Author: Warren Throckmorton

Who Wrote the Puff Piece on Mark Driscoll? (UPDATED)

It is a Friday afternoon mystery.
UPDATE3: Christian News Service removed the Lyall Mercer article from the CNS website.
On the other hand, Charisma “News Service” removed all comments and closed the section. Apparently, they really don’t want their readers to know the truth about that article. Honestly, I am pretty surprised about the decision to go with deception over truth.
UPDATE1: Some of the mystery is solved. Russ Jones at Christian News Service wrote with the following information about the article on his site:

This was a PAID news release by Australian-based Mercer PR sent out at 9:30am CST. The owners name is Lyall Mercer.

So apparently Bill Roberts simply took the news release, tweaked it ever so slightly and put his byline on it. The American Copy Editors Society’s book on plagiarism, Telling the Truth and Nothing But addresses this situation on page 12:

UPDATE2: Charisma News let me know that they have changed the byline to Russ Jones (now Charisma changed the byline to “Charisma News Staff“). As we now know, that’s closer but still not right. I think Charisma should just remove the article and apologize for it. At the least, they should change the by-line to Lyall Mercer so readers are aware of the self-serving nature of the piece.
(Original post resumes below)
Who really wrote this puff piece on how beleaguered Mark Driscoll is being attacked by “the enemy within” (AKA Janet Mefferd and the former members and leaders of Mars Hill Church).  Is it Bill Roberts or Russ Jones or did Lyall Mercer really write it?
First look at this Charisma News article.

Then take a look at this Christian New Service article.

Notice anything similar about them? As in they are essentially identical.
Journalist Ruth Graham first pointed this out on Twitter:


 


— Ruth Graham (@publicroad) March 21, 2014

I think the order was CNS first, then Charisma but maybe not. In any case, I wrote both places  to ask.  Whoever wrote it, it comes across as an advertisement for Lyall Mercer’s curious views on church PR. Remember pastors — who need to be pastors and not celebrities — that the first thing to do when people call you to accountability is to call the PR person to make sure your apologetic messaging will respond strategically to the nasty messengers who bring the facts.
Note to CharismaNews, it certainly isn’t news. A news story would have included commentary from Janet Mefferd and some of the former pastors and members who are going public with their concerns and experiences while at Mars Hill.
Probably the best thing for both places to do is to take the article down and start over with some real journalism.

Former Mars Hill Pastor Dave Kraft Explains Charges Against Mark Driscoll

Today on his blog, former Mars Hill Church Leadership pastor, Dave Kraft, explained more about his views on Mark Driscoll.
In May, 2013, Kraft filed formal charges against Driscoll with the Board of Advisors and Accountability. Many people provided evidence and personal experience to BOAA member Michael Van Skaik who chaired the committee assigned to investigate the charges. At least one witness tried to present evidence to the committee via face-to-face meetings but this offer to meet was refused with the explanation that testimony had to be presented in writing. Eventually, nothing was done and some of those who presented evidence received no response to the information submitted.
This background is important to help understand why so many former Mars Hill members and leaders are now going public. Many of them believe they have exhausted their private options to have their concerns heard. The current governance of Mars Hill gives only one avenue for grievances to be heard and that has been tried. The people cannot vote or officially raise items for discussion with leadership. The full council of elders cannot even call their own official meetings. All authority rests with the executive elders and four non-member supposedly independent members appointed by the BOAA. In that way, it is self-perpetuating with no input from any other entity. As Kraft notes in his post, many believe that a culture of fear has taken hold at Mars Hill.
For his part, Kraft outlined his concerns in today’s blog post:

I addressed these “concerns and issues” by filing “Formal Charges” in May of 2013, which I mentioned in my March 7 Blog Post
On September 19, 2013, I resigned my membership and Eldership, because I have serious questions about the ministry and leadership philosophy/practices of the Executive Elders of MHC, no longer trust them and, therefore, cannot submit to their authority.
Mark Driscoll’s sin(s) (for many of us who know him and have worked with him) are about clear violations of I Timothy 3, Titus 1 and I Peter 5.
1.  Not being self-controlled and disciplined
2.  Being domineering
3.  Being verbally violent
4.  Being arrogant
5.  Being quick-tempered
Now, no leader is perfect. All of us understand and agree with that and we are not demanding or expecting Mark Driscoll to be flawless. In the biblical passages cited above, a single instance might not be a disqualifier from eldership; but an established pattern of such behavior, supported and substantiated by eyewitnesses, would be. Such is the case with Mark. I believe (and so do many other former staff and elders) he has a long-standing pattern of consistently violating these leadership qualities and has done so with dozens of individuals with few, if any, signs of genuine repentance.

