Side Effects

The Paterno Inferno

More than the images of Sandusky committing these mindless and demonic acts against children, is the image of him being hauled off in hand cuffs and then his deep exhale from the back seat of the squad car. Had Sandusky found himself on the streets of the Penn State campus the night JoPa got fired, I fear he would have been beaten to death like Moammar Gadhafi on the hood of a car.

Imagine the number of lawyers now descending on Happy Valley.  Or the posturing of  the insurance companies who are already preparing their settlement offers.  I predict these will be the highest payouts in U.S. history involving Higher Education, child abuse and institutional cover up.  Clearly it was Sandusky who pulled the trigger.  At worst Paterno drove the get away car, at best Paterno is the guy standing behind the partially opened door telling the cops he has no idea where the criminal is hiding while all along knowing he is down in the basement.  Paterno was an accomplice to the second generation of crimes committed by Sandusky.  As were several others.  Next to Clinton and Lewinsky and the Catholic Church, will these go down as the greatest media sex crimes in American history? 

Sandusky is the creep and culprit in this Hades-like tale of institutionalism and aristocracy.

Sandusky (I refuse to call him coach) had no courageous inner circle. More than the voice of reason, he needed the fierce voice of restraint.

Sandusky reminds me of Satan when God entered Eden and began taking inventory. He was short two humans and one apple. The once clean air of Eden now reeked. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil – the property line separating heaven and earth had been crossed. Adam and Eve, patrons of free will, chose to hop the fence and pluck the forbidden.

God quickly called those responsible to step forward. The man got sweat. The woman contractions. The snake, because he was the instigator, received his sentence in three stages. First he would lose his legs. Next he would lose the keys. Then finally … he would lose it all.

In other words, on the eighth day God created … accountability.

God weeps over the behaviors of sinful man, but one thing is for certain.  God is never mocked for the long haul.

Sanduskly also reminds me of King Uzziah. At sixteen, we are driving our first car.  When Uzziah was sixteen,  he found himself behind the wheel of nation.  His exploits were jaw dropping.  His military moves were the envy of Kings. But like most successful people, Uzziah became proud and presumptuous. Feeling the strength of self-sovereignty, Uzziah crossed the boundaries of God’s laws and entered the temple to burn incense, a role strictly reserved for priests.

Bursting through the temple doors was Azariah the priest along with ‘eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. They opposed Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord  … get out of here!”  (2 Chronicles 26:17 NASV)

Gutsy to say the least.  More than a voice of reason, these friends of the Lord and Uzziah spoke with the fierce  voice of restraint.  Every leader needs someone that will care enough to speak valiantly (courageously) into his lifestyle.  Sandusky had no one.  Well he did, but those men were cowards.  Some  of those cowards will be on the sidelines Saturday coaching Penn State football wearing the costumes of real men.

Sandusky ( I refuse to call him coach) allowed  the sickness of the soul to reach to its ultimate height.  America is vomiting in their mouths because we do not usually get to see the mainstream activities of a legitimate pedophile. Hopefully that taste of vomit will create a different kind of America.  Hopefully we are more reflective and less recreational when it comes to sexual behaviors that violate the decency and design of a faithful marriage between a man and woman. Can Sandusky be forgiven by God?  Yes.  Can he be restored to society.  No.  That ship has sailed.

Too bad Sandusky didn’t have at least one valiant man in his life who was willing to run through the door screaming for him to stop his crimes.

Joe Pateno  and a few others should have been those valiant men.

May God now rescue those victims!

Side Effects

Research shows that if you reach a child first, there’s a 34% chance that the rest of the family will follow.  If you reach the woman first, there’s a 42% chance that the rest of the family will follow. But if you reach the man first, there’s a 93% chance that the rest of the family will follow.

At Mars Hill Community Church here in Sacramento we have a great desire to reach men.   We are totally committed to reaching everyone, but we are extra-passionate about reaching men.  Our ministry to men is called The Guys Net … I thought you might get inspired by reading the Guys Net Manifesto.  It’s an amazing thing to find a fraternity of men who love to live this out .

