This is the story of the birth and growth of Seattle's innovative Mars Hill Church, one of America's fastest growing churches located in one of America's toughest mission fields. It's also the story of the growth of a pastor, the mistakes he's made along the way, and God's grace and work in spite of those mistakes. Mark Driscoll's emerging, missional church took a rocky road from its start in a hot, upstairs youth room with gold shag carpet to its current weekly attendance of thousands. With engaging humor, humility, and candor, Driscoll shares the failures, frustrations, and just plain messiness of trying to build a church that is faithful to the gospel of Christ in a highly post-Christian culture. In the telling, he's not afraid to skewer some sacred cows of traditional, contemporary, and emerging churches. Each chapter discusses not only the hard lessons learned but also the principles and practices that worked and that can inform your church's ministry, no matter its present size. The book includes discussion questions and appendix resources. 'After reading a book like this, you can never go back to being an inwardly focused church without a mission. Even if you disagree with Mark about some of the things he says, you cannot help but be convicted to the inner core about what it means to have a heart for those who don't know Jesus.'---Dan Kimball, author,The Emerging Church '... will make you laugh, cry, and get mad ... school you, shape you, and mold you into the right kind of priorities to lead the church in today's messy world.'---Robert Webber, Northern Seminary ( )

If you have any interest in Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill Church this is the book for you. Driscoll details the beginning and growth of Mars Hill and his struggles to become a pastor, both in general, and specifically of a megachurch. He is very candid and no doubt some will be offended by his statements and approach to ministry. If you think it sounds easy to run a successful church then you definitely need to read this book - it required years of complete dedication and a high energy entrepreneurial attitude. ( )

A fine look at the beginnings and growth of Mars Hill Church in Seattle with lessons for pastors about administering a church and lessons for believers as a whole about living in one. Driscoll speaks frankly about practical problems as well as theology and trends in the modern church. He's always interesting, blunt, and humerous (and I know he'd get a kick out of someone from the South finally getting his jokes), and so I would recommend this book even for those who are not pastors and do not want to be. Even lay people will be able to better understand this great thing we are a part of. ( )

With a zeal for evangelism, Mark Driscoll believes that the main purpose of the Church is evangelism (evangelism continually remained our highest priority-p. 150 etc). While certainly part of the great commission (Mt. 28), it could be argued that the principle role is discipleship and santification which, done properly, results in evangelism. ( )

Driscoll describes his experience planting Mars Hill with much candor. His passion is definitely on prominent display here. Sometimes though, I feel he has honorable intentions, but tries too hard to win over the "non-churchy" types. He comes across as well-versed in toilet humor and misogynistic or overly obsessed with an alpha-male typology, and that really doesn't help me in imagining how Christ's Body might or should wrap a lost, hurting culture in its loving arms. ( )