Mark Driscoll Resigns As Mars Hill Senior Pastor

Mark Driscoll, the embattled pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, has reportedly resigned from his role as lead pastor of the megachurch.

The church's board announced Wednesday that Driscoll resigned after the board completed an internal investigation into complaints regarding Driscoll's conduct.

"On Tuesday, October 14, Pastor Mark Driscoll submitted his resignation as an elder and lead pastor of Mars Hill Church. The Board of Overseers has accepted that resignation and is moving forward with planning for pastoral transition, recognizing the challenge of such a task in a church that has only known one pastor since its founding. We ask for prayer for the journey ahead," the church board said in a statement on the Mars Hill website.

The statement went on to describe the investigation that took place regarding Driscoll's "formal charges," including "1,000 hours of research, interviewing more than 50 people and preparing 200 pages of information."

The church board said that its investigation found that while Driscoll sometimes interacted with his staffers in a domineering manner, they found that the pastor had never been charged with immorality or illegality, and that some of the complaints brought against him were entirely untrue.

The statement also said that it was Driscoll's decision to step down from the church. According to the New York Times, Driscoll wrote in his resignation letter that he "readily acknowledge I am an imperfect messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"There are many things I have confessed and repented of, privately and publicly, as you are well aware. Specifically, I have confessed to past pride, anger and a domineering spirit."