Tag: Christianity Today

Christianity Today Revisits the Ethics of Using ResultSource to Score a New York Times Best Seller

Tonight, Christianity Today’s Ken Walker posted an article on the ethics of buying a spot on best seller lists. The coverage, which is also in the January print edition, links to the ResultSource contract I posted here.  Although I am surprised the views of Crossway executive Justin Taylor were not included, this is an important article with reaction from numerous industry sources. Most publishers who commented took a dim view of the methods used by ResultSource.
Some surprises from the article:
Eric Metaxas doesn’t see a problem with using a ResultSource like scheme. I wonder if he used them to help out with the Bonhoeffer book.
David Jeremiah’s book Captured by Grace was once listed on the ResultSource website as a part of the ResultSource portfolio. Back in November, I wrote about the mention of Jeremiah’s right hand man Paul Joiner in a Mars Hill Church memo on Mark Driscoll’s Real Marriage campaign. Repeated contacts with Turning Point Ministry have gone unanswered. I plan some additional work on David Jeremiah’s approach to publishing best seller, possibly as early as tomorrow. It now appears that he has been using ResultSource to move his books up the lists since 2007.
ResultSource may not be doing much business since the secret sauce was revealed.
One thing not surprising is that the authors involved, ResultSource’s CEO Kevin Small, and Jeremiah’s current and Driscoll’s former agent Sealy Yates did not provide information or comment to CT.
 
 
 

Based on Mark Driscoll's Missing Video, Christianity Today Asks Theologians "Did Jesus Make Mistakes?"

Beyond the implausible explanation from Mars Hill Church leaders about why the Mark Driscoll’s sermon was edited, Christianity Today wanted to know what some theologians thought about the accuracy of the missing material.  So CT’s Kevin Emmert asked for opinions and reported six. Emmert started with a theologian who largely agreed with Driscoll’s missing six minutes and ended with someone who did not. Since he started at one end, I’ll get you started at the other:

“We can distinguish between mistakes and sins. Suppose I write about Jane Austin on social media. My friend corrects me: ‘It’s Austen, not Austin.’ I made a mistake, yet no sin was committed, surely. However, sin involves a mistake of some sort—failing to meet the mark. Jesus could not sin, because God cannot sin, and he is God incarnate (Hab. 1:13; Heb. 4:15). His divine nature is perfect, and a perfect being cannot make mistakes. So Christ the God-man could not make mistakes.”
~ Oliver Crisp, professor of systematic theology, Fuller Theological Seminary

Go read the whole thing at CT.

Things I Learned Reading the Christianity Today Article on the Acts 29 (We're Not Mark Driscoll Anymore) Network

Christianity Today’s Joe Maxwell posted an extended interview today with Matt Chandler, leader of Acts 29 Network.  I learned a few things while reading it, and recommend you read it too.
1. Acts 29 apparently does not want to be viewed as an extension of Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll – Former Mars Hill elder Tyler Powell told CT:

“Here, we’re our own entity,” says Powell, North American assessment director. “We’re not planting mini–Mars Hills or mini–Mark Driscolls. We’re centrally located but decentralized.”

I guess the Acts 29 folks felt that was important to get across.
2. Mark Driscoll is an introvert.
3. Acts 29 isn’t a denomination. – Perhaps implying that Mars Hill’s franchise approach comes across as a denomination, the operations guys at Acts 29 addressed the perception that Acts 29 is in pre-denomination mode.

Some of Adair’s PCA peers call Acts 29 “a quasi-denomination or something like that,” he says.
“I understand the perception. I just disagree with it.”

4. It is apparently fine to be a charismatic and an actively involved Southern Baptist. Chandler said he is involved in the Southern Baptist Convention (his church is the 9th largest in the SBC), and he believes the “sign gifts” (e.g., healing, tongues) continue today. Perhaps that is common now, but it surprises me.
5. The network that doesn’t want to be a denomination seeks uniformity in pastoral leadership assessed via personality testing. In particular, the DiSC has been borrowed from industrial psychology to help categorize people, much in the way some organizations use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
6. The network that doesn’t want to be a denomination asks for 1% of a member churches’ budgets. This is what my denomination does, even though they don’t enforce it.
Just prior to the announcement that Mark Driscoll would leave the Acts 29 board, Mars Hill launched a plan to expand their church planting brand: Mars Hill Global. The church continued (and may still) to support Acts 29 but Mars Hill Global has become a big part of the MH brand. Stay tuned for more to come on that topic…

John Piper Calls Out Famous Guys (Like Mark Driscoll) On Ghostwriting

It is getting serious up in here.
Last night on Twitter, John Piper posted a series of tweets apparently in response to an op-ed by Andy Crouch at Christianity Today on the Mark Driscoll plagiarism (now ghostwriting) controversy.  Crouch’s op-ed builds to this crescendo:

The real danger here is not plagiarism—it is idolatry.

