Last night, Pastor Mark arrived in a hearse to preach at Mars Hill U-District. After preaching two Sunday-morning services in Bellevue, he spent part of the afternoon driving the hearse throughout Seattle while talking about the future or funeral coming for Christianity. His conversation was recorded and the footage will be used with his upcoming book, A Call to Resurgence, which releases November 5.
As the sun went down, Pastor Mark headed through the tall wooden doors of the church to address students on one of the hinge issues Christians will face: Is the Bible fully trustworthy and fully true?
Over 500 college and grad students came and packed out Mars Hill U-District. With only 400 seats in the church, the room was full to the brim as people sat and stood all along the aisles. One of the students gave up his seat when he saw a pregnant woman standing next to him outside the row.
Pastor Mark informed the congregation on how we got the Bible today, why it should be trusted, and why it is true. Topics ranged from the number of manuscripts of the Bible’s different books to how close they are to their origin date. Students were encouraged to continually test everything they hear throughout their college years against Scripture.
After the message, we got some time with Pastor Drew Hensley, lead pastor at Mars Hill U-District, to hear his response and hope for the church.
I was really excited for students to hear the truth of the gospel compared to what they’re going to hear day-in and day-out on campus. People are telling them this is what you should believe, this is what you’re made for, and it’s absolutely against everything we see in Scripture. For Pastor Mark to come out tonight and share that Scripture is truth, it’s authority, you can place your faith and life in it, and it sustains you, I think that’s huge for students.
One of the things we see time and time again with our students is they might start really strong and then a lot of lies come in. They sacrifice Jesus on the altar of grades for the idol of career. We see waves of college students and their ups and downs when they start to believe in a false identity. To see their identity doesn’t have to be rooted in all of that but it can be rooted in Jesus is amazing.
Sophomore Mahlon Houck shared how Pastor Mark’s message affected him: “I definitely have less fear in leading a Community Group and not really feeling like I need to force the word on people. I just need to let it speak for itself, because it is true and it changes lives.”
Also that night, Zach Bolen (of Citizens) led worship and was installed as an elder at U-District. The elders at the church and the Executive Elders laid hands on and prayed over Zach and his wife, Natalie.
We’re excited to see the work God has in store for the U-District church and want to encourage students to sign up for the upcoming College Conference if you haven’t already. Also, find out more about Pastor Mark’s new book and pre-order a copy at theresurgencebook.com.
Here are a few more pics from the night:
