Update June 22, 2016

Last March the Ballard News-Tribune reported that the former leaders Mars Hill Church were being sued for racketeering and fraud by past congregation members. The lawsuit was filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

According to Sutton Turner’s blog he was never served with the lawsuit.

“…My attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case that was pending against me. Even though the Jacobsens and Kildeas (Plaintiffs) and Brian Fahling (Plaintiff’s attorney) filed a 42-page document with the court and conducted TV interviews, they never served me with the lawsuit.”

“So effectively, we don’t have an active lawsuit because under Washington law they have 90 days to file, which has since passed”

The plaintiffs allege that the defendants, Mark Driscoll and Sutton Turner fraudulently used donated funds for their personal means. The plaintiffs claimed that funds were donated under the pretense they would be used for foreign missions.

Original Post:

The influential church with Ballard roots is making national headlines again, or at least the founders are.

Leaders from the now non-existing Mars Hill Church are being sued for racketeering and fraud by past congregation members.

Attorney, Brian Fahling, filed the lawsuit yesterday in the U.S District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle on behalf of plaintiffs, Ryan and Arica Kildea and Brian and Connie Jacobsen. The lawsuit was filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The plaintiffs allege that the defendants, Mark Driscoll and Sutton Turner (Church General manager and Executive Elder), fraudulently used donated funds said to be used for foreign missions for personal means, such as the promotion of Driscoll’s book, “Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together.”

From the lawsuit:
“…the RICO Defendants engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity so deeply embedded, pervasive and continuous, that it was effectively institutionalized as a business practice, thereby corrupting the very mission Plaintiffs and other donors believed they were supporting.”

According to the suit only $120,000 of $2.3 million donated to Mars Hill for mission efforts "was actually sent overseas."

Brian and Connie Jacobsen are former deans of the church. They claim that between 2008 and 2014 they donated over $90,000.

Since Mars Hill Church dissolved in 2014, Driscoll and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Last month he announced the start of his new church called Trinity Church. Incidentally, Driscoll’s biography on the church website does not mention Mars Hill Church and reports Driscoll having over 20 years of ministry experience.