In his post, Kraft says that he is interested in the well being of Driscoll and Mars Hill. He also says that there are others who are interested in the controversy because they want to see Mars Hill decline. Kraft says:

There is a feeding frenzy in the media regarding Mars Hill Church. Those with something to say (and who are saying it) probably fit into two main camps.
1.  Those who want what’s best for MHC and its core leadership led by Mark Driscoll
2.  Those who would like to destroy both the church and its visionary and teaching pastor Mark Driscoll

In my opinion, if I am understanding him correctly, this is simplistic. I realize I could be wrong, but his option one sounds as though he believes the current leadership team should remain in place. If he means that, then I would disagree that there are only two options. I know numerous people who believe Driscoll should step down or go on sabbatical but at the same time have the best wishes and intentions for the church. They believe Driscoll’s removal or sabbatical would be best for both the church and Driscoll.
In any case, with this post, Kraft has pulled back the curtain a little more on the upheaval that has been roiling Mars Hill for months, if not years.
 

More Mars Hill Church Grievances: Former Member Calls For Evacuation

Something is up in Seattle.
Monday, twenty former pastors of Mars Hill Church sent a letter requesting mediation because they have tried going through channels and now want to bring in someone from the outside. On Facebook, former Mars Hill elder Rob Smith started a group to exonerate fired elders Bent Meyer and Paul Petry. Today, former long-time member Bryan Zug is calling for the evacuation of Mars Hill.
While the former pastors have been a bit vague about their concerns (preferring to wait to see whether or not Mars Hill responds), Zug is not quiet about his grievances. In fact, he calls on Mars Hill members to complain about at least four issues:

1. On May 15th 2013, in a 1:1 meeting at his office, Pastor Dave Bruskas confirmed to me that when a Pastor of Mars Hill’s downtown campus tried to gracefully resign, Pastor Mark Driscoll tried to force him to sign a non-compete clause for the city of Seattle and beyond.
The kind of culture that leads men to impose such demands begets a deep misunderstanding of sound Gospel Community principles laid out by the Bible.
While repentance of this specific incident may or may not have occurred, the culture that begat it is still bearing deadly fruit.
2. The ‘I am the Brand’ speech.
Before the exodus of the Mars Hill creative department a couple of years ago, Mark Driscoll gave a speech in the Ballard Paradox theater which is commonly referred to as the ‘I am the brand’ speech. In that speech he advocated that marketing and communication be centered on his personality, name, and brand (in lieu of the name of the great Shepherd himself).
While repentance of this specific incident may or may not have occurred, the culture that begat it is still bearing deadly fruit.
3. Spending upwards of ?$500k?, ?$600k?, ?$700k? of church funds and resources (money + volunteer hours + staff hours) to market the book Real Marriage, while profits of the book go to a very confusing matrix of private corporations that seem to be owned by Mark and Sutton (again, hugely confusing).
4. The huge MH salary of elders who, while employed full time for MH, create intellectual property (books and curriculum) that they own privately and gain profit from. I believe the salaries of the executive elders and any financial compensation to the BOAA need to be publicly available to former and current members of the church body – lest this thing Jim and Tammy Faye forward any longer. The cloudy confusing nature of this becomes unsupportable at some point.

Keep in mind, this is one person’s opinion although I should add that I have heard of the “I am the brand” speech and non-compete contract from multiple sources so what he says sounds consistent with other witnesses. I have asked Justin Dean, PR rep at Mars Hill, multiple questions with no answer so I don’t expect to hear anything from that source.
Apparently, these public complaints are coming at the end of a process that has been taking place for years without resolution.

Mark Driscoll and Instruction on Plagiarism at Corban University and Western Seminary.

Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church are partnering with Corban University and Western Seminary to teach the Bible and related topics. You can hear Driscoll pitching the program on You Tube. He will be teaching in the school.
Driscoll’s publishers are now cleaning up multiple instances of plagiarism in his books. Although relatively minor, there are factual errors as well (see this chart for a comprehensive look the citation problems found to date). Driscoll has not yet addressed most of these problems.
Seems like an unlikely resume item for a college professor. These schools claim to care about such things.
Here is the introduction of Corban University’s academic honesty policy:

Corban University is committed to high academic standards and expects students to achieve these standards in a manner marked by integrity and honesty. Academic honesty is the hallmark of true personal integrity. Students’ academic work is evaluated on the assumption that the work presented is their own. Faculty and students are expected to identify departures from academic honesty.

Plagiarism is defined as follows:

Plagiarism: representing without giving credit the words, data, or ideas of another as one’s own work in any academic exercise. This includes submitting, in whole or part, pre-written term papers, or the research of another, including materials sold or distributed by commercial vendors.

Western Seminary also uses serious tones to describe plagiarism:

Plagiarism is defined as taking another’s ideas or words and presenting them as one’s own. The student must give proper credit to the source of ideas as well as direct quotations. (For further guidance, please see your professor.) All forms of cheating, including plagiarism, are considered extremely serious offenses.

Yes, for further guidance, please see your professor. And that, I submit, is where the problem is.  Students who get caught might want to keep that guideline in their back pocket.
 

Twenty Former Mars Hill Pastors Seek Mediation With Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church Leadership

(Scroll to the end for an update)

On Monday March 17, twenty former Mars Hill pastors sent a letter to the executive elders  and Board of Advisors and Accountability of Mars Hill Church with an invitation to enter into a process of mediation designed to lead to mutual repentance and reconciliation. According to former Mars Hill pastors Dave Kraft and Kyle Firstenberg, the pastors want to bring in specialists in conflict resolution to facilitate the process. As of this writing, no response to the letter has come from the Mars Hill leadership.

The executive elders are Mark Driscoll, Sutton Turner & Dave Bruskas. The executive elders also sit on the  Board of Advisors and Accountability along with independent members Paul Tripp, Michael Van Skaik, James MacDonald, and Larry Osborne.

Kraft is former Pastor of Leadership Development at Mars Hill and Firstenberg was executive pastor at Mars Hill Orange County. In an interview, Kraft emphasized that he wants to lead the way in repentance by expressing remorse that he stood by while some Mars Hill members were being sinned against by the Mars Hill leadership. He said, “we didn’t step up to the plate when we should have.”

On Friday, Mark Driscoll released a statement of apology to the Mars Hill congregation. In it, he said the deal with ResultSource to artificially elevate the book Real Marriage, was wrong. He also pledged to make an attempt to repair damaged relationships. While the statement has had mixed responses from Mars Hill members, former and current, the pastors hope that the move is authentic.

Kraft said, “At this point, we hope for a positive response to our proposal sent on Monday, March 17.”

Why Mediation?

In recent days, both Kraft and Firstenberg have spoken publicly about their concerns. On March 9, Kraft disclosed that he had filed formal charges against Driscoll in May, 2013. On his website, Kraft indicated what he wanted to see happen:

1.  I would (as would countless other former leaders from MHC) like to see Pastor Mark Driscoll publicly acknowledge that he has seen the charges, that they are true and that he will take whatever time and attention is needed to intentionally deal with the charges, which may entail a short sabbatical from work to focus on this.

2.  I would like to see Pastor Mark publicly state that he is sorry, that he has sinned, that he will deal with his past sin and make himself accountable in so doing to an unbiased group of leaders who will hold his feet to the fire on this.

Driscoll may have been responding in part to these concerns with his recent apology. However, both Kraft and Firstenberg do not believe the apology addressed the issues which the former pastors have raised.

Also on March 9, Firstenberg disclosed that in 2013 he too contacted the Board of Advisors and Accountability with his experience at Mars Hill. To date, he has not received a reply from that board.

Now, Kraft and Firstsenberg have been joined by other former pastors who believe that Mars Hill should be responsive to ongoing and unfinished matters within their church.

UPDATE: As of Friday evening March 21, Mars Hill Church has not responded to the invitation to enter into mediation.

Related post:

The Seeds of Trouble: Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll and the 2007 Purge – In addition to concerns since, many unresolved issues remain from the 2007 disputes over governance.

For all posts on Mars Hill Church and Mark Driscoll, click here