Category: Mars Hill Church

No Date Scheduled for Publication of Mark Driscoll's Book "The Problem with Christianity", Is Resurgence On Hold?

UPDATE (6/18): Today, in response to an email inquiry, Todd Starowitz, senior public relations manager for Tyndale House, told me

At this time we do not have a pub date for The Problem with Christianity.

I also asked if any other books were slated to be published by the Resurgence imprint. I already knew Elyse Fitzpatrick’s book was scheduled for this Fall and Starowitz confirmed that her book was coming out in September. However, he also said:

To my knowledge we do not have any additional Resurgence titles that have release dates scheduled at this time.

In early 2013, Resurgence seemed poised to publish several titles with Tyndale House. Now, the flagship author does not have a publication date and no other titles are on the schedule.
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After Mark Driscoll’s book Real Marriage shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list for self-help books for one week in January of 2012, he secured a publication deal with Tyndale House for his Resurgence imprint. Now we know that Real Marriage was assisted in the climb to #1 status by a contract with Result Source, a firm which pursues bestseller status by gaming system of book sales counting. Driscoll’s next book from Tyndale has the working title, The Problem with Christianity, and was once slated to be published this fall. However, according to Tyndale House, the book will not be published in the fall after all.
In late May, Tyndale sent a tweet in response to my question about the book:


Tyndale House did not reply to a follow up question asking when the book would be published. The book description is still on the Tyndale website:

Are Christians Crazy? A seismic shift has occurred across the cultural landscape. In a world where Christian values once formed the moral bedrock of society, Christians are now considered nothing short of crazy. Today, questions about social issues and “intolerant” Christians hog the headlines, portraying people of faith as angry and irrelevant. This cultural shift has touched just about everything—from conversations in coffeehouses to interactions with coworkers. And more often than not, the conversation begins with someone saying, “My problem with Christianity is . . .” Whether it’s the way Christians treat gays and lesbians or the church’s stance against abortion and premarital sex, people these days just don’t have much use for Christianity. In The Problem with Christianity, Pastor Mark Driscoll presents the findings of two groundbreaking surveys about the way Christians are perceived in today’s world. And with his trademark candor, Driscoll offers timely advice about how to respond to critics.

A companion DVD is also advertised.
Amazon has the release date as January 1, 2015.
My question to Tyndale was “When do you plan to release Mark Driscoll’s new book?” The answer “not this fall as originally scheduled” told me when it wasn’t going to be released but nothing about the planned date. Perhaps the book’s publication is on hold indefinitely.
Also of interest in the aftermath of the Result Source deal is the absence of Driscoll from his agent’s list of clients. As first reported by Wenatchee the Hatchet, Yates and Yates currently does not list Driscoll as a client. I left Yates and Yates a couple of questions on their website which have gone unanswered.

Mark Driscoll to Congregation: Stay Off the Internet

From Mark Driscoll’s sermon dated June 8 on the Mars Hill Church website:

Now, some of you may have heard we’re a Reformed church. Don’t Google it, don’t blow your head up. We love Jesus, read your Bible, stay off the Internet. It’s all shenanigans anyways.

Admittedly, this is a very short part of a very long sermon but I am starting to wonder if this represents a more significant development at Mars Hill Church.
Over the weekend, and then again today, I have heard from sources near Mars Hill that some in the congregation are being warned to avoid blogs and media that have carried articles deemed to be critical of Mars Hill.  One source (6/17, now multiple sources) told me that the accuracy of information is being questioned and false information is being told about me and others.
One hallmark of a controlling organization is the attempt to construct social reality for members. If these sources are accurate, such an effort is troubling.
What makes these claims even more problematic is that Mars Hill will not respond to honest requests for information. Their last response to me was:

We have received your requests, and will not be responding with any comments now or in the future.

On that occasion, at least I received a response. Most of my questions have gone without any answer. If my sources are correct (and I am open to learning that they are not), then Mars Hill is accusing bloggers and other media of printing unbalanced and inaccurate information, while, at the same time, refusing to provide basic responses to the questions from those same sources.
 

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.

Departed Mars Hill Church Elders Since Late 2011

This is a working list of elders who have departed under the current executive elder board of Mark Driscoll, Dave Bruskas and Sutton Turner. Nothing is implied about the circumstances of the departure. If you have additional information or updates to the list, let me know in the comments box.
Phil Smidt
Mike Wilkerson
Jon Krombein
Chad Gardner
Nate Burke
Aaron Mead
Matt Repucci
Jeff Bettger
Andrew Lisi
Tim Quiring
Phil Poirier
Dick McKinley
Matt Johnson
Zach Bolen
Bill Clem
Alex Early
Wyatt Houtz
Caleb Davis
Tyler Powell
Scott Mitchell
Kyle Firstenberg
Samuel Choi
Nick Bogardus
Justin Schaeffer
Kerry Michaelis
Matt Jensen
Justin Holcomb
Fred Choi
James Noriega
Elliot Grudem
Eric Stark
Chris Swan
Brad House
Tim Gaydos
Will Little
Tim Beltz
Dave Kraft
Bruce Ensign
Steven Mulkey
Willie Wilson
Chad Toulouse
James Harleman
Scott Thomas
Michael Van Skaik
Jeremy Echols

Mars Hill Church Causes You Tube to Remove Mark Driscoll's Jesus Made Mistakes Sermon Segment

Well, Mars Hill giveth and Mars Hill taketh away.
Today, I got notice from YouTube that Mars Hill Church filed a copyright claim against me for posting the missing 6 minutes of Mark Driscoll’s sermon on Acts 6 where he talked about Jesus making mistakes.

We have received copyright complaint(s) regarding material you posted, as follows:

  • from Mars Hill Church about Mark Driscoll: This Might Be a Heresy; Segment edited out of sermon – Psychvideos
    Video ID: 2k4nmD0GTp0

Thus, You Tube removed the video. Now all you see is:

Despite the fact that Mars Hill said the church leaders were fine with the material and didn’t edit it because they felt something was wrong with the content, they have decided they don’t want it seen in this manner. In my opinion, the use of the material falls under the fair use exemption. The sermon was delivered in a public setting with many witnesses and was a part of the total work that I excerpted in order to critique the work in question. The use of the material does not deprive Mars Hill of any income since the sermon is offered for free on their website. I am considering how to respond.
Mars Hill took to their favorite press outlet, Christian Post, to explain that Driscoll’s sermons are edited all of the time, partly for time constraints. The content was defended by Driscoll’s fellow elder, Dave Bruskas. There are good reasons to question the official explanation.
So Mars Hill claims to have removed the video due to time constraints and didn’t object to the content. However, now they have moved to prevent others from seeing the content. There is a transcript on this webpage if you are interested in reading what Driscoll said.
Christianity Today took up the theological implications of the comments but readers will now not be able to hear them.
This morning I praised Mars Hill for taking the high road, but this afternoon, I must reconsider.