828 Ministries Special Commentary Mark Driscoll - When an Apology is not an Apology March 18, 2014 Snippet From Devotional: The Driscoll supporters are already out in force declaring this to be a genuine apology and act of contrition but there are several problems with it that we have not even addressed yet. First of all the entire letter is solely focused on one person - Mark Driscoll. There is a lot of introspection and life decisions being made and nice talk about his wife and family. There is multiple mentions of how he just wants to be a bible teaching pastor and how much he loves his church. The admissions he does make are vague to the point that it sounds like he apologizing because he knows he needs to say he is sorry but unsure what he is truly sorry for. The only mention of sin is this short, obscure reference to sinning while angry because he couldnt take the weight of the responsibilities as the church grew. So even in the one admission, there is a built in excuse. It would be akin to David saying that he gave into lust but cmon - being king is very stressful. The largest problem however is the refusal to even address the sins he has already been exposed for: There was no discussion whatsoever about using at least $210,000 in tithes and offerings to engage ResultSource in the cheating campaign to gain the top ten list. No discussion of how much that generated for him in royalties as the author. I have seen one analysis that claims a minimum of $500,000 profit was pocketed by Driscoll for this episode. What is the restitution plan? What safeguards have been put in place to ensure that the money the people entrust to him will not be spent on things that financially benefit Mark Driscoll? There was no apology for the plagiarism scandal which has now grown to seven books of Driscolls needing to be redone and annotated correctly. When confronted, Driscoll had blamed the ghostwriters and editors instead of taking any accountability. Just like the $210,000 is essentially theft, so is plagiarism. There was no real admission that he knew full well what he was trying to do when he entered into the contract with ResultSource. The contract is very specific that the goals were to be personally enriching to Driscoll so he needs to stop hiding behind the obvious lie that he thought it was just to promote book sales. There was no substantive discussion about the bragging Driscoll has done about piling up bodies behind the Mars Hill Church bus. If that was what he was referring to when he briefly discussed meeting with hurt people one on one - that would be a great start but he needs to repent of the statements. Not make vague allusions to it. Beloved, there is always room for forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I prayed that this letter would be a great start of the renewal of Mark Driscoll for the benefit of the kingdom and his church. Let us not forget that before we rush to pat him on the back. This is not about Mark Driscoll. This is about the 13,000 people that sit under his teaching and pastoring. This is about the countless bodies he gleefully admits he has left in the wake of his shepherding. It is about what they all learn from their pastor. That you can get caught stealing money to cheat the NY Times Bestseller List for your plagiarized book after bragging about wanting a mountain of bodies left behind you and the self imposed discipline you can expect to face sounds like a mother grounding a 13 year old by taking away their laptop privileges. Mars Hill Church deserves better. The Body of Christ deserves better. The Kingdom of God deserves better. 828ministries/articles/Mark-Driscoll--When-an-Ap-by-Anthony-Wade-Responsibility_Spirit-140318-42.html
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 05:13:48 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015