UK Evangelical Blog Calls for Forgiveness for Mark Driscoll

Sunday, Threads, a young looking UK evangelical blog, posted a call from Alex Willmott for people everywhere to forgive Mark Driscoll.
Mr. Willmott wants forgiveness for something he did so he naturally thought of Mark Driscoll. Or something like that.
It is pretty funny actually. To wit:

Time to make some enemies now. Mark Driscoll. He brought the Bible to life for millions of people. He said some really important things. He then said some really stupid things. He caused a lot of hurt. He then said sorry. He probably is sorry. It doesn’t matter though. He may as well have shot a thousand dolphins out of a cannon made of elephant tusks while wearing a SS Gestapo uniform with the words ‘I’m glad Mufasa died’ written all over it.
We’ve written him off. Yes, we believe that Peter could be forgiven for denying Jesus three times. Yes, we believe that King David could be restored despite pretty much breaking all of the commandments. Yes, we also believe that we can all be forgiven for all the horrible things we’ve placed on the throne of our lives. But him?! That vile dolphin shooting bastard. Not a chance. He’s a sexist!

Oh my, can I forgive him for defining the Mars Hill situation so poorly? If only that is what Mark Driscoll and his friends did.
Willmot then confesses he is using poor unforgiven Mark Driscoll for his own purposes.

As you can tell by my bullish, sarcastic tones, this is a subject that is close to my heart. And the reason for this is because I’m currently awaiting forgiveness. It’s a weird place to be in. I wrote something that offended a large part of a charismatic community. I’ve since been written about, gossiped about and I’m currently being avoided at all costs by a few people who once called me a close friend. Sadly, the word ‘Sorry’ doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. Driscoll has proven that; that Mufasa-murdering, unschooled churl of a man. I too have seen my attempts of an apology cast to one side like gone off fruit. I’ve tried, and I’ll try again.

In this paragraph we find that Driscoll didn’t just wear a tee-shirt, he actually killed Mufasa.
Writing an article people disagree with is not necessarily an offense. I don’t know what to do with an article like this except say that it seems to be more about the author than the subject and I hope Mr. Willmott* finds willing forgivers among any people he has actually wronged. Having talked to numerous people who live in Seattle, I feel confident that Mark Driscoll would find willing forgivers if he asked.
*I corrected the spelling of Mr. Willmott’s name, hope he will forgive me.

Craig Gross and Justin Dean Speak about The Mars Hill/Resurgence Mailing List Story

UPDATE: Just a bit ago, Craig Gross updated his post with the following information:

I asked the lawyer that was in charge selling the assets for 100k earlier in 2014 and he said that no one has purchased the rights to sell these assets yet

That lawyer is Steven Goodspeed and Gross is referring to this information about the sale of The Resurgence website and MCACLLAdvertisementrelated email lists. If these assets have not been purchased, then how did Church Leaders List get the email list?
UPDATE 2: Wenatchee the Hatchet just posted a screen cap of Justin Dean’s Ministry Communicators Association with an ad for Church Leaders List on his MCA Facebook page.
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Last night, I noted that Craig Gross, director of xxxchurch.com, sent out an email to a mailing list he purchased from a now missing-in-action website called Church Leaders List. The email included former Mars Hill Church members and those who had signed up for information from Mars Hill’s training ministry, The Resurgence. Gross received a backlash from supporters of Mark Driscoll because the email included critical remarks about Driscoll. Read the entire email here.
Now Craig Gross has provided his perspective on the matter at his blog and Justin Dean has done the same on his website.
Dean’s statement to me in full is as follows:

I issued an apology here: http://justinjdean.com/craig-gross-the-real-story/. I regret my involvement in distributing the list and am deeply sorry. While I was not involved in Craig’s email, I’m equally at fault. Although I think it’s a shame that your story isn’t about Craig Gross’s misuse of the list to spread gossip, and his unapologetic attitude towards doing so.

