Seems like yesterday that ResultSource and Mars Hill Church’s book selling scheme came into the public consciousness. However, it was a year ago today that Warren Smith’s article was posted. The next day, I posted the contract signed by Mars Hill Church executive pastor Sutton Turner and ResultSource CEO Kevin Small that spelled out the arrangements which if followed would lead to a spot on the New York Times best-seller list.
While it took several months for Mars Hill Church to unravel, that March 5, 2014 revelation seemed to alert even friends that something might be seriously wrong at the megachurch. The disclosure ignited an ongoing conversation about the ethics of buying a spot on best-seller lists. Later, it became known that Les and Leslie Parrott, and David Jeremiah also used similar schemes to elevate their books to the best seller lists. However, they have not experienced the same level of criticism and attention as has Driscoll.
In the aftermath of the Mars Hill debacle, at least one publisher (Crossway) took a vocal stand against deception in book marketing, but it is not clear that the revelations about buying a NYT’s best seller has led to significant changes. Christian media (with two exceptions) have not been aggressive in reporting on Christian authors who have manipulated the best seller lists. The largest Christian publishers (HarperCollins Christian and Tyndale House) and have refused to answer questions on the subject.
Since he resigned in October 2014, Driscoll has kept a relatively low profile. He may return to the limelight in June and July as a speaker for the Hillsong conferences in Sydney and Europe. Hillsong still has Driscoll listed as “the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle and one of the most popular preachers in the world today.” I recently wrote and tweeted Hillsong to ask about the description and speaking engagement. No answer as yet.
Tag: Mark Driscoll
Quest Church Paid 9 Million for Mars Hill Ballard
Wow, Mars Hill Church made $4.2 million on the sale of Mars Hill Ballard to Quest Church.
I reported last month that Quest Church purchased the building. The price was revealed yesterday in an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Read that article for the details.
That profit should help pay for the severance packages of the executive elders and perhaps give the “independent” churches some seed money. At least that is one theory about where the money will go. Despite soliciting donations up to the very end of the public ministry of the church, Mars Hill Church leaders (whoever they now are) have not been transparent about financial matters.
Relevant Magazine Asks What We Can Learn From the Downfall of Mars Hill Church, No Voices From Exiles
Ruth Moon writing for Relevant Magazine interviews Jennifer McKinney, Gerry Breshears, Samuel Rodriguez, Francis Chan, Kate Bowler, and William Vanderbloemen to seek answers to her question.
Seems like it all comes down to celebrity and business. Don’t worship the pastor and don’t make church a business.
While those are two important components, I hope there is more to learn than that.
Some observations:
Breshears is described as Driscoll’s mentor from 2000-2010. According to Driscoll’s 2012 job description, Breshears was still mentoring him in 2012. Note this excerpt:
External Accountability
o James MacDonald, Darrin Patrick and Larry Osborne.
o Gerry Breshears will serve as a theological accountability/consultant to Pastor!Mark.
o Dr. Catanzaro will serve as health accountability for Pastor Mark.
In December 2013, when I contacted Gerry Breshears about plagiarism in his book with Driscoll, he told me that Driscoll’s apology via Tyndale House about Call to Resurgence was sufficient, even though Driscoll never addressed plagiarism in subsequent books.
Breshears now has lots of observations about Driscoll and Mars Hill. For instance, he opines:
“The goal was always, ‘We’re going to win more people for Jesus.’ The goal was good. And Mark as a preacher was pretty much right on target, but the high-pressure, performance-driven, get-results culture was deadly,” he says. “The underlying culture increasingly became, ‘We must be business efficient in all we’re doing.’ More and more, Mars Hill became a brand.”
So Mars Hill was the brand? Those familiar with the church, especially those in the media and communications team, know that Driscoll called himself the brand.
The article is interesting and I appreciate the observations but I think former members should have been interviewed. Their voices are missing. They are still waiting for the shell of Mars Hill Church to provide answers and accountability to be learned.
Vanderbloemen mentioned the church succession plan. Here it is.
Former Mars Hill Church Spokesman Justin Dean Gives Advice About Dealing with the Press
Former Mars Hill Church spokesperson offers advice to churches on how to handle the press in his new gig with Ministry Communications Association.
He certainly has had experience doing so and it appears he has taken some valuable observations away from his time at Mars Hill.
When I read this tip, I thought of the ResultSource New York Times Best Seller list fiasco.
If you know press may start poking around about a certain topic, gather your team and come up with approved messaging and basic principles ahead of time. That way your spokesperson can be prepared. It’s a good idea to write down approved answers to common questions about your church’s beliefs, and have those well prepared in advance as well.
Mars Hill had three messages in response to inquiries about Mars Hill Church’s financing a book buying scheme, all offered in the space of about a week. In March, I wrote:
This is the third reaction from Driscoll/Mars Hill to the ResultSource scheme. First, Justin Dean told World Magazine that the RSI-Mars Hill relationship was an “investment” and an “opportunity.” Then the Board of Advisors and Accountability said the scheme was “unwise.” Now Driscoll says he first saw it as a way to maximize book sales, but now sees it as manipulative and “wrong.” The vacillation about whether gaming the system is a good opportunity, unwise or wrong is confusing and won’t do much to convince people that Mars Hill and Driscoll can be candid.
It appears that there was an internal struggle about how to message the revelation to the public. I have asked Justin about the discrepancies and will add any information from him to this post.
The bottom line advice is to have a pastoral staff that doesn’t place the PR person in a position to defend the indefensible.
Another Former Mars Hill Church Pastor Posts to Repentant Pastor Website
Demonstrating that the fall out from Mars Hill’s demise is ongoing, former Mars Hill pastor James Harleman posted an essay of confession on Saturday. It begins:
I sat on a bed upstairs in our room at the retreat home, my head in my hands, asking my wife if our lead pastor was fit to be an elder… if the state of his marriage was in a place wherein he needed a sabbatical, and if his verbal evisceration of another elder’s wife – simply for offering a gentle word of counsel – was anything but deplorable. I didn’t know what to say, or even what to think.
All the elders had been there and seen it. No one had countered or interceded in any way.
It was summer 2006, more than a year before the infamous bylaw change and terminations at Mars Hill Church that many would see as the first sign of a problem. I was just over a year into my tenure as a pastor but still felt like the new guy. The unspoken acceptance of all the other pastors at that elders’ retreat became a justification for my own omission.
Not a true justification, mind you – simply in my own mind.
Harleman is apparently speaking about Mark Driscoll in the first paragraph. He is also one who was involved in trying to bring change internally before he decided he could not.