If lying is the "industry standard" reject it. Come on, famous guys, if someone writes for you, put the plebe's name on it.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
John Piper tweets "If lying is the `industry standard' reject it. ... "
https://twitter.com/JohnPiper/statuses/410597328492703744
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Mars Hill altered statement about Trial study guide, credits(blames?) assistants on research, Docent Group states Mars Hill given sufficient information to properly cite sources
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2013/12/10/mars-hill-church-alters-statement-on-mark-driscoll-plagiarism-controversy/
Since Warren Throckmorton has established that Mars Hill Church changed its statement in response to alleged plagiarism in the Trial study guide for 1 & 2 Peter there's little that needs review on that specific point. It's worth mentioning because rapidly clarifying a clarification was what happened when MH PR discussed elder terminations in the wake of Andrew Lamb's situation in 2012. Trawl through Wenatchee The Hatchet at your leisure for that, though.
While Mars Hill's initial statement, as documented by Throckmorton, had it that the church never sold copies of the study guide Wenatchee The Hatchet quoted, just yesterday, from an archived page of The Resurgence as to when, how and why The Resurgence sold bulk copies of the study guide.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/12/mars-hill-church-admits-to-citation.html
http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
December 19, 2010 capture
From now until the start of Mars Hill Church’s Luke series, you can purchase copies of the Trial Study Guide by the case. Only twenty cases are available, so order soon if you’re interested. The book is a 200-page overview of 1 & 2 Peter (paperback, 5-1/4 × 7-7/8). It features over 30 small group lessons and an extensive day-by-day family discussion section. The Study Guide was originally written as a companion piece for Mars Hill Church’s sermon series Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter. The book is written by Pastor Mark Driscoll and Pastor Brad House, who oversees Mars Hill community groups. [emphasis added] It was distributed for free at Mars Hill campuses during the sermon series, and in order to recoup some of the printing expenses, we are now selling cases of the book at cost, plus shipping and handling ($95 per case; each case includes 66 books; not authorized for resale). You can also download the PDF version of the book for free. To purchase copies, please submit the online order form and the payment details that follow: Click here for the Trial Study Guide Order Form - See more at: http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale#sthash.MhKWIfXv.dpuf
So The Resurgence, part of Resurgence Publishing, LLC, the for-profit venture associated with mars Hill Church executive leadership, began to sell left over copies of the study guide they had printed for the 1 & 2 Peter sermon series to recover printing costs for the project. The books were sold at cost, according to the content quoted, so they weren't being sold for a profit. The books on the books should bear that out easily enough, right?
At Christianity Today Andy Crouch has weighed in with a few thoughts.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/december-web-only/real-problem-with-mark-driscolls-citation-errors.html?paging=off
The most notable one to pop up is the question of why Driscoll's name was the one on the study guide if J-st-n H-lc-mb and Crystal Griffin were credited with helping assemble the material.
... But there is something truly troubling here, in my view. Not that "Pastor Mark Driscoll" carelessly borrowed a section of a commentary for a church-published Bible study, but that "Pastor Mark Driscoll" was named as the sole author of that Bible study in the first place. In fact, when Driscoll introduced the series on Peter to his church in a 2009 letter (quoted by Religion News Service's Jonathan Merritt), he forthrightly credited two researchers: J-st-n H-lc-mb, who worked for an outside research firm called the Docent Group, and Crystal Griffin, a deacon at Mars Hill. (Glenn Lucke, founder of the Docent Group, told me his firm's records show that H-lc-mb provided Mars Hill all the documentation needed to properly cite the IVP commentary.)
The second notable point is that Glenn Lucke, founder of the Docent Group, has stated that the firm's records show H-lc-mb provided Mars Hill all the documentation needed to properly cite the IVP commentary.
Throckmorton has recently posted that there was some kind of "battle plan" and provides yet another link that is going to be dead-on-arrival. Wenatchee The Hatchet has gotten used to links affiliated with Mars Hill Church or The Resurgence being dead on arrival after a post gets published. So here's a link that does work, for now [as Bane put it in The Dark Knight Rises] You can also try this one or this one. Throckmorton's link to the pdf may be dead but Wenatchee The Hatchet has some experience trawling through older resources associated with Mars Hill. Check out the pdf materials while you still can. Throckmorton brings attention to page 143 on and mentions lean research notes but that's to be expected. What the pdf comes across as to someone who's been in Mars Hill is not an academic draft of anything but a working later draft of citations that could be added later in the editing process. October 31, 2008 is months, literally, before Driscoll would announce H-lc-mb had joined the Mars Hill crew.
Throckmorton didn't mention what are arguably more important pages in the battle plan, pages 19-21 about branding. This looks, overall, more like a mock-up copy of basic materials awaiting citation notes but also lacking a unified visual style of the sort the finished product would later have. The documentation would be pretty lean if pages 19-21 were explicitly brainstorming a general look and discussing branding.
Given the discussion so far at Christianity Today, from Warren Throckmorton, and from seeing some of the material Throckmorton refers to it's not convincing for Mars Hill Church to attempt to shift any blame on research assistants who had a role in assembling background material for the Trial study guide. Their names didn't end up on the book in any event and the copyright of the book was registered to Mars Hill Church. Glenn Lucke of the Docent Group has stated that H-lc-mb provided enough evidence for proper citation and has stated this to Christianity Today. The battle plan version of the study guide Throckmorton refers to does provide some interesting details about how Mars Hill approached the development of the publication and it's interesting to see the branding segment and an unusually large amount of red text.
Let's bear something in mind from early 2008 that Driscoll said in a question and answer session about how and how much he reads. After all, if an email between Driscoll and H-lc-mb at the end of 2008 is going to come up let's consult what Driscoll said about his working memory, reading habits, and approach to citation was earlier that year.
At the risk of recycling material already published on this blog ...
http://www.acts29network.org/sermon/qa-with-mark-driscoll/
The question about how much he read in a week shows up about halfway through minute 16 and the explanation of how and how fast he read books is something Driscoll fields in the start of the 18th minute (if we've cited the right audio file):
... I'm not necessarily the guy who sits down and reads a book because every book has things in it that I don't need at that time. But I'll read a chapter of this book, half of this book, page of this book ... hundreds of pages a week. ...
I read very fast and I have, I don't know if it's a photographic memory but I have a very effective memory; so much so that,uh, I can remember whole quotes from paragraphs of books that I read in the late 80s that I haven't touched since then. And so even, like, writing a book like, uh, Vintage Jesus has I think, like, six hundred footnotes--I would sit down and write the manuscript and just put in the bra[cket], the parentheses for my research assistant, like, `That's in Generous Orthodoxy', that's somewhere around page 160.' Now I haven't read that since,, like, `92 but I remember the quote, I remember the book, I remember the author, I remember the publisher, and I remember roughly where it's at in the book and so then she goes and finds it and makes all the footnotes. And so that speeds things along.
My wife isn't like that. She reads slow. It's laborious, it's prayerful, it's careful and so for her to work through a book takes a long time and I tend to go through books like chicken wings. ...
Well, Mark Driscoll reading through books like he eats chicken wings might explain some stuff. It looks like Mars Hill Church no longer has the option of just implicitly blaming the research assistants now that their names were so easy to look up and the founder of the Docent Group has stated that H-lc-mb provided enough documentation for proper citation of Intervarsity's published work to be credited. If there's a point of confusion or a lack of clarity it's more likely to be on the side of Mars Hill, which told Slate in early 2012 that it was due to "unclear communication" that a letter about former member Andrew Lamb ended up on The City to begin with. It was also Mars Hill Church that ended up clarifying it's clarifying statement, a detail that Christianity Today caught last year if memory serves. Earlier this year Justin Dean stated that Mars Hill Church had something to do with the Lifelong Aids Alliance that turned out to not quite be true.
And, again, since Mars Hill Church owns the copyright and Mark Driscoll is the legal president the fact that H-lc-mb and House are gone and that Driscoll has described himself in 2008 as instructing his aids on where he found stuff makes it hard to see why Driscoll would have reversed the process and made himself entirely beholden to research assistants without explaining why he did this. Setting aside that you can't throw people off the bus who aren't on there anyway attempting to blame people who are research assistants still avoids the fact that Mark Driscoll's name is on the book and the book is copyrighted by the corporation known as Mars Hill Church and that by its own account The Resurgence did sell the Trial study guide at cost to recover printing costs. That Warren Throckmorton caught the abrupt and obvious shift from Mars Hill on whether or not they ever had copies of the book sold is worth noting again.
POSTSCRIPT
First Things is back on the topic, too.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/12/10/how-not-to-deal-with-a-media-crisis-mark-driscoll-and-plagiarism/
Also WORLD magazine
http://www.worldmag.com/2013/12/signs_and_wonders_rockwell_s_return_plus_more_on_the_driscoll_dust_up
https://www.worldmag.com/mobile/article.php?id=28564
Since Warren Throckmorton has established that Mars Hill Church changed its statement in response to alleged plagiarism in the Trial study guide for 1 & 2 Peter there's little that needs review on that specific point. It's worth mentioning because rapidly clarifying a clarification was what happened when MH PR discussed elder terminations in the wake of Andrew Lamb's situation in 2012. Trawl through Wenatchee The Hatchet at your leisure for that, though.
While Mars Hill's initial statement, as documented by Throckmorton, had it that the church never sold copies of the study guide Wenatchee The Hatchet quoted, just yesterday, from an archived page of The Resurgence as to when, how and why The Resurgence sold bulk copies of the study guide.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/12/mars-hill-church-admits-to-citation.html
http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
December 19, 2010 capture
From now until the start of Mars Hill Church’s Luke series, you can purchase copies of the Trial Study Guide by the case. Only twenty cases are available, so order soon if you’re interested. The book is a 200-page overview of 1 & 2 Peter (paperback, 5-1/4 × 7-7/8). It features over 30 small group lessons and an extensive day-by-day family discussion section. The Study Guide was originally written as a companion piece for Mars Hill Church’s sermon series Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter. The book is written by Pastor Mark Driscoll and Pastor Brad House, who oversees Mars Hill community groups. [emphasis added] It was distributed for free at Mars Hill campuses during the sermon series, and in order to recoup some of the printing expenses, we are now selling cases of the book at cost, plus shipping and handling ($95 per case; each case includes 66 books; not authorized for resale). You can also download the PDF version of the book for free. To purchase copies, please submit the online order form and the payment details that follow: Click here for the Trial Study Guide Order Form - See more at: http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale#sthash.MhKWIfXv.dpuf
So The Resurgence, part of Resurgence Publishing, LLC, the for-profit venture associated with mars Hill Church executive leadership, began to sell left over copies of the study guide they had printed for the 1 & 2 Peter sermon series to recover printing costs for the project. The books were sold at cost, according to the content quoted, so they weren't being sold for a profit. The books on the books should bear that out easily enough, right?
