A few days ago, I posted about Churches Ripping-Off Churches. It’s unfortunate, but true. From logos to code, far too often, websites are built by way of copy and paste.
The good news, however, is the discussion highlighted the fact that many of the best Christian designers, bloggers, and developers, are more than willing to hand over their hard work to the Church. It was inspiring, indeed, to find many Churches sharing with other Churches.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news.
I failed.
New Hope Church’s website was not built using copied code. It was built using code that was freely given.
Isn’t it pretty?
There was a failure of communication, but it was the success of communication that lead to an outstanding resolve.
As impressed as I was that people like Nathan Smith and Life Church TV are so willing to share their talents for the Body of Christ, I am even more impressed in how they, New Hope Church, and Pastor Tim Liston dealt with the situation with such grace. It would have been easy for New Hope Church and Pastor Tim Liston to get nasty, but they didn’t.
Think about it. They were accused of having a ripped-off website. Whether they knew it or not, it was made to look as though they stole and that they were thieves! All, untrue. They were falsely accused and stones landed at their feet.
The grace in which New Hope Church and Pastor Tim Liston dealt with the situation gives me … well .. NEW HOPE!
So, I failed. I failed to follow-up as I should have. I, too, failed to communicate. I picked-up stones.
I apologize to New Hope Church and Pastor Tim Liston for accusing them of stealing websites. Will you please forgive me?
Since I’m the guy who amped all of this up, I actually owe an extra apology, and that apology is directed to, you, the reader.
I apologize for not having verified all my facts before posting. Will you please forgive me?
Tim Liston says
Forgiven! You are a stand up guy, Eric! I pray God’s best for you, your family, and your ministry. Keep up your important work there! God bless.
Eric Dye says
Thank you, Pastor Tim! Keep up your good work! God bless you, too!
Bill says
As humans we make mistakes. Through Christ we can be forgiven and can forgive. May the Lord of all creation bless you.
Antoine RJ Wright says
Ooh, now that’s interesting. Forgiven, yes. Leaves questions on my end, and probably a lesson for churches who’d like to do similar with websites. Will just ask this, why wasn’t there a note in the Site’s metadata that this was donated? Seems like a simple consideration to prevent such misinterpretations.
Eric Dye says
Thank you. It’s always good to give credit and this really got me thinking about effective ways of doing so.
Chris Ames says
I’m guilty right there with you on this one, Eric. I had pretty much closed the books in my mind.
So encouraged right now by Nathan, Pastor Tim, and you for jumping right on this post and firing it off ASAP.
We thought we were learning one lesson, then we learnt another. All is not lost :-).
Eric Dye says
True story. 🙂
Andrew Scott says
LOVE seeing this kind of dialogue! This is how the world should be.
Eric Dye says
Totally agree. As Nathan said, “Dude, same team!”
Michael Hyatt says
Thanks for owning this, Eric. Awesome!
Eric Dye says
Thank you for your encouragement :-).
Brian Notess says
My apologies for negative comments.
As someone attempting to make a living doing web development/design, it’s a touchy subject for me. Even so, I’d happily give away (and often do) anything I’ve ever coded if a church needed or wanted it.
That’s no excuse for my behavior being the opposite of “building up”, which is what I should have been doing.
Thanks for your honesty and transparency Eric!
Eric Dye says
You’re forgiven, too!
Thank you for being such a great member of the ChurchMag community.
Keep it up!
Micah says
While I’m glad that everyone involved showed integrity to the highest degree in the way they handled this unfortunate mishap, I think it reinforces my own belief that churches should be extremely careful with regard to reusing other churches materials, even if free.
The fact is that if New Hope had hired someone to do this site for them, with their own unique design/style, it never would’ve happened to begin with. A small church reusing a base wordpress theme I can understand. I would think a multi-campus church should have the funds to do a custom design, not a look-alike.
The worst part of the whole ordeal has already happened: we saw lifechurch.tv and went “Oh wow!”; then we saw what we thought was a copycat and said “Lame!” thus already building a negative presumption about New Hope church, which could otherwise be a great church.
Eric Dye says
There are certainly many different lessons to be learned from all of this.
Tim Godby says
Thanks for taking responsibility, Eric. Thank you for reminding us all that being “slow to anger” is always a good thing. And thank you for the admonition: if you want to use it, ASK. If with permission you do use another’s work, cite it.
Eric Dye says
🙂
ron says
I applaud the integrity and transparency with this. I feel that our Lord and Savior views us as one single church no matter the building or if a website is the same as another. I am amazed at the skills and talent Gods has blessed certain people with and if the outcome of these talents are duplicated, copied , etc. and it allows God to reach more people to expand his kingdom than that in itself is an award from God. I also feel if something is done under false pretenses than the reward will not be seen. Keep up the good work and you all inspire me each day to use the tools God has given us to spread his word.
Eric Dye says
God Bless you.
🙂
Brian Wahl says
Well done, my friend. Integrity shown by everybody involved here. Like everybody above me has said – this is how it should be done. Thank you for setting the right example.
Eric Dye says
It’s an honor to be on the same team with these guys.
Chris Martin says
Eric, thanks for your authenticity. Excited to see what lies ahead for you and 8bit in the future.
Eric Dye says
Me, too!
Allan White says
It might be nice to hear about this tension present for bloggers – the pressure to post, get it out there quickly, vs. the call of journalistic ethics to wait, fact-check, and hear back from those involved or affected.
How might you do this differently next time, do you think?
Great issues being raised here.
Eric Dye says
Sounds like a great idea, I’ll post about this soon! 🙂