\nThe third Mars Hill I know seems caught in the\u00a0middle. It is pastored in Sacramento, California by a friend of mine, Scott Hagan. Scott planted another church years ago in the Sacramento area, then moved to pastor a mega-church in Michigan and is now back\u00a0leading at Mars Hill in Sactown. I have\u00a0Pastor Scott\u2019s permission to share what I am going to write next. Several weeks ago, Scott and his Sacramento congregation received a \u201cCease and Desist\u201d order which came from the Seattle Mars Hill Church. \u00a0They were told that the Seattle Mars Hill had copyrighted the name \u201cMars Hill\u201d and they demanded that the California Mars Hill churches stop using the name and any logos with similar lettering.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The post continues…<\/p>\n
\nI was flabbergasted. First, I could not believe that a church would try and copyright the name of their church. I suppose if you wanted to make some money on the side, you could lease the name out to others. (My friend Ken thought it would be smart to copyright the name \u201cFirst Baptist\u201d and stick franchise stickers on the name and concept\u2026I applaud his entrepreneurial spirit). But to outright disallow others from using a name that is found in the Bible because you want a monicker and label that only recognizes YOU seems the very epitome of pride and arrogance.<\/em><\/p>\n
Second, that a church would take legal action to require other churches to comply violates both the letter and the spirit of the Word of God. The Bible is explicit when we are told not to take other believers to court when the issues regard spiritual matters. The naming of a church is certainly a spiritual matter and it is hard to see how someone could theologically skirt around this.<\/em><\/p>\n
This issue should have been placed before the Body of Christ. Since it wasn\u2019t, I decided to do that here. I am hoping word of this spreads quickly across the country. Why should we allow Mars Hill Seattle to do this without the rest of us voicing our opinion? If you are as outraged by this as I am, then I ask you to let friends on Twitter, Facebook,\u00a0and Google Plus know about it. Reprint this openly on your blogs. Call Mars Hill Seattle and let them know\u00a0how you feel about this. Perhaps if we try this case in the court of public opinion we can prevent this from making evangelicals a further laughing stock in the media.<\/em><\/p>\n
Please hear my heart Pastor Driscoll\u2026.Mars Hill was a place where anyone could freely come and present their ideas. You called your church Mars Hill with at least some of that in mind. I call you back to that principle now and publicly call you to renounce this silly and ill-advised cease and desist order.<\/em><\/p>\n
Read the ENTIRE post here… <\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
My guess is that Mark probably sent the City of Athens a letter too.<\/p>\n
Thoughts?<\/p>\n
Is this right?<\/p>\n
Driscoll’s Mars Hill taking legal action against another ‘Mars Hill’ church…<\/a> is a post from: Jesus Needs New PR<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is your church named Mars Hill? Well, if Seattle’s Mars Hill Church has anything to do with it, you might have to change it soon. Why? Because Mark Driscoll, king of the ‘Mars Hill’, wants to be king of America’s only “Mars Hill.” At least, that’s the story according to THIS blog post, written by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\n
Driscoll\u2019s Mars Hill taking legal action against another \u2018Mars Hill\u2019 church\u2026 - Jesus Needs New PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/10\/driscoll\u2019s-mars-hill-taking-legal-action-against-another-\u2018mars-hill\u2019-church\u2026.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Driscoll\u2019s Mars Hill taking legal action against another \u2018Mars Hill\u2019 church\u2026 - Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is your church named Mars Hill? Well, if Seattle’s Mars Hill Church has anything to do with it, you might have to change it soon. Why? 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