At Christianity Today Andy Crouch has weighed in with a few thoughts.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/december-web-only/real-problem-with-mark-driscolls-citation-errors.html?paging=off
The most notable one to pop up is the question of why Driscoll's name was the one on the study guide if J-st-n H-lc-mb and Crystal Griffin were credited with helping assemble the material.
... But there is something truly troubling here, in my view. Not that "Pastor Mark Driscoll" carelessly borrowed a section of a commentary for a church-published Bible study, but that "Pastor Mark Driscoll" was named as the sole author of that Bible study in the first place. In fact, when Driscoll introduced the series on Peter to his church in a 2009 letter (quoted by Religion News Service's Jonathan Merritt), he forthrightly credited two researchers: J-st-n H-lc-mb, who worked for an outside research firm called the Docent Group, and Crystal Griffin, a deacon at Mars Hill. (Glenn Lucke, founder of the Docent Group, told me his firm's records show that H-lc-mb provided Mars Hill all the documentation needed to properly cite the IVP commentary.)
The second notable point is that Glenn Lucke, founder of the Docent Group, has stated that the firm's records show H-lc-mb provided Mars Hill all the documentation needed to properly cite the IVP commentary.
Throckmorton has recently posted that there was some kind of "battle plan" and provides yet another link that is going to be dead-on-arrival. Wenatchee The Hatchet has gotten used to links affiliated with Mars Hill Church or The Resurgence being dead on arrival after a post gets published. So here's a link that does work, for now [as Bane put it in The Dark Knight Rises] You can also try this one or this one. Throckmorton's link to the pdf may be dead but Wenatchee The Hatchet has some experience trawling through older resources associated with Mars Hill. Check out the pdf materials while you still can. Throckmorton brings attention to page 143 on and mentions lean research notes but that's to be expected. What the pdf comes across as to someone who's been in Mars Hill is not an academic draft of anything but a working later draft of citations that could be added later in the editing process. October 31, 2008 is months, literally, before Driscoll would announce H-lc-mb had joined the Mars Hill crew.
Throckmorton didn't mention what are arguably more important pages in the battle plan, pages 19-21 about branding. This looks, overall, more like a mock-up copy of basic materials awaiting citation notes but also lacking a unified visual style of the sort the finished product would later have. The documentation would be pretty lean if pages 19-21 were explicitly brainstorming a general look and discussing branding.
Given the discussion so far at Christianity Today, from Warren Throckmorton, and from seeing some of the material Throckmorton refers to it's not convincing for Mars Hill Church to attempt to shift any blame on research assistants who had a role in assembling background material for the Trial study guide. Their names didn't end up on the book in any event and the copyright of the book was registered to Mars Hill Church. Glenn Lucke of the Docent Group has stated that H-lc-mb provided enough evidence for proper citation and has stated this to Christianity Today. The battle plan version of the study guide Throckmorton refers to does provide some interesting details about how Mars Hill approached the development of the publication and it's interesting to see the branding segment and an unusually large amount of red text.
Let's bear something in mind from early 2008 that Driscoll said in a question and answer session about how and how much he reads. After all, if an email between Driscoll and H-lc-mb at the end of 2008 is going to come up let's consult what Driscoll said about his working memory, reading habits, and approach to citation was earlier that year.
At the risk of recycling material already published on this blog ...
http://www.acts29network.org/sermon/qa-with-mark-driscoll/
The question about how much he read in a week shows up about halfway through minute 16 and the explanation of how and how fast he read books is something Driscoll fields in the start of the 18th minute (if we've cited the right audio file):
... I'm not necessarily the guy who sits down and reads a book because every book has things in it that I don't need at that time. But I'll read a chapter of this book, half of this book, page of this book ... hundreds of pages a week. ...
I read very fast and I have, I don't know if it's a photographic memory but I have a very effective memory; so much so that,uh, I can remember whole quotes from paragraphs of books that I read in the late 80s that I haven't touched since then. And so even, like, writing a book like, uh, Vintage Jesus has I think, like, six hundred footnotes--I would sit down and write the manuscript and just put in the bra[cket], the parentheses for my research assistant, like, `That's in Generous Orthodoxy', that's somewhere around page 160.' Now I haven't read that since,, like, `92 but I remember the quote, I remember the book, I remember the author, I remember the publisher, and I remember roughly where it's at in the book and so then she goes and finds it and makes all the footnotes. And so that speeds things along.
My wife isn't like that. She reads slow. It's laborious, it's prayerful, it's careful and so for her to work through a book takes a long time and I tend to go through books like chicken wings. ...
Well, Mark Driscoll reading through books like he eats chicken wings might explain some stuff. It looks like Mars Hill Church no longer has the option of just implicitly blaming the research assistants now that their names were so easy to look up and the founder of the Docent Group has stated that H-lc-mb provided enough documentation for proper citation of Intervarsity's published work to be credited. If there's a point of confusion or a lack of clarity it's more likely to be on the side of Mars Hill, which told Slate in early 2012 that it was due to "unclear communication" that a letter about former member Andrew Lamb ended up on The City to begin with. It was also Mars Hill Church that ended up clarifying it's clarifying statement, a detail that Christianity Today caught last year if memory serves. Earlier this year Justin Dean stated that Mars Hill Church had something to do with the Lifelong Aids Alliance that turned out to not quite be true.
And, again, since Mars Hill Church owns the copyright and Mark Driscoll is the legal president the fact that H-lc-mb and House are gone and that Driscoll has described himself in 2008 as instructing his aids on where he found stuff makes it hard to see why Driscoll would have reversed the process and made himself entirely beholden to research assistants without explaining why he did this. Setting aside that you can't throw people off the bus who aren't on there anyway attempting to blame people who are research assistants still avoids the fact that Mark Driscoll's name is on the book and the book is copyrighted by the corporation known as Mars Hill Church and that by its own account The Resurgence did sell the Trial study guide at cost to recover printing costs. That Warren Throckmorton caught the abrupt and obvious shift from Mars Hill on whether or not they ever had copies of the book sold is worth noting again.
POSTSCRIPT
First Things is back on the topic, too.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/12/10/how-not-to-deal-with-a-media-crisis-mark-driscoll-and-plagiarism/
Also WORLD magazine
http://www.worldmag.com/2013/12/signs_and_wonders_rockwell_s_return_plus_more_on_the_driscoll_dust_up
https://www.worldmag.com/mobile/article.php?id=28564
Monday, December 09, 2013
Mars Hill Church admits to 'citation error', pulls Trial study guide, Intervarsity Press publicly states lack of citation does not fall under Fair Use
A number of people have alluded to this statement but for those who haven't spotted this already:
http://marshill.com/media/trial
http://cdn.marshill.com/files/collection/documents/trial_29546_document.pdf
In 2009, Pastor Mark preached through 1 & 2 Peter in a sermon series called Trial. To help our small groups, a team of people including a research assistant, put together a free study guide that was produced in-house. About 5 years later it was brought to our attention that it contained some citation errors. We have discovered that during the editing process, content from other published sources were mistaken for research notes. These sentences were adapted instead of quoted directly. We are grateful this was brought to our attention, and we have removed that document from our website to correct the mistake. Additionally, we are examining all of our similar content as a precautionary measure.
Mars Hill doesn't name names and if they did the names might end up being of people who are no longer in leadership at Mars Hill anyway. None of that is particularly germane by itself but we'll get to why it matters that the copyright of the book is registered to Mars Hill. The reason is simple, Intervarsity Press has made a comment to Christianity Today, today.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/december/parsing-mark-driscoll-plagiarism-janet-mefferd-apologizes.html
InterVarsity Press tells CT:
Several paragraphs from the New Bible Commentary edited by G. J. Wenham, J. A. Motyer, D. A. Carson and R. T. France published by InterVarsity Press appear in Mark Driscoll's now out of print book Trial: 8 Witnesses From 1 & 2 Peter. These improperly appeared without quotation or attribution. With proper citation the material would have been a case of fair use.
InterVarsity Press believes all writers should use great care as they do research and prepare texts for any use to make sure that proper acknowledgement is given to source material.
IVP tells CT this will be its final statement on the matter. CT has reached out to Driscoll for a response.
There went any possible defense of Trial via fair use, apparently.
Mars Hill has made a public statement that leans on the idea that a team of people were responsible for what turned out to be a citation error that was brought to the attention of Mars Hill Church. Does anyone at Mars Hill Church care to thank Janet Mefferd specifically as an expression of gratitude or would giving her public thanks be inappropriate because Mark Driscoll said she was being accusatory and unkind. It looks like Mars Hill Church as a corporation may differ from Mark Driscoll on this general issue now that a different case of alleged plagiarism has come up.
Jonathan Merritt has pointed out about the Mars Hill Church statement:
http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/09/mars-hill-church-plagiarism-controversy-citation-errors/
The statement appears to contain at least one incorrect statement. Though Mars Hill claims the book was “never sold,” it is currently on sale by at least one vendor (Logos Bible Software) for $9.95. A screen shot of the sales page is attached. - See more at: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/09/mars-hill-church-plagiarism-controversy-citation-errors/#sthash.0vR2VaCz.dpuf
Warren Throckmorton has noted that The Resurgence at one point was selling copies of the Trial study guide. Throckmorton has clearly become quite good at navigating the peculiarities of Mars Hill's sites where tags and downloads may not always appear in easily spotted places.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2013/12/09/intervarsity-press-calls-driscoll-citations-improperly-cited/
I examine this statement below, but one claim in it appears not to be accurate. The statement says the study guide was never sold. It is being sold presently by Logos Research Systems as a download. Product details are listed as:
... Furthermore, at one point Driscoll’s The Resurgence website advertised printed copies in bulk.
http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
Because the link is dead already let's do a little fishing.
http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
For those for whom images don't pop up:
From now until the start of Mars Hill Church’s Luke series, you can purchase copies of the Trial Study Guide by the case. Only twenty cases are available, so order soon if you’re interested. The book is a 200-page overview of 1 & 2 Peter (paperback, 5-1/4 × 7-7/8). It features over 30 small group lessons and an extensive day-by-day family discussion section. The Study Guide was originally written as a companion piece for Mars Hill Church’s sermon series Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter. The book is written by Pastor Mark Driscoll and Pastor Brad House, who oversees Mars Hill community groups. [emphasis added] It was distributed for free at Mars Hill campuses during the sermon series, and in order to recoup some of the printing expenses, we are now selling cases of the book at cost, plus shipping and handling ($95 per case; each case includes 66 books; not authorized for resale). You can also download the PDF version of the book for free. To purchase copies, please submit the online order form and the payment details that follow: Click here for the Trial Study Guide Order Form - See more at: http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale#sthash.MhKWIfXv.dpuf
As Wenatchee The Hatchet has already noted neither Brad House nor J-st-n H-lc-mb are at Mars Hill these days.
