Former Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll has resurfaced after going silent on social media for several months, launching a new website, MarkDriscoll.org.
In October, Driscoll stepped down from his position as senior pastor at Seattle's Mars Hill Church this summer, after the church's board accused him of "ungodly and disqualifying behavior," including alleged abuse and bullying of church members.
During this time, Driscoll vowed to disappear from Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts "for the rest of 2014" an attempt to"reset" his life."
"The distractions it can cause for my family and our church family are not fruitful or helpful at this time," he wrote.
However, the pastor has re-emerged on a new-and-improved website, as if, in the the words of Patheos blogger Warren Throckmorton, "[the controversies had] never happened."
According to Driscoll's bio as presented on the website, he "is a Jesus-following, mission-leading, church-serving, people-loving, Bible-preaching pastor. In 2010, Preaching magazine named him one of the 25 most influential pastors of the past 25 years. He's grateful to be a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody."
Driscoll still lists himself as a founder of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, the organization responsible for creating satellite Mars Hills across the country, and a bestselling author and commentator.
The website, which was launched just eight days before the church he co-founded formally dissolves, is offering "free exclusive resources directly from Pastor Mark Driscoll" for those who sign up. The initial offering is a Christmas-themed e-book, "The Boy Who is Lord: Jesus'Birth in Luke's Gospel."
Related: Mars Hill Church Asks for Donations Two Weeks Before Church Closes
The Driscoll site also asks for gifts, saying: "Your tax-deductible donation allows us to continue hosting and distributing Pastor Mark's Bible teachings and resources."
According to Throckmorton, who has closely documented the Driscoll saga from the beginning, the website is registered to Mars Hill Fellowship. The domain was created in 2004 and renewed this month, and Mars Hill Church is still listed as contact on the registrant email.
"I don't understand the legal issues here, but the information makes me wonder if Mark Driscoll might make a comeback as pastor of a Mars Hill Fellowship," Throckmorton said, according to Seattle PI.
In the meantime, many questions remain as Mars Hill prepares to dissolve, including what was found in the internal investigation of Driscoll and whether donations to the Mars Hill Global Fund actually went to advertised purposes of planting churches in India and Ethiopia.
