“Robert Smith, of Everett, said he was a church member from 2002-2007 and today regards himself as a “church member in exile,” because, he said, he ran afoul of church leaders after questioning the internal discipline of a former church elder. “If you question, you are seen as an agitator, you get thrown under the bus,” Smith said. “Bullies should not be pastors.”

Dozens of demonstrators picketed outside Mars Hill Church in Bellevue on Sunday, with some former church members calling for the resignation of the megachurch’s charismatic founder, Mark Driscoll.

The church Driscoll founded started as a Bible study class in his rented Wallingford home in 1996. Today the church says it has 6,000 members and some 13,000 attendees in 15 locations in five states, including 11 in Washington. The newest is to open this winter in Spokane.

The popular church takes worship into a decidedly hip direction. Its Bellevue sanctuary looks like a nightclub, with a black ceiling, disco lighting, chest-thumping rock band and large-screen TVs for following along with the lyrics and sermon. Young families in particular turn out for services in jeans and flip-flops, and shirt tails are the vestments of choice for the clergy.

But along with the church’s meteoric rise has come criticism, from some former members who accuse Driscoll of bullying and a practice of shunning members who raise questions or disagree.

The church has acknowledged using church tithes to hire a firm and buy copies of one of Driscoll’s books to pump up its sales.

In a message on the church’s website, posted last month, Mars Hill also informed churchgoers that some of the donations they gave for the Mars Hill Global Fund for overseas “church planting” went for domestic general-fund church expenses. Driscoll has not publicly spoken on the matter.

Part of what sparked Sunday’s protest was a video posted for church members last week in which Driscoll said he could not address some members’ discontent in what he called a “season of learning” because the complaints were anonymous.

In answer, demonstrators held banners Sunday on the sidewalk reading “WE ARE NOT ANONYMOUS.” Others called for Driscoll’s resignation, criticized him as a bully, or accused him of objectifying women.

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