In some really important news…
Asia Bibi is a Christian mother who has been held in prison in Pakistan since 2010 on charges of blasphemy. On Tuesday, Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times gave his column to Asia Bibi’s husband to plead her case. Her best hope appears to be an international appeal to the President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain for a pardon.
I blogged about her case in 2010 and started a petition at Change.org which I have reactivated. I hope you will sign it; it isn’t much but we can raise our voice.
Sign the petition (click the link).
John Catanzaro Does Victory Dance
Clearly John Catanzaro hopes people don’t read the actual settlement reached with the Department of Health.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/OndGls86cw0[/youtube]
Catanzaro makes it seem like he did the Department of Health a favor and he did nothing wrong. However, he stipulated to deceiving the Department and he has to pay former patients $180,750 to cover the costs of vaccines he charged for but did not administer.
Catazaro admitted to the same charges made back in January. Here is just one in which he agrees with the Department of Health that his treatment was not safe and he engaged in unprofessional conduct.
Catanzaro is pretty brazen; he still has to apply for reinstatement and yet he is counting his vaccines before they are hatched.
Mars Hill Church 2011 and 2012 Executive Compensation Studies
Yesterday in a blog post on the church website, Mars Hill Church described again how they set executive salaries.
Mars Hill Church utilizes external salary surveys for large churches from two sources for determining it’s staff salaries, and an independent compensation study for our executives. Executive salaries also undergo a separate, additional independent third party review of appropriate salary setting procedures, accuracy and internal payroll controls.
None of the Executive Elders set their own salaries, and compensations were both informed and reviewed by outside entities. This effort was used to set compensation levels comparable to similar sized churches for congregational attendees and annual revenue of the church.
This post broke no new ground. Also, it did not provide information on how much the church provided executives in compensation. In some ways, this information is water under the bridge since there is only one executive pastor left and the church is about to close. However, on the other hand, this information may help to form a better understanding of the trajectory of the church from a rapidly growing church to one shutting down at the end of the year. Current and prospective members of the legacy churches may also find this information useful.
According to yesterday’s blog post, the independent members of the Board of Advisors and Accountability set the salaries based on compensation studies prepared by independent consultants. While the executives didn’t set their salaries, they had input into those salaries (see Sutton Turner’s recommendations for Mark Driscoll’s FY 2013 salary). And, as I have learned, Mars Hill staff provided the information which the outside consultant used to create the report (see this memo).
The 2011 compensation study and the staff memo used to create the 2012 report are linked below.
Linked here is the 2011 compensation study conducted by Capin Crouse.
Linked here is the Mars Hill Church memo from 2012 that was used by Capin Crouse to create the 2012 study (I have the memo, but not the final study). The 2012 memo contains the salary levels for the executive pastors as well as their benefits. While these are likely to be lower than current levels, they provide members with information that their church leaders have not provided.
These documents are thorough and appear to be consistent with appropriate IRS and ECFA guidance. While this approach may be helpful for non-profits, I think in the church world, it has led to escalating salaries and less transparency.
First, a large church survey of compensation from 2011 finds little correlation between church size and compensation:
As an aside, I am pretty sure that church number four is Gateway Church, where Mark Driscoll appeared shortly after he resigned from Mars Hill. This salary figure does not include Robert Morris’ salary as chair of the board of The King’s University or other fees he receives for outside speaking.
Recall that this study was reported in August 2011. I don’t have the 2012 letter from Capin Crouse which Turner referred to in his memo below recommending $650k for Mark Driscoll’s salary in 2013. I do have the memo created by Mars Hill staff to help create the 2012 report (linked above).
Other churches use similar data to set the compensation of their pastors. Driscoll’s salary of $500k and then $650k (if this recommendation was carried out), then became part of the data used by other churches to set salaries. It seems to me that an inevitable result of applying these methods is an escalation of salary levels year after year. Some might defend this practice but it seems to me that church members should know at least a range of compensation so they can decide if they want to attend a church which puts so much money into executive compensation.
The data relevant to the other two executive pastors is also provided in the 2011 Capin Crouse study and the 2012 memo. From the 2011 letter:
The network director corresponds to Dave Bruskas, and the executive pastor is Sutton Turner.
Of note in these compensation studies is the fact that volunteer hours are used to estimate the value of labor at the church and thus justify a higher salary for the ministers. For some reason, Acts 29 was also tossed in as relevant to Driscoll’s salary.
