Last year I spoke at a large church planting event along with a number of other church planters and church planting movement leaders. The event was held in Florida, went well, and did a very encouraging job of bringing together a number of denominations, networks, and organizations that otherwise would not have benefited from such a partnership.
This year I was invited back but declined because the few-day round trip from Seattle to Florida to give a very short message (last year it was less than twenty minutes) seemed like too much in light of other responsibilities. So, the sponsors of the event asked me to instead put together an eight-minute video on church planting that could be shown at the event and then handed out to each of the 1,500 attendees. So, in an effort to be helpful, the video crew from Mars Hill Church and I spent half a day in freezing weather at a military cemetery shooting scenes that were then edited for the video. Apparently the video was shown at the event, was well received by the attendees, and then criticized by Bill Hybels from the stage because it did not speak of women church planters. And, not wanting a bigger fuss, the organization hosting the event then made a decision not to hand out the video as they had promised, leaving the guys from our Acts 29 Church Planting Network who had hauled suitcases of the videos to Florida with thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of wasted effort. The leaders of the event are good guys whom I still consider friends, and I've never met Bill Hybels so I won't speak about him personally. But, I thought we should at least post the banned video online, so here it is:
A number of people have email requesting a copy of the DVD or a way to download it. The future of physical DVD distribution of this video is still up in the air, but for those of you that would like to download the video, we have a number of options for you:
Special thanks to Jason Wendorf of the Mars Hill Church Communications Team for putting the DVD link together. He has details on how to assemble the the physical DVD from the ISO file here and here.
Jon Krombein
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Resurgence Content Administrator
Pastor Mark,
I love you as a brother, and I truly respect you and your style of ministry and preaching. I am learning a lot from you.
However, I get the impression that there are some things in that video that were needlessly crass. I love it when you "nail the point" and "pull no punches", but a few comments seemed needlessly rude. My guess is that you had limited time and were going WAY off script at those points.
Thanks for putting this out though, and it was helpful to me and many others. It's easy to look past the eensy-weensy bit of naughty for the much larger portion of helpful content!
Too bad to have to put all the work into this that was very wasted. One thing we are all learning is how to put our time where God really wants it. While the tape is vintage MD I did not think it was quite as "inspired" as some of the Sunday morning sermons I hear (maybe the cold weather?). No implications other than my impression but it did seem a bit scripted. However, the reality is, the content was pretty tame compared to what I was used to in my former fundamental Pentecostal background.
Anyway - nice job on this Mark - there is no criticism that should really even be considered. Some of the hyperbole re: characteristics of young men are evidently just that. I think Mark is well aware that the brief "rant" was just a broad generalization to make a point and that reality is that young men are all over the place - some more responsible, some less. Same goes for 36 yo men and 49 yo men as the one writing is.
BTW - I am glad that you mentioned this and did not cover it up. It is fair to point out as well as provide the content and it was done in a very civil manner.
BTW - the biggest issue is the simplest - are you really called (to plant a church)???? If you have any doubts, don't waste your time. I strongly suspect that is why most efforts failed - enthusiastic flesh does not equal gifted "soldiers" and will die out after enough sun hits it.
Man did this cause a reaction in the blogosphere or what? I was blown away to see your name way up the technorati charts - you got to number 6 - even higher than Paris Hilton at some stage!
I'm amazed at the reactions to this whole saga from people who don't know you nor understand your style. I've never met you but have listened to everything since your 1st Corinthians series onwards as well as all your messages in Acts29 and Resurgence.
What I see is a guy working his butt off for the Kingdom with a passion I haven't seen before. What I really appreciate is your reverence and application of Scripture no matter how popular or unpopular your words or actions may make you.
Then again you're only human and fire away when things may get a little nasty but I have seen a growth in you to hold back from responding in anger. This episode with regarding Hybels was a case in point.
The one thing that you are not is a woman hater. Every time I came across this statement in the blog world, I cringed man cause here you have these wimps lashing out at you saying that you hate chicks!
I loved how you opened your heart about this topic in one of your Ruth sermons. How it hurts you when people say you hate woman and you treat them like crap. You spoke about your wife and daughters and how you treat them and I'll tell you, I was convicted in my heart about the kind of husband and father I am sometimes. You inspired me!
