“Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower.” – Lady Marguerite Blessington, Countess of Blessington
I should have written about Dale Partridge a few months ago when I received some examples of his alleged plagiarism. Thankfully, Religions News Services posted Dale Partridge, Christian ‘influencer’ and church planter, haunted by plagiarism claims and Medium posted Dale Partridge Plagiarism: More than haunted. Both are well written.
Sevenly, Tedx Talks and Startup Camp
Partridge dresses the part of an *influencer.* Perhaps that is because he started a well known company, Sevenly, which, according to RNS, “claimed” to donate lots of money to charity. Here is a link to the page of the company’s chosen causes. He apparently was good with pithy phrases which you can see on that page.
Suddenly, in 2014 Partridge quit Sevenly. I was unable to find an exact reason for this but one of the articles pointed to his book, Saved From Success written in 2018. He was also known for his TEDx Talks. How to Value People Over Profits | Dale Partridge | TEDxBend is embedded here. He’s good speaker.
However, the right look, the Christian lingo and the ability to speak does not guarantee we are seeing the real deal.
Dee investigates 😎
I have a funny story to share. According to Medium:
He then started a tech incubator called Startup Camp with former Road Rules cast member Chris Graebe. They claimed to help give “entrepreneurs the fastest and easiest way to build a business from scratch (StartupCamp.com)” and hosted a few events. As of now, the company appears open and both Chris and Dale claim to still be a part but Chris lives in Tennessee, Dale makes no mention of the work, and the website shows all courses are closed.
So, I went to the website and called the number printed there. I explained to the person who answered the phone thatI was a writing a story on Dale Partridge and I wanted to see if Startup Camp was still functioning. The person said, “Who?” I repeated Dale Partridge’s name and repeated the name of Startup Camp.
The person said “Oooooh, you want Startup Camp” and said I would be transferred. As you might guess, my call was never answered. If Partridge is still involved, the guy answering the phones doesn’t seem to know him.
Partridge then morphed into a church reformer to show us all how to do church *the right way.*
Medium had this to say about Partridge’s Tedx Talks.
You can see his TedX and countless other videos about how to develop a following. He even gave a talk called “The 3 Secrets to Creating a Cult-Like Following”
Unfortunately that talk appears to be unavailable. This worries me. Is Partridge reforming the church or merely showing others how to gain massive number of followers. I tried to hunt it down myself. Partridge touts it on this site:
Whyology: The 3 Secrets to Creating a Cult-Like Following… and a Brand that Won’t Be Forgotten
Just what the church in America needs-another pastor with a brand identification and a cult like following…Can I get an Amen?
House Churches are his solution for the biblical expression of Christianity.
A guy who jumps from *thing* to *thing* and then ends up deciding that he is now going to reform the church is someone who should be watched very, very carefully. Thankfully he has been.
Relearn Church
It takes a lot off hubris to claim that one holds the key to the problem of church in America. In fact he offers nothing new. He just makes it sound really good on his website Relearn Church.
Let’s read his startling revelations. This is a man who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He’s going back to the 1st Century church because they did it right. But didn’t all those Epistles point out the problems in those early churches? If only they had Dale.
…We’re actually calling Christians to look back even further—to the New Testament, 1st Century Church and to the instructions for Christian gathering found in the Holy Scriptures.
…Ultimately, we believe Christians are homesick for deep and committed missional community. We believe Christians are longing to be discipled and spiritually parented by mature men and women of the cross.
…We believe homes offer the best environment for a church gathering.
…We believe a flourishing church gathering generally consists of 5-12 families and/or singles.(Ed: It’s scientific, you know.)
According to Religion News Services:
To fill that need, Partridge has begun to advocate for house churches — small, autonomous congregations that meet in homes. He calls this approach “biblical church,” which he outlines on his podcast, on the Relearn Church website and in his new book, “Real Christianity,” which was No. 1 in new releases under “Christianity” on Amazon.com in early January.
Relearn Church, described until recently on its website as “a global church planting ministry,” works with a handful of house churches in the U.S. and overseas that have a similar approach to ministry, according to Partridge. Until recently the site for the nonprofit — which was incorporated in 2017, according to tax documents — also listed a group of team members who contributed to the site.
But after RNS recently emailed contributors listed on the website, asking for details, the names disappeared.
