its services, protests are still likely to be faced — but that Mars Hill nevertheless still intends to reach out to the entire community in the name of Jesus.
     In the Portland area, news of Mars Hill’s arrival first broke Aug. 31 on the web site of another local newspaper, the Portland Mercury. However, on that same day, the Seattle Times also gave front-page attention to the church’s nationally known founding pastor, Mark Driscoll, and what it termed the 15-year-old church’s “expanding empire” not only into Portland, but also into Everett, Wash., Orange County, Calif., and other sites.
     According to the Times, in a decade and a half, Mars Hill has grown from about a dozen people meeting for a home Bible study in Seattle to a multisite church that attracts thousands. The church currently has eight sites in Washington and last year had about 8,700 in total weekly attendance.        According to the church, Driscoll’s sermons were downloaded 7 million times last year, and the church web site gets about 45,000 page views per day. Mars Hill also is helping others start new independent churches through its Acts 29 Network; about 400 churches have been established nationally so far and will likely reach 1,000 by 2015.
      The Times noted that Driscoll, who is on Preaching magazine’s list of the 24 more influential pastors of the past 25 years, presents a “certainty” of beliefs that is both charismatic and controversial. While Mars Hill’s stances on sexuality, the roles of women and the authority of the Bible are in line with many conservative-leaning evangelical churches, the newspaper noted that Driscoll’s “pugnacious and sometimes crass and belitting style” has sometimes put him at odds with other evangelicals.
       Driscoll is known online nationally for his strong preaching against homosexuality and urging gays to turn from sin. Thus, the church’s decision to purchase a 106-year-old church building at 3210 S.E. Taylor St. in the Sunnyside neighborhood for $1.25 million — in a predominantly liberal part of gay-friendly Portland — was surprising and even angering to some
     In the Oregonian interview, Smith explained that he has a deep love for the Rose City and felt called specifically to lead a church in the heart of Portland, where there is not only a need, but a hunger, to discover what it really means to follow Jesus Christ.
       In response to the concerns of the homosexual community, Smith emphasized that Mars Hill in no way preaches a gospel of hate but seeks to extend the compassion and grace of Jesus and call all people to repentance.
Smith said he has met with leaders of Portland’s Q Center, which serves the city’s homosexual population, and had what he termed a “wonderful” conservation with them. He said Mars Hill communicated clearly to them what the church believes, but that there was some common ground found and that the door remains open for further dialogue. For his work as a pastor, it is an important step in learning more about what is going on the local community, he explained.
     Smith, in fact, credited the news coverage as a motivation for meeting with the Q Center. Had it not been for the publicity about the church, he might not have been as quick to meet with them, he said.
      The new Portland church’s web site is portland.marshill.com