But let's get back to something mentioned earlier at Wenatchee The Hatchet, that The Resurgence is a for-profit corporation registered in Washington state and that John Sutton Turner, executive elder at Mars Hill, has every significant officer/governing role in the corporation these days.
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603207560
UBI Number 603207560
Category REG
Profit/Nonprofit Profit
Active/Inactive Active
State Of Incorporation WA
WA Filing Date 05/17/2012
Expiration Date 05/31/2014
Inactive Date
Duration Perpetual
Agent Name JOHN SUTTON TURNER
Address 1411 NW 50TH STREET
City SEATTLE
State WA
ZIP
GOVERNING PERSONS
President,Secretary,Treasurer,Chairman
TURNER , SUTTON
1411 NW 50TH ST
SEATTLE , WA 98107
And who owns the copyright to the Trial study guide? Mars Hill Church. Sure, lots of anonymous people insist that it's all about Mark Driscoll and it must be Mark at the top. Well, so what? The corporation has more officers than Mark Driscoll. For that matter if it's The Resurgence that has sold copies of Trial at a profit to recoup printing expenses that's apparently a matter for Sutton Turner to field now if anyone wants to ask about that.
The book may have had the names of Mark Driscoll and Brad House on them but Brad House is gone from Mars Hill. The copyright is owned by Mars Hill and who are the big names there?
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819
So Mars Hill Church has admitted to a "citation error" issue in the Trial study guide for the 1 & 2 Peter sermon series. They have made a point of mentioning it was a team project involving not just Mark Driscoll but other people, including a research assistant. Given Mark Driscoll's experience as a professional journalist and his remark about how formidable his working memory was in an early 2008 Q & A it doesn't seem like even a team oversight should have happened given what Driscoll has said publicly at different points about how good his working memory is and how much experience he's assured people he's had working as a professional journalist.
That just makes the citation error all the stranger and less excusable now that Mars Hill Church has publicly admitted that it happened, doesn't it? Driscoll told Mefferd that maybe he made a mistake and the recent statement looks more like an attempt to blame-shift to some unnamed research assistant and a team. Whatever happened to the Mark Driscoll who would tell husbands "headship means its your responsibility even if it's not your fault?"
POSTSCRIPT:
comments are disabled given the behavior of the anonymous peanut gallery in the last week or so. You probably spotted that if you tried making a comment. There are enough off-blog projects going on that coming back a day or so later to discover comments spiraling into what happened on the post about Jeff Bettger isn't Wenatchee's idea of fun. Think of this blog (when it discusses Mars Hill) more as a journalistic experiment than a venue for semi/anonymous sharing or venting (there are plenty of other venues for that that are better than Wenatchee The Hatchet as it is).
http://marshill.com/media/trial
http://cdn.marshill.com/files/collection/documents/trial_29546_document.pdf
In 2009, Pastor Mark preached through 1 & 2 Peter in a sermon series called Trial. To help our small groups, a team of people including a research assistant, put together a free study guide that was produced in-house. About 5 years later it was brought to our attention that it contained some citation errors. We have discovered that during the editing process, content from other published sources were mistaken for research notes. These sentences were adapted instead of quoted directly. We are grateful this was brought to our attention, and we have removed that document from our website to correct the mistake. Additionally, we are examining all of our similar content as a precautionary measure.
Mars Hill doesn't name names and if they did the names might end up being of people who are no longer in leadership at Mars Hill anyway. None of that is particularly germane by itself but we'll get to why it matters that the copyright of the book is registered to Mars Hill. The reason is simple, Intervarsity Press has made a comment to Christianity Today, today.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/december/parsing-mark-driscoll-plagiarism-janet-mefferd-apologizes.html
InterVarsity Press tells CT:
Several paragraphs from the New Bible Commentary edited by G. J. Wenham, J. A. Motyer, D. A. Carson and R. T. France published by InterVarsity Press appear in Mark Driscoll's now out of print book Trial: 8 Witnesses From 1 & 2 Peter. These improperly appeared without quotation or attribution. With proper citation the material would have been a case of fair use.
InterVarsity Press believes all writers should use great care as they do research and prepare texts for any use to make sure that proper acknowledgement is given to source material.
IVP tells CT this will be its final statement on the matter. CT has reached out to Driscoll for a response.
There went any possible defense of Trial via fair use, apparently.
Mars Hill has made a public statement that leans on the idea that a team of people were responsible for what turned out to be a citation error that was brought to the attention of Mars Hill Church. Does anyone at Mars Hill Church care to thank Janet Mefferd specifically as an expression of gratitude or would giving her public thanks be inappropriate because Mark Driscoll said she was being accusatory and unkind. It looks like Mars Hill Church as a corporation may differ from Mark Driscoll on this general issue now that a different case of alleged plagiarism has come up.
Jonathan Merritt has pointed out about the Mars Hill Church statement:
http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/09/mars-hill-church-plagiarism-controversy-citation-errors/
The statement appears to contain at least one incorrect statement. Though Mars Hill claims the book was “never sold,” it is currently on sale by at least one vendor (Logos Bible Software) for $9.95. A screen shot of the sales page is attached. - See more at: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/09/mars-hill-church-plagiarism-controversy-citation-errors/#sthash.0vR2VaCz.dpuf
Warren Throckmorton has noted that The Resurgence at one point was selling copies of the Trial study guide. Throckmorton has clearly become quite good at navigating the peculiarities of Mars Hill's sites where tags and downloads may not always appear in easily spotted places.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2013/12/09/intervarsity-press-calls-driscoll-citations-improperly-cited/
I examine this statement below, but one claim in it appears not to be accurate. The statement says the study guide was never sold. It is being sold presently by Logos Research Systems as a download. Product details are listed as:
- Title: Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter
- Authors: Mark Driscoll and Brad House
- Publisher: Mars Hill Church
- Publication Date: 2009
- Pages: 198
... Furthermore, at one point Driscoll’s The Resurgence website advertised printed copies in bulk.
http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
Because the link is dead already let's do a little fishing.
http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale
For those for whom images don't pop up:
From now until the start of Mars Hill Church’s Luke series, you can purchase copies of the Trial Study Guide by the case. Only twenty cases are available, so order soon if you’re interested. The book is a 200-page overview of 1 & 2 Peter (paperback, 5-1/4 × 7-7/8). It features over 30 small group lessons and an extensive day-by-day family discussion section. The Study Guide was originally written as a companion piece for Mars Hill Church’s sermon series Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter. The book is written by Pastor Mark Driscoll and Pastor Brad House, who oversees Mars Hill community groups. [emphasis added] It was distributed for free at Mars Hill campuses during the sermon series, and in order to recoup some of the printing expenses, we are now selling cases of the book at cost, plus shipping and handling ($95 per case; each case includes 66 books; not authorized for resale). You can also download the PDF version of the book for free. To purchase copies, please submit the online order form and the payment details that follow: Click here for the Trial Study Guide Order Form - See more at: http://web.archive.org/web/20101219223717/http://theresurgence.com/2009/09/01/trial-study-guide-on-sale#sthash.MhKWIfXv.dpuf
As Wenatchee The Hatchet has already noted neither Brad House nor J-st-n H-lc-mb are at Mars Hill these days.
But let's get back to something mentioned earlier at Wenatchee The Hatchet, that The Resurgence is a for-profit corporation registered in Washington state and that John Sutton Turner, executive elder at Mars Hill, has every significant officer/governing role in the corporation these days.
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603207560
UBI Number 603207560
Category REG
Profit/Nonprofit Profit
Active/Inactive Active
State Of Incorporation WA
WA Filing Date 05/17/2012
Expiration Date 05/31/2014
Inactive Date
Duration Perpetual
Agent Name JOHN SUTTON TURNER
Address 1411 NW 50TH STREET
City SEATTLE
State WA
ZIP
GOVERNING PERSONS
President,Secretary,Treasurer,Chairman
TURNER , SUTTON
1411 NW 50TH ST
SEATTLE , WA 98107
And who owns the copyright to the Trial study guide? Mars Hill Church. Sure, lots of anonymous people insist that it's all about Mark Driscoll and it must be Mark at the top. Well, so what? The corporation has more officers than Mark Driscoll. For that matter if it's The Resurgence that has sold copies of Trial at a profit to recoup printing expenses that's apparently a matter for Sutton Turner to field now if anyone wants to ask about that.
The book may have had the names of Mark Driscoll and Brad House on them but Brad House is gone from Mars Hill. The copyright is owned by Mars Hill and who are the big names there?
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819
| UBI Number | 601677819 |
| Category | REG |
| Profit/Nonprofit | Nonprofit |
| Active/Inactive | Active |
| State Of Incorporation | WA |
| WA Filing Date | 12/22/1995 |
| Expiration Date | 12/31/2013 |
| Inactive Date | |
| Duration | Perpetual |
| Registered Agent Information | |
| Agent Name | JOHN SUTTON TURNER |
| Address | 1411 NW 50TH ST |
| City | SEATTLE |
| State | WA |
| ZIP | 98107 |
Governing Persons
| Title | Name | Address |
| Vice President | Bruskas, Dave | 1411 NW 50th Street SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
| Secretary | TURNER, JOHN SUTTON | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
| Treasurer | TURNER, JOHN SUTTON | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
| President | Driscoll, Mark | 1411 NW 50th Street |
So Mars Hill Church has admitted to a "citation error" issue in the Trial study guide for the 1 & 2 Peter sermon series. They have made a point of mentioning it was a team project involving not just Mark Driscoll but other people, including a research assistant. Given Mark Driscoll's experience as a professional journalist and his remark about how formidable his working memory was in an early 2008 Q & A it doesn't seem like even a team oversight should have happened given what Driscoll has said publicly at different points about how good his working memory is and how much experience he's assured people he's had working as a professional journalist.
That just makes the citation error all the stranger and less excusable now that Mars Hill Church has publicly admitted that it happened, doesn't it? Driscoll told Mefferd that maybe he made a mistake and the recent statement looks more like an attempt to blame-shift to some unnamed research assistant and a team. Whatever happened to the Mark Driscoll who would tell husbands "headship means its your responsibility even if it's not your fault?"