According to his own website:
Dale studied biblical theology at Western Theological Seminary and now serves a network of house churches in the Pacific Northwest. At the core, Dale’s mission is to bring the church back to the Bible. Together, they live with their children on a small farm in Bend, Oregon.
If you note, it does not say if he has graduated from Western Theological Seminary. I am also having trouble tracking down this plethora of house churches he is serving.
Plagiarism
Here is the heart of the matter. This guy has jumped from *thing* to *thing* and presents himself as an out of the box thinker and entrepreneur. According to Religion News Services:
Heidi Campbell, professor of communication at Texas A&M University, said Partridge is one of a new kind of emerging “religious digital creatives.”
One thing is certain, he is definitely using the creativity of others. Both Medium and Religion News Services have documented many instances of plagiarism. I was sent a number of these examples as well. let me point out a number of interesting details.
Starting in 2014, Partridge was called out on Twitter.
Ron Finley approved.
Fake Dale Partridge
Apparently. Partridge has plagiarized the words from many sources. Here is a partial list. You can find these examples well outlined in the Medium article.
- Desiring God
- Burk Parsons at Ligonier
- John Piper
- Perry Noble
- Leland Ryken
- Julie Ferwerda
- Tony Stolfutz
- Got Questions.org
- Christian Assemblies International
Partridge not only plagiarized quotes from writers but appears to claim their artwork.
You will see a number of examples on medium and Religion News Services. Here are two photos sent to me by one of the advocates in Oregon.
Lee Jeffries is incredible photographer. Please go to the link to see his work in Time Magazine’s Portraits of the Homeless by Lee Jeffries.
It appears the Dale Partridge appropriated this artist’s photography. Notice the name on the side of the photo.
Please consult both of those well written articles at Medium and Religion News Services.
Dale Partridge and the problem with lustful leggings
Let’s end this on a laughable note. Here is a link to a post on Jezebel exploring the problem with demon leggings titled: Christian Blogger Declares Leggings “Lustful.” .
Christian blogger and Oregon mom, Veronica Partridge, took her struggle over whether or not to wear leggings to the internet. Partridge’s love of leggings was weighing “heavy on my heart,” she wrote on her self-named blog. So the blogger asked her husband, motivational speaker Dale Partridge, his thoughts on leggings. According to Partridge her husband said, “When I walk into a place and there are women wearing yoga pants everywhere, it’s hard to not look. I don’t, but it’s not easy.”
Women, you are to blame for the lust of Dale Partridge and men everywhere when you wear those demon leggings.
Partridge reasoned that if her husband, a man who “loves, honors and respects” her, finds it hard to “keep his eyes focused ahead” then perhaps it is even harder for a man with less “self-control.”
Maybe this tell us all that we really need to know about the ultimate marriage advice by Mr and Mrs Dale Partridge.
And can someone tell me exactly what constitutes a religious digital creative?
It’s getting harder and harder to get away with unattributed quotation. It is so easy to check.
One ought at least to give credit to God for creating the people whose wisdom one quotes without attribution.
Perhaps a “religious digital creative” is someone who for religious purposes “creatively” converts others’ print medium words into ones own social media words.
Samuel Conner,
LOL!
I guess so.
“what constitutes a religious digital creative?”
Definitely not someone who plagiarizes.
Copycats are not creatives. They’re impersonators or posers or mimics or apes or even fans. But not creators/creatives.
(Sorry, Professor Campbell, to have to disagree with your assessment.)
Ava Aaronson,
And plagiarizing is also not very religious, if religion involves truth, that is, and not deception.
GMFS Part 1 of 2: Astronomical foties
I’m intrigued by the fotie at the top of the post today. I’m assuming we’re still on the astronomical theme, so this must be the Leggings With Tennis Shoes Nebula.
There are times when an astronomical feature looks curiously reminiscent of something else (e.g., the Horsehead Nebula is shaped a bit like a horse’s heid), but this one is extraordinarily realistic.
GMFS Part 2 of 2: Cricket
All Wartburgers, especially the surrealist chatbot ones, will be eagerly awaiting news of the Third Test which began this morning in Port Elizabeth. England won the toss and batted, and have started cautiously, reaching 30 without loss after 13 overs. This is very slow scoring, but OTOH, an opening stand in double figures is good by England’s recent standards.
