Whenever a Mars Hill Graduate School student talks about their school here in Seattle, a question about our affiliation with Mars Hill Church is soon to follow.

The confusion between the school and the church becomes all the more problematic when you realize how different we actually are. David Von Stroh explains some of the basic disparities:

Since I find myself having to explain several times a week how Mars Hill Graduate School (my seminary) is not affiliated with Mars Hill Church, I thought it would be helpful to set the record straight. I know, its confusing. We’re both here in Seattle, and started around the same time, took our names from Acts 17, and both have red brick buildings in Belltown. But the similarities drop off there. My seminary, Mars Hill Graduate School, is actually of a very different orientation than is the Mark Driscoll pastored Mars Hill Church here in Seattle. For example. we are very affirming of women in leadership in the church, where Driscoll’s church takes a stance against it. We have a very progressive and borderline liberal, though still very much evangelical, theological bent. (Though we’re very diverse, there is no “party line” at my school. Everything is questioned. Deconstruction and reconstruction are the norm.) The gospel is most often talked about at MHGS in terms of justice issues and real-world transformation. Poverty issues, sex trafficking, trauma recovery, counseling (pastoral and professional psychology), engaging culture and contextualization…these are all important issues for us. I understand that Driscoll is now of a more fundamentalist orientation, even with his innovative and helpful approaches to missional models of church. Brian McLaren, Dan Allender (one of our faculty), N.T. Wright, Jurgen Moltmann, Richard Hays, Martin Buber (“I and Thou” is probably THE foundational text at our school), Pete Rollins…these would be some of the primary influences at MHGS, whereas Driscoll’s church is probably most influenced by John Piper. The Rob Bell pastored Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI is actually far more similar to MHGS than is the Mars Hill Church of Seattle.

It is ironic also that we have the name Mars, being that Mars was the Greek god of war. MHGS has many pacifists, in fact, pacifist/Anabaptist/Mennonite views on war and peace are probably largely in the majority here. The Mars Hill reference, however, refers to Paul’s preaching to the Athenians on the Areopagus (Mars Hill) about the “unknown God”, using a piece of their own religious devotion to begin explaining the story of Jesus.

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While there are many differences between our school and the church, many students are members at Mars Hill Church and find great connection and community through their ministry. Still, it is helpful to know our differences so that prospective students can make an informed decision about studying at MHGS.

David lives in the Rainier Valley and is a student in the Master of Divinity program at Mars Hill Graduate School and worships at Rainier Avenue Church.  Before moving to Seattle, David ministered in the slum communities of Bangkok, Thailand with Servant Partners for five years, pioneering new house churches, mentoring Thai leaders, organizing squatter communities for relocation, and consulting micro-business development operations.  David loves researching the Buddhist context and pioneering new ways of sharing the gospel of Jesus.  His pioneering work on Buddhist contextualization has been published in Communicating Christ in Asian Cities: Urban Issues in Buddhist Contexts, edited by Paul De Neui.