POSTSCRIPT:
comments are disabled given the behavior of the anonymous peanut gallery in the last week or so. You probably spotted that if you tried making a comment. There are enough off-blog projects going on that coming back a day or so later to discover comments spiraling into what happened on the post about Jeff Bettger isn't Wenatchee's idea of fun. Think of this blog (when it discusses Mars Hill) more as a journalistic experiment than a venue for semi/anonymous sharing or venting (there are plenty of other venues for that that are better than Wenatchee The Hatchet as it is).
Saturday, December 07, 2013
HT Jim West: Jonathan Merritt notes that Ingrid Schlueter, part-time assistant producer to Janet Mefferd, has resigned
http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/06/mefferd-producer-resigns-driscoll-controversy/
A comment from Ryan Abernathy jumped out.
http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/06/mefferd-producer-resigns-driscoll-controversy/#comment-128864
Ryan Abernathy
This isn't strange at all for anyone familiar with how far back Schlueter's criticism of Driscoll goes. Her name appeared amongst those vehemently critical of Driscoll so far back it may even pre-date the 2007 firings. Her public criticism and comments about Driscoll should be easily found and can provide some additional context for whatever has happened. Here's a brief example. It piggy-backed on Steve Camp at the time but is a useful and short reference point.
Jim West has also got a post noting that Julie Ann @ Defend the sheep has spotted a connection between Tyndale and Salem Radio.
http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/well-lookie-there-driscolls-books-are-published-by-tyndale-and-tyndale-is-a-partner-of-salem-radio/
Schlueter had a blog going for a while called Slice of Laodicea.
A comment from Ryan Abernathy jumped out.
http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/06/mefferd-producer-resigns-driscoll-controversy/#comment-128864
Ryan Abernathy
Dec 7, 2013 at 9:59 am
Interesting side note, Ingrid Schlueter used to blog at Slice of Laodecia back in 2009. She was violently anti-Driscoll over his sex sermon series on Song of Solomon. Strange that her name turns up here in this mess and that she resigns after the apology. Makes me wonder how much influence she had on the piece at its inception, the tone of the interview, and the research done on the piece. I think there is definitely an issue for Driscoll here- the info looks improperly cited at the least, but I wonder if Ingrid may have overstepped a bit considering her past history with Driscoll. - See more at: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/06/mefferd-producer-resigns-driscoll-controversy/#comment-128864This isn't strange at all for anyone familiar with how far back Schlueter's criticism of Driscoll goes. Her name appeared amongst those vehemently critical of Driscoll so far back it may even pre-date the 2007 firings. Her public criticism and comments about Driscoll should be easily found and can provide some additional context for whatever has happened. Here's a brief example. It piggy-backed on Steve Camp at the time but is a useful and short reference point.
Jim West has also got a post noting that Julie Ann @ Defend the sheep has spotted a connection between Tyndale and Salem Radio.
http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/well-lookie-there-driscolls-books-are-published-by-tyndale-and-tyndale-is-a-partner-of-salem-radio/
Schlueter had a blog going for a while called Slice of Laodicea.
Thursday, December 05, 2013
Nelson Mandela has died
What can and will be said about the man can and will be said by others more succinctly and eloquently than Wenatchee The Hatchet could ever manage.
But Wenatchee will note Mandela's passing, however briefly. And with that Wenatchee The Hatchet is done blogging for today.
But Wenatchee will note Mandela's passing, however briefly. And with that Wenatchee The Hatchet is done blogging for today.
The WayBack Machine only goes so way back: a comment to Carl Trueman's First Things article is a dead end. Guess which one?
http://web.archive.org/web/20131205062453/http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/12/04/areopagitica/
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/12/04/areopagitica/
David ReimerDecember 4th, 2013 | 4:14 pm As for disappearing content, I suppose that’s one of the things the Wayback Machine is for. - See more at: http://web.archive.org/web/20131205062453/http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/12/04/areopagitica/#sthash.hKH3Tkq7.dpuf
What a difference just a few hours can make.
Try to follow this link and see what happens. It'll be interesting.
http://web.archive.org/web/20131205062453/https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032816/http://www.janetmefferd.com/wp-content/uploads/MATERIAL-SCREENSHOTS-HERE.pdf
Bummer.
This url is not available on the live web or can not be archived.
Want to search for all archived pages under https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032816/http://www.janetmefferd.com/wp-content/uploads/ ?
and you'll get zip. Let's try that other link, too. What do we get? Rorshach would go
Hrm.
Wayback Machine doesn't have that page archived.
Want to search for all archived pages under
https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032816/http://www.janetmefferd.com/wp-content/ ?
Well, since they suggested it. What happens?
For the moment ...
Hrm.
Wayback Machine doesn't have that page archived.
Want to search for all archived pages under https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032816/http://www.janetmefferd.com/ ?
So what does Janet Mefferd's blog look like right now?
About like this:
Live: Monday - Friday 2pm - 5pm ET
Janet's Blog
There are no posts at this time. Please check back soon.
As an experiment you can do at home see if you can get any results for any of these links in The WayBack Machine
http://www.janetmefferd.com/plagiarism-examine/
http://www.janetmefferd.com/wp-content/uploads/MATERIAL-SCREENSHOTS-HERE.pdf
http://www.janetmefferd.com/plagiarism-two-driscoll-books/
In light of the parade of comments on a recent thread, guess what? :) Comments are closed! In advance.
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Jeff Bettger no longer a pastor at Mars Hill Church
The name will mean possibly nothing to anyone outside of Mars Hill but his name vanishing from the list of men in the pastor listings of Mars Hill would be impossible for Wenatchee The Hatchet to not eventually notice, even amid holiday activities.
http://marshill.com/pastors/
You won't find Jeff Bettger's name on there now. But there is this:
http://www.locustnhoney.com/?p=1148
It opens with an extensive citation from Ephesians 5 and proceeds, we'll cite just a few segments of the post:
We are exposed when standing in the light of the sun. Anyone with working eyes in our proximity can see us when we are not hidden in shadow and darkness. An affection for Jesus can expose all kinds of injustices, and human corruption. I believe that is what Paul is speaking of in this passage. We are reconciled image bearers of the living God of the universe. He made us to reflect as mirrors His glory grace love mercy justice and wrath against all that is corrupt and evil. When governments and human institutions are unjust or act in shady ways we are to expose the truth. When a person we know is caught in lies and things that hurt and destroy themselves and others we are to call them out. We have been given a conscience. Unfortunately we are hypocrites and often want to be right more than humble truthful and just.
...
Having a mega church background for the last 16 years I have witnessed first hand the tyranny of injustice done in the name of God. Layoffs during Christmas, weeks after new children are born and first homes purchased.The use of tithe money to purchase books at retail cost in order to build a mans platform and make the NY times best seller lists. [Update 12-5-2013 8.18pm PST: WtH, this sentence has been excised from the original post since the publication of this post, it is preserved with strikethrough with the proviso that jsuffering has stated that it was hearsay] All with the name of God stamped on it, and self justified because the rest of the business world has those kinds of practices. I am grieved for the state of a church that does not acknowledge and expose the sin of it’s leaders with love and humility but instead claims it is doing whats best for the body of Christ.
...
I am the chief of sinners in this way. I have held my cards close to my heart in order for self preservation. I have been complicit by not speaking out boldly and allowing things to stay hidden. I do not need to do that anymore. I am free to walk in the light even if it takes me into suffering, and chastisement. I Love Jesus and choose Him over a fabricated Americanized version of what we call church. I repent and walk in the light as He is in the light. No more playing politics and calling it church.
There's more in the post that Jeff Bettger wrote that you can read in the link.
http://marshill.com/pastors/
You won't find Jeff Bettger's name on there now. But there is this:
http://www.locustnhoney.com/?p=1148
It opens with an extensive citation from Ephesians 5 and proceeds, we'll cite just a few segments of the post:
We are exposed when standing in the light of the sun. Anyone with working eyes in our proximity can see us when we are not hidden in shadow and darkness. An affection for Jesus can expose all kinds of injustices, and human corruption. I believe that is what Paul is speaking of in this passage. We are reconciled image bearers of the living God of the universe. He made us to reflect as mirrors His glory grace love mercy justice and wrath against all that is corrupt and evil. When governments and human institutions are unjust or act in shady ways we are to expose the truth. When a person we know is caught in lies and things that hurt and destroy themselves and others we are to call them out. We have been given a conscience. Unfortunately we are hypocrites and often want to be right more than humble truthful and just.
...
Having a mega church background for the last 16 years I have witnessed first hand the tyranny of injustice done in the name of God. Layoffs during Christmas, weeks after new children are born and first homes purchased.
...
I am the chief of sinners in this way. I have held my cards close to my heart in order for self preservation. I have been complicit by not speaking out boldly and allowing things to stay hidden. I do not need to do that anymore. I am free to walk in the light even if it takes me into suffering, and chastisement. I Love Jesus and choose Him over a fabricated Americanized version of what we call church. I repent and walk in the light as He is in the light. No more playing politics and calling it church.
There's more in the post that Jeff Bettger wrote that you can read in the link.
Warren Throckmorton: Janet Mefferd removes evidence relating to charges of plagiarism against Mark Driscoll, apologizes to audience
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2013/12/04/janet-mefferd-removes-evidence-relating-to-charges-of-plagiarism-against-mark-driscoll-apologizes-to-audience/
The link pretty much speaks for itself in the title but is available for further consultation.
Sutton Turner explains what the Mars Hill Foundation for Planting Churches is
Earlier at Wenatchee The Hatchet we noted the emergence of the Mars Hill Foundation for Planting Churches, which was also noted in a recent comment. See the listing for Washington States' Secretary of State listing:
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603349072
The usual/expected registered agent appears:
and the governing persons are no surprise:
So what is the foundation for? Maybe Sutton Turner can field this one.
***
Mars Hill | New Discussion Topic
Per the link to marshill.com/foundation
Endowment Fund
The aim of the Endowment Fund is to create a fund that repays itself and plants churches in perpetuity. Donors give to a restricted fund where the principal corpus can be lent to local churches for their church-planting expenses. Once the church is planted, the funds are paid back to the Endowment Fund over a 5- to 10-year period. The beauty is that each church plant effectively funds the next. Donations are tax deductible.
Then there's also this:
Mars Hill Church Investment Fund, LLC
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603353130
The expiration date for Mars Hill Church looks like it's 12/31/2013 here
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819
Presented for your consideration, in case it might be of interest.
