Twenty-one former Mars Hill Church pastors have filed formal charges against Senior Pastor Mark Driscoll, alleging that he has engaged in a pattern of abusive and intimidating conduct and that he has not changed his domineering behavior.

The charges were lodged with the executive elders of the church — a three-member group that includes Driscoll — as well as the church’s board of advisers and accountability. Two “outside” members of the oversight board have resigned in recent months.

In a lengthy confidential letter, first obtained by Warren Throckmorton of Patheos, the former pastors voice gratitude for “Pastor Mark’s ministry” and say: “He has taught us sound doctrine.”

“Yet we believe that Mark has also impacted us, the church, and the watching and listening world with a pattern of harmful ways. We feel responsible to submit these charges for the sake of the gospel, our own consciences and the future well-being of Mars Hill Church.”

Update: The church released this statement to our news partner KOMO News:

“We take these allegations seriously and we are thankful that we have a process in place where allegations will be reviewed by our board and our elders. As it is relatively new that these former elders submitted this, at this time we don’t have any information on how long that process will take or what the outcome will be, but we look forward to having Pastor Mark back from vacation this Sunday.”

Driscoll co-founded the mega-church in 1996 and rose in recent years to celebrity status in the evangelical movement, being profiled in The New York Times Magazine and appearing on “The View” to defend his male-centric view of marriage.

Yet, Driscoll and Mars Hill were recently removed from Acts29 Network, an evangelical “church planting” network of more than 500 churches that he helped found. Its directors, in a letter, urged Driscoll to “get help.”

The cover letter to the complaint from his former pastors is scathing. It states:

“We can no longer respect Pastor Mark Driscoll and submit to his leadership as a result of his persistent sinful behavior toward others. We believe that an investigation would discover that a significant number of current Mars Hill elders, leaders and members have also lost respect for Pastor Mark’s leadership, in addition to the many who have left Mars Hill Church in the recent past.”

The church’s board of elders has been meeting this week. Driscoll is slated to return to his church this Sunday.

The senior pastor has issued a series of mea culpas, saying his “angry young prophet” days are over, promising to be a “loving pastor” and apologizing for his hiring of a consulting firm at church expense to artificially pump sales to put his book “Real Marriage” on The New York Times bestseller list.

The former pastors say his arm’s length apologies for hurt do not hold water.

Their letter cites 25 instances of threatening, bullying, domineering and “shaming” behavior in the last four years, the most recent in May 2014 when Driscoll allegedly told elders that others made the decision to hire the firm ResultSource to stroke sales of his book.

“Please note the recency of the events below,” say the former pastors. “We have selected more recent examples to challenge the prevalent impression that while Pastor Mark may have sinned in these ways in the distant past, he has been a changed man in recent years.”

The overall charges, backed by references to scripture, include:

“Pastor Mark exhibits lack of self-control by his speech and by verbally assaulting others.”

“Pastor Mark exhibits anger and ungraceful ways of dealing with those with whom he disagrees and who he disagrees with. He does this by (among other ways) putting people down, caricaturing and dismissing.

“We believe that the way Pastor Mark leads has created a culture of fear instead of a culture of candor and safety. People are often afraid to ask questions or challenge certain ideas.”

“Pastor Mark is verbally abusive to people who challenge him, disagree with him, or question him.”

One incident, from a 2012 elders meeting, quotes Driscoll’s reaction to an elder who corrected Driscoll with his own understanding of new church bylaws.

“Mark’s response to that elder was bullying, with some elders present recalling language to the effect of: ‘I don’t give a s*** what you think. I’m trying to be nice to you guys by asking your opinion. In reality, we don’t need your vote to make this decision. This is what we are doing’.”

The former pastors indicate that others are willing to come forward. They write:

“This document is signed by several former elders of Mars Hill Church. We submit these charges together and are prepared to stand as witnesses to these charges. In addition to these signers, there are 21 additional witnesses who stand prepared to testify to various charges when interviewed by the board.

“Their names have been omitted from this document for privacy and safety reasons both for themselves and for Mars Hill Church, and/or because they have previously signed a non-disparagement agreement when exiting Mars Hill employment and are only prepared to be named within the context of an investigation in an effort to honor their prior agreement.”

The board of advisers and accountability dismissed similar charges when brought last year by former pastor Dave Kraft.

In recent days, however, Driscoll and Mars Hill have been booted out of Acts29 Network. Driscoll has been removed as closing speaker at the Gateway Church Conference in Texas, and taken off the program of four upcoming “Act Like Men” evangelical conferences.

In looking over the ex-pastors’ letter, Throckmorton concluded: “My impression is that these matters have been raised repeatedly and are part of the concerns which animated Acts29 Network to take action.”

The ball is now in Mark Driscoll’s court. The Seattle area’s highest profile pastor has endured an August from hell.