Guys Net Manifesto 

 I believe it is a worthy task …

To love my brother as myself

To consider him as more important to me than I am

I believe it is my responsibility to help my brother when he falls

To restore him in love to his greatest potential

It is my responsibility to build him up

I am to encourage him

I am to pray for him

I am to hold him accountable and be held accountable by him

It is my responsibility to sing his praises

I am to believe in him

I am to draw out the gifts God has placed in him

I am to help him develop the full promise that God sees in him

I will work to sharpen my brother’s countenance

Side Effects

5 Promises Every Church Should Make

We Promise to make Jesus Christ the center of all we do.

We Promise to be a loving atmosphere that includes everybody.

We Promise to provide great biblical tools so you and your family can grow.

We Promise to operate all of our business affairs with integrity and openness.

We Promise to be a generous church that blesses our community and world.

Side Effects

Wax on … Wax off 

So how do you sell a leader on the idea of reps before reputation?

Or help them see that the meaningless little leadership behaviors they begrudge most are the secrets to meaning and influence?

King David was first kid-David.  He was part of the sheep police.  He medicated the boredom with target practice, hand plucking his bullets from the still waters without a single set of eyes there to notice.  Killing trees was a tough way to kill time, especially when you have a passion to kill giants.  We all know that the tree would one day become much more, but at the time, who could blame the guy for an enthusiasm drop?

I have watched new leaders roll their eyes when asked do to things that feel fake. Back in Bible college the homiletics syllabus said I had to preach a canned sermon to pass the class. So there I stood, sick and sweaty before a fake congregation. In keeping with the motif of the moment, I asked for a fake response when I was finished.  It was an exercise in make-believe.  Two years later I graduated and found my way onto a church staff where I was quickly assigned to the 8 a.m. service.   My job was to give announcements.  This amounted to greeting 100 or so tired-faced folks and then welcoming mythical visitors to a service totally void of visitors.  I was certain the whole thing was a waste of my valuable time and talents.  I wanted to preach for real instead of experiencing more of the same.  Wax on … Wax off.

I needed Mr. Miyagi as my mentor. My punkish little Daniel-san attitudes were raging.  I did not realize that my public speaking muscle was slowly but surely developing. I was learning how to communicate in a Petri dish.  God was growing a piece of me in a safe and sterile environment. But it still felt like my passion was in prison.  I wanted to say real things to real people.  Instead, I was back taking snaps against the scout team.

It was my season for killing trees, not giants.

Had it not been for those brief years of waxing on and off, I never would have developed a skill set for connecting as a communicator. Here is some free advice when someone [you respect] tells you it is time to wax on and wax off.

Do not not blow it off.

Grab every opportunity you can, even when it feels puny.  Because living idle and pessimistic while waiting for the phone to ring with your big break is a bad strategy.  Negativity is never the road map to greatness.

Go after small assignments to speak, communicate, and write – no matter what it is.

Do it for free.

Take the stuff nobody wants.

And smile big while doing it … like you know something nobody else in the room does.  If there is one shred of activity tucked inside the assignment that smells like the future, do not think twice. Take it.

Mr. Miyagi, our global leadership mentor, nailed it.

For Daniel-san, waxing the car become waxing the Cobra Kais. For David, the tree-bully got a bullet between the eyes. The same shifts await every one of us in leadership. Sooner more than later, it all turns very real

So do not despise small things  [Zechariah 4:10]

Even passion requires practice.

Side Effects

A Response from Pastor Scott Hagan, Mars Hill Community (Sacramento) to the ‘Cease and Desist’ issued by Mars Hill (Seattle)

I want to express my thanks for the several calls, voice mails and texts I received over the weekend from the pastoral leadership team at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Their words and explanations were both gracious and believable.  I hope you will find my words the same as I try to be both detailed and brief.