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603349072
| UBI Number | 603349072 |
| Category | REG |
| Profit/Nonprofit | Nonprofit |
| Active/Inactive | Active |
| State Of Incorporation | WA |
| WA Filing Date | 10/30/2013 |
| Expiration Date | 10/31/2014 |
| Inactive Date | |
| Duration | Perpetual |
The usual/expected registered agent appears:
| Agent Name | C T Corporation System |
| Address | 505 Union Ave Se Ste 120 |
| City | Olympia |
| State | WA |
| ZIP | 98501 |
and the governing persons are no surprise:
Governing Persons
| Title | Name | Address |
| Director | DRISCOLL, MARK | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
| Director | BRUSKAS, DAVID | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
| Director | TURNER, JOHN | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
So what is the foundation for? Maybe Sutton Turner can field this one.
***
Mars Hill | New Discussion Topic
From Pastor Sutton Turner:
Proverbs 13:22a says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” As much as this text applies to monetary wealth, I firmly believe that this also applies to a spiritual and godly inheritance: A legacy of the gospel. We want people who have been saved by Jesus to raise children who love Jesus, who raise children who love Jesus, who raise children who love Jesus. This is also true of our mission of church planting. We want to plant churches who plant churches who plant churches. This takes thinking beyond our own generation. It takes thinking outside of ourselves, our comfort, our prosperity.
We have now officially begun the Mars Hill Foundation for Planting Churches! This is huge for Mars Hill Church and is such a giant step toward ensuring that we are not a one-generation church. This will be available for you, our Mars Hill Church family, as well as our Extended Family of Mars Hill who want to give above and beyond what they currently are.
Donations to the Endowment Fund will be invested for church planting and replanting, including capital improvements, such as real estate due diligence, purchasing real estate, remodeling buildings, new construction, furnishings, audio/visual/lighting/acoustic upgrades, and equipment. The funds may also be used for any operating expenses in the first thirty-six months of a church plant or replant, such as staffing costs, training, debt service, and utilities.
Each church that benefits from the use of the funds will repay the Endowment through an amortization schedule established at each Mars Hill church plant. This will enable our church plants to then support new, additional church planters through the Endowment Fund. And the legacy will continue. For example, let’s say a donor gives $500,000 to the Endowment Fund in 2013. The Endowment Fund then uses $100,000 to launch Mars Hill Tacoma. Tacoma uses $30,000 for a new projector, $30,000 for a new roof, and $40,000 for new bathrooms. Then over the next five years—while Jesus is being proclaimed and people are getting saved and lives are being changed—Mars Hill Tacoma pays the $100,000 back to the Endowment Fund along with 6 percent interest. Then, in 2018, the Endowment Fund now has $115,000 to launch the next Jesus-preaching church plant.
You can donate to the Foundation by going to marshill.com/give and select “Foundation/Endowment Fund” in the pull-down menu. Checks can be written to the Mars Hill Foundation for Planting Churches, and denote Endowment in the memo line. We are so excited about this development and what it means for generations of church-planting efforts. Please pray and ask God if he would have you leave a spiritual inheritance for our children’s children in America and across the world.
For more information, visit marshill.com/foundation.
|
| View this topic on The City » |
Per the link to marshill.com/foundation
Endowment Fund
The aim of the Endowment Fund is to create a fund that repays itself and plants churches in perpetuity. Donors give to a restricted fund where the principal corpus can be lent to local churches for their church-planting expenses. Once the church is planted, the funds are paid back to the Endowment Fund over a 5- to 10-year period. The beauty is that each church plant effectively funds the next. Donations are tax deductible.
Then there's also this:
Mars Hill Church Investment Fund, LLC
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603353130
| UBI Number | 603353130 |
| Category | LLC |
| Active/Inactive | Active |
| State Of Incorporation | WA |
| WA Filing Date | 11/26/2013 |
| Expiration Date | 11/30/2014 |
| Inactive Date | |
| Duration | Perpetual |
The expiration date for Mars Hill Church looks like it's 12/31/2013 here
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601677819
| UBI Number | 601677819 |
| Category | REG |
| Profit/Nonprofit | Nonprofit |
| Active/Inactive | Active |
| State Of Incorporation | WA |
| WA Filing Date | 12/22/1995 |
| Expiration Date | 12/31/2013 |
| Inactive Date | |
| Duration | Perpetual |
Presented for your consideration, in case it might be of interest.
Mark Driscoll shows us the hat and not the cattle, part 2: Driscoll takes on editorial duties and plugs his journalistic credentials in the wake of the Mefferd interview
After so much time spent making fun of bloggers, belittling bloggers, and lamenting that bloggers are the sorts of people who may be middle-aged jobless guys blogging from their mama's basements, all of a sudden Mark Driscoll has seen the light and wants to advise bloggers how to write better blog posts. The actual advice Driscoll gives is neither here nor there, it's the announcement near the lead that is interesting.
http://theresurgence.com/2013/12/02/6-simple-ways-to-write-better-blog-posts
I’ve taken on editorial duties at Resurgence, at least for a season. This means I’m reviewing nearly every blog article before we post it and giving content feedback in an effort to help our writers get their message out even further.
So Driscoll has decided to take on editorial duties at The Resurgence, "at least for a season" because ... ? Because there's no better time than in the weeks after Janet Mefferd has recently alleged that Mark Driscoll is a plagiarist for Mark Driscoll to decide to do prior review and editorial work on the blog posts of other people who write for The Resurgence? The timing seems a bit weird. Driscoll goes on to clarify his credentials in professional journalism again.
While we're on the subject of Resurgence and The Resurgence here's a recent blog post about it being a for-profit company. Moving along ... Driscoll writes:
I don’t pretend to be the world’s greatest writer. But I did start writing professionally as a journalist in high school, paid my way through high school and college writing articles and editing my college newspaper, got a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the top-notch Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, and have written blogs and articles for everyone from CNN to the Washington Post to Fox News.
So Driscoll started writing professionally as a journalist in high school. Which paper? Which articles? Does The Daily Evergreen actually count as professional journalism? Who was Driscoll's editor or section editor? His advisor? Perhaps his old high school paper has his articles archived somewhere for consultation and perhaps Justin Dean can go dig those up and post them all for our benefit? The same could be said for the newspaper Driscoll mentioned editing during his stint at Washington State University, though he's never seemed to bother mentioning publications by name.
Driscoll also mentioned that he paid his way through high school and college writing articles. Paid for what? Which publications published him? School papers, whether in high school or college, are not in the habit of paying their writers, to put it mildly, so which publications were paying Mark Driscoll for the articles he said he's written. Let's remember that while Mark Driscoll got his degree in speech communications Grace Driscoll (nee Martin) was getting her degree in public relations. It would seem far more likely that Grace Driscoll had more income and career mobility in the early years of their relationship than Driscoll was going to have writing articles for publications he has not yet named.
Driscoll was also editing the WSU newspaper, too, and got a BA from the top-notch, well, we all know that he keeps referring to the Edward R. Murrow school of communications.
So let's fish about for an earlier time when Mark Driscoll leaned on his credentials as a professional journalist.
http://pastormark.tv/2012/04/16/an-official-response-to-the-kerfuffle-at-liberty-university
The trouble started with a Southern Baptist blogger . . . yes, you should have seen that one coming. Now, to be fair, the blogger quoted an anonymous “source.” And, we all know that almost everything bloggers say is true. But, when they have something as solid as an anonymous “source,” then you can rest assured that when Jesus talked about the truth over and over in John, this is precisely what he was referring to. I have a degree from Washington State’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and worked professionally as a journalist, and I can assure you that The Kerfuffle is a very serious matter to be taken with the utmost sobriety and propriety. In fact, one anonymous “source” I spoke to said that Watergate pales in comparison.
Ah, there's an example. This looks like it was slightly more than a month before Mark and Grace Driscoll bought that million-dollar house in Woodway that has not-quite-so-recently been shuffled over to the Downs Family Trust.
But that wasn't the only time in 2012 Driscoll leaned on his background in communications. There was of course this:
http://pastormark.tv/2012/01/12/a-blog-for-the-brits
... I have a degree in communications from one of the top programs in the United States. So does my wife, Grace. We are used to reporters with agendas and selective editing of long interviews. Running into reporters with agendas and being selectively edited so that you are presented as someone that is perhaps not entirely accurate is the risk one takes when trying to get their message out through the media.
With the release of our book, Real Marriage, we have now done literally dozens of interviews with Christians and non-Christians. But the one that culminated in the forthcoming article was, in my opinion, the most disrespectful, adversarial, and subjective. As a result, we’ve since changed how we receive, process, and moderate media interviews. ...
And yet, after all that, the November 21, 2013 interview with Janet Mefferd ended up happening anyway.
Wenatchee The Hatchet has addressed the matter of Mark Driscoll waving his hat at us but not showing us the cattle before. The most that could be dredged up with a "Mark Driscoll" in the by-line associated with Washington State University that made it into any Google anything is this:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.politics.homosexuality/_wIu7wH18SY
This is about the third time (or more) that Driscoll has leaned on the statement that he's worked professionially as a journalist and now the professional work goes back into high school and was how he paid his way. Great, all the more reason to distribute as complete a portfolio of published work from that period as possible.
Until then, we can rest assured knowing that Mark Driscoll is taking on editorial duties at Resurgence for a season because, after all, Mark Driscoll's professional journalistic experience is so formidable it's the big reason nobody, anywhere, should for a second have any reason to wonder about the reliability of Driscoll's fact-checking, source-citing, or capacity to properly assess the reliability of sources and ideas.
Oh ... wait ... .
http://theresurgence.com/2013/12/02/6-simple-ways-to-write-better-blog-posts
I’ve taken on editorial duties at Resurgence, at least for a season. This means I’m reviewing nearly every blog article before we post it and giving content feedback in an effort to help our writers get their message out even further.
So Driscoll has decided to take on editorial duties at The Resurgence, "at least for a season" because ... ? Because there's no better time than in the weeks after Janet Mefferd has recently alleged that Mark Driscoll is a plagiarist for Mark Driscoll to decide to do prior review and editorial work on the blog posts of other people who write for The Resurgence? The timing seems a bit weird. Driscoll goes on to clarify his credentials in professional journalism again.
While we're on the subject of Resurgence and The Resurgence here's a recent blog post about it being a for-profit company. Moving along ... Driscoll writes:
I don’t pretend to be the world’s greatest writer. But I did start writing professionally as a journalist in high school, paid my way through high school and college writing articles and editing my college newspaper, got a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the top-notch Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, and have written blogs and articles for everyone from CNN to the Washington Post to Fox News.