There is a wealth of information in the 2012 memo regarding the priorities of the BoAA and the executive elders. There is some interesting information about the rarefied world of megapastors and megaconferences. For instance, according to the memo, Driscoll averaged $17k for conference speeches. That is about a year’s worth of writing for me. Driscoll also received substantial advances for his books (approximately $400k/book with Thomas Nelson). Recall that his books were assisted by Docent Research and on staff writers, costs borne by the church.
This information may help Mars Hill members to understand the values and priorities of those who have led the church for years. Some will object to the way the money has been spent and others will not. Some believe that a pastor is like a CEO and should be paid in line with the numerical success. Others, like John Piper, see pitfalls in such thinking. In any case, church members should be informed about the priorities of the church so they can make choices about how they want to steward their resources.
Washington Attorney General's Office Responds to Complaints About Mars Hill Church
An unknown number of people have filed complaints with the Washington Attorney General’s office regarding various aspects of Mars Hill Church’s financial dealings. Two of them forwarded the responses received from the office. The first one describes an informal and voluntary process to bring together the consumer and the church. The second response gives no hint about the existence of an investigation.
The first response describes a time frame for Mars Hill to reply to the AG’s office.
Bob Ferguson
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON
Consumer Protection Division
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000 Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 464-6686
November 18, 2014
RE: Mars Hill Church
File #:
Dear
Thank you for contacting the Consumer Protection Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. Consumer complaints provide valuable information that our office uses to identify patterns of unfair or deceptive practices that may warrant enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act.
The complaint you submitted to our office regarding Mars Hill Church was reviewed and determined to be appropriate for the informal complaint resolution services offered by our Consumer Resource Center and has been assigned to me for processing. This is an informal, voluntary process. Our office acts as a neutral party to facilitate communication between consumers and businesses to assist in resolving the complaint. We are prohibited by Washington State law from providing legal advice or representing either party.
Following is information about our informal complaint resolution process.
Informal Complaint Resolution Process
The process takes approximately 4-6 weeks to complete. A copy of your complaint is sent to the business(es) with a request to provide our office with a response within 21 calendar days. If a response is received, you will be notified and a copy of the response will be provided to you. If our office has not received a response from the business(es) within 14 calendar days, a courtesy reminder will be sent to the business(es) reminding them that their response is due within the next 7 calendar days. If the business(es) do not respond to our request, our office cannot compel the business(es) to respond.
If the business does not respond or does not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction
If the business(es) do not respond, or your complaint is not resolved through our informal complaint resolution service, your complaint will be closed. However, you will be notified of additional options and resources that may be available to assist you in the event you wish to pursue the matter further.
If you contact our office regarding your complaint, please reference the assigned complaint number referenced above.
Again, thank you for contacting our office.
ELENA GARCIA HUIZAR
CP Public Outreach Specialist
Consumer Protection Division
(206) 442-4497
Fax: (206) 587-5636
Another individual received this response:
I am in receipt of your email to AG Ferguson (dated November 5, 2014). Thank you for providing us the additional information regarding Mars Hill Church; it is clear that you care deeply about this issue. Please be aware that we can neither confirm nor deny whether our office is investigating or the status of any investigation.Regards,Sarah
______________________________________________________Sarah S. Shifley | Assistant Attorney GeneralConsumer Protection Division | 800 Fifth Ave, Ste. 2000 | Seattle, WA 98104
If other readers receive responses, please feel free to forward them to me.
Legal Fund Created to Address Grievances Against Mars Hill Church
Former Mars Hill Church deacon Rob Smith has created a GoFundMe account to fund legal action, if necessary, to address grievances against Mars Hill Church. The grievances primarily involve the Global Fund and non-disclosure clauses signed by former employees.
Despite many appeals to Mars Hill Church leadership to address several grievances, it now appears that it will be necessary to take legal action to see that these greivances are addressed. Donors, ex-members and members are preparing to pursue this alternative. This fund would be used to pay for the legal costs of such a pursuit.
Mars Hill Church has also used non-disclosure agreements to silence ex-employees with valid grievances. This fund would be used to defend any ex-employee that is sued by Mars Hill Church for violating the terms of their non-disclosure agreement.
Once all matters are settled, the balance of this fund, if any, will be shared between the advertised recipients of the Mars Hill Global Fund (Ethiopian and Indian pastors) and with Agathos International. That portion of any donor’s gift to this legal fund will be tax-deductible.
We are attempting to schedule a meeting with Mars Hill representatives in an effort to avoid litigation, and it appears that this meeting may take place.
According to Smith, the church has avoided questions regarding the Global Fund and how much was raised based on appeals to fund Ethiopian and Indian church planters. In contrast to claims from the church made just today, Global Fund appeals were made consistently to pay for outreach in Africa and India but most funds were spent on Mars Hill Church expansion.