On Mars Hill

"One does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God."
-- Jesus of Nazareth

"Some drink deeply from the river of knowledge. Others only gargle."
-- Woody Allen

Our time at Mars Hill was coming to an end. Marley, Crystal and I were sitting in the overstuffed chairs near the streetside entrance to their big red brick building in the heart of downtown Seattle. The school sits on a block flanked on one side by an outreach house for jobless people and on the other side the opulent Edgewater Hotel overlooking the Seattle waterfront and the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

Crystal works in admissions at Mars Hill. She had arranged for Marley to sit in on a class on Friday and was now giving us the tour of the 100-year-0ld, three-story building that until January had been the abandoned, bird-filled remains of an old luggage factory.

I had not thought of this question ahead of time, but it came to me as good questions often did when I worked as a journalist, as conversation unfolded.

"What is it," I asked her, "that has gone terribly wrong here?"


At first blush, Mars Hill might seem like a strange name for a graduate school. A sci-fi art institute maybe, or perhaps a John Gray seminar for men only -- being, you know, that we're from Mars, not Venus.

But a grad school?

For aspiring therapists, no less?

The name actually comes from one of my favorite passages of the Bible. It's the part in Acts where Paul finds himself in Athens. If Rome was the center of the political world at the time, Athens was its cultural heart, a crossroads of trade, thinking, religion and art.

At a place called Mars Hill, or the Areopagus as some translations put it, Paul tries to explain the gospel on the Athenian's own terms, by way of their own "unknown god," not trying to shun or shame them for their idol worship as much as help them see how God was already at work among them.

This, if I get what they're doing accurately, is what Mars Hill is all about -- entering into places of both pain and joy, understanding how culture celebrates creation and creator as much as exposes brokenness and darkness and embracing the idea of story -- and God's part in writing yours or mine -- as a path towards forgiveness, healing and wholeness.

Entering. Understanding. Embracing. These are my words, not theirs. But I think that's the gist.

In their literature, they are just as quick to quote Woody Allen as Jesus of Nazareth, E.B. White as Jeremiah. "At MHGS we'll invite you to delve into issues of faith and life with freedom, depth and curiosity," writes school president Dan Allender to prospective students. "Our hope is to invite each other into a transformational conversation where God is revealed and we are changed. And as we engage with God's story, our own, and the story of our culture, we'll begin to experience together a God who is not distant or without a name."

I pretty much knew all this before I went to Mars Hill yesterday. I had read their literature. I had read Allender's books. But it's easy to write things. What I wasn't sure of was whether they were the real deal, whether they practiced, forgive me, what they preached.

Crystal didn't flinch at my question. She took it. And rolled it around in her mind for a moment, not in the way that I've seen so many others do with the tough questions, as a delay tactic while they figure out how to dodge the question without seeming to, but as I would see, really pondering it.

I did not ask because I had any reason to believe that something specific had gone wrong, but only because I knew every institution -- every work of man -- will sooner rather than later break, fail, hit bumps big and small, self-inflicted and otherwise. The mark of a good institution at least in part must be in the honesty with which it meets with those problems, the transparency with which it wrestles with them and the integrity with which it reconciles the harm that has occurred.

Honesty. Transparency. Integrity.

Crystal's answer floored me. Without revealing unneeded details or drifting for a moment into gossip, she was honest about the problems the school has encountered. She told us about how Mars Hill has tried to use even its scandals as a tool for teaching and growth and -- most importantly for me -- she was clear that despite the best intentions, there have been times when they have "absolutely blown it."

Any one of the pieces of her answer might have been good enough. But there was a completeness to it that I appreciated. But mostly it was that she was willing to tackle it at all and not try to sugarcoat or downplay or minimize. In truth, she took all of our many questions like this -- unflinching, candid, open.

There was another moment that has stuck with me. As we toured the campus, for over two hours, our conversation, full and rich as it was, took many detours and side turns. At one point conversation strayed very briefly into a place of pain for me. It was very momentary and, hypocritically perhaps, I tried to downplay and weave around it. But Crystal caught it. And she entered it, offering only a soft "I'm sorry." It was unnecessary, but real and appreciated.

Crystal, obviously, is not Mars Hill. But she is a graduate and went through the same program Marley is considering. Marley was able to spend quality time with several others and we both met Dr. Allender briefly and spent enough time at the school to get a sense of its vibe and personality.

In the end, I could see why Marley was so excited, so effervescent, from her visit on Friday. It is, in short, a very special place. The reality of moving here, however, is daunting as much as it is exciting. While just as the mountains and seaside thrill me, the cost of living and, worse still, the ever-present traffic and congestion are serious downsides.

We have by no means made a decision yet, but as we prepare to leave here we are much better informed and, truth be told, inspired than when we arrived.

Tomorrow, we begin the first leg of our journey home. On our way to Montana, where we will visit with Deb and Scott -- who studied under Allender years ago and was a Godsent counselor during our time in Germany -- we will travel through the national cathedral that is Yellowstone Park and try to digest it all.