Thoughts On Driscoll's New Marriage Book...

No, the book didn't change him or his ministry. His "ministry" was carnal from the beginning. The book simply changed your view.

 

Recent reports telling how Mark Driscoll's book reached the top of a bestseller list have left Mars Hill Church calling the campaign "unwise," but not "uncommon or illegal." Driscoll has recently faced scrutiny for citation errors in a study guide. Now, his book Real Marriage, which Driscoll coauthored with his wife, Grace, is receiving intense attention concerning how it became a New York Times No. 1 bestseller.

In 2011 and 2012, Mars Hill reportedly paid a marketing company ResultSource Inc. (RSI) $210,000 in a contract designed to boost the book to the bestseller list. In a 2011 document, the deal's main purpose was:

"to conduct a bestseller campaign for your book, Real Marriage on the week of January 2, 2012. The bestseller campaign is intended to place Real Marriage on The New York Times bestseller list for the Advice How-To list."

The document asked Mars Hill to buy 6,000 individual orders and supply RSI with addresses to deliver the books through a third party. In addition, Mars Hill purchased 5,000 bulk copies and provided 90 different addresses for the shipment of the bulk copies.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gl...e-earn-nyt-bestseller-status-.html?paging=off

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So, let's see. You pay a marketing firm $210,000 to distribute 6,000 of your books that your church BUYS FROM YOURSELF to be shipped to individual address that you harvest and another 5,000 books that your church BUYS FROM YOURSELF and the PR firm distributes them to at least 90 separate addresses across the USA.

The paperback is $9.99 to $12.17 on Amazon.

So:
$210,000 PR firm fee
$110,000 for 11,000 books
==========
$320,000

$320,000 of your church's money spent on promoting your book so it will make the New York Times bestseller list (made it for a week.) Just a bit unethical, IMO.

I'd say that money could have been better spent on spreading the gospel (oops, he's Calvinistic). OK, better spent on helping needy people.

Kind of surprised this wasn't mentioned on BB before. I just ran across this news today and my search turned up this thread.

 

Seems like it is one thing after the other for Driscoll.

 

Regarding the book, would it be considered ministerial or commercial?

 

He/they spent $320,000 attempting to make it a commercial success, so I'd say commercial. Also, consider the topic of the book, "The Truth about Sex, Friendship, and Life Together". There is a chapter on a specific sex act. I'd say that is going for titillation and not so much ministry.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Driscoll

Wondering if God told him to buy his book.

 

Another false prophet (Mt. 7:15-22) or a "God told me" guy that is now made manifest by his fruits. God told him no such thing as the blue print for church planting is in Matthew 28:19-20 under the authority of a New Testament church of like faith and order.

 

Regarding the Original question "Thoughts on Mark Driscolls new book'?

I found the page to be quite stiff and rough. No matter how many times I crinkled, crunched and unfolded it it was still rough. Probably never buy another especially from a "used" book store.