GMFS Part 3 of 2: JavaScript
I’ve encountered a bizarre bug in my first wee javascript project whereby objects are leaking data between one function and the next. I think it may be something about the way JavaScript handles json.
GMFS Part 4 of 2: A bit of extra sporting inspiration
In the last week or so I’ve really got into following the Talisker Atlantic Challenge, which is an annual rowing race – across the Atlantic Ocean. While the route isn’t a full continent-to-continent, going from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean, it’s still a great-circle distance of some 2500 nautical miles* and in practice most boats complete a course-over-ground of 2700 or more. Wind, swell and currents all play a part. Anyway, have a wee shufty at https://www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/2019-race-tracking/ if emdy’s interested. The first two boats have finished; both have crews of four, which seems to be the fastest combination. There are also fives, trios, pairs and solos, and the next finishers – the leading trio – some 40 nm from the finish at the time of writing and expected to finish at around 22 o’clock today UTC.
IHTIH
* AWWBA, a nautical mile (or nm for short, not to be confused with nanometers which are also abbreviated to nm – Wartburgers are advised to be aware of context) was originally defined as the distance represented by one minute of arc around a circle of longitude. Because not all great circles are of precisely equal length, it has been standardised at 1852 metres or about 1.15 ordinary (or “statute”) miles. For comparison, a nanometer is around ten times the diameter of an atom; it doesn’t take long to row this distance.
Quick update:
Javascript: I’ve worked out what was going wrong. Thanks for looking anyway.
Cricket: England are 80-1 after Sibley was caught by Elgar off Rabada for 36.
I’m off to get fruit and veg (fae the market), a car battery (fae a nearby wee car place) and bread (fae the Co-Op). Only maybe not bread, as I’m having lentilburgers for lunch.
IHTIH.
I’d say 9/10 pastors in the family of churches I’m a part of unknowingly consider themselves an Instagram influencer. Copying & posting inspirational quotes day after day with Bible verses and hardly ever posting legitimate photos they take. It’s annoying, cliche, and have never considered them to be an “influencer” until this post. This Dale guy looks to be pretty uncreative himself, so thanks for the post.
I saw something about this and I think you can quote plato without attribution on occasion, but I hadn’t seen the photo that he took credit for. It seems pretty egregious.
Ugh. He’s one of those huh? Sigh. Yoga pants are just pants. Leggings are pants. Everybody needs to calm down.
Another New Calvinist turned bad … joining a long line of “influencers” from that tribe who have wreaked havoc in the American church. Rebellious and immature, these young reformers are capable of anything. Anybody who would quote John Piper is obviously not thinking clearly, let alone plagiarize the Pied Piper’s words as his own!
I’ve run across Partridge on CBN while scrolling through TV channels looking for old western movies. He has a program called “Faithwire – Faith vs. Culture” where he comes across as an expert on all things related to cultural trends and Christianity. He can talk the bones off a chicken. I prefer watching John Wayne.
LOL
Apparently, with the crowd of individuals you refer to:
a mouth, a mic, memes, media – and they’re in business. It’s bu$ine$$.
These young reformers reach star-status in social media by one-liner tweets which can be retweeted across cyberspace. After a while, it must be tough coming up with retweetable-quality words that your audience depends on; thus, the temptation to “borrow” from another to keep the presses rolling.
WTF is a “Digital Creative”?
I’ve heard “Social Media Influencer” before. In a YouTube video where a “Social Media Influencer” tried to extort a free stay at a hotel in Australia by veiled threats to bad-mouth the hotel on Facebook & Twitter if she wasn’t given a free stay. Comment thread was full of definitions like “Speshul Snowflake”, “I don’t have a job”, and “Moocher”.
His Twitter reads like a bad bot. Which is probably what it is.
I wonder if he’s mentally ill and really believes this stuff is his? His sad-about-leggings wife should take him for a mental evaluation. If he even tried to be subtle about his stealing, I’d be more inclined to think he was like your average-grade sermon-stealing megapastor or church consultant, but he’s way too obvious about what he’s stealing.
“Every day you have a choice to be honest or deceptive. If you commit to telling the truth, you will win. You’ll win more trust, you’ll win more business, and you’ll win more peace of mind. You’ll break the system and be even more successful.”
