“It’s like a church in itself,” said Jordan, one of our new hires, during this week’s all-staff meeting.

Every quarter or so, Mars Hill staff convenes in a big room for updates, food, teaching, prayer, and worship. And Jordan is correct, with about a hundred of us now, it is a decent-sized congregation.

Unfortunately, our brothers at the Albuquerque campus weren’t able to join us (we’re still figuring out what it looks like to convene across state lines), but those of us in attendance enjoyed a celebration of God’s grace and some much-needed time to focus as we move into the fall.

I’ve been looking forward to this meeting for a while, in particular as an opportunity to proactively cultivate greater health within our staff culture. For example:

Clear Communication

Anthony Ianniciello (Media & Communications Director) and Nick Bogardus (PR Director) introduced our new Media & Communications branch, which brings all of our media, arts, and marketing under one roof. They’re focused on making our “Air War” more precise and our “Ground War” more evident.

Prayer—Not Just Talking About Prayer

As Pastor Tim Smith led us in worship, he invited everyone to speak prayers of thanks for what God has done in our lives and in our church and in our cities. A common sin of church leaders is to spend time talking about prayer and never getting around to actually praying. We want to be a better model of faithful prayer.

Clarity Over Ambiguity

Pastor Chad Toulouse gave a preview of an enormous project that is just getting underway. We hope and pray this will be a huge benefit not only to Mars Hill but also to the greater church. Our plan is to create a website that details all of our open- and close-handed theological issues, leadership guidelines, procedures, and org structure in an effort to explain our increasingly complex organization. Many look to Mars Hill for leadership in the church mission and governance arena, and we want to steward that influence well by transparently sharing how we operate and the biblical principles that drive us.

Guidance from Jesus

The common temptation of Mars Hill staff is to work hard until burnout forces Sabbath. Not good. Pastor Mark Driscoll provided a wise, timely, and humble word about how to organize regular times of silence and solitude—intentional time with Jesus—to remain in a place of personal health. He has also shared some of these things he’s been learning as a leader over at The Resurgence blog.

Celebrate the Grace of God

Two new campuses. Three new locations. Standing room only. Dozens of baptisms. The incredible gift of the Gospel of Luke. We have so much to be thankful for, and it was great to take an afternoon to share this together as a staff family.

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Annual Report 2009

The 2009 Annual Report features stories and stats from the past 12 months at Mars Hill Church. Pick up a copy at any campus or read it online.