Two weeks after lead Mars Hill Church pastor Mark Driscoll resigned amid questions about his leadership, the Seattle megachurch he founded announced Friday it was dissolving its network of branches across four states. The church said on its website that the best future for its branches would be for them to becoming "autonomous self-governed entities.""This means that each of our locations has an opportunity to become a new church, rooted in the best of what Mars Hill has been in the past, and independently led and run by its own local elder teams," Pastor Dave Bruskas wrote on the church's website. The existing Mars Hill Church organization will be dissolved.
The megachurch's controversial founder resigned as elder and lead pastor on Oct. 14, following an investigation into formal charges brought against him.
The church currently has multiple branches in Washington, and one location each in Oregon, California and New Mexico. Last month, it closed its Phoenix location as a Mars Hill church.