Sometimes people deliberately fill their environment with yes-men and drive out critics. Pointing out what they’re doing doesn’t help, because they’re doing it on purpose. However there are ways well intentioned people end up driving out critics unintentionally, and those are worth talking about.
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Church (podcast) is about a guy who definitely drove out critics deliberately. Mark Driscoll fired people, led his church to shun them, and rearranged the legal structure of the church to consolidate power. It worked, and his power was unchecked until the entire church collapsed. Yawn.
What’s interesting is who he hired after the purges. As described in a later episode, his later hiring was focused on people who were executives in the secular world. These people were great at executing on tasks, but unopinionated about what their task should be. Whatever Driscoll said was what they did.
This is something a good, feedback-craving leader could have done by accident. Hiring people who are good at the tasks you want them to do is a pretty natural move. But I think the speaker is correct (alas I didn’t write down his name) that this is anti-correlated at the tails- the best executors become so by not caring about what they’re executing.
So if you’re a leader and want to receive a healthy amount of pushback, it’s not enough to hire hypercompetent people and listen when they push back. You have to select specifically for ability to push back (including both willingness, and having good opinions).
My biggest outstanding question is “why did church network leaders give resources to a dude who had never/barely been to church to start his own?” There were probably subtler warning signs but surely they shouldn’t have been necessary once you encountered that fact and the fact that he was proud of it. If anyone has insight or sources on this I’d love to chat.
Mark Driscoll was raised Catholic, converted to evangelical Christianity at 19, got an MA in theology, connected with others who were associated with “church planting” efforts, and launched the first Mars Hill church in 1996 when he was 26. The church was initially in his home.
So it seems he may have received coaching, training, and some limited support at that early stage, but probably not enormous financial resources.
It looks like you’re right that he didn’t receive much funding via networks or sending churches. The podcast describes initial support coming from “friends and family”, in ways that sound more like a friends and family round of start-up funding than normal tithes.
I’m still under the impression that he received initial endorsements, blessings, and mentorship from people who should have known better.
(In case this isn’t a joke, Mars Hill church was named after Mars Hill / the Areopagus / Hill of Ares, which in the New Testament is where the apostle Paul gives a speech to a bunch of pagans about Jesus. That hill is named after the Greek god. The church was located on Earth, in particular in Seattle.)
Sometimes people deliberately fill their environment with yes-men and drive out critics. Pointing out what they’re doing doesn’t help, because they’re doing it on purpose. However there are ways well intentioned people end up driving out critics unintentionally, and those are worth talking about.
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Church (podcast) is about a guy who definitely drove out critics deliberately. Mark Driscoll fired people, led his church to shun them, and rearranged the legal structure of the church to consolidate power. It worked, and his power was unchecked until the entire church collapsed. Yawn.
What’s interesting is who he hired after the purges. As described in a later episode, his later hiring was focused on people who were executives in the secular world. These people were great at executing on tasks, but unopinionated about what their task should be. Whatever Driscoll said was what they did.
This is something a good, feedback-craving leader could have done by accident. Hiring people who are good at the tasks you want them to do is a pretty natural move. But I think the speaker is correct (alas I didn’t write down his name) that this is anti-correlated at the tails- the best executors become so by not caring about what they’re executing.
So if you’re a leader and want to receive a healthy amount of pushback, it’s not enough to hire hypercompetent people and listen when they push back. You have to select specifically for ability to push back (including both willingness, and having good opinions).
I somehow went the entire research project without seeing a picture of Mark Driscoll. Wow, what a strong yet trustworthy face
however some of his younger, unbearded photos look super douchey, can’t see why anyone would follow him.
My biggest outstanding question is “why did church network leaders give resources to a dude who had never/barely been to church to start his own?” There were probably subtler warning signs but surely they shouldn’t have been necessary once you encountered that fact and the fact that he was proud of it. If anyone has insight or sources on this I’d love to chat.
Mark Driscoll was raised Catholic, converted to evangelical Christianity at 19, got an MA in theology, connected with others who were associated with “church planting” efforts, and launched the first Mars Hill church in 1996 when he was 26. The church was initially in his home.
So it seems he may have received coaching, training, and some limited support at that early stage, but probably not enormous financial resources.
It looks like you’re right that he didn’t receive much funding via networks or sending churches. The podcast describes initial support coming from “friends and family”, in ways that sound more like a friends and family round of start-up funding than normal tithes.
I’m still under the impression that he received initial endorsements, blessings, and mentorship from people who should have known better.
Launching the first Mars church sounds like a success to me!
(In case this isn’t a joke, Mars Hill church was named after Mars Hill / the Areopagus / Hill of Ares, which in the New Testament is where the apostle Paul gives a speech to a bunch of pagans about Jesus. That hill is named after the Greek god. The church was located on Earth, in particular in Seattle.)