Christian Retailing

Tyndale stands by Mark Driscoll, continues Resurgence imprint Print Email
Written by Christine D. Johnson   
Tuesday, 01 July 2014 02:44 PM America/New_York

MarkDriscoll-webErroneous reports appeared June 30 on The Daily Beast and other Internet sites about the nature of Tyndale House’s publishing relationship with Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence imprint. Despite claims to the contrary on social media and elsewhere, Tyndale is not cutting any ties with Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

The company is planning to reprint the hardcover edition of Driscoll’s book A Call to Resurgence as sales warrant, which is how all reprint decisions are made, the publisher said. Tyndale also plans to publish a softcover edition of the book, which originally released last November. Furthermore, Tyndale is not severing its relationship with Resurgence Publishing, as some of Driscoll’s critics have claimed.

Tyndale did delay the publication date of Driscoll’s newest book, The Problem With Christianity, as the company considers “the best season in which to publish it” and has “not altered our full intention to release it as a Tyndale title.” Tyndale considers the upcoming release “a groundbreaking book that we believe will be greatly beneficial to the church.”

The company ended its press release with this concluding statement: “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.”

Editor’s note: Warren Throckmorton, who wrote The Daily Beast article referred to above, stands by his reporting on the topic. Tyndale’s Senior Public Relations Manager Todd Starowitz indicated that he was wrong on some information that he provided to Throckmorton and that he “didn’t check with the appropriate people.” Starowitz also said that he never suggested the publishing relationship between Tyndale and Driscoll had ended. Readers who wish to follow Throckmorton’s reporting on the controversy may do so at patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/.