SEATTLE (AP) - Minutes before the pastor walks to the pulpit, loud indie rock blasts from speakers to a crowd of mostly 20-somethings. The band on stage wears black, and the lead singer, with his scruffy five o'clock shadow and hair slicked down in rock-star style, croons about Emmanuel and rejoicing.

Welcome to Sunday service at Mars Hill Church, where the worship band plays indie rock, churchgoers smoke outside, and the pastor looks more like the head of a fraternity than the head of an evangelical church.

In a liberal city notorious for being "unchurched," and at a time when mainline Protestant churches have been in decline nationwide, this non-denominational mega-church has grown to about 6,000 people since it started in 1996. It's a mostly young crowd who come to hear the music, charismatic preacher and conservative theology at Mars Hill.

With his football-player stature, clean-cut hair and jeans torn at the knees, 36-year-old pastor Mark Driscoll could easily fit into most Seattle bars.

And he sounds like it too.

His sermons refer to everything from Mac & Jack's beer to women foiling their hair.

"Boaz has no game at all," said Driscoll at one Sunday sermon, referring to a Biblical figure who was unresponsive to his wife, Ruth, when they first met.

"The way we do things has a very Seattle vibe to it, from technology, music to style," said Driscoll, a Seattle native.

Driscoll preaches at the church's flagship black warehouse in the trendy Ballard neighborhood, but people can also watch him preach through streaming video and read his blog on the church's web site.

For members like Joy Pinkham, Driscoll's teachings are culturally relevant.

"He teaches what the Bible preaches - he doesn't sugar coat it," said 21-year-old Pinkham, a preschool teaching assistant and hair stylist, who wore a mod bob with side-swept bangs.

Tattoos, punk rock and alcohol aren't banned for this predominantly white congregation where more than half are between ages 21 and 30 and where many look like college students or yuppie hipsters.

"We take the Bible as literally true," Driscoll said. "If the Bible doesn't forbid something, we believe there's a lot of freedom in cultural issues."

It's part of Driscoll's conservative theology - a literal interpretation of the Bible where heaven and hell are very real, Mary was a virgin, and where sex before marriage and homosexuality are sins.

And it's this theology, along with Mars Hill's views on women, that have mired Driscoll and his church in controversy.

Women can't be pastors at Mars Hill and are encouraged to submit to their husbands.

It's raised some eyebrows on the blogosphere and among more liberal churchgoers in Seattle.

Not allowing women in church leadership is an injustice, said Adam Walker Cleaveland, a Presbyterian seminary student and blogger who has criticized Driscoll on his own blog.

The Bible is about adopting the ideas of Jesus Christ - like helping the disenfranchised - and not about taking the Bible literally, said Suzanne Gordon, 48, who attends a liberal Methodist church in Seattle.

"It's a distortion of the Bible," she said about conservative theology. "It's not an open, thinking, questioning, evolving type of character," she said.

Last year, comments Driscoll made on his blog prompted an online group called People Against Fundamentalism to threaten to protest outside Mars Hill, saying he was demeaning women, and bloggers to call him a fundamentalist and a misogynist.

Writing about the Ted Haggard sex scandal, Driscoll suggested that pastors sometimes stray because their wives "let themselves go." About the Episcopal Church electing a female bishop, he wrote: "If Christian males do not man up soon, the Episcopalians may vote a fluffy baby bunny rabbit as their next bishop to lead God's men."

But Driscoll said he was misunderstood.

"I didn't say anything about his wife," he said about the Haggard issue. "I was mortified that some people took it that way."

Driscoll said he believes God appoints men to be senior leaders but there are many positions for women to also be leaders, including full-time ministry.

"Sometimes that gets misunderstood or sometimes misrepresented by people," he said.

Mars Hill isn't entirely unique - it's part of a nationwide movement that started in the 1970s of post-denominational churches that are technologically savvy, have charismatic leaders and provide for people guidelines on how to live their lives, said Patricia O'Connell Killen, a professor of American religious history at Pacific Lutheran University.

In the Pacific Northwest, evangelical forms of post-denominational churches have grown since the 1990s, said James Wellman, an assistant professor of western religions at the University of Washington.

It's the church's by-the-book theology that many at Mars Hill say they find appealing.

Thomas James Wright said Driscoll's preaching drew him to Mars Hill about three months ago.

"He's unwavering on what the Bible says," said the 20-year-old art school student clad in a black beanie. "A lot of churches these days have gone to just a positive preaching style where they kind of just talk more about creating positive things in your life."

But critics like Gordon think it's just flashy music and a charismatic leader that's attracted a lost generation of young people to Mars Hill.

"They've found a way to market God," she said.

But Driscoll argues that his young congregation wants simple answers and a chance to decide for themselves.

"You're looking at a younger educated urban group that has been marketed, and pitched and sold," Driscoll said. "They're tired of all the slick marketing and pitches."