― Dale Partridge, People Over Profit: Break the System, Live with Purpose, Be More Successful
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/8145659.Dale_Partridge
How many times have we heard a “marketing phrase” something alone the line; “ I/we have the “true” way to “do” “church/Christianity”?
= the Christian Industrial Complex in America.
Pastor’s widows are eating out of dumpsters and the Big Theological Question is LEGGINGS?
FIRST WORLD PROBLEM if there ever was one.
Surprised love of leggings wasn’t “grieving the Holy Spirit”; that was a Tsk-Tsk term used during my time in-country.
How big a zhlub do you have to be to fail a Turing Test?
Samuel Conner,
🙂
Relearn Church sounds exactly the same as Francis Chan’s We Are Church. Which started first?
This has big time “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take – wayne gretzky” – Michael Scott” energy…
Well, we certainly know a song or two about that here in Wartburg.
England lost a flurry of top-order wickets (3 for around 30), but have steadied somewhat to 224-4, BTW.
I’d say a digital creative [person] is a person who creates digital art that is religiously themed. Digital art is created in digital media rather than with a physical substance.
If you go to sites like fineartamerica and search for the medium digital art you’ll find that there is a lot of digital art being created. My suspicion is that the supply is like that of poetry – the supply outstrips the demand. Some of it is good. Sturgeon’s law applies as always. (A science fiction author, he observed “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.”) In the religious digital art, the crud tends more toward triteness and/or clipart/primitive cartoon quality art work than it does in other subject/themes I have explored.
Many of the images at the sevenly causes page fall quite comfortably into the mass portion of the religious digital art I have looked at on art websites
Shameless American religious self-promoter, ala Joseph Smith, Bill Gothard, Robert Schuller, James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll.
Lea,
“Yoga pants are just pants. Leggings are pants. Everybody needs to calm down.”
++++++++++++++++
if christians spent time participating at nudist colonies, that would be helpful.
Yes. The benefit to DP’s following of the pithy pearls of wisdom he dispenses would not be diminished by honest attribution of sources; arguably that benefit would be enhanced by drawing his followers’ attention to these other thinkers and writers.
One is tempted to suspect that it is precisely in order to not do that that the sources are not named.
Home churches are not necessarily “the solution” for the churches in America. I was part of one in the late ’80’s-early ’90’s and for me, it did not work. I think the reason it didn’t work was because the church I was with broke into house churches for two reasons: 1. As a reaction against an over-controlling group of churches we were part of, and 2. We had bought a building many years ago that we couldn’t afford, counting on an increase in members to pay for it. (They called it “living by faith.”) I also don’t think we had the spiritual maturity to make the house churches work. If you are going to have a group of believers meet together, you need to have people who are grounded in the Scriptures and have the wisdom to teach it.
When the house churches started, there were about six of them. By the time my husband and I moved to another city, there were three groups left, and the group we had been with stopped meeting together the week after we moved. I also do not think it’s an accident that at least five couples I knew that had been involved with the house church movement we were with have been divorced (including the man whose idea it was in the first place.)
House churches can work. This is how believers in some countries meet. But to sell it as “the solution” just isn’t wise.
elastigirl,
Other than being equal parts absured and funny, I don’t think I’ll ever understand why leggings are such a big deal with fundagelicals.
Muff Potter,
Attending 8-12 fundy school, and spending part of those years at a GARBC church, I understand…..
The male leaderships in fundagelicals tends to be fixated on sex, and how the female body tempts us men, and how any “unpure” thoughts is equivalent to having sex with the women/girls.
Any time humans “obsess” on something, it gets “blown out of proportions”… and it just makes things worse…
while fundagelicals would not admit it, they really are Pharisees in practice…so tight pants, or now leggins, are just another way to differentiate “holly from heathen”
LOL re the leggings, I don’t care if women wear them or not, but some wear them well and others…..don’t, shall we say. Flesh colored leggings under a tank top? Literally watched those almost cause an auto collision in Durango Colorado. Don’t think the wearer really intended to send that message.
Personally I do not think they have that classy look, just as logo tee’s don’t. Some gals manage to head for the gym and or out to run and look so chic. Others wear the same stuff and it comes off looking trashy.
I figure dress how you want but with that be adult enough to deal with the reactions of others.
Fundagelicals is a pejorative term.
It’s weird because they cover you completely and are often no tighter than jeans?
