Mark Driscoll’s Church Tells Other “Mars Hill” Churches to Cease and Desist

It seems that Mars Hill in Seattle doesn’t want any other churches to use that name.  I wonder if Rob Bell has gotten his C&D letter yet…

The third Mars Hill I know seems caught in the middle. 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 leading at Mars Hill in Sactown. I have Pastor Scott’s permission to share what I am going to write next. Several weeks ago, Scott and his Sacramento congregation received a “Cease and Desist” order which came from the Seattle Mars Hill Church.  They were told that the Seattle Mars Hill had copyrighted the name “Mars Hill” and they demanded that the California Mars Hill churches stop using the name and any logos with similar lettering.

I 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 “First Baptist” and stick franchise stickers on the name and concept…I 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. [Read the rest at Another Argument on Mars Hill « The Gates are Open]

I wrote about another mega-church that’s copyrighted their name, Watermark, in my book The New Christians.  Here’s where Watermark tells you that you can’t name your church Watermark.