Driscoll announced he would take a six-week leave of absence while church leaders reviewed the charges filed against him. Then in mid-October, he resigned, to the apparent surprise of his board over overseers. “I do not want to be the source of anything that might detract from our church’s mission to lead people to a personal and growing relationship with Jesus Christ,” Driscoll said in a statement. He also made clear that the charges did not include “criminal activity, immorality or heresy,” and that he does not consider himself disqualified from future ministry.

When the news broke last Friday afternoon that Mars Hill would dissolve, Driscoll’s critics largely refrained from triumphalism, at least in public. Rachel Held Evans, a popular progressive evangelical blogger and frequent Driscoll critic, posted on Facebook that her “heart breaks for those brothers and sisters from Seattle feeling wounded, exhausted, and disillusioned by the unraveling of their church.” Others were harsher:

When a pastor resigns & a church "empire" collapses - almost overnight - you can be sure it wasn't built upon Christ, but another. #marshill — Jon Talley (@talleytweets) November 1, 2014

1/4 All those #MarsHill leaders who stood with #MarkDriscoll until recently should be stepping down from ministry themselves... — Kinnon (@kinnon) November 2, 2014

On a private Facebook page run by Driscoll supporters, the tone was somber. "This is really a bitter pill for me to swallow," one member wrote. "This feels like Mars Hill just died." Another said she tried out a different church on Sunday, but "I felt out of sorts, out of place and like I was in someone else's home." Many of these posters were drawn to Mars Hill by Driscoll’s preaching and personality; they use language of mourning and grief in describing their loss.

As a preacher on stage, Driscoll was passionate, deft, and intense. Despite his reputation for arrogance, his style was often self-deprecating and funny. He talked about dating, marriage, and sex with frankness, and projected a kind of bro-ish swagger that's not uncommon lately in the pulpits of American megachurches. His theology wasn’t for everyone, but then again, whose is? For a certain kind of young urban Christian, Driscoll offered proof that conservative evangelicism could be both robust and cool.

And that’s why Mars Hill’s demise can be read as an object lesson in the dangers of building a church—or any brand—on a single magnetic leader. Lots of people liked Mark Driscoll, and they liked the idea of him even after his flaws began to show. But when he proved to be all too human, his church couldn’t survive without him. Driscoll apparently once told staff, “I am the brand,” and he turned out to be right.

As Anthony Bradley, a theology professor at the King’s College, tweeted:

If you don't think denominations are worth it consider "The Rise & Fall of Driscoll & The Dissolving of Mars Hil" http://t.co/cUSOInKi14 — Anthony Bradley (@drantbradley) October 31, 2014

To translate from Christian shorthand: Churches who belong to established denominations have established institutional methods for excising troubled leaders, and for surviving once they are gone. “Nondenominational” organizations like Mars Hill, built on faith and charisma alone, will always be vulnerable to the fate of losing the popularity contest.

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