Pastor Steve Tompkins became the lead pastor of Mars Hill Church Shoreline back when it was still an experiment. In 2006, the elders decided to test whether video preaching would work, and Pastor Steve helped launch Mars Hill’s first video-based church. Now, after more than eight years of leading and building the Shoreline church, Pastor Steve has transitioned to a new role helping to launch Mars Hill Schools.
Saying goodbye to Shoreline wasn’t easy, however. He had neither expected nor anticipated leaving anytime soon.
“As I began to pray and seek counsel it became clear quite quickly that this was Jesus’ direction for me, and I got excited,” said Steve.
So in March, he handed Shoreline over to the leadership of Pastor Aaron Gray. Even though he knew very well that the church belongs to Jesus and that this was his will, he still felt like a father handing off his family.
“It was hard,” said Pastor Steve. “I really love this church.”
Preparations
Now that the transition has been made, most of Pastor Steve’s time is spent working in tandem with Ryan Sharp, an Executive Pastor Resident with Mars Hill. Preparations for the schools is a full time job for both of them as they work closely with both Corban University and Western Seminary to finalize courses, teachers, schedules, deadlines, communications, marketing, long term planning, and anything else that comes up.
“Basically, my new role involves three big categories, and I’m passionate about each one” said Steve. “The first is developing a strong relational partnership with both Corban University and Western Seminary. The second area is teaching.”
Pastor Steve is planning to teach three courses for Corban University next year. In addition, Pastor Mark Driscoll (MA Western Seminary) and Pastor Dave Bruskas (Th.M.) will be teaching for both Corban and Western. Pastor Steve’s third role is, not surprisingly, pastoral.
“In some ways, I’ll be the lead pastor of the student body,” he said.
That pastoral heart on campus is an important facet of the project known as Mars Hill Schools. With twenty years’ experience as a pastor—ten of them with Mars Hill—in addition to two masters degrees, Pastor Steve is uniquely qualified for his role as Director of Mars Hill Schools.
The vision
Why the partnership? Why not simply start Mars Hill Schools from scratch?
“We’d have to invent and develop every system ourselves, plus it takes years to gain full accreditation,” said Steve. “Partnership is absolutely the way to go.”
So Mars Hill is partnering with Corban and Western, hosting well-established schools with a history of sticking to their biblical and theological convictions, convictions which Mars Hill wholeheartedly endorses.
“It’s a win-win for everyone,” Steve said.
Pastor Mark Driscoll has long desired to offer solid, biblical and theological education in the Seattle area. Now, Steve said, Mars Hill is finally at a place where it can “lay a foundation that continues for, hopefully, generations. We are all exited about the possibilities.”
Furthermore, Pastor Steve very much desires the MH Schools partnership to be a resource for the whole body of Christ. He emphasized that he hopes to see pastors and leaders in the area from other churches taking classes.
“Clearly we want the schools’ partnership to serve Mars Hill, but this is not simply about Mars Hill or even reformed theology. There is a need for solid, conservative, evangelical, biblical and theological teaching, period.”
Current status
Mars Hill got exciting news recently: Corban University received accreditation approval from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities to offer the one year Mars Hill Bible Certificate in Washington State. That set off a wave of applications.
“It’s actually gotten a pretty amazing response,” said Pastor Steve.
As of early April, 74 people had submitted applications to Corban and were either in the process or had already been admitted. Currently, the schools are still waiting for Western’s approval process to be finalized with the NWCCU. As soon as that happens, Western can also begin receiving applications from students. Together, both schools have received expressions of interest online from more than 1,000 potential students.
“It’s going to be exciting to see what Jesus does through this unique partnership,” said Steve.
For more information or to get started on an application, visit marshill.com/schools.
