Since Jim Smyrl decided to declare the new FBC Dallas branding commercial as "blasphemous self-promotion" last week, perhaps we should compare the very latest commercial spots of Jim's church, FBC Jacksonville, with the commercial he has labeled as "blasphemous self promotion". View them both below in their entirety.Neither of the commercials is "blasphemous", as in their total neither commercial involves humans declaring themselves to be God. In typical Brunson fashion, Jim Smyrl did pull out a few select quotes from the FBC Dallas commercial to make it seem blasphemous, but the commercial is merely defining the church's history and purpose and mission in downtown Dallas. A mention of "Christ" is made. Shame on Jim for mis-characterizing it. The commercial doesn't glorify the pastor, his wife, his family...it is Christ-honoring. As far as "self promoting" - Jim must agree that the only "self promoting" that is going on in either commercial is that of the promotion of Mac and Deb.
Now the FBC Jax commercial: its all about Mac and Deb - not about Christ, not about even FBC Jax. The message: why, Mac and Deb are just like you, they have the same struggles as anyone does. This is an attempt once again for Mac to use his position to elevate his family. He wants everyone to see and hear his wife. The next commercial will undoubtedly feature Mac, Deb, and Trey, and we can give Trey a speaking part to vouch for the greatness of his dad. Deb and Mac are the draw to our church? We pay for commercials for Mac to tell Jacksonville how "normal" he is? No mention of Christ, no mention of the Bible...they declare their doors open.
FBC Jacksonville is still a great church...but its greatness, its draw is NOT the normalcy of Mac and Debbie Brunson, or their open doors - it is great because of what the church stands for: Jesus, the Bible...and the thousands of humble, loving Christians that love Christ and minister to people. People who don't serve for a salary and to build a brand, but laypeople who serve out of love for this city and its people. Its great not because of Mac and Deb, but in spite of them.
Whenever Mac showcases a ministry that his church is involved in, he likes to tell his church: "When you give your tithes and offerings to our church, you're helping to support this ministry." Well, FBC Jax, a portion of every dollar you give to Mac helps to pay for commercials like this featuring he and his family. Wise expenditure of funds? Dig deep - there's more to come.
First Baptist Dallas Brand Manifesto from First Dallas on Vimeo.
This commercial here is actually a shorter version of what is played at the end of the TV worship services. After the 8:00 am and 10:30 am tape delayed sermons on TV-12 is played a longer version of this commercial. Its about a 60 second spot, same setting, but more words.
ReplyDeleteThis 30 second spot plays mostly on TV-12 after midnight.
I find it quite ironic, that all of the marketing pieces we do feature Mac Brunson himself and/or his family. Is this the right strategy for using advertising dollars? This seems to be a personality-driven marketing model. When Mac came to our church on many occasions he told us that church is not about personalities or popular preachers, but about Jesus and the Word. But now our marketing strategy seems to be built upon the personality of Mac and his family (remember Mac's "third place" commercial?). I don't get it. I fear that our church dollars are once again being used to further Mac and his family rather than the gospel and our church. A commercial like that needs to include the pastor's testimony of what a loving, committed congregation he is representing. I don't have a problem with a preacher appearing in a commercial, but only to the extent that he uses whatever credibility he has in his position to talk up Jesus, his church, his congregation...not tell us what a wonderful, normal family HE has. Perhaps Jim Smyrl, we could categorize that as "self promotion".
Doesn't it seem more and more like Mac & Deb are more like Joel & Victoria Osteen? The similarities are striking - lavish high-living, continuing to beg for other people's money that they don't need, shameless self-absorption and self-promotion, the two of them always presented together even though the wife does nothing but stand there like so much arm-candy. These types are nothing more than wannabe-celebrities (see also Rick Warren).
ReplyDeleteWD - actually, this is the smartest thing Team Brunson has done. They realize that they can't "market" the bald, angry A--Hole that is Mac Brunson, so they will try to get the smiling Deb Brunson out in front of the sheep they are trying to steal. She comes off as so much more intelligent, so much more spiritual, and so much more appealing than Mac, the folks at the A-group must have realized that she is the key to future promotions and marketing.
ReplyDeletePlus, personality driven ministries have long featured the pastor's wife as a personality and celebrity. I just can't figure out why Mac and Deb don't just change denominations where their "act" will play much better than a bunch of Southern Baptists in the mold of Homer Lindsay, Jr.
