The theme song of "The Jefferson's", the 1970's spin-off sitcom about George and Louise Jefferson (neighbors of Archie Bunker), was "Movin' On Up". Who can forget that familiar jingle about 'ole George Jefferson finally making it big and "movin on up to the east side". We were happy for George, as his dry cleaning business that he worked for so many years took off and let him make it big.
It sure seems that mega church pastors and TV pastors lately are living that song in their lives....they land the big church, a TV ministry, maybe a book deal...then they are "movin' on up" into luxurious, opulent lifestyles. Only the money they are using is not coming from their family businesses, it comes from people giving their tithes and offerings - you know, "God's money".
The Memphis ABC-affiliate did a feature story last week on preachers in their area documenting the value of their homes, and their parishioners responses. A number of pastor's in the Memphis area that are on TV live in houses valued at over 1 million dollars. Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, was included in this story, and he lives in a "modest" home of around $490,000 sized at 3600 square feet.
We're still waiting to see the public records on the Brunson's home. Unless the builder gave them a huge discount, the sale price of their 5500+ square foot home in exclusive Deerwood, built on the 1/2 acre lot backing up to the #5 fairway gifted to them two weeks after their arrival in Jacksonville, will come in at over a million dollars - enough to put them in the upper echelon of TV preachers in Memphis!
Sure would be interesting to see how Mac Brunson's humble abode compares to other mega preachers in this area. Maybe our news media will do the same kind of story.
But click here to see the video story as it appeared on the news. Click here to see the written article.