All I can figure is that people started talking about yoga pants being ‘hot’ years ago and this morphed into some crazy fear of them. It’s dumb.
Lea,
My fundy HS would not let girls wear pants, let alone the tight fitting jeans of the day (i.e. Jordsche jeans)…. to sexual
Wait a minute…I remember we kids where hearing back in the SatanicPanic, if you played a record backwards, you could hear Satan. Especialy, with certain rock bands.
What would happen if a woman whore leggings backwards, at Starbucks, with soy?
There are times I envy the lack of self-consciousness my toddler displays. It seems very freeing.
Muff Potter,
“Other than being equal parts absured and funny, I don’t think I’ll ever understand why leggings are such a big deal with fundagelicals.”
++++++++++++++
terrified of the human body? part of the legacy of a puritan heritage?
Nathan Priddis,
Was cinnamon involved?
Before you can have a solution, you need to know what the problem is. IMO, the core problem with the American church is a spiritual leadership crisis. Home church is not the solution to this problem. From my brief experience with doing church this way in my area, its leaders were no more spiritual than the bunch we have in organized church. Someday, someone will figure out how to identify and mobilize the Church within the church and will experience CHURCH! Right now, most of the folks called by the name of Christ in America are doing church without God … IMHO.
Evidently, New Calvinist pastors exposed to leggings get so messed up that they plagiarize.
So they compensate by wearing.. skinny-jeans…
Exactly! What’s the difference between leggings and skinny jeans? Not to mention, (just being real here) there is more to see on a man’s lower half than on a woman’s.
With or without a cucumber stuffed into the crotch for visible Sanctified Testosterone?
House churches have the danger of NO external reality check. Just “Us Four, No More, AMEN”.
Too easy to drift into a miniature CULT.
Ken, I guess you and I are just not culturally-relevant. You know, I don’t really have a problem with form as long as there is some substance to it. I don’t even have a problem with “contemporary” church … after all, Jesus is the eternal contemporary. But these young whippersnappers who know everything and are out and about to change everything get my spiritual hackles up.
One of a number of reasons I don’t wear yoga pants, even while doing yoga..
Annnnnnnd, that’s why they played them at so many youth group meetings nationwide!
Agreed, but do you have a preferable term? I think we need a word to describe Christian zealots from high-demand organizations, who try to impose dress and conduct codes on everyone else. They are not simply conservative Christians, who often come here for refuge…
Not at all, it’s simply an apt descriptor of a small subset within American Protestantism.
Even when Adam hid himself, and God asked him who told him he was naked, Adam was terrified.
There are very few cultures in which the human body does not dredge up angst and embarrassment.
Muff Potter,
My HS, and GARBC churc was proud of being “fundamentalist”…. to them, it just means they take the Bible literally…. now we can argue forever what that means, but they did not take offense to being called “fundamentalist!
Is he for sure a real live person? It seems like some kind of bot creation, just repeating random quotes and things. Oh, but he’s giving TED talks, though. Hmmm. I guess he’s just a guy trying to find himself by trying on others’ thoughts and identities? Funny how a person who doesn’t even know who they are is focused on finding followers.
ION: Cricket
So, it’s been England’s morning in Port Elizabeth. Stokes reached his century, Ollie Pope is with him on 78 and will be hoping for a ton of his own, and the partnership has just reached exactly 200. England haven’t had too many double-century stands lately… 348-4.
Onyway, I’m at a stage – just finished an HTML Forms module, and I’m off for a run.
IHTIH
Podiatrists like footnotes, proctologists like endnotes.
I once had a 29-year old SBC New Calvinist church planter tell me “I don’t know what I’m doing” when I quizzed him on the quick success of his plant in a short period of time (from 10 to 300 followers in 3 months). He just said he was trying “to make God big.” He appeared shocked when I told him God had been big for quite a while. IMO, the success of his ministry had nothing to do with his shallow sermonettes which sounded like off-the-shelf Driscoll stuff to me. The crowd (mostly 20s-30s) appeared to be coming for the free coffee and donuts and to hear the cool band; the audio/visuals in the black sanctuary were also cool. The young pastor was also entertaining with his humorous Jay Leno-style preaching delivery from a stool propped up at center stage. I’m not sure if God felt bigger or not in that place, but I felt like an old-fogey who had long ceased to be culturally-relevant for this style of doing church.
