Welcome to the new Mars Hill blog. Here you will find contributions from each of the Mars Hill Executive Elders along with other pastors in the church. Our hope is to use this blog to keep people informed about the vision and details of Mars Hill. Of course, there will be some comedy, theology, practical helps for ministry leaders, and cultural commentary as well. To get things started, each of the main contributors will be writing a post to introduce themselves.

My past
I was born in Grand Forks North Dakota in 1970. As soon as my parents could afford a full tank of gas we left and ended up in Spokane, Washington, where we lived for a few years. By the time I started kindergarten we had moved to Seattle, where I have lived ever since. I grew up as the oldest of five children in an Irish Catholic working class home. My mom stayed home to raise us and make our home basically the community center where all the kids in the neighborhood hung out and played, and my dad worked very hard as a construction worker. At the age of seventeen I met my future wife Grace, Jesus saved me while in college at the age of nineteen, and Grace and I got married at twenty-one while still in college. We planted Mars Hill Church when we were twenty-five. Today we enjoy raising our five children.

My role at the church
I am the primary preaching pastor at Mars Hill and contribute to the vision of the church as an Executive Elder. I also help church planters as the president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, help build strategic partnerships for Resurgence, and have a teaching ministry that includes writing books.

My vision for my area of oversight
I am always seeking to grow in my knowledge of the Bible so that I can most faithfully preach and teach about Jesus to as many people as possible. This includes what I consider comedy, although not everyone agrees, which I also find funny. Thanks to developments in technology, I am now able to preach to multiple campuses live via satellite on Sundays and also increase my preaching and teaching ministry by vodcast, podcast, iTunes, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and other web portals that help to multiply the effect of my ministry. I find these kinds of opportunities humbling, encouraging, and exciting. In the future I hope to continue to grow in my effectiveness as a Bible preacher and teacher and use any and every means to spread the news about Jesus like 1 Corinthians 9 extols. Simply, I want to do everything I can, taking every opportunity I can, to point as many people to Jesus as I can by the grace He provides.