Background and career
Mark A. Driscoll (born 1970) is an American evangelical pastor and author. He is the senior and founding pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was established in 2016. In 1996, Driscoll co-founded Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. By March 2014, Mars Hill Church had 14,000 members in five states and fifteen locations. He also founded The Resurgence (a theological cooperative) and co-founded other parachurch organizations, such as Acts 29 Network, Churches Helping Churches, and The Gospel Coalition. He has written for the "Faith and Values" section of The Seattle Times, OnFaith, and the Fox News website. Driscoll has also authored a number of popular Christian books, including A Call to Resurgence. Driscoll has been described as "an evangelical bad boy, a gifted orator and [a] charismatic leader" who is "hip yet hard-line". A conservative evangelical, he favors "vintage" aesthetics and a "down to earth", "aggressive" preaching style. Controversy has surrounded his teachings on gender roles, his proven instances of plagiarism, and the culture of fear and abuse that allegedly existed during his tenure at Mars Hill. In the summer of 2014, Driscoll faced public criticism and formal complaints from Mars Hill staff members and congregants due to abusive behavior. In August 2014, the board of Acts 29 Network removed him from its membership and urged him to step down from ministry. On October 14, 2014, Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill Church in disgrace. Within three months of Driscoll's resignation, Mars Hill Church was dissolved, leaving each church campus to either close or become autonomous. In 2021, Driscoll was the subject of a popular podcast called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.
Driscoll was born on October 11, 1970, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He was "raised "Roman Catholic in a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of Seattle", in the Riverton Heights area of SeaTac, Washington. As Driscoll has written, it was "a very rough neighborhood", where, Driscoll had noted, serial killer Ted Bundy had picked up victims. He is the oldest of five children and the son of a union drywaller. He has described a difficult family history of abuse and crime, writing: "The men on my father's side include uneducated alcoholics, mental patients, and women beaters. ... One of the main reasons my parents moved from North Dakota to Seattle was to get away from some family members when I was a very young boy." In high school, he met his future wife, Grace Martin. Martin is the daughter of evangelical pastor Gib Martin. In 1989, Driscoll graduated from Highline High School in Burien, Washington, where he served as student body president, captain of the baseball team, and editor of the school newspaper. He was named as the student "most likely to succeed" in his graduating class. At age 19, as a college freshman, Driscoll converted to evangelical Christianity. The same year, according to Driscoll, "God spoke to me ... He told me to marry Grace, preach the Bible, train men, and plant churches ... I began preparing to devote my life to obey [God's] call for me." He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from Washington State University with a minor in philosophy. Driscoll holds a Master of Arts degree in exegetical theology from Western Seminary.
After graduation, Mark and Grace relocated to Seattle, where they attended Antioch Bible Church and worked with that church's college ministry as volunteers. Mark was hired as an intern a few months later. Through his internship, Mark met Mike Gunn, who worked for an Athletes in Action ministry at the University of Washington, and Lief Moi, a radio show host. The three men began to discuss planting an "urban, postmodern" church in Seattle. Greg Kappas, the pastor responsible for Antioch Bible Church's new church planting ministry, mentored the three and helped them develop their plans.
Driscoll, Lief Moi, and Mike Gunn founded Mars Hill Church in spring 1995 and officially launched it in fall 1996. The church first met in the Driscolls' home. By spring 1997, the church had relocated and expanded to two services. Driscoll later reflected that he was "not ready" when he planted Mars Hill at age 25.
Later in 1997, he was invited to speak at a Leadership Network pastors' conference in California. The speech he made inspired many within the nascent emerging church movement and, according to Driscoll, shifted the movement's focus from reaching Generation X to reaching the postmodern world. As a result, Mars Hill Church and Driscoll were thrust into the national spotlight: he was interviewed on National Public Radio, and Mother Jones magazine published a feature on the church. Mars Hill Church grew from 160 members in 1996 to 350 in 1999.
In 1998, Driscoll and David Nicholas founded the Acts 29 Network ("Acts 29"), a church planting network, in response to people approaching Driscoll for advice on planting churches. The goal of this parachurch organization was to plant 1000 new churches around the world "through recruiting, assessing, training, funding, and coaching." Acts 29 started slowly under Driscoll's tenure, with 11 churches at its inception and 17 by 2003. At that point, it began to grow rapidly, reaching 50 churches by 2006 and 410 churches by 2011. The majority are still located in the U.S., with 38 churches in 16 other countries. According to Salon, Driscoll structured Acts 29 to match his own "strict orthodoxy and views" on theology and politics, while allowing latitude in cultural specifics.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