I teach upper-elementary in Silicon Valley where many of my students want to grow up to be social media influencers. I tremble for the next generation-they watch slime videos for hours.
A “Christian Influencer” on social media. The whole concept just reeks of narcissism. The idea that anyone is so superior to the masses that they just have to be listened to as some kind of expert is pure narcissistic thinking. There is nothing humble about wanting “to be successful, and be a ‘somebody.'” This shameless selfish-ambition is just so anti-Christ. Whatever happened to actually following Christian orthopraxy?
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” Phil 2:3
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Rom. 12:16
Regarding social hierarchy including social media: “But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 14:10-11
There is only one reason why anyone of us should actually listen to someone else and that is not based on social status or even education. They must be speaking what is true. If they are not doing that then even if they have a PHD they are just a fool spouting nonsense. Because knowledge tends to puff up some of the biggest nonsense spouting people are the ones with higher education, unfortunately. Humility will stop you from speaking rashly nor regarding your own opinion higher than you ought. Worldly success also tends to puff people up, but being a friend (successful) to the world makes you into an enemy of God. I would rather have the humility and friendship with God, myself.
SBC youth evangelist Acton Bowen has been sentenced to 1008 years in prison for molesting multiple boys. There was at least 6 victims.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/12/televangelist-acton-bowen-sentenced-to-1008-years-for-sexually-abusing-children/
After a very contentious church business meeting with one particular church gnashing their teeth, a senior saint commented to me “That’s exactly why you don’t give the devil the microphone!” I have often thought of that as it relates to much of what is posted in social media.
that should read “… one particular church member …”
Southern Baptists don’t talk much about demon-possession, but …
Like the “social media influencer” who tried to extort a free room from a resort hotel in Australia by threatening to use her “social media influence” to ruin them?
One of the comments on that item was “Social Media Influencer = I Don’t Have a Job”.
Another was “Social Media Influencer = MOOCHER”.
“B-But HOW COULD GOD BE BIG WITHOUT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?”
“He” or the front man/Meat Puppet repeating the bot’s words off a teleprompter?
Like the HJ/SS, Komsomol, Red Guard, and Taliban they were put here for such a time as this,
starry-eyed and On Fire for The Righteous Cause.
I had a similar thought, whether that is a real birth name. If one is going to construct a persona for cult following purposes, name selection might be important. Dale Carnegie meets Partridge family?
Jeffrey Chalmers,
The motto of a prominent teaching in my fundy HS: G&d said it, I believe it, that settles it!!
ishy,
Wow. One wonders when the churches are going to start digging deeper into the reasons that people claim to believe they are called to ministry. Things like this would be less likely to happen if “call” were understood to be more properly a corporate decision that a person is both fit for and needed in ministry, and that such assessments cannot be made for people who are not old and seasoned enough that their character (and flaws) are plainly manifest to all.
I stand firm in MY call to the ministry. Any questions, ishy?
[sound of trumpet] Cricket
As Nick is busy trying to debug some javascript *, I will provide today’s final cricketing update Myself.
England declared on 499-9, with Ollie Pope unbeaten on 135. South Africa made a steady start, with a half-century opening stand broken by Dom Bess who removed both Malan and Hamza before stumps. The Proteas ended the day on 60-2, needing another 240 to avoid the follow-on. England ahead at this stage but, as I often say (of cricket in particular): it’s a funny old game.
Best regards,
God
*I could tell him what the problem is, obviously, but he’ll have more fun working it out for himself.
I would call them people following a legalistic, unorthodox and unorthopraxis “Christian” heresy. We are not saved by externals. We are saved by knowing Christ in a personal way. The goats do not actually know God so they have to come up with a religious form that looks something like godliness but simply denies the power.
Samuel Conner,
I wonder how many people “wondered” about this depraved pervert, but were shamed either actively, or indirectly? Given the number of boys, and number of “Acts” I can not believe that there was not people that thought there was something “not right”?
New Calvinism exists largely thanks to social media, which has spawned a host of bad-boy religious digital creatives/influencers. Where would the church be without Piper Points?! The new reformation would cease to exist without Mohler Malarkey and Dever Drivel as they tweet ‘truth’ across cyberspace. Yep, and they complain about us gossiping on the internet!
Someone once said ““The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” There should have been some good men “laying on hands” a long time ago re: Acton Bowen.
