Turner - Downtown Seattle, Lake City, U-District 2009-11

Your Name

Turner

Gender

Male

Which describes your role at Mars Hill?

Regular Attender

What Mars Hill location(s) did you attend?

Downtown Seattle, Lake City / Wedgewood, U-District

What years were you involved / attending?

2009, 2010, 2011

How did you first hear about Mars Hill?

My wife and I had recently moved from across the country and were living in Belltown. We did a google map search and found the downtown campus was only a few blocks away. We checked out the mars hill website, liked what we saw, and went the next Sunday.

What was the circumstance of your first time attending Mars HIll?

My wife and I grew up in an evangelical church based on sound biblical theology, and were looking for a local church family.

What were your first impressions?

I think we both knew immediately that we had found our church home. The music, theology, people, etc all fit.

Why was Mars Hill your church home?

I personally loved Mark's preaching style. Supplemented by the passion of the local pastors and the many community groups, we fit in and felt welcome right away.

What about your time at Mars Hill has had a positive impact on you?

The years we attended were a great growing time in our lives. I think the core biblical input and great community greatly helped us. We were able to serve in multiple ways, and really feel connected to the church.

What about your time at Mars Hill has had a negative impact on you?

At our time in the church, the only real negative I felt was the loss of the Lake City campus, which we were attending at the time. While most of us moved to the U, another great campus. At the time it really felt like a loss, especially with Pastor Harleman being displaced.

Which describes you?

I left Mars Hill prior to closure.

Please describe why you left Mars Hill and what that experience was like.

We left because of a job opportunity across the country. Leaving the church was one of the hardest things that we've had to do. Mars Hill really did make Seattle home for us.

How would you describe the reason for Mars Hill's closure to an outsider.

I consider my observations to be similar to an outsiders as I was gone at the time, but I consider it to be internal conflict leading to public conflict.

I don't pretend to know what happened to any particular group, I feel sorry for everyone involved.

What's changed for you since your time at Mars Hill came to an end?

One of the reasons we felt comfortable leaving was that we found an Acts29 church in our new area prior to leaving.