So Driscoll started writing professionally as a journalist in high school. Which paper? Which articles? Does The Daily Evergreen actually count as professional journalism? Who was Driscoll's editor or section editor? His advisor? Perhaps his old high school paper has his articles archived somewhere for consultation and perhaps Justin Dean can go dig those up and post them all for our benefit? The same could be said for the newspaper Driscoll mentioned editing during his stint at Washington State University, though he's never seemed to bother mentioning publications by name.
Driscoll also mentioned that he paid his way through high school and college writing articles. Paid for what? Which publications published him? School papers, whether in high school or college, are not in the habit of paying their writers, to put it mildly, so which publications were paying Mark Driscoll for the articles he said he's written. Let's remember that while Mark Driscoll got his degree in speech communications Grace Driscoll (nee Martin) was getting her degree in public relations. It would seem far more likely that Grace Driscoll had more income and career mobility in the early years of their relationship than Driscoll was going to have writing articles for publications he has not yet named.
Driscoll was also editing the WSU newspaper, too, and got a BA from the top-notch, well, we all know that he keeps referring to the Edward R. Murrow school of communications.
So let's fish about for an earlier time when Mark Driscoll leaned on his credentials as a professional journalist.
http://pastormark.tv/2012/04/16/an-official-response-to-the-kerfuffle-at-liberty-university
The trouble started with a Southern Baptist blogger . . . yes, you should have seen that one coming. Now, to be fair, the blogger quoted an anonymous “source.” And, we all know that almost everything bloggers say is true. But, when they have something as solid as an anonymous “source,” then you can rest assured that when Jesus talked about the truth over and over in John, this is precisely what he was referring to. I have a degree from Washington State’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and worked professionally as a journalist, and I can assure you that The Kerfuffle is a very serious matter to be taken with the utmost sobriety and propriety. In fact, one anonymous “source” I spoke to said that Watergate pales in comparison.
Ah, there's an example. This looks like it was slightly more than a month before Mark and Grace Driscoll bought that million-dollar house in Woodway that has not-quite-so-recently been shuffled over to the Downs Family Trust.
But that wasn't the only time in 2012 Driscoll leaned on his background in communications. There was of course this:
http://pastormark.tv/2012/01/12/a-blog-for-the-brits
... I have a degree in communications from one of the top programs in the United States. So does my wife, Grace. We are used to reporters with agendas and selective editing of long interviews. Running into reporters with agendas and being selectively edited so that you are presented as someone that is perhaps not entirely accurate is the risk one takes when trying to get their message out through the media.
With the release of our book, Real Marriage, we have now done literally dozens of interviews with Christians and non-Christians. But the one that culminated in the forthcoming article was, in my opinion, the most disrespectful, adversarial, and subjective. As a result, we’ve since changed how we receive, process, and moderate media interviews. ...
And yet, after all that, the November 21, 2013 interview with Janet Mefferd ended up happening anyway.
Wenatchee The Hatchet has addressed the matter of Mark Driscoll waving his hat at us but not showing us the cattle before. The most that could be dredged up with a "Mark Driscoll" in the by-line associated with Washington State University that made it into any Google anything is this:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.politics.homosexuality/_wIu7wH18SY
This is about the third time (or more) that Driscoll has leaned on the statement that he's worked professionially as a journalist and now the professional work goes back into high school and was how he paid his way. Great, all the more reason to distribute as complete a portfolio of published work from that period as possible.
Until then, we can rest assured knowing that Mark Driscoll is taking on editorial duties at Resurgence for a season because, after all, Mark Driscoll's professional journalistic experience is so formidable it's the big reason nobody, anywhere, should for a second have any reason to wonder about the reliability of Driscoll's fact-checking, source-citing, or capacity to properly assess the reliability of sources and ideas.
Oh ... wait ... .
Monday, December 02, 2013
On Mission, LLC (entity that owns copyright of Real Marriage)--back and forth between WA and CO
The first thing to establish is that On Mission, LLC is the entity that owns the copyright for the book Real Marriage by Mark and Grace Driscoll. Here is what is available through the Washington corporation search with the Secretary of State
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603258287
Registered Agent Information
[For those unfamiliar with CT Corporation System, a potential starting point?]
So there's that stuff. Note that the state of incorporation is actually Colorado and not Washington.
So let's take a visit over to the corporation search for the state of Colorado and ...
http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityDetail.do?quitButtonDestination=BusinessEntityResults&fileId=20111058965&masterFileId=20111058965&srchTyp=ENTITY&entityId2=20111058965&nameTyp=ENT
Bill Moritz ring any bells?
For those interested, here are
Articles of Organization
Periodic Report
Another Periodic Report
asdf
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=603258287
| UBI Number | 603258287 |
| Category | LLC |
| Active/Inactive | Active |
| State Of Incorporation | CO |
| WA Filing Date | 12/06/2012 |
| Expiration Date | 12/31/2013 |
| Inactive Date | |
| Duration | Perpetual |
Registered Agent Information
| Agent Name | C T Corporation System |
| Address | 505 Union Ave Se Ste 120 |
| City | Olympia |
| State | WA |
| ZIP | 98501 |
[For those unfamiliar with CT Corporation System, a potential starting point?]
Governing Persons
| Title | Name | Address |
| Manager | DRISCOLL, MARK | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
| Manager | DRISCOLL, MARK | 1411 NW 50TH ST SEATTLE, WA 98107 |
So there's that stuff. Note that the state of incorporation is actually Colorado and not Washington.
So let's take a visit over to the corporation search for the state of Colorado and ...
http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityDetail.do?quitButtonDestination=BusinessEntityResults&fileId=20111058965&masterFileId=20111058965&srchTyp=ENTITY&entityId2=20111058965&nameTyp=ENT
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bill Moritz ring any bells?
For those interested, here are
Articles of Organization
Periodic Report
Another Periodic Report
asdf
Mefferd posts more material presented as evidence of Driscoll plagiarism, a couple of additional details
http://www.janetmefferd.com/plagiarism-two-driscoll-books/
"Another example of uncited material has been uncovered in a book written by Pastor Mark Driscoll. In this case, it occurred in the book he and his wife, Grace, wrote in 2012, called “Real Marriage” (Published by Thomas Nelson; 2012). This example first was noticed and cited by the blog Wenatchee the Hatchet on Sept. 30, 2013:"
For clarification, the first time Wenatchee The Hatchet mentioned the subject of Grace Driscoll's chapter 7 from Real Marriage in connection to Dan Allender was actually July 4, 2013 but it was not until September 30, 2013 that a back-to-back comparison of Driscoll and Allender was published. The 9/30/2013 post presented to show just how much conceptual overlap there is between Grace Driscoll's use of the terms "Good Girl", "Tough Girl", and "Party Girl" in Real Marriage on the one hand, and Allender's coining of the terms in his 1990 book on the other. But if you want to read the first post where Wenatchee noticed the overlap between Grace Driscoll's chapter 7 in Real Marriage and Dan Allender's chapter 9 of The Wounded Heart you'll actually want to go to this blog post and not just the one from September 30, 2013.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/07/real-marriage-chapter-7-grace-and.html
The evidence comparing Driscoll to Edmondson has already been subject to some disagreement. Sure, citing comments from people using pseudonyms at The Wartburg Watch is not going to pass muster with many but the point here is to show that one person thinks Edmondson may have plagiarized Driscoll and not the other way around:
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2013/12/02/breaking-two-more-examples-of-possible-driscoll-intellectual-property-acquisition/#comment-121823
Jon
on said:
Did Driscoll plagiarize other works? It sure looks that way. But what I’m saying is that her latest accusation casts more doubt on Edmondson — Driscoll’s forgiveness stuff came from a sermon on Luke preached in 2010 (before Edmondson’s blog). So again, this evidence shows that Edmondson plagiarized Driscoll.
username TW went so far as to suggest that both Driscoll and Edmondson may have borrowed or used material from someone else entirely:
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2013/12/02/breaking-two-more-examples-of-possible-driscoll-intellectual-property-acquisition/#comment-121822
TW
on said:
Some of the citations Mefferd has made have themselves come up for question by those who are not convinced of specific cases. There are those who think Edmondson may have copied Driscoll and others who think both may have used material from Ray Pritchard.
Wenatchee The Hatchet is not really in a position to field the Driscoll/Edmondson/Pritchard nexus, but can at least clarify that mention at this blog of the Driscoll/Allender overlap goes back as far as July 4, 2013.
POSTSCRIPT,
At the risk of being even more pedantic than some readers might already suspect, Allender uses the terms "Good Girl", "Tough Girl" and "Party Girl" but makes a point, in a very long endnote, that the terms are not meant to be strictly seen as referring to females but are just a shorthand that refers to a general style of relating that may be used by males and females.
"Another example of uncited material has been uncovered in a book written by Pastor Mark Driscoll. In this case, it occurred in the book he and his wife, Grace, wrote in 2012, called “Real Marriage” (Published by Thomas Nelson; 2012). This example first was noticed and cited by the blog Wenatchee the Hatchet on Sept. 30, 2013:"
For clarification, the first time Wenatchee The Hatchet mentioned the subject of Grace Driscoll's chapter 7 from Real Marriage in connection to Dan Allender was actually July 4, 2013 but it was not until September 30, 2013 that a back-to-back comparison of Driscoll and Allender was published. The 9/30/2013 post presented to show just how much conceptual overlap there is between Grace Driscoll's use of the terms "Good Girl", "Tough Girl", and "Party Girl" in Real Marriage on the one hand, and Allender's coining of the terms in his 1990 book on the other. But if you want to read the first post where Wenatchee noticed the overlap between Grace Driscoll's chapter 7 in Real Marriage and Dan Allender's chapter 9 of The Wounded Heart you'll actually want to go to this blog post and not just the one from September 30, 2013.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2013/07/real-marriage-chapter-7-grace-and.html
The evidence comparing Driscoll to Edmondson has already been subject to some disagreement. Sure, citing comments from people using pseudonyms at The Wartburg Watch is not going to pass muster with many but the point here is to show that one person thinks Edmondson may have plagiarized Driscoll and not the other way around:
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2013/12/02/breaking-two-more-examples-of-possible-driscoll-intellectual-property-acquisition/#comment-121823
Jon
on said:
@ Daisy:
Did Driscoll plagiarize other works? It sure looks that way. But what I’m saying is that her latest accusation casts more doubt on Edmondson — Driscoll’s forgiveness stuff came from a sermon on Luke preached in 2010 (before Edmondson’s blog). So again, this evidence shows that Edmondson plagiarized Driscoll.
username TW went so far as to suggest that both Driscoll and Edmondson may have borrowed or used material from someone else entirely:
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2013/12/02/breaking-two-more-examples-of-possible-driscoll-intellectual-property-acquisition/#comment-121822
TW
on said:
Jon wrote:
Driscoll preached it on September 26, 2010. The earliest list I could find from Edmonson was on a blog post dated May 20, 2011:http://www.ronedmondson.com/2011/05/7-things-forgiveness-is-not.html
I took some notes on Driscoll’s sermon and came up with these 10 points:
forgiveness is not approving or diminishing sin.
forgiveness is not enabling sin
forgiveness is not denying the wrong doing
forgiveness is not waiting for an apilogy
forgiveness is not forgetting
forgiveness is not ceasing to feel the pain
forgiveness is not a one time event
forgiveness is not neglecting justice
forgiveness is not trusting
forgiveness is not reconciliation
While conducting my search however I came across some material that may perhaps indicate both Driscoll and Edmonson didn’t give credit where credit is due.