I think both are a problem and as it turns out another related problem appears to be ghostwriting.
Piper doesn’t think highly of taking credit for the work of others. To wit:


As Crouch and Piper suggest, this controversy is turning toward ghostwriting and less than honest assignment of credit for scholarly work. In the last tweet posted above, Piper links to an audio where he addresses ghostwriting. In it he says, “I think to put your name on a book you didn’t write is a lie.” Piper leaves no doubt as to his dim view of misrepresenting one’s work to the public.

IVP Says Bible Commentary Improperly Appeared In Book by Mark Driscoll; Mars Hill Church Responds, Blames Researcher Mistakes for Errors

On the church website (click Downloads), Mars Hill Church has responded to the controversy over plagiarism. In a statement about the book Trial: 8 Witnesses From 1 & 2 Peter, Mars Hill blames researcher mistakes:

In 2009, Pastor Mark preached through 1 & 2 Peter in a sermon series called Trial. To help our small groups, a team of people including a research assistant, put together a free study guide that was produced in-house and was never sold. About 5 years later it was brought to our attention that it contained some citation errors. We have discovered that during the editing process, content from other published sources were mistaken for research notes. These sentences were adapted instead of quoted directly. We are grateful this was brought to our attention, and we have removed that document from our website to correct the mistake. Additionally, we are examining all of our similar content as a precautionary measure.

I examine this statement below, but one claim in it appears not to be accurate. The statement says the study guide was never sold. It is being sold presently by Logos Research Systems as a download. Product details are listed as:

  • Title: Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter
  • Authors: Mark Driscoll and Brad House
  • Publisher: Mars Hill Church
  • Publication Date: 2009
  • Pages: 198

Furthermore, at one point Driscoll’s The Resurgence website advertised printed copies in bulk.

(I noticed later this evening that Mars Hill removed the page advertising the bulk sales. It is on Google cache now and in addition to the image above, I have screen caps here and here.)

Mars Hill’s statement comes as publisher Intervarsity Press weighs in on the sections of their New Bible Commentary which appeared in the Mars Hill study guide without citation. According to IVP, material from the New Bible Commentary “improperly appeared without quotation or attribution” in Mark Driscoll’s book Trial: 8 Witnesses From 1 & 2 Peter.  In a statement released to Christianity Today this morning, IVP said:

Several paragraphs from the New Bible Commentary edited by G. J. Wenham, J. A. Motyer, D. A. Carson and R. T. France published by InterVarsity Press appear in Mark Driscoll’s now out of print book Trial: 8 Witnesses From 1 & 2 Peter. These improperly appeared without quotation or attribution. With proper citation the material would have been a case of fair use.
InterVarsity Press believes all writers should use great care as they do research and prepare texts for any use to make sure that proper acknowledgement is given to source material.

One can see the side-by-comparisons of Driscoll’s book with the New Bible Commentary below:

and

In this second image, one can see that notes 10 and 11 are drawn from the New Bible Commentary text and presented as if Driscoll researched his information from Against Heresies and Ecclesiastical History.

The Mars Hill statement references “a team of people” who put together the study guide (which isn’t available on the church website now). However, Driscoll is clearly listed as the author. Brad House is listed as an author of the section on “community group resources” but Driscoll is the only other author listed. See below:

Thus, a reader would certainly assume Driscoll authored the section in question. If the statement can be taken at face value then it appears that Driscoll took credit for authorship of a book authored by a team of people and a research assistant.

See also:
On The Allegations Of Plagiarism Against Mark Driscoll (12/2/13)
Zombies, Plagiarism And Mark Driscoll Helped Me Write This Blog Post (12/3/13)
Mark Driscoll And His Church On Plagiarism (12/4/13)
Janet Mefferd Removes Evidence Relating To Charges Of Plagiarism Against Mark Driscoll; Apologizes To Audience (12/4/13)
Ingrid Schlueter Resigns From Janet Mefferd Show Over Mark Driscoll Plagiarism Controversy (12/5/13)
Who’s Talking About The Mark Driscoll Plagiarism Controversy? (12/7/13)