Guess who’s coming to visit us on Capitol Hill, folks? Mars Hill Church.
This week, Mars Hill’s Joel Fariss—a deacon at MH’s downtown church—wrote a blog post entitled “Mission in Capitol Hill.” 
Capitol Hill is majestic in its standing among Seattle culture shapers, with its long Broadway avenue freckled with dirty Thai restaurants and hipster clothing stores, as well as a statuesque presence in the coffee world. Among these elite caverns of caffeine lies Bauhaus Coffee and Books.
Bauhaus has long been a Capitol Hill landmark and is seen by locals as a comfortable place to hang out… literally. Just the other week I looked towards the door as I saw legs of black lace wrapped in a tight and short leather skirt which met the fur shawl that fell from the shoulders of a beautiful… man.
A MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A guy I know has been creating some really cool relationships with some of the staff there over the last year. The fruit of his ministry is amazing considering the hostility that most hold towards Christianity on the hill.
Farris goes on to quote a bunch of scripture relating to Mars Hill’s mission to spread the word of God, fix the sinners, etc.
Then, Fariss writes:
This is what Mars Hill is doing on Capitol Hill: Living life intentionally. We are loving our neighbors, eating with them, serving the city with them. We have a vision to serve and love Capitol Hill to see the hill transformed to love and serve Jesus.
Are You In?
I would love to talk with you more about the gospel of Jesus and the implications thereof, you can find me every Monday at Grey Gallery and Lounge on 11th between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill: 5:30pm.
Yes, the same misogynistic, hipster church—which compared homosexuality to cancer—wants to come here and save you from yourself.
Grey’s management says they weren’t contacted Fariss or Mars Hill and aren’t sure what to expect, come Monday. “If it’s just [Fariss] and a couple people having a beer and talking about god, I don’t have a problem, but if it’s a mission thing then it’s not something we would tolerate,” says Grey Gallery and Lounge owner Erik Guttridge. “If it were to be a sort of mission at Grey, we’ve asked people to leave [for similar things] before.”
When contacted about his “mission” Fariss seemed a bit rattled. He danced around Mars Hill’s stance on homosexuality, saying that he disagreed with Pastor Mark Driscoll’s gay-cancer analogy, but still believes all you gays are sinners.
His best-but-totally-incomprehensible explanation:
“I believe that if there have been negative things said about homosexuality, where those statements are coming from, they are coming from the same place on a biblical or Christian perspective on abusive fathers or other injustice in the world. Maybe the same place we would say victims find themselves in. People are victimized in certain ways.”
The last anti-gay church that tried to get a foothold in Capitol Hill didn’t last long. This time, all the queers, punks, militant atheists and lovable godless weirdoes should head over to Grey next Monday, pack the place and make Mars Hill feel as welcome as possible.
@ 92 – to quote Eddie Izzard: “The NRA says that ‘guns don’t kill people – people do’, but I think the gun helps.”
@20 “I hope he brings some protection with him”
Nothing says, “I trust God” like thinking one would need protection when going to a coffee shop to meet and talk with people.
@100, I didn’t think this forum was discussing Mars Hill’s opinion on gays, but just Mars Hill in general. And if a group was activating racism, using dehumanizing language against them would be simply be doing the same thing the racists are doing. I wouldn’t stoop to that level. You can be sure my words would be very strong, but I wouldn’t dehumanize them. That’s just me tho.
And actually, that is his real name. He’s open about his struggles at the church and actually got up in front of the entire church and told his story. People accept him and love him genuinely believe it or not….just like anyone else with homosexual desires. Gay or straight we are all screwed without Christ. It’s not like anyone is better than anyone else for an orientation. If it’s told any other way it is not the gospel. I am sorry if you’ve been told otherwise and I know you’ve heard horrible things come out of the mouths of those who claim to know God…I have too.
@99 and 103: Thank you.
Most of the people commenting about how horrible Mars Hill Church is most likely have never even been there or met people from the church.
I agree with 104 as well. I go to Mars Hill and it’s unfortunate that people think we are all about changing people. It’s not about that. We know we can not change behavior. That’s all up to Christ. We just like to go out and have a drink as well so why not it be with gays, nonbelivers as well as believers. We aren’t sitting around plotting our next move like in chess. We honestly just want to love on the city. We clean up the street for the city, not for us or the church. We do not even mention the church because it’s not about the church. It’s all about Christ.
Wow! There sure are a lot of “open-minded” comments from some pretty “open-minded” people on this thread. Sounds like the church of cultural tolerance has some pretty obvious hipocrisy as well…