Former executive elder of Mars Hill Church Sutton Turner wrote today about his part in the ResultSource scheme to get Mark Driscoll’s book Real Marriage on to the New York Times Best Seller list. The bottom line is that he is now saying he didn’t agree with it.
In addition to reflecting on the use of the consulting group ResultSource, Turner also addresses some of the same ground as he did in 2012 the executive elder memo I posted last year.
Turner also confirms the essential contents of this memo from a Mars Hill staffer who had significant concerns about the ethics of the scheme. In his post, he relates the concerns (I am not saying Turner is referring to the same staffer) in a similar manner as presented in that memo.
Specifically, he said he then wrote his supervisor (which I believe would have been Jamie Munson) with the following concerns:
I wrote a memo on August 26, 2011 to my supervisor saying the following:
The plan was poor stewardship.
If the plan were to be revealed, it would look poorly on the stewardship of Mars Hill Church.
If the plan were to be revealed, it would look poorly on Pastor Mark Driscoll.
Turner’s post is the first of at least one more which will outline more of his reflections on leadership at Mars Hill. He closed today’s post by saying he would not sign the ResultSource again:
Shortly after the decision to execute the ResultSource marketing plan was made, my supervisor resigned. After him, I was the highest-ranking employee in administration. The decision had been made but the contract hadn’t yet been signed. On October 13, 2011, I signed the ResultSource contract as General Manager a full month before being installed as an Executive Elder. After signing the contract, I emailed an elder, stating my frustration with having to be the one to sign the contract when I had voiced my disagreement with it. But few in the organization (or in the media since then) knew of my disagreement. When you stay in an organization and you do not agree with a decision, you have to own that decision as your own. Unfortunately, I will always be linked to ResultSource since my name was on the contract even though I thought it was a bad idea. If given the same opportunity again, I would not sign the ResultSource contract, but honestly, my missing signature would not have stopped it. Someone else would have signed it anyway since the decision had already been made.
I knew if I left Mars Hill, the likelihood of decisions like ResultSource would only continue. Through prayer and confidence that Jesus had called my family and me to Mars Hill Church, I decided to stay and change the decision-making process so that decisions like ResultSource would not be made again.
For those wanting to understand the Mars Hill story, this is a significant post.
It is ironic that this post comes on the same day that Mark Driscoll has added leadership coaching videos to his website.