Attempt to Market Anti-Porn Ministry to Mark Driscoll Fans Goes Bad

Craig Gross, founder of anti-porn ministry XXXchurch, took heat this week after using a Mars Hill email list to market his material. According to Christianity Today, Gross bought a list of 90,000 names who attended the Mars Hill Resurgence conference from a new website called churchleaderlist.com. 

The site had the list of names listed for $1,500 or $1,350 with a coupon. 

Former Mars Hill staff member Justin Dean told Gross about the list of names for sale. The latter bought the list to promote his book and accountability software. 

Though xxxChurch had sponsored the Resurgence conference in 2013, Gross said the group was not very connected with his ministry. To capture attention of readers, Gross wrote “Mark Driscoll--The Real Story” in the subject line of the email. 

“Most of these people would be people who had never received an email from us so we thought something with ‘Mark Driscoll’ in the subject would get read,” Gross explained in a blog.

The body of the email contained an introduction from Gross followed by a list of sins of failed pastors including, “extramarital affairs, flirting, porn addiction, gambling addictions, and a whole mess of other stuff.”

He then wrote that accountability could have prevented these issues, and pointed readers in the direction of his software.

“As a leader, if you don't have accountability, your time is coming. You will fall,” Gross wrote.

The marketing ploy garnered a hugely negative response as Driscoll supporters took to social media to express the hurt that the email caused. 

Gross wrote on his blog that he does not regret his actions. 

"I stand by what I wrote and the message we sent. This was an aggressive approach which is our normal style on a conversation that we believe is important,” he said. 

He also tweeted to critics, “Still sticking up for Mark? They sold your email for a penny.”

Publication date: March 24, 2015