The church-planting network that Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll helped found has asked him to “step down from ministry for an extended time and seek help.”

The board of directors of Acts 29 sent Driscoll a letter expressing gratitude for the “leadership, courage, and generosity of both you and Mars Hill in not only founding the network but also sustaining it.” But the letter went on to say the board could no longer support Driscoll because of what its members consider “ungodly and disqualifying behavior.”

The letter was signed by Matt Chandler, Acts 29’s chairman of the board and the pastor of a large Dallas church, as well as Darrin Patrick, Steve Timmis, Eric Mason, John Bryson, Bruce Wesley, and Leonce Crump.

The board said it wrote the letter “in sadness and hope” and only after waiting to see what Driscoll and the Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability (BOAA) would do to resolve what the letter called “countless shots and dozens of fires directly linked to you.”

But the Acts 29 board’s letter added, “We no longer believe the BOAA is able to execute the plan of reconciliation originally laid out. Ample time has been given for repentance, change, and restitution, with none forthcoming. We now have to take another course of action.”

In addition to asking Driscoll to step aside from ministry, the board also said it has “no alternative but to remove you and Mars Hill from membership in Acts 29….

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