To see some of the reactions out there in the blog world was truly a sad event on many different fronts and I realized that many people are throwing sound doctrine out the window in an effort to be relevant to the mindset of modern man. Man did you take a beating! At the same time, there were many who wrote about how they agreed with you but these seemed to be out numbered.
Anyway I can go on but won't cause there are more important things to focus on. I have posted more about this here. Be blessed brother and keep up the good fight!
Last year I spoke at a large church planting event along with a number of other church planters and church planting movement leaders. The event was held in Florida, went well, and did a very encouraging job of bringing together a number of denominations, networks, and organizations that otherwise would not have benefited from such a partnership.
A number of people have email requesting a copy of the DVD or a way to download it. The future of physical DVD distribution of this video is still up in the air, but for those of you that would like to download the video, we have a number of options for you:
Special thanks to Jason Wendorf of the Mars Hill Church Communications Team for putting the DVD link together. He has details on how to assemble the the physical DVD from the ISO file here and here.
Jon Krombein
----------------------------------------
Resurgence Content Administrator
Pastor Mark,
I love you as a brother, and I truly respect you and your style of ministry and preaching. I am learning a lot from you.
However, I get the impression that there are some things in that video that were needlessly crass. I love it when you "nail the point" and "pull no punches", but a few comments seemed needlessly rude. My guess is that you had limited time and were going WAY off script at those points.
Thanks for putting this out though, and it was helpful to me and many others. It's easy to look past the eensy-weensy bit of naughty for the much larger portion of helpful content!
My opinion... they should have distributed it.
Al
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><)))))> ~ ><))))> ~ ><)))>
descha@sbcglobal.net
Too bad to have to put all the work into this that was very wasted. One thing we are all learning is how to put our time where God really wants it. While the tape is vintage MD I did not think it was quite as "inspired" as some of the Sunday morning sermons I hear (maybe the cold weather?). No implications other than my impression but it did seem a bit scripted. However, the reality is, the content was pretty tame compared to what I was used to in my former fundamental Pentecostal background.
Anyway - nice job on this Mark - there is no criticism that should really even be considered. Some of the hyperbole re: characteristics of young men are evidently just that. I think Mark is well aware that the brief "rant" was just a broad generalization to make a point and that reality is that young men are all over the place - some more responsible, some less. Same goes for 36 yo men and 49 yo men as the one writing is.
BTW - I am glad that you mentioned this and did not cover it up. It is fair to point out as well as provide the content and it was done in a very civil manner.
Greg
BTW - the biggest issue is the simplest - are you really called (to plant a church)???? If you have any doubts, don't waste your time. I strongly suspect that is why most efforts failed - enthusiastic flesh does not equal gifted "soldiers" and will die out after enough sun hits it.
Greg
Hi Mark,
Man did this cause a reaction in the blogosphere or what? I was blown away to see your name way up the technorati charts - you got to number 6 - even higher than Paris Hilton at some stage!
I'm amazed at the reactions to this whole saga from people who don't know you nor understand your style. I've never met you but have listened to everything since your 1st Corinthians series onwards as well as all your messages in Acts29 and Resurgence.
What I see is a guy working his butt off for the Kingdom with a passion I haven't seen before. What I really appreciate is your reverence and application of Scripture no matter how popular or unpopular your words or actions may make you.
Then again you're only human and fire away when things may get a little nasty but I have seen a growth in you to hold back from responding in anger. This episode with regarding Hybels was a case in point.
The one thing that you are not is a woman hater. Every time I came across this statement in the blog world, I cringed man cause here you have these wimps lashing out at you saying that you hate chicks!
I loved how you opened your heart about this topic in one of your Ruth sermons. How it hurts you when people say you hate woman and you treat them like crap. You spoke about your wife and daughters and how you treat them and I'll tell you, I was convicted in my heart about the kind of husband and father I am sometimes. You inspired me!
To see some of the reactions out there in the blog world was truly a sad event on many different fronts and I realized that many people are throwing sound doctrine out the window in an effort to be relevant to the mindset of modern man. Man did you take a beating! At the same time, there were many who wrote about how they agreed with you but these seemed to be out numbered.
Anyway I can go on but won't cause there are more important things to focus on. I have posted more about this here. Be blessed brother and keep up the good fight!
Simon Tomek | LayGuy
www.citywestchurch.com
A little birdie tells me you're coming to Australia in 08?
Simon Tomek | LayGuy
www.citywestchurch.com