In Ray Pritchard’s “The Healing Power of Forgiveness,” published in 2005 Pritchard writes:
Sometimes when we say we can’t or won’t forgive, we are actually talking about something other than biblical forgiveness. Let me list a few things forgiveness does not mean:
1. It does not mean approving of what someone else did.
2. It does not mean pretending that evil never took place.
3. It does not mean making an excuse for other people’s bad behavior.
4. It does not mean justifying evil so that sin somehow becomes less sinful.
5. It does not mean overlooking abuse.
6. It does not mean denying that others tried to hurt you repeatedly.
7. It does not mean letting others walk all over you.
8. It does not mean refusing to press charges when a crime has been committed.
9. It does not mean forgetting the wrong that was done.
10. It does not mean pretending you were never hurt.
11. It does not mean you must restore the relationship to what it was before.
12. It does not mean you must become friends again.
13. It does not mean there must be a total reconciliation as if nothing ever happened.
14. It does not mean that you must tell the person you have forgiven them.
15. It does not mean that all the negative consequences of sin are canceled.
http://secondmilechurch.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/15-things-forgiveness-doesnt-mean/
I would think it would behoove Mark Driscoll to come clean. He has way to many people checking into his work now.
Driscoll preached the same stuff in a sermon from Luke 11 in September of 2010 so maybe Ron Edmonson plagiarized Mark …Jon may be correct about Driscoll’s material not coming from Edmonson. I found the sermon I think Jon is referring to here:http://marshill.com/media/luke/the-lords-prayer
Driscoll preached it on September 26, 2010. The earliest list I could find from Edmonson was on a blog post dated May 20, 2011:http://www.ronedmondson.com/2011/05/7-things-forgiveness-is-not.html
I took some notes on Driscoll’s sermon and came up with these 10 points:
forgiveness is not approving or diminishing sin.
forgiveness is not enabling sin
forgiveness is not denying the wrong doing
forgiveness is not waiting for an apilogy
forgiveness is not forgetting
forgiveness is not ceasing to feel the pain
forgiveness is not a one time event
forgiveness is not neglecting justice
forgiveness is not trusting
forgiveness is not reconciliation
While conducting my search however I came across some material that may perhaps indicate both Driscoll and Edmonson didn’t give credit where credit is due.
In Ray Pritchard’s “The Healing Power of Forgiveness,” published in 2005 Pritchard writes:
Sometimes when we say we can’t or won’t forgive, we are actually talking about something other than biblical forgiveness. Let me list a few things forgiveness does not mean:
1. It does not mean approving of what someone else did.
2. It does not mean pretending that evil never took place.
3. It does not mean making an excuse for other people’s bad behavior.
4. It does not mean justifying evil so that sin somehow becomes less sinful.
5. It does not mean overlooking abuse.
6. It does not mean denying that others tried to hurt you repeatedly.
7. It does not mean letting others walk all over you.
8. It does not mean refusing to press charges when a crime has been committed.
9. It does not mean forgetting the wrong that was done.
10. It does not mean pretending you were never hurt.
11. It does not mean you must restore the relationship to what it was before.
12. It does not mean you must become friends again.
13. It does not mean there must be a total reconciliation as if nothing ever happened.
14. It does not mean that you must tell the person you have forgiven them.
15. It does not mean that all the negative consequences of sin are canceled.
http://secondmilechurch.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/15-things-forgiveness-doesnt-mean/
I would think it would behoove Mark Driscoll to come clean. He has way to many people checking into his work now.
Some of the citations Mefferd has made have themselves come up for question by those who are not convinced of specific cases. There are those who think Edmondson may have copied Driscoll and others who think both may have used material from Ray Pritchard.
Wenatchee The Hatchet is not really in a position to field the Driscoll/Edmondson/Pritchard nexus, but can at least clarify that mention at this blog of the Driscoll/Allender overlap goes back as far as July 4, 2013.
POSTSCRIPT,
At the risk of being even more pedantic than some readers might already suspect, Allender uses the terms "Good Girl", "Tough Girl" and "Party Girl" but makes a point, in a very long endnote, that the terms are not meant to be strictly seen as referring to females but are just a shorthand that refers to a general style of relating that may be used by males and females.
From July 2, 2012, a Mark Driscoll Facebook status quotes Wilson Mizner--"To steal from one author is plagiarism; to steal from many is research".
Sunday, December 01, 2013
old posts from Jared Wilson and Mark Driscoll from 1/2009 establish background for MHC use of Docent and the 1 & 2 Peter book
From Jared Wilson's old blog
http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2009/01/sermon-research-assistance.html
I've had the privilege of working for Docent and with J-st-n for quite a while, thanks to my friend Glenn Lucke, Docent's creator and president, and it has been a joy and a privilege helping some of America's most respected pastors prepare to teach their communities the word of God. ...
And from Mark Driscoll
http://marshill.com/2009/01/08/a-letter-to-mars-hill-church/
... In the past year and a half the Executive Elders of the church have freed up more of my time and energy to grow in my study and communication of Scripture. This includes a Preaching and Theology branch being built for me under the leadership of Pastor AJ Hamilton. Our team has some amazingly gifted people in areas such as video, audio, lighting, set design, graphics, theming, promotions, and more. The team has become so skilled that they actually recently finished filming their first full-length film in Hollywood as a side project. And, if that were not enough, my friends at Logos Bible Software have loaded up my MacBook Pro with the best Bible study tools and books ever assembled in a software package. So, in addition to my personal library of perhaps 4,000-5,000 books, I now have even more books on my laptop, which enables me to work even during days of solitude or travel.
and, in the same paragraph:
... On top of all this, I have an amazing research assistant and friend from Docent Research Group named J-st-n H-lc-mb, who earned two M.A.'s from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and a Ph.D. in theological studies from Emory University. He teaches courses in religious studies and sociology at the University of Virginia and at Reformed Theological Seminary, and he serves as the Director of Graduate Ministries at the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has been humble enough to do a great deal of research for me, which, along with the work of my helpful friend and editing assistant Deacon Crystal Griffin, allows me to produce content at a pace I would never have thought possible. Between articles, blogs, books, and curriculum, I am now sending out literally thousands of pages of content a year, as well as preaching and teaching hundreds of hours of content a year. In short, I have been lavishly blessed, and I love my job as much as anyone could ever love a job. Admittedly, the hours are long and the work is hard, but I am doing exactly what God made me to do and placed in my heart among my deepest desires. ...
The paragraph eventually winds up to an end not with a period but with a colon:
... This all culminates in the Trial series on 1-2 Peter, which sets a new standard for all future preaching series. I have so benefited from the service of others that I wanted to do more than ever to help our people learn these amazing books of the Bible. So this Sunday we kick things off, and here is what you will get:
POSTSCRIPT: Bear in mind all the links cited in the above source materials date from 2009. There's always going to be inattentive readers who won't realize the stuff being quoted is years old. Don't assume that the links provided by Jared Wilson and Mark Driscoll in 2009 are to events and locations that are current. Note that the Wilson link is to blog.marshillchurch.org, which predates the current marshillchurch.com equivalent.
I've included the content as it is in the source materials because I try to refrain from altering the content of the original sources cited but people familiar with Jared C Wilson's blog should already know, for instance, how out of date all the materials at the linked blog are by now.
http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2009/01/sermon-research-assistance.html
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sermon Research Assistance
In a recent blog post, Mark Driscoll gives a shout-out to Docent Research Group and J-st-n H-lc-mb for assisting him with some of the research that has been aiding him in sermon prep and book writing. It's a valuable plug for a valuable service.
And from Mark Driscoll
http://marshill.com/2009/01/08/a-letter-to-mars-hill-church/
... In the past year and a half the Executive Elders of the church have freed up more of my time and energy to grow in my study and communication of Scripture. This includes a Preaching and Theology branch being built for me under the leadership of Pastor AJ Hamilton. Our team has some amazingly gifted people in areas such as video, audio, lighting, set design, graphics, theming, promotions, and more. The team has become so skilled that they actually recently finished filming their first full-length film in Hollywood as a side project. And, if that were not enough, my friends at Logos Bible Software have loaded up my MacBook Pro with the best Bible study tools and books ever assembled in a software package. So, in addition to my personal library of perhaps 4,000-5,000 books, I now have even more books on my laptop, which enables me to work even during days of solitude or travel.
and, in the same paragraph:
... On top of all this, I have an amazing research assistant and friend from Docent Research Group named J-st-n H-lc-mb, who earned two M.A.'s from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and a Ph.D. in theological studies from Emory University. He teaches courses in religious studies and sociology at the University of Virginia and at Reformed Theological Seminary, and he serves as the Director of Graduate Ministries at the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has been humble enough to do a great deal of research for me, which, along with the work of my helpful friend and editing assistant Deacon Crystal Griffin, allows me to produce content at a pace I would never have thought possible. Between articles, blogs, books, and curriculum, I am now sending out literally thousands of pages of content a year, as well as preaching and teaching hundreds of hours of content a year. In short, I have been lavishly blessed, and I love my job as much as anyone could ever love a job. Admittedly, the hours are long and the work is hard, but I am doing exactly what God made me to do and placed in my heart among my deepest desires. ...
The paragraph eventually winds up to an end not with a period but with a colon:
... This all culminates in the Trial series on 1-2 Peter, which sets a new standard for all future preaching series. I have so benefited from the service of others that I wanted to do more than ever to help our people learn these amazing books of the Bible. So this Sunday we kick things off, and here is what you will get:
- A free copy of the Trial curriculum book, which is also available online for free. This 200-page book includes my introductory articles on Peter, the books he wrote, and the role of parents in instructing their children. Included in the free book are dinner discussion questions I wrote to help parents teach 1-2 Peter to their own children. Pastor Brad House has also included the Community Group discussion questions for the entire series.