Craig Gross sent a link to his website as well.
From start to finish, here is how I see it.
Someone took out Churchleaderslist.com as a domain on March 3, 2015. A twitter account was established at about the same time. Not long after that, the website was live and twitter activity began advertising the sale of a mailing list of Christians and church leaders. See screen caps below. First the twitter account:
churchleaderslisttwitter
 
The website is no longer available but a screen capture of the cache is below:
churchleaderslistwebsitecache
 
Justin Dean said he believed the mailing list would be used for spreading the gospel. The website recommended by Dean indicates that the list can be used to promote books, events or products.
The pitch for the website says the lists were compiled from churches, websites and conferences. Apparently, some or many of those addresses have been used without permission.
According to Craig Gross, Justin Dean pitched the mailing list (Gross says Dean pitched The Resurgence list) to Gross’ staff on March 15 (see his post for a screen cap of the text). Dean says in his post that he was “involved in distributing a list of church leaders to a couple of people who I assumed would only use it to spread the gospel and bible teaching.” 
Gross then purchased the list and sent the email which stirred intense reaction from Mark Driscoll supporters yesterday afternoon. Sometime afterwards, the Church Leaders List website and twitter accounts were pulled. Gross received a refund for his purchase from Church Leaders List.
Gross then asked Dean if Dean sold the list. Gross noted that the media templates for Dean’s new Doxa Media company and Church Leaders List phone # is 678-829-4458, Dean’s phone # is 678-829-4455 (also uses 678-829-4450). A call to the Church Leaders List doesn’t get an answer.
According to Gross, Dean denied owning the list, saying instead that he was “involved” in distributing it.
This may blow over quickly but there are some important issues raised. Why did Church Leaders List close down as soon as former Mars Hill people started to complain? Who was/is behind Church Leaders List and where did they get those email addresses? Are the current leaders of Mars Hill Church selling emails of former members? If so, I wonder how Mars Hill Church members feel about this use without permission.
Additional information: It is curious that Marshill.com, Theresurgence.com, and a bunch of other related websites are registered to Justin Dean. Did Mars Hill Church sell them to him? Did they give them to him?
 

Anti-Porn Ministry Buys Mailing List; Turns Out It Includes Mars Hill Church's The Resurgence Emails

UPDATE: It appears that the website used to purchase the list is now down and went down after Craig Gross pointed out where he got the list. I have a screen cap of it and it still exists on Google’s cache. The website does not identify the mailing list as being The Resurgence’s list. It seems Craig Gross didn’t know what he was getting into when he purchased the list at the recommendation of Justin Dean. I am wondering how Church Leaders List (which is now gone from Twitter — see the cache — and the web) got the emails.
See screen caps at the end of the post.
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(Beginning of original post)
There is some irony in this story.
Craig Gross, founder of XXXChurch.com has purchased the mailing list of Mars Hill Church’s training ministry, The Resurgence. In an email forwarded to me by several people (thanks Joe, Brandon and others), he offers a book called Open. Then, in his pitch for accountability software, he specifically identifies Mark Driscoll as an example of someone who was not open to accountability. From the email:

From: Craig Gross <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 4:53 PM
Subject: Mark Driscoll – The Real Story
To
my name is Craig Gross. I started XXXchurch.com 15 years ago to help people with porn addiction. We then created an accountability app called X3watch.com about 9 years ago and have been helping people stay accountable and safe on the internet ever since. In fact, X3watch now has over 1 million users and counting!

Two years ago, we partnered with Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence to be a major sponsor at the R13 conference, meaning we were able to have our logo and product talked about from the stage. The conference was great, our team met Mark and his staff, and we were able to help hundreds of pastors stay accountable to one another, their spouses, and their church staff.

This is where the story gets hard. I’ve seen a lot of pastors come and go because of extramarital affairs, flirting, porn addiction, gambling addictions, and a whole mess of other stuff. It’s never easy to see a pastor, leader or friends shipwreck their life because of bad choices. Usually they lose their spouse, respect from their kids, their extended family, and their job.

With Mark, the details are different but the core truth remains the same: he didn’t have people speaking into his life to help him make the best choices. This was his downfall. He didn’t let anyone in to help guide him, to speak truth to him, to coach him, to tell him when decisions might be a bad idea.

He didn’t make himself accountable.

As a leader, if you don’t have accountability, your time is coming. You will fall. I’m not saying this to scare you (okay, maybe I am), but it’s for your own good. I hope you all are choosing to be a leader that’s OPEN.

I wrote a book called “OPEN.” It deals with people coming to terms with all their sins and living a life that is transparent and honest.

I want to give you this book FREE. Also I want to give you 50% off of our premium accountability software. This will help you stay accountable online, filter the internet for your family, and help create a legacy worth talking about for generations to come. Simply use the code “resurgence” when you check out at www.x3watch.com. You will get a link to the book once you create your account.

