Tyndale House Publishers Affirms Support for Mark Driscoll, Slams 'Erroneous' Reports That It Severed Ties With Mars Hill Church Pastor
"Tyndale will publish all of my (Pastor Mark's) work moving forward, in addition to other Resurgence authors whom we'll announce in the coming months. We'll kick things off this fall with the launch of my next book," the ministry announced.
In a November interview with The Christian Post, Driscoll stated that the tentative title of the upcoming book was My Problem With Christianity, although it is now named The Problem With Christianity. Driscoll commented on the "massive" amount of research he had undertaken for The Problem With Christianity, which looks at "the most common objections to [the] Christian faith by the unchurched and de-churched ages 18-44."
"This is the biggest research and writing project I've ever been a part of and the findings are surprising and enlightening while also discouraging," Driscoll told CP.
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Pastor Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church, has authored well over a dozen books and, according to The Resurgence website, remains one of the most popular preachers in the world today. Mars Hill Church has 15 campuses in several states and, according to its most recent Annual Report, attracted an average of 12,329 worshippers weekly and counted 6,489 members in 2013.
In March, amid much controversy, Driscoll struck a repentant tone in a message excerpt from a sermon titled "Jesus' Tongue, Your Tongue." Watch the video excerpt in the player below:
Tyndale House Publishers' full statement appears below:
TYNDALE HOUSE STANDS WITH MARK DRISCOLL
On June 30th, erroneous reports appeared on The Daily Beast and other Internet sites about the nature of Tyndale House's publishing relationship with Pastor Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence imprint. Despite claims to the contrary on social media and elsewhere, Tyndale is not cutting any ties with Pastor Mark Driscoll. In fact, we are planning to reprint the hardcover edition of his last book, A Call to Resurgence as sales warrant it (which is how all reprint decisions are made). We also plan to publish a softcover edition of A Call to Resurgence.
Furthermore, Tyndale is not severing our relationship with Resurgence Publishing, as some Mark Driscoll critics have claimed. We look forward to continuing to publish books that the Resurgence team brings to Tyndale House.
Finally, while we did delay the publication date of Mark's latest book, The Problem with Christianity, as we look for the best season in which to publish it, we have not altered our full intention to release it as a Tyndale title. This is a groundbreaking book that we believe will be greatly beneficial to the Church.
It is disturbing to us to see how quickly some are willing to criticize fellow Christians. We believe that God works through all who sincerely desire to serve Him. We believe Mark Driscoll sincerely desires to serve God, and we at Tyndale continue to support him and his desire to further God's Kingdom.
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