Welcome to Maurilio As a Reader of the Dawg...

We would like to take this time out to welcome Maurilio Amorim as one of our regular readers here at FBC Jax Watchdog. Maurilio is the blogging, twittering, church marketing consultant that Mac Brunson uses as his creative genius, and presumably to figure out new ways to convert the FBC Jax from a stuffy legalistic, traditionalistic, fundamental Baptist church into the new modern church that characterizes Maurilio's client base.

We know that Maurilio is a regular reader now after he posted an article on his blog about the "Top 10 Ways to Get in Trouble With Twittering", in which he took a swipe at some "anonymous", "jerk", "hateful" blogger who was critical of his twittering during his recent Vegas vacation. Like Mac did with his lie about Sheri Klouda, Maurilio doesn't refer directly to the Watchdog, but there is no mistake to his readers who he was referring to (do a Google blog search and you'll see I'm the only one he could possibly be referring to).

Yep, that's right. Maurilio, a fancy-pants consultant who draws a regular check from the people of FBC Jacksonville - has decided to use his blog to attack one of the members of FBC Jacksonville - yours truly. I don't mind, and I'm not bitter, but once again: "Team Brunson" (of which Maurilio is a member) has shown us what they're made of, and they will attack those who they don't like or those who might criticize them or attempt to hold them accountable.

Maurilio is not the topic of my blog, and I never intended to draw him into the blog. But since Maurilio believes he has the freedom to smear the Watchdog on his website, let's shine just a little bit more light on Maurilio and his relationship with the Brunsons and FBC Jacksonville.

First of all, let's talk about Maurilio's decision to be an avid "twitterer" and what that tells us about the man. What is "twittering" you ask? Twittering could best be described as "text messaging on steroids". It is essentially using your mobile device to text message to the world about your life. The people in Maurilio's life - his friends, his family, his clients, his clients' church members - they all get to follow the daily musings of Maurilio and all about his life as he text messages throughout the day. He texts about everything in his life as though people would want to read it. His meals, his exercise, his trips to Vegas, his visit to Cirque du Sulei, his client meetings, his 6-head shower in his bathroom, and on and on. I admit: I'm a reader of his twitter because I like to see how our church marketing dollars are used in the life of Maurilio - he is one of our "missionaries" - out there funded in part by FBC Jax and its great to be able to follow his jet-setting around the country.

Well, apparently Maurilio didn't appreciate me mentioning his Vegas twitters in my post called "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", and he admits he is very bitter about it. I assume he also didn't like me making the connection between he and two businessmen at our church who are selling Alibaster that Mac promoted one Sunday.So bitter is our FBC Jax consultant who we pay tens of thousands of dollars every year in consulting fees (trust me FBC Jax, if you knew the dollar amount we spend on Maurilio and his A-Group, you might fall out of your chair), that he decided to write the following about me (he's writing about a reason why he "gets in trouble" from twittering):

10. Post fun twits about your Vegas vacation and watch some crazy, anonymous, fundamentalist, jerk turn you into this money-spending, luxury-loving, pleasure-driven Satanist on his loser hate blog (Do I sound bitter?). I guess what happens in Vegas really should stay there.

Wow. That is the FBC Jax church marketing consultant writing that about one of the church members at FBC Jax. He lies about me: I'm not crazy, I'm not a fundamentalist (unless that means I believe the Bible and that Jesus is the only way to heaven - if Maurilio thinks me a "fundamentalist", maybe he's a "liberal"?), I don't have a hate blog, and I never painted Maurilio as a Satanist. Nor have I "turned" Maurilio into anything. I just shone a little bit of light on his twitters on my blog to show the people of FBC Jax what their church marketing consultant does with the money we pay him. If he's going to be bitter about people blogging about his Vegas vacation - hmmm...maybe as a grown man he shouldn't be twittering about the details of his Vegas vacation (and 6-head shower) like a pimple-faced teenager.

But this is instructive: Maurilio feels the freedom in his relationship with Mac Brunson, that he can lie about and attack on his blog one of the church members at FBC Jax. Surprising that Maurilio would feel the freedom to do this? Any serious, grown man out there that would publicly attack one of the members or employees of your client's organization? Of course not. But Maurilio is so bold and brash, and dare we say cocky, that he feels he can do it. Wouldn't a pastor be upset if his consultant lashes out publicly at one of his church members? Perhaps, but apparently not Mac. Maurilio's just doing what Mac does. Mac lied about Sheri Klouda from the pulpit, and never apologized. Mac attacks his congregation as being "hot bed of legalism" when out of town - and he never apologizes. Now Mac and Maurilio have pulled Jim Smyrl into the mess, who now preaches and blogs about the evil of our "traditionalism" and scolds the elder members of the church to inform them "YOU DON'T OWN THE CHURCH" (as though they thought they did). Now Maurilio throws out the "F" word (fundamentalist) to describe me. So we're "traditionalist", "legalist", and "fundamentalists"...and Maurilio and the A-Group are on the payroll to save FBC Jax from these awful "sins"!

Here are some of the churches that Maurilio consults with:

First Baptist Church Rogers - pastored by Wes George

The People's Church - pastored by Rick White

Faith Church in CT - pastored by Frank Santora

First Baptist Church Dallas - pastored by Robert Jeffress

If you're a staff member or church member at one of these churches, take note of what Maurilio has done at FBC Jax - he didn't like one of the members blogging about the pastor's decision to spend money on a consultant like Maurilio - who then turns around and twitters about his lavish lifestyle. I passed no moral judgements on Maurilio, quite the contrary - but Maurilio didn't like this, and decided the Christian thing to do was to lie about me on his blog, thinking all of his twittering followers would think it cute. So beware to the other clients of Maurilio and the church members of where Maurilio consults - even though your tithes and offerings are going to pay for Maurilio's air fare to come in and have "sessions" with your pastor and staff, if he doesn't like what you're blogging about he might take aim at you too! He might even twitter about "obese" staff members or members - he seems to like to make fun of the obese (read his twitter). So watch out, you or your church or church members might make it on to his blog and twitter line! If I used him as a consultant and saw this juvenile behavior, I would tell him that if he ever does that to one of MY church members - however recalcitrant they might be - he and his firm will immediately be fired. And if I were considering hiring the A-Group as a consultant, I'd surely pass now that I see what the man does on his blog, and how he text messages about the details of his life.

But it wouldn't surprise me if Mac is happy that his consultant has attacked one of his recalcitrant church members; maybe Maurilio can add that to his "portfolio" - I'll take care of your recalcitrants! I'm sure when Maurilio flies down for his next creative session with Mac at Deerwood, they'll all get a good chuckle over how Maurilio put the Watchdog in his place.

Maybe its time for the people of FBC Jax to demand an accounting: how much are we paying Maurilio and the A-Group, why is our website after 2 1/2 years still so far behind other churches' websites of similar size? Can Mac show us that we aren't paying out of our church funds for Maurilio's services on his 501(c)3 website, and that Maurilio's services on the Pastor's Conference website are not coming out of the church budget but out of the receipts from the conference? Why did we sole-source Maurilio's services? One of the very first moves Mac made when we voted him as pastor in March 2006 was he handed our church marketing and website design over to Maurilio - shouldn't we consider other firms? Why sole-source it? And finally, let's get the exact dollar amount: HOW MUCH DOES FBC JAX PAY MAURILIO AND THE AGROUP?

Does this make you even more bitter Maurilio? Maybe you can twitter about your bitterness. We'll be reading!