CCK Life blog

Jamie Munson is the lead pastor at Mars Hill Church, Seattle. Jamie was recently in Brighton with Church of Christ the King along with Scott Thomas and Tyler Powell and spent time with some of the leaders and department heads. At the age of 31, Jamie displayed a remarkable depth of wisdom and understanding of the Church and some of it’s pastoral responsibilities. He loves Jesus and is passionate about making the Gospel known. Yohaan Philip, chief editor of the ccklife blog, spoke to Jamie at CCK and writes,
YP: Mark Driscoll refers to you in his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev as ‘Pot head to Pastor’.
JM: Yeah that’s right. When I started coming to Mars Hill, I was a non Christian. My sister was part of the core group that launched the church. I became a Christian sometime in it’s first year. I started an internship at Mars Hill about a year and a half later. I was an intern for a few years and then a deacon and then a pastor. Now I’m lead pastor at Mars Hill overseeing our expansion and what we’re doing - trying to bring Jesus to as many people as possible.

YP: Were you always drawn to church leadership?
JM: Honestly, becoming a pastor was the last thing I thought I’d do. I always thought I’d be in business. I was working in a software company called Oracle. I felt God called me to come do an internship with the Church. So I started volunteering and serving a little bit, raising my own support. I thought it would be a temporary stop along the way, but God kept me there, showing me new things to do. Now I’m one of the pastors of the Church. I enjoy it and love doing it. Last thing I thought I’d be doing but God’s call is stronger than mine.

YP: Any words of encouragement for young men who aspire to be church leaders?
JM: Sure. A couple of things - first, character. You don’t have to wait and start in your 20’s. Start early. Work on your doctrine, your theology, your life. Get rooted in scripture. Get rooted in what it takes to become a man. Get a job, plan for a future family and start working towards that from a young age.
Secondly, find older men in the Church that have godly wisdom and are looking for young guys to pour that in to. Get to know them. Bug them, ask them lots of questions. Be polite about it! Learn from them as much as you can as early as you can. Learn from business men, from pastors, from preachers, from teachers - whoever you can.

YP: Very helpful! What have been some of your biggest thrills whilst leading Mars Hill?
JM: There’s never a dull moment! We’re always doing something new and exciting. God has given us lots of grace and lots of talents. I keep going back to God saying, “You’ve given us this. How do we steward it well?” We need to be faithful with that blessing. It’s not because of us, but His grace , but we’re still responsible for stewarding that grace. It’s thrilling to see lives changed. It’s thrilling to see the gospel preached. It’s thrilling to see churches planted and lots of leaders raised up so that works of the gospel can happen across other parts of Seattle and the country and the world. As the Church grows, people are worshiping Jesus, their lives are being changed, and they are then going back into the culture as missionaries to see more lives changed.

YP: What have been some of your key strategies in impacting Seattle?
JM: We do want to see the city change. We want to see more Christians in Seattle love and adopt their city and be a blessing to it, not run from their city. So one of our key strategies has been to plant a Mars Hil campus in downtown Seattle. Pastor Tim Gaydos leads that and he is leading a group of missionaries that are business men, artists, people who are still in the church but very much out there in the world. He’s training them to be missionaries -to use their skills and recreation to point towards Jesus. Don’t build a Christian sub-culture, but engage with non Christians. Encourage them. Be generous with their lifestyles. And I think a lot of people are meeting Jesus through that because they are breaking the stereotype of Christians as this ‘holier-than-thou’ person who doesn’t engage with non- Christians. These are real people who through their lives try to point people to the real God, Jesus.

YP: For me, studying the doctrines of God and the cross draws me to worship. What draws you into worship?
JM: Lately I’ve been studying the doctrine of Heaven.
YP: (spontaneously) WOW!
JM: I’ve just been blown away by it. Most people spend most of their lives trying to create Heaven on earth, trying to pursue idols - whether it’s wealth, or a nice house. When we study scripture we see that Jesus creates a new Heaven and earth and He will reign as the king of that. And it will be far greater than anything on earth as we know it now. And this earth is beautiful. Being in England here, it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful! But it pales in comparison, to what God’s about to do when He ushers in His new kingdom. And so I’m looking forward to that. Studying that gets me more thankful for what I do have and enjoying what I have, but not idolizing it as an ultimate thing. It’s going away and God’s going to bless us more than we can imagine. It draws me into worship because I look forward to the day when I can see Jesus face to face as all of the nations worship Him together. Being in England expands that view as I see multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-language worship. I look forward to Heaven when we experience more of that in God’s presence.

YP: Last question. I heard you walked around with Steve Boon and the guided tour he gave you!
JM: Brighton seems like an awesome city. It’s beautiful. There’s a ton going on. The sun was shining today. We walked down on the pier. My kids would have loved it. They would have loved going on the rides and running around on the beach. The masses of people are amazing. I saw many people walking up and down the beach. It seems like a fun, diverse city. It also looks like a city that needs a lot of Jesus and gospel centered churches to reach it.

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