Fair question(s):
Saved?
How saved, what does that mean?
Dale Partridge is a pathological liar. It’s scary to think that he considers himself a pastor. In terms of his stealing others’ work, he first pulls a Mark Driscoll and blames it on his assistant. He then vilifies those calling him out, and finally says he’s willing to concede because “through the Holy Spirit I became convicted that what I did was unwise and needed to be corrected”. Note, God, The Holy Spirit didn’t tell him stealing is wrong & sinful and he needed to repent, when, in fact, stealing is on God’s top ten list of sins. Nope. It’s just “unwise” because “it could hurt Dale’s reputation”.
Dale targeted millennials with his social cause t-shirts. Now that that market is saturated he’s moved on, now specifically targeting the older “dones” trying to rope them into his new line of Relearn Church products. I’ll give this self-described “serial entrepreneur” credit for his research skills. He’s targeting a demographic that are already believers and are willing to donate large portions of cash and free labor if they can be re-engaged.
But let’s look at his track record. In the TED X Bend video above, he claims that by age 25 he had “produced 5 companies that were producing over $5 million a year”. He uses a lot of weasel words. He didn’t say he created, or started or took-over. He “produced”. Likewise, he fails to say if the $5M is gross revenue, net revenue, cash flow, etc. Given the nature of the companies: a fitness company, a rock-climbing gym, a conference org, an advertising agency & Sevenly, that $5M, if it even exists, Is likely top line revenue.
None of the first four companies appear to still be operating, so we can assume they weren’t big contributors to this $5M /yr brag number. A fitness co could mean he did some personal training. His ad agency likely sold some social media tips.
So let’s look at the cash cow Sevenly. Sevenly wisely exchanged a small amount of a weekly gross sales, approx 25% over a 7 day sales period, in order to access the donor lists of large pre-established charities. This allowed them to gain access to 52 major charities a year, to get to their donors who were willing to spend more to support social causes. Notice the lack of small charities they support.
The products rolled off after a week but Sevenly had the contact list to hit up buyers on all their other products in perpetuity, going forward. Pretty smart marketing strategy and they likely sold their client list to other non-profits.
Partridge fails to say why he left Sevenly and Sevenly has failed to announce that the 7 day $7 per product is no longer offered. If you search hard enough you can find a vague statement that Sevenly now “pledges 7%” of sales to charities, which is a sharp drop in giving. They also shrewdly don’t say if it’s 7% of the gross price or net price. Either way it’s not much to the charity.
The paltry amount sloughed off to charities might explain how Partridge was able to own TWO luxury homes, “raked in a heavy 6-fig salary”, had a “gorgeous beach” HQ building in the OC, threw lavish parties, married a model & drove high end cars and was photographed on what appeared to be a yacht. He had no other stated sources of income and only started writing books after he was ousted from Sevenly.
That lifestyle sums up most successful charities/non-profits created by schmarmy hipster pastors at mega churches. Sevenly was touted by Gateway and Kari Jobe was featured as an early internet influencer sporting Sevenly gear, frolicking arm in arm with other young low level Christian celebrities laughing like loons in every picture. Apparently, that sells in the Christian digital media influencer world, because those pics are as ubiquitous as plastic red cups at a frat house. They all cross promote each others’ side businesses that are used for personal enrichment. It’s interesting how many of these charity creators drive cars >$100K.
Before “Relearn Church”, Partridge was selling “Unlearn Church” which is convenient if he can get a load of people to drop out of church then talk these same lemmings into his new form of “Relearning Church”. This is the clear formula of a money grubbing cult leader. I’m sure we’ll be reading about future abuses emanating from Pastor Serial Entrepreneur Partridge. At least the world has been forewarned. Thanks Dee!
The typical Christian celebrity taking the church for a ride.
And now the church has an opportunity to unlearn Partridge. It should take it.
Amy Moore,
It’s always easy to accept “conviction” from “the Holy Spirit” because [generic] you don’t lose face when it’s God correcting you…
This new breed of American pastor ain’t exactly suffering for Jesus.
Amy Moore,
Looks like you’ve done your homework on Mr. Partridge, Amy. Do you know anything about his Faithwire co-host, Dan Andros?
Hmm, “goat” might be a good term for fundagelicals, although they would probably hear it as the acronym Greatest Of All Time.
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