Jeannie Yandel speaks with former Mars Hill Church Pastor and Elder Jeff Bettger about what he loved about the church and why he finally made the hard decision to leave in the wake of recent scandals.

Bettger used to play in a punk rock band that was, he said, over the top about sex and drugs. In the late 1990s, before he joined Mars Hill, he found that he was too Christian for the lay crowds, but not conservative enough for Christians.

But when he played at Mars Hill, no one questioned the music.

“It was a solidifying moment – this is my family,” he said. He was hired by the church as a pastor but was laid off when Mars Hill bought a church in Ballard. That’s when he started questioning whether the church was truly his family.

Bettger said he stayed because of the friends.