World Magazine is lighting some candles lately.
Warren Smith broke the story about Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill gaming the system for Driscoll’s book Real Marriage and now Marvin Olasky brings us a coloring book page (try this link) that inspires nausea. UPDATE – In fact, it was Matthew Paul Turner who had the information first. The post has been removed from his site but is available from the Wayback machine.
This comes from Elevation Church where Steven Furtick is the lead pastor. At the bottom of the page, the caption reads: “Elevation Church is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will protect our unity in supporting his vision.”
Really?
This is part of Elevation Church’s “Code.” (No longer on the page but archived here). Check out #4.
This resource is part of Elevationekidz.com. This link has been disabled and I can’t find it on the Wayback machine (here is a tweet pointing to it). Some of what was there is on Matthew Paul Turner’s post.
The illustrator for the coloring book had some of the pictures on her website but eventually took those down. They are available on the Wayback Machine.
I couldn’t help but think of this guy:
Everything is awesome!
Furtick wants to make sure the kids memorize The Code:
Pastor Steven's April Video to eKidz: The Code from Elevation Church eKidz on Vimeo.
This also reminded me of Mark Driscoll’s “I Am The Brand” speech. Obviously, I wasn’t there but numerous former staffers have described the speech where Mark Driscoll informed some of his staff that he was to be promoted as the brand. I would love to hear Driscoll’s side of that story but Mars Hill keeps him pretty wrapped and they won’t answer any questions.
Maybe there is another side to all of this and I am open to hearing it, but my reaction to what I have been learning about at least two megachurches (Elevation and Mars Hill) makes me glad that my pastor is my friend and not a brand or a superhero.