Opposing Views Posts Mark Driscoll's Missing "Jesus Makes Mistakes" Sermon Segment

Opposing Views’ writer Michael Allen posted an article last night which discusses Mars Hill’s ambivalent reaction to the “Jesus Makes Mistakes” segment of Mark Driscoll’s sermon on Acts 6:1-7. Preached publicly on May 4, the sermon featured Driscoll’s speculations about the boyhood of Jesus had he rode a bike, or played baseball. Mars Hill edited the section but then stood by the content. The church leaders also said the editing was nothing unusual even though the edits made the video shorter than any other video in the series. Former Mars Hill Media Team members also contested the official explanation of the edits. After defending the content, Mars Hill issued a copyright complaint with YouTube who acted again me to remove the video clip.  An account of the situation and a transcript of the segment was posted here on May 19.
The missing segment has now been posted on LiveLeak:

 
Some have asked me about the significance of this story. I think a media empire posing as a church is relevant to the ongoing conversation about celebrity pastors and celebrity status in Christianity. In this situation, local listeners who heard the sermon live were buzzing about it. The decision was made to delete the content in order to “edit the best possible version of the message for distribution to the other Mars Hill locations, and our online audience,” in the words of Anthony Ianniciello, executive pastor of Media & Communications to the Christian Post.
There is something troubling about this. Only the pastors who are rich and famous have a media team which can surgically edit out embarrassing moments or questionable statements. The local pastor rises and falls on what he says and can’t take back. When (and it is when, we all make mistakes) a local pastor says something troubling, he must personally repair the problem big or small. If he makes too many of them, and there is no media team to save him, he eventually faces questions from those he serves.
On the other hand, I feel some tension because I also favor creating quality media products. I like listening to produced music even though I know it is the best version of the several times the song was recorded. I suppose if we are thinking about sermons as media productions and church as ministrytainment, then it makes sense to provide an edited version of sermons.
Some additional tension I feel is that I am reflecting about a system of church which I have not experienced but am skeptical about. I say this then as an observation from afar. It seems to me that the multi-franchise model of church provides a structure where celebrity status for the central media figures in the brand is inevitable. I know it works for many people, but I don’t find appealing the idea of watching a jumbotron of a person I don’t know preaching to other people miles away at some other time. Mars Hillians who like this please forgive me but I think the structure of the church has encouraged some of the concerns many of you are now expressing.