The issue of the Cease and Desist Letter seemed to strike a raw nerve in the broader body of Christ.  I will say more about that in a moment.  But first, I want to confirm that three staff members from Mars Hill Seattle called and asked forgiveness for any stress and confusion that was caused by the letter we received from the Stokes & Lawrence law firm.  That meant a great deal to me and the other pastors involved (Jason Yarbrough of Mars Hill Church in Fairfield and James Seiler of Mars Hill Church in Galt).  Both Chris Pledger and Dave Bruskas were clear and sincere that the proper step should have been to call us first.  We accepted their apology and would like the Mars Hill Seattle congregation to know that your leaders took this step (We are assuming on behalf of Pastor Mark Driscoll).  They assured us they would not seek any type of legal action, even though they did apply for and were awarded a federal trademark in August of this year for both the name and the logo design.  Mars Hill Seattle also posted on their blog late Saturday night a message of clarity and grace.  It was greatly appreciated.

Our concern stemmed from a letter we received from Stokes & Lawrence asking that we cease all use of our name, domain names and all artwork. The letter stated we had a two-week window for compliance.  It was very unsettling knowing that, if enforced by a court (which it appears it could), it would cost our ministry and our two satellite plants thousands of dollars to re-brand, redesign, reprint and re-educate our regions of the changes.

Mars Hill Community Church in Sacramento is part of the Assemblies of God network of churches around the world. We are also a part of the Church Multiplication Network (CMN), a church planting movement within the Assemblies of God that cooperates at events with your own Acts 29 network.  I serve on our national CMN leadership team and am deeply involved with national church planting initiatives and strategies.

Plans for our church here in Sacramento began in 2005. At the time we planted this work, I had never heard of Mars Hill Seattle or Pastor Mark Driscoll.  I was aware of the Michigan Mars Hill Church (I pastored in Grand Rapids from 2001 to 2005)  and also the college located in Mars Hill, North Carolina.  By choosing that name, I was not out to emulate anyone, I simply thought it to be a great name for a church. The Mars Hill story in Acts 17 has always been a benchmark for me.  Our church, and the satellites we have planted, have a powerful dimension of diversity that stems from the words of Paul on Mars Hill, when he said in Acts 17:26, One God hath made us of one blood… Our church is very urban and has a powerful mission to the poor and to the streets of Sacramento.  It is truly  A Church that looks like Heaven.

My first knowledge of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle happened sometime in 2007, nearly two years after the planning and launch of our church.  Our logo was designed in 2005 by Scott Taylor, the husband of our worship pastor, Darnisha Taylor.  He reassured me a few days ago that, when he designed the logo, he also had never heard of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  The design by Scott Taylor is completely coincidental.  As a matter of fact, our original design was a square with the shaded circle and M inside the square.

In 2009, while preaching in Seattle I drove through downtown near the waterfront and came across a Mars Hill property and saw their logo.  I actually thought, until I received the letter from Stokes & Lawrence, that Mars Hill Seattle had used our design.  I laughed and called Scott Taylor and told him it was a huge compliment, not competition. That is the origin and context of our history as a church and the design of our logo.

The letter from Stokes & Lawrence instructed us to contact their law office (not the church) with a response. I sent an email, of behalf of all three of us as pastors very early on Wednesday morning, October 19^th to Leslie Ruiter of Stokes & Lawrence.  I asked if she would pass our cell phone numbers on to Pastor Mark Driscoll, as we felt this should be a pastor to pastor conversation and not something involving a secular lawyer.  By noon the same day (October 19^th) we received an email from Leslie Ruiter:

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 19, 2011, at 1:06 PM, Leslie Ruiter <Leslie.Ruiter@stokeslaw.com> wrote:

Dear Pastor Hagan and team: Thank you for your response. I am completely on board with an organization-to-organization conversation, without me (the trademark lawyer) in the middle. Mars Hill’s goals, and I assume yours as well, would be to gain an understanding of the situation and reach an amicable resolution that causes no harm to either. I will pass on your information below to Chris Pledger at Mars Hill, and he or one or more of the other pastors will be in contact.

