For the past two years, 25-year-old Alicia Blake has not only been the booker, but also the face of the Paradox, the all-ages venue in Ballard. You've seen her: She's no taller than five foot two, has light strawberry-blond hair and a warm, dimpled smile. Blake started volunteering at the Paradox when it was still hosting shows at the old theater on the Ave in the University District, and eventually worked her way up to booker. She's brought some fierce talent to the club—the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, the Assailant, Maritime, Say Hi to Your Mom, and Paint It Black have all graced the venue's stage in recent months, bringing in fans of pop, hardcore, and lush indie rock alike. Thanks to Blake's relentless efforts, the Paradox's programming has been as stable as ever.

Then last week, Blake was asked to give back her building keys and was told that her last show at the venue will be December 16. Despite the venue's successful status, the conservative Seattle church Mars Hill decided to take back the Paradox, which it founded in 1999, from Blake and the secular volunteers who are currently managing the space.

"[Mars Hill] told me that they were making plans to tie the Paradox closer to the church," says Blake. "I was asked to give my safe keys back that I'd had in my possession for the last year and a half, as some of the elders were apparently 'concerned' that I had them."

A few days following the meeting, Blake and the venue's promotions director, Liz Martin, posted the news on the venue's MySpace page, saying that the Paradox was changing management and that the two women would no longer be affiliated with the club after December 16. In response, the church made another bold move by changing the passwords for all Paradox e-mail addresses, including Blake and Martin's personal addresses, denying them access despite the fact they still had two months of shows to work through.

After a number of complaints Blake was finally given access to her e-mail later that afternoon, but she still can't access the Paradox's e-mail list, website, or volunteer e-mail list. She was also told control of the website and mailing of Paradox press releases had been handed over to a member of the church permanently.

With all the swift action the church has taken in recent days, you'd think they have big plans for the music venue. But when questioned, Mars Hill claims they don't know what the future of the Paradox looks like, except that they want whatever it is to be more closely related to the church.

Bubba Jennings, a staff member at Mars Hill who was part of the original Paradox crew back in 1999, says, "We're still figuring everything out. All we know is, we are most likely going to continue to do shows. We want it to be tied in a little bit closer with the church and we don't know what that means."

I asked him why, if there aren't any plans for the venue, are all the drastic changes being made with such urgency. But he didn't have an answer. It seems likely that the church lost track of the Paradox over the years, and didn't realize that the venue had become so separated from Mars Hill. Once it came to the church leaders' attention that the Paradox was seemingly out of their hands (with the exception of financial ties), it appears they panicked. Jennings says that's not the case.

"The Paradox is just at a place where, you know, we feel like we need to reevaluate how can it serve the city best and we don't really know what that looks like yet," says Jennings.

"I had hoped we were going to have all of this figured out before we went public with it. We don't have all the answers yet because we weren't planning on sharing it until we knew exactly what was going on."

Mars Hill has subsidized the Paradox since its inception, and Jennings says the church has put "probably over $400,000" into the venue. In the beginning, members of Mars Hill Church ran and booked the space—it was the church's way of reaching out to Seattle's youth and securing a place in the local music scene. At the time there was no Vera Project, the Teen Dance Ordinance (TDO) was still in effect, and the struggling all-ages music community needed all the help it could get.

But as the all-ages scene changed, so did the Paradox. The Vera Project started up; the TDO was lifted, allowing bars to host all-ages shows; and control of the Paradox moved out of the hands of Mars Hill members. The venue stayed afloat thanks to the hard work of longtime volunteers like Blake and Martin. Over the past couple years, they've worked hard to keep the Paradox an open and comfortable place for everyone. Not only do they not allow the church's beliefs to affect the acts booked at the venue, but they also arrive early at each show to remove all church paraphernalia like newsletters, fliers, and bibles from the band load-in room (which doubles as the church's foyer). To be at the Paradox was not to be at Mars Hill, and they made sure of that.

After this story was originally posted on The Stranger's website on Wednesday, October 11, Mars Hill's Pastor Mark Driscoll e-mailed me to clarify the church's situation, but he still didn't offer many answers.

"One of the big changes [at Mars Hill] is that we're now meeting in three parts of the city," he writes. "Our hope is to continue doing shows and maybe also open some additional clubs under their own name, or possibly the Paradox name.

"I know that some folks will be suspicious about our intentions but I hope they give us the benefit of the doubt."

The shows that Blake and Martin have booked at the Paradox will go on as planned, with the last one taking place December 16. After that, the women have already started making plans for their new production company, Make Believe, which will continue booking music shows (both all-ages and 21+) at various venues throughout the city.