We read how Mark attended a community Pastor's meeting and asked the whole group for a building to use for free for a yet to be determined amount of time. The host Pastor of the church they were meeting at was gracious enough to offer up their church for Sunday evening services to Mars Hill.
The building was less than spectacular being in the middle of downtown being surrounded by panhandlers and drunks who would "pee on the church." (page 118). Mark and the others called everyone they knew and told them of the new locale and they cut back down to one 5pm service. They cancelled all their programming and went into "survival mode."
It was during this time that Mark thought long and hard about his next step and how long he was going to keep working on Mars Hill. He ultimately recommitted himself to the church and its membership and vowed to the congregation they would succeed or he would die trying.
As such, Mark and Grace threw themsleves into a 24/7 lifestyle for the church. The home they were renting was used to start back up some of the men's and women's bible studies and programming. Their family began to come under some demonic attack (Mark relays a pretty chilling story involving his daughter Ashley and "the bad angels." It is pretty scary, honestly).
While borrowing the old big church, Mars Hill was still trying to get into their own building to no avail. Eventually, they were able to get their hands on Seattle's oldest theatre and re-named it "The Paradox." The building is in a pretty dilapitated state with leaky roofs and a ra infestation among the plethora of problems. Additonally, it too was surrounded by many homeless adults and kids. The back of the building was a popular spot for heroin junkies, so much so, that one morning a couple of the guys came into the office and found a dead guy on their steps.
So now Mars Hill had 2 old barely able to stay standing buildings. They were able to get some free help from a couple guys who owned construction companies in the church. Also, miraculously, a yound couple offered up $200,000 to the church. That was huge, to say the least, as they got both buildings up to code and were able to start hosting rock concerts at the Paradox to reach the many young people in the area. Eventually they also started up a 7pm Sunday service at the Paradox to follow the 5pm in the old big church. One thing that Mark wrote about in relation to the Paradox is worth noting here I think. He mentions that the Paradox was setup in a pretty shady part of town (as we have already read) but they exploited that "hip" area to be hospitable to the surrounding residents. Here he writes:
"Many Christians wrongly think that hospitality is the welcoming of fellow Christians into their home and church for friendship. But that is fellowship. Hospitality is when Christians welcome strangers, especially non-Christians, into their homes, lives, and church."
There is a distinction between the two and Mark lays it out very succintly here.
Anyway, as the church progressed and began to grow again, Mark noticed a huge gaping hole in the church....the men.
He had men his age and older coming to him over anyting and everything. It was so bad that Mark called a meeting for men only and demanded they all attend. He preached for more than 2 hours about manhood. His premise was that a man cannot "charge hell with your pants around your ankles, a bottle of lotion in one hand, and Kleenex in the other." (page 129)
At the end as the men walked out (the ones that stayed at least), he handed them each 2 stones and told them they were getting their "balls" back. After this Mark began to preach his Sunday sermons from the book of Proverbs. This further fanned the flame of manhood and masculinty within the men of Mars Hill and the congregation started to soar.
In a little over a year after that, Mars Hill had to go from one church service at each locale (the church and The Paradox) to 6 services at 2 different locations. There was still a lot of growing for the church and the men to do as well as Mark himself (he spends the last couple pages talking about his shortcoming, repentance, mistake, and growth). Ultimately it ends with:
"So we made all these difficult decisions, and the church stabilized. Finally, we had facilities, money, men rising up to lead, intentional community housing, a successful concert venue, and a church that seemed organized to us. We had grown a church of one thousand people in a tough urban culture despite massive hardship. With things going so well, I feared we'd get too comfortable, and so I decided it was time to blow it all up, create some strategic chaos, and start over yet again."
Up next, Chapter 6 - Jesus, Today We Voted to take a Jackhammer to Your Big Church (1,000 - 4,000 people)
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