Best regards,

Leslie C. Ruiter

By Thursday afternoon we had not heard from the church. With our two week window closing there was growing concern because of the potential financial ramifications.  The same day I received a call from a close pastor friend here in Sacramento, Mike Phillips.  He and I, along with a group of about 8 others, meet weekly as pastors for relationship and prayer.  He is a seasoned leader who pastors Gateway Church here in Sacramento. I had shared with them on Monday what was happening and asked for their guidance, prayer and counsel.  These are Baptist, Charismatic, Non-Denominational and Reformed guys with various backgrounds.  It is a great cross section of friends who are church planters in the area. Mike told me he knew of some people that currently attend Mars Hill Seattle and asked for my permission to contact them to see if they had heard anything about this publicly. He also asked to blog about it to see if any other churches had received the same communication.  I gave him my blessing, but I did not read or proof his  blog before it was posted.  The blog by Mike Phillips on the same day was a plea on behalf of a friend (me) whom he felt was facing a potentially unjust situation.

I was speaking Friday (October 21^st) in Boston when I finally received a very congenial voicemail from Chris Pledger.  By now the social media networks were buzzing with some knowledge about this cease and desist letter.  There was zero antagonism in his voice or the message he left.  That afternoon we had a conference call between myself, Chris Pledger and Justin Holcomb.  Both of them were great and shared they were very sorry for sending a legal letter first. They communicated that their intent now was simply to remove confusion and to ask if we could alter the logo that they had been using since 1996.  I shared our story, including how our design by Scott Taylor in 2005 was totally innocent, and that when our church was planted in 2005 we had no knowledge that a Mars Hill Church in Seattle existed.

I agreed to start the process of a logo redesign since they now owned the trademark.  They assured me that even though the letter from Stokes & Lawrence called for a name change, that was off the table.  On Saturday, I received a voicemail from Dave Bruskas reiterating the same information and again reaffirming that the letter should not have been sent as a means of first contact.

I want to thank the Mars Hill Seattle staff for demonstrating a genuine brotherhood and passion for the Kingdom of God.  It feels like I have made some new leadership friends over the weekend in Dave, Justin and Chris.  I also want to say from the bottom of my heart that I am honestly sorry for any part I may have played in fueling the fires of disunity.  My emotions ran high, and in hindsight I should have tried to call the church office directly instead of communicating only with the lawyer as I was instructed to in the original letter.  I could have demonstrated more patience as a leader and for that I am sorry. Would the leadership of Mars Hill have ever called me (Remember, I had given them our numbers via the lawyer) had there not been such an intense social media backlash last Thursday?  All I can say is that the three guys who did call me sounded more than legit, so I will choose to believe they would have and enjoy living reconciled instead of suspicious.  I look froward to meeting with Chris, Dave and Justin someday.  Justin even mentioned that he is from an Assemblies of God church.

We all know that social media is a powerful thing, and the plethora of posts, reposts and comments last thursday proved that once again.

So at the end of the day, like Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33, I am praying first for myself as a pastor – that I will continue to lose the empire and rediscover my brotherhood. I believe there are millions of Christians in this nation who cannot seem to find each other, we are much like the family members of  Jacob and Esau who had never met.

Why had they never met?

Because they were caught in the shadow of a leader who was afraid of his brother.

Hopefully our story can be different.  Hopefully we can find more common ground so we can do more common good for the cause of Christ in the next season. Mars Hill Seattle is positioned for unprecedented influence.  I pray its future is bright.  So in the end there is no lawsuit … better yet …  there is no feud.

There is only forgiveness in every direction.

Yes, all is well.

Scott Hagan

Senior Pastor, Mars Hill Community Church, Sacramento

Posted with permission by Pastor Jason Yarbrough and Pastor James Seiler

P.S. New Logo Shortly