Keep the Faith and Stay OPEN.

Craig Gross

A follow up letter was mailed to the recipients of the first clarifying how xxxchurch got the email addresses:

On Monday, Mar 23, 2015 at 6:33 PM, Craig Gross <[email protected]>, wrote:

Hey Guys and Gals, 

I sent you an email earlier. Just to be clear.
I apologize if my email caught you off guard. I bought an email list from http://www.churchleaderslist.com/.?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email Mark’s right hand guy at Mars Hill told us that this list was the Resurgence list. 

Craig

So the Resurgence mailing list is being used to promote marketing that uses Mark Driscoll as an example of what not to do.
Gross called on Driscoll to step down in early August of 2014.


Sounds like it could be an interesting book.
The Resurgence domain was for sale for $100k; the email list at the time was nearly 60k.
Below is the screen cap of the Church Leaders List Twitter account:
churchleaderslisttwitter
A pdf of the website (now down) is here. A check of it will show that the source of the emails is not identified. How did people get on this list? It appears that whoever is behind Church Leaders List doesn’t want anyone to know. Another unanswered question is did the people behind Church Leaders List have permission to sell these emails to any willing buyer?

Former Mars Hill Churches Continue Support for Ethiopian Pastors

According to Erik Laursen, executive director of the New Covenant Foundation, two former Mars Hill Churches, Foundation Church (Mars Hill Everett) and Trinity West Seattle (Mars Hill West Seattle), have pledged to continue the support of Ethiopian pastors once funded by Mars Hill Church.
Trinity West Seattle’s pastor David Fairchild told me via email that the legacy churches hope to pick up support for all 40 Ethiopian pastors. He said, “Trinity is initially picking up 10 pastors/evangelists to start with and the other legacy churches will pick up the remaining 30 between them.”  Fairchild said the pastors of the legacy churches wanted to ensure currently supported pastors did not experience negative effects from the closing of Mars Hill. He added, “[C]ome next year, we’ll want to see how we might expand our partnerships and work with New Covenant.”
After 2012, Mars Hill Church leaders marketed their support of mission pastors internationally to raise millions of dollars, much of which went to general church growth and support in the U.S. To date, an accounting of how much money was spent on international missions and how much was spent on church support in the U.S. has not been offered by the church. Mars Hill Church continues to be in the process of dissolution.
Understandably, Laursen is glad for the good news. In a statement released to me today, Laursen said:

In the wake of one of the most difficult seasons for anyone connected to Mars Hill, I am so honored and impressed by the integrity of the lead pastors who have committed to the work that was started in Ethiopia. The excitement that they bring to the table about supporting church planters and reaching the Unreached has put gasoline on my fire for missions.

UPDATE: After this was posted, Erik Laursen contacted me to say that Cross & Crown Church (formerly Mars Hill Ballard) has also pledged to support some of the Ethiopian pastors.

Hillsong Founder Brian Houston Issues Statement On Mark Driscoll at the Hillsong 2015 Conference

I just received this information from Mark DeMoss via email:

Statement by Brian Houston on Mark Driscoll at Hillsong 2015 Conference 
March 2015 
For years, Hillsong has invited pastors and Christian leaders from around the world to speak at our annual conferences in Sydney, Australia and London, England. Well in advance of his resignation as senior pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, we invited Mark Driscoll to be one of our speakers this summer. Rather than having Mark preach or teach, I am excited about interviewing Mark and his wife, Grace from our main platform during our Hillsong Conference 2015.
I am looking forward to having this opportunity to speak openly with the Driscolls about life and ministry, as well as recent events and lessons they’ve learned through personal and ministry trials during the past year. My aim is to have an in-depth conversation that gives insight into their hearts.
Mark has been candid about mistakes he has made, and if we can, through our conference, help others through his life experiences, we think that will prove valuable.

This exclusive statement comes from Brian Houston in response to my post last week noting that Mark Driscoll was slated to speak at the conferences. Instead of having a speaking position, he will be interviewed by Houston.
The description of Driscoll on the conference websites (Sydney, Europe) has not changed to reflect this news or the dissolution of Mars Hill Church.  The description lists him as “founding pastor” rather than co-founder of the former Mars Hill Church.
Discuss.