- A free copy of a 12,000-word introduction and overview of 1-2 Peter compiled by my research assistant. This content is available only on The City, our password-protected social networking site. If you register for The City at one of our campuses during the series, you will get this special gift that will not be posted online for the general public.
- Lastly, the children's ministry will also spend the next seven months studying 1-2 Peter, as we have also developed our own curriculum for them following the sermon series.
POSTSCRIPT: Bear in mind all the links cited in the above source materials date from 2009. There's always going to be inattentive readers who won't realize the stuff being quoted is years old. Don't assume that the links provided by Jared Wilson and Mark Driscoll in 2009 are to events and locations that are current. Note that the Wilson link is to blog.marshillchurch.org, which predates the current marshillchurch.com equivalent.
I've included the content as it is in the source materials because I try to refrain from altering the content of the original sources cited but people familiar with Jared C Wilson's blog should already know, for instance, how out of date all the materials at the linked blog are by now.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
The Docent Group and sermon preparation, some recommendations via Mark Driscoll
http://www.docentgroup.com/
At the front of the page there's a little video you can watch in which Mark Driscoll commends the Docent Group. For those into reading text there's a direct and indirect Driscollian commendation for your perusal.
http://www.docentgroup.com/pastor_stories
Docent has been invaluable to me. I think I have had them do nearly everything but cut my grass. They have saved me hundreds of hours of work and multiplied my effectiveness. I have recommended them to lots of friends because any ministry that serves leaders who serve God’s people is a great gift.
Mark Driscoll, Founding and Preaching Pastor
Mars Hill Church, Seattle
Mark Driscoll first contacted me about Docent Research. After his glowing recommendations of how Docent had improved his sermon preparation, I decided to give them a try.
Mark was right. Docent proved to be exceptional at scholarly research. I was especially impressed at the speed at which they could gather information. I've found their work most useful when I give them specific requests to help in my preparation for sermons.
Craig Groeschel, Lead Pastor
LifeChurch.tv, Edmond, OK
At the front of the page there's a little video you can watch in which Mark Driscoll commends the Docent Group. For those into reading text there's a direct and indirect Driscollian commendation for your perusal.
http://www.docentgroup.com/pastor_stories
Docent has been invaluable to me. I think I have had them do nearly everything but cut my grass. They have saved me hundreds of hours of work and multiplied my effectiveness. I have recommended them to lots of friends because any ministry that serves leaders who serve God’s people is a great gift.
Mark Driscoll, Founding and Preaching Pastor
Mars Hill Church, Seattle
Mark Driscoll first contacted me about Docent Research. After his glowing recommendations of how Docent had improved his sermon preparation, I decided to give them a try.
Mark was right. Docent proved to be exceptional at scholarly research. I was especially impressed at the speed at which they could gather information. I've found their work most useful when I give them specific requests to help in my preparation for sermons.
Craig Groeschel, Lead Pastor
LifeChurch.tv, Edmond, OK
Who has done ghostwriting at Mars Hill Church over the years, a little help from Google and LinkedIn
Let's open up with a screen capture:
According to this morning's Google search there are a few names of people who come up about whom ghostwriting can be said to be in their skill sets in LinkedIn. This does not necessarily establish that they did ghostwriting at or for Mars Hill Church. This may be because they did not ghostwrite at Mars Hill Church or because they have at some point done ghostwriting but redacted their resumes at LinkedIn. In any event, there are a handful of people who have been at Mars Hill Church who list ghostwriting in their background. As evidence it is, admittedly, purely circumstantial.
Nevertheless, since a proposal that Driscoll has not plagiarized but that, perhaps, a ghostwriter or assistant has some responsibility for what appears to be plagiarism, we can at least review some people who have ghostwriting as a skillset mentioned in their LinkedIn profiles who have some history with the church. The case here is merely to establish that whether or not they did ghostwriting for Mars Hill Church specifically, people who have done ghostwriting are not hard to find who have had connections to Mars Hill. That's all. In fact we'll quickly see that none of these people explicitly mention ghostwriting (because, given the nature of the work, who would?) but it is listed as a skill or expertise. With that in mind ...
Andrew Myers
Content Manager
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
October 2012 – Present (1 year 2 months) Seattle, WA
Work within the Media and Communications department to lead projects, create content, and implement strategic communication plans on behalf of the executive leadership of Mars Hill Church.
Communications Manager
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
November 2007 – October 2012 (5 years) Seattle, WA
As a member of executive leadership's staff, my responsibilities included administrative tasks (calendar, email, correspondence) and broad communications support: extensive writing and editing services, public relations efforts, and the organization of various projects—including fundraisers, logistics, and the development and creation of the annual report.
Executive Assistant
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
November 2007 – September 2011 (3 years 11 months) Greater Seattle Area
Provided administrative support for executive leadership during a period when the church grew from 6,000 to over 12,000 people. Performed traditional assistant tasks while also fulfilling extensive communications responsibilities for the organization.
Publications Manager
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
October 2004 – November 2007 (3 years 2 months) Seattle, WA
Founding and managing editor for Vox Pop monthly magazine. Oversaw artistic development, content revisions, and production of other various publications, including theological booklets, church bulletins, and training materials. Led team of staff and volunteer writers, editors, and graphic designers to produce all publications and other communications media for Mars Hill Church. (Position began as a volunteer internship. I transitioned to full-time staff in August 2005.)
Chris Holt
Jesse Wisnewski
Jake Johnson
For more background on Johnson go here and here for his role in a couple of Mars Hill Church projects.
Someone else who has some background in ghostwriting not captured in the above search would be Staff Writer Ryan Dorn.
Staff Writer
...
There's also a job opening for a Staff Writer position, possibly in addition to whatever Ryan Dorn is doing, that's still open.
aka
http://newton.newtonsoftware.com/career/JobIntroduction.action?clientId=8a699b9841584b03014161b930662538&id=8ad64ec641adc69a0141cdc8ed0d1b3d&source=
So, again, while there's not a clear case that these people have explicitly done ghostwriting at/for Mars Hill Church the church is big enough to have had a group of members or staff with ghostwriting background. That said, what Driscoll has mentioned in the past about how he assembles books suggests that his own personal assistants helped in putting book material together. It's not a given that people who have done that sort of work would ever mention it in resumes on, say, LinkedIn.
According to this morning's Google search there are a few names of people who come up about whom ghostwriting can be said to be in their skill sets in LinkedIn. This does not necessarily establish that they did ghostwriting at or for Mars Hill Church. This may be because they did not ghostwrite at Mars Hill Church or because they have at some point done ghostwriting but redacted their resumes at LinkedIn. In any event, there are a handful of people who have been at Mars Hill Church who list ghostwriting in their background. As evidence it is, admittedly, purely circumstantial.
Nevertheless, since a proposal that Driscoll has not plagiarized but that, perhaps, a ghostwriter or assistant has some responsibility for what appears to be plagiarism, we can at least review some people who have ghostwriting as a skillset mentioned in their LinkedIn profiles who have some history with the church. The case here is merely to establish that whether or not they did ghostwriting for Mars Hill Church specifically, people who have done ghostwriting are not hard to find who have had connections to Mars Hill. That's all. In fact we'll quickly see that none of these people explicitly mention ghostwriting (because, given the nature of the work, who would?) but it is listed as a skill or expertise. With that in mind ...
Andrew Myers
Content Manager
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
October 2012 – Present (1 year 2 months) Seattle, WA
Work within the Media and Communications department to lead projects, create content, and implement strategic communication plans on behalf of the executive leadership of Mars Hill Church.
Communications Manager
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
November 2007 – October 2012 (5 years) Seattle, WA
As a member of executive leadership's staff, my responsibilities included administrative tasks (calendar, email, correspondence) and broad communications support: extensive writing and editing services, public relations efforts, and the organization of various projects—including fundraisers, logistics, and the development and creation of the annual report.
Executive Assistant
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
November 2007 – September 2011 (3 years 11 months) Greater Seattle Area
Provided administrative support for executive leadership during a period when the church grew from 6,000 to over 12,000 people. Performed traditional assistant tasks while also fulfilling extensive communications responsibilities for the organization.
Publications Manager
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
October 2004 – November 2007 (3 years 2 months) Seattle, WA
Founding and managing editor for Vox Pop monthly magazine. Oversaw artistic development, content revisions, and production of other various publications, including theological booklets, church bulletins, and training materials. Led team of staff and volunteer writers, editors, and graphic designers to produce all publications and other communications media for Mars Hill Church. (Position began as a volunteer internship. I transitioned to full-time staff in August 2005.)
Chris Holt
Jesse Wisnewski
Jake Johnson
For more background on Johnson go here and here for his role in a couple of Mars Hill Church projects.
Someone else who has some background in ghostwriting not captured in the above search would be Staff Writer Ryan Dorn.
Staff Writer
Mars Hill Church
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry
January 2013 – Present (11 months) Greater Seattle Area
I write a lot and it comes in many forms:
Weekly updates for leaders
Monthly newsletters for global missions and financial updates
Blog posts for www.marshill.com and www.theresurgence.com
Case studies
Internal communications and correspondence
A variety of miscellaneous copy writing/editing duties as needed
Weekly updates for leaders
Monthly newsletters for global missions and financial updates
Blog posts for www.marshill.com and www.theresurgence.com
Case studies
Internal communications and correspondence
A variety of miscellaneous copy writing/editing duties as needed
...
Ryan Dorn's Skills & Expertise
- Writing
- Portrait Photography
- Travel Photography
- Editorial Photography
- Social Media
- Commercial Photography
- Copywriting
- Journalism
- Ghostwriting
- Blogging
There's also a job opening for a Staff Writer position, possibly in addition to whatever Ryan Dorn is doing, that's still open.
aka
http://newton.newtonsoftware.com/career/JobIntroduction.action?clientId=8a699b9841584b03014161b930662538&id=8ad64ec641adc69a0141cdc8ed0d1b3d&source=
So, again, while there's not a clear case that these people have explicitly done ghostwriting at/for Mars Hill Church the church is big enough to have had a group of members or staff with ghostwriting background. That said, what Driscoll has mentioned in the past about how he assembles books suggests that his own personal assistants helped in putting book material together. It's not a given that people who have done that sort of work would ever mention it in resumes on, say, LinkedIn.
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