Love the unisex dress - both with white shirts, and sweater over the top...Mac looks so cute with his sleeveless fleece sweater. What a hunk!
ReplyDeleteThe "unlikeableness" factor on this guy is so high right now. I realize there are many who feel that he is being persecuted unjustly - poor ole pastor:( But the evidence against him regarding his "sweetheart" dealings are so in your face, how can anyone walk away saying "you know this guy is good people?"
ReplyDeleteI guess when FBCJax is completely up to their eyeballs in debt and the place begins to fall apart and more and more of his "posse" come on board and attendance gets so low that people begin to wonder if the rapture has taken place, then and only then will they begin to wake up to the truth - "that they got themselves a bad apple."
Bad in the sense that he is so far removed from the one thing that made FBCJax, FBCJax - JESUS! Jesus was what people wanted to hear about, Jesus is what people wanted to talk about, Jesus is what people wanted to teach, preach, witness, sing - it was all about JESUS, Immanuel - God With Us, The Prince of Peace, The Lion of Judah, The Beginning and the End.
I really get a kick out of Mr. Celebrity preacher in his sweater vests with his adorable "babe" of a partner letting everyone know just how tough they have it - like everyone else. The Mac & Deb variety hour. He really should not be the "face" of FBCJax - there is absolutey no appeal to him in that sense. No one knows the guy. People "knew" Homer Lindsay, Jr. - whether they liked him or not - he was like EF Hutton. When he spoke people listened because he didn't waste (or mince) his words or his opportunities. He didn't seek the spotlight - it sought him.
When you live the convictions in which you espouse to the public, people respect you - whether they agree or disagree with you - that was Homer Lindsay, Jr.
Mac Brunson - I knew Homer Lindsay, Jr., Homer Lindsay, Jr. was a once pastor of mine. You sir are NO HOMER LINDSAY, JR.
Couple of clarifications:
ReplyDelete1. FBC Dallas no longer uses the A-Group, if they ever did. Check out the Richards Group in Dallas. They also have Home Depot and other national brands.
2. Smyrl's use of FBCOD's ad to attemp to illustrate "blasphemous self-promotion" is a cheap shot. Nothing more, nothing less.
Cheap shot, maybe.
ReplyDeleteI categorize Jim's use of the Dallas ad as intellectual laziness - he needed an illustration for his sermon and he fudged the facts on the advertisement to fit his point. That is lazy, and its disrespect for his audience that he thinks he can misrepresent to them the facts and no one will check them out.
I don't think they taught Smyrl to do that at Southeastern...come on Jim, you can do MUCH better.
Anon 9:55,
ReplyDeleteYour comments reminded me of back in the 80's when my mother was so into Jim and Tammy Bakker. I told her that they were so obviously frauds, that all they did was promote themselves, and beg for money. I asked her when was the last time she heard actual teaching of the Bible from them, as opposed to begging for money all the time. Even at Christmas one year, if you gave them a nice donation, you'd recieve...a Jim and Tammy ornament for your tree!! Self, self, self! Greed, greed, gimme more money! That's all it was til The Fall came and the world saw just how phoney they really were. From what I read here on this blog, I'm afraid it's sounding like "deja vu all over again" as Yogi Berra said. Truly sad to see a church having this happen. But when one takes their eyes of Jesus and focuses instead on the human 'status' well, what can you expect? Someone ask your pastor 'where is the denying of yourself'? As John the Baptist said "He must increase, but I must decrease". Your church needs prayer.
D
See here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060126/news_1c26warren.html (fourth paragraph from the botton).
ReplyDeleteI have no dog in your hunt here. But it looks to me like, when your church (and mine!) has a pastor like Rick Warren, there'll be no need for a website like this one.
Best of luck to you, seriously.
D - Mac teaches the Bible, and I wouldn't compare them to Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker.
ReplyDeleteBut he has gotten off track. Way off track to the detriment of his people and his ministry and our church.
The problem: he is not a Bible expositor most of the time. He is more interested in hopping and skipping in scripture, and throwing in Greek and history and stories...and whether he's willing to admit it or not, his sermons are mostly confusing and VERY disorganized. Sometimes he does slow down, he relaxes, and preaches a good bible sermon. These are usually in smaller venues, such as Sunday night, or even at the South Campus. But on Sunday morning, its "show time", and he is in rare form - but he is way over people's heads, expresses frustration when he senses that his audience is lost....he is more interested in showing how smart he is, and how much Bible and greek and hebrew he knows and how much Roman history he knows and how emotional he can be, and he is less interested in clearly communicating two or three simple, yet profound truths from scripture. Listening to Mac preach is like drinking water from a fire hose. You're thirsty, you want to be refreshed, you want some of it, but dadgum its just too much and too fast and furious and therefore can't get enough to satisfy your thirst. He needs to get back to verse by verse expository preaching, drop the history and hebrew and greek, and read the scripture and explain it clearly verse by verse. He can still use historical examples here and there. He is actually a funny guy, and has a great sense of humor that serves him well, and many of the men in the church I'm sure can relate to his view of life as a dad and husband in this contemporary culture. He needs to get off his high horse and humbly and clearly preach and explain the word so that the intelligent and the simple can learn together. That was the hallmark of preaching at FBC Jax - both the scholarly and the uneducated would BOTH learn life-changing truth from the sermons because the pastors preached the bible, they didn't promote themselves and they didn't try to take the place of the Holy Spirit through anger and being forceful. The Holy Spirit can fit a bible sermon to the heart of the very young and the very old, and the smart and the simple.
Its a shame, as we were sold on him as being a bible expositor, but he is not that.
The wonderful people of FBC Jax are STILL waiting for the "cloud to move" - sadly, many can't wait any longer and they are having to move on.
Off Topic:
ReplyDeleteWade's blog: A Tale of Two Churches and Their Leadership
"It seems that the Southern Baptists of Georgia passed a motion at last year's convention that the Convention would not receive money from First Baptist Church, Decatur because Julie is a woman, and she is the lead pastor. The good people of the Georgia Baptist Convention did not deem it worthy to communicate with the pastor or people of FBC, Decatur their intentions before taking last year's action. Possibly having learned their lesson, three Georgia Baptist Convention denominational officials met with Julie Pennington-Russell last week to inform her and the leadership of FBC Decatur that more than likely the church would be "disfellowshipped" from the Georgia Baptist Convention at next year's annual meeting.
(2). Denominational leaders expressing "concern" over what some in the Convention think about sister Southern Baptist churches, to the point of allowing a motion to "disfellowship" from those sister churches, is a very dangerous precedent that leads to an even more slippery slope. Where will it stop? What if some of us are "concerned" about other churches in the Southern Baptist Convention that has "male" leadership? Do our denominational leaders bear a responsiblity in churches financial problems are forcing banks to foreclose on the church, all due to "poor" leadership of the male lead pastor? Do our Baptist Convention's have the duty to "disfellowship" or "discipline" churches that allow autocratic, authoritarian male pastors to run amock? Are we genuinely concerned about our churches, or are we playing gender games?
The idea that the Executive Director of Georgia could personally be involved with FBC Decatur in terms of fellowship, but NOT as a representative of the Georgia Baptist Convention, makes me wonder if somehow, someway, we Southern Baptists have forgotten that the Convention is composed of PERSONS, the root word of personally, personhood, etc . . . I would like to know one reason why we who may disagree with a church calling a woman "lead" pastor should ever formally disfellowship from such a church? I may be concerned that a church, pastored by a male, is being run into the ground financially, but does that allow me to "disfellowship" from that church?
Let me illustrate.
Immanuel Baptist Church, Rogers, Arkansas
(5). It seems that at IBC, like it was at the IMB when Pastor Tom was chairman of the trustees, control is exerted by intimidation and fear. There must be total loyalty. There can be no dissent. According to a choir member who was in choir pracice before the Sunday morning service the Lord's Day after the worship pastor had been terminated, Pastor Hatley announced the dismissals and said to the choir, “I know you don’t like my decision, and I don’t care.”
On what basis would Southern Baptists disfellowship from FBC, Decatur and Julie Pennington-Russell? And, if the principle of "disfellowship" is strongly advocated by some Southern Baptists, then what would prevent someone in Arkansas from making a motion to disfellowship from Immanuel Baptist Church, Rogers for excessive debt, violating the Baptist principle of free dissent, and exhibiting a pastoral leadership style inconsistent with the New