Tonight, Christianity Today’s Ken Walker posted an article on the ethics of buying a spot on best seller lists. The coverage, which is also in the January print edition, links to the ResultSource contract I posted here. Although I am surprised the views of Crossway executive Justin Taylor were not included, this is an important article with reaction from numerous industry sources. Most publishers who commented took a dim view of the methods used by ResultSource.
Some surprises from the article:
Eric Metaxas doesn’t see a problem with using a ResultSource like scheme. I wonder if he used them to help out with the Bonhoeffer book.
David Jeremiah’s book Captured by Grace was once listed on the ResultSource website as a part of the ResultSource portfolio. Back in November, I wrote about the mention of Jeremiah’s right hand man Paul Joiner in a Mars Hill Church memo on Mark Driscoll’s Real Marriage campaign. Repeated contacts with Turning Point Ministry have gone unanswered. I plan some additional work on David Jeremiah’s approach to publishing best seller, possibly as early as tomorrow. It now appears that he has been using ResultSource to move his books up the lists since 2007.
ResultSource may not be doing much business since the secret sauce was revealed.
One thing not surprising is that the authors involved, ResultSource’s CEO Kevin Small, and Jeremiah’s current and Driscoll’s former agent Sealy Yates did not provide information or comment to CT.
Category: Mars Hill Church
Corporate Changes for Mars Hill Church and Mark Driscoll
For those keeping up on the corporate side of Mars Hill, Becky Garrison and Wenatchee the Hatchet are on top of the matter.
Garrison reports that Dave Bruskas is now the president of Mars Hill Church and Caleb Walters is the Secretary.
WtH reports on changes with Driscoll’s LLCs.
It is not clear who is making day to day decisions at Mars Hill. The church will no longer hold services but property still must be sold with a final distribution of assets to come. By bylaw, the Board of Advisors and Accountability has the power to guide these matters. As president, Bruskas functions as the CEO and by bylaw has the responsibility to run the organization.
Mars Hill Church's The City Still Online
Even though Mars Hill Church is no longer doing business, the church’s social media platform, The City, remains operation and is being used by at least of the new churches – Doxa Church in Bellevue. I obtained a screen cap of this communication from Jeff Vanderstelt via emails sent as a notification that content was available on the website.
The entire communication is below:
As we enter into a new year we are also entering into a new beginning as a church. This Sunday marks the beginning of our first official gathering together as Doxa Church. I am excited to lead us through our very first series entitled: Foundations – Building a New God Glorifying Church Together.
We will begin the New Year with two new gathering times starting this Sunday: 9am and 11am.
During our Foundations series we will walk through each of the building blocks for establishing a church that exists to see God glorified through all of us everyday and in every place. Each week we will address a key building block followed with opportunities for discussion in groups during the week around each topic. I will also give you Scripture to read to prepare you for the next week’s message. This Sunday I will address Doxa’s Vision.
If you would like to read ahead, take some time to read Ephesians 1 and 2 Corinthians 3-4.
At the end of this series each of us will have the opportunity to commit to be a member of our new church. In order to commit with integrity, you will need to hear each message. So, if you are not able to attend all of our gatherings for this series, please make sure you watch or listen to a recording.
During this time, we will do our best to keep you aware of all that is happening from week to week. While we are still establishing our new communication hub, we will continue using The City to communicate to one another. We hope to have a new system for communication in place by February.
Many of you have also asked how you can give to the new church. We are building avenues for online giving which should be available soon. Until then, we will have to go ‘old school’. Please plan on giving with a check or cash during one of our gathering times on Sunday.
As some of us processed through the messiness of new beginnings I reminded them – as I want to remind you – building a new church is messy. We are at the beginning of laying a new foundation. Not everything will be perfectly in place from day one. That’s OK. That’s what beginnings are like. If you’ve ever begun a new job, moved to a new house, got married or started a family, you know. New is messy. And yet together, we all get to create something new together. It’s the beginning of a new work and all of us get to shape the future together. I’m excited to witness with you what Jesus wants to bring about as he continues to build His church through us in this new season!
So, please come join us in the mess of building a new foundation with Jesus as our cornerstone.
May he be glorified in us, through us and throughout the Eastside!
While Doxa is a new name and there is a new pastor, the church also has several elders from Mars Hill, at least one of whom was and presumably still is on the Board of Advisors and Accountability (Matt Rogers). Rogers, who recently tweeted that he was grateful for every minute of something to do with Mars Hill (his time there or the last service, can’t tell), has never publicly addressed the conflicting statements of the BoAA. For that matter, none of the lead pastors have addressed the discrepancies between the lead pastor’s public statements about Mark Driscoll and those coming from the BoAA.
Last Sunday at Mars Hill Huntington Beach
Mars Hill Church at Huntington Beach, CA went out with a dramatic flair. Watch:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/115578257[/vimeo]
MH Huntington Beach started as Mars Hill Orange County. The OC location was beset by problems from the beginning. Soon after the church signed a lease, the city of Santa Ana told the church that the zoning laws did not allow a church in the building. Despite requests from the OC pastors and fines from Santa Ana, the executive elders of Mars Hill declined to approve a move to another location. Eventually, Mark Driscoll floated a discrimination narrative (maybe Santa Ana is discriminating against a church), but after awhile moved to another location.
Understandably, since the video appears to be meant as a tribute, this part of the history is not described in the video.
Dude, Where's My Logo?
This is what happens when you host your logo with someone else.
As we can see now (and probably not for long), at least one markdriscoll.org element was hosted by Mars Hill Church. Since that website and related assets went away, the Mars Hill assets will not show up anywhere else…including Mark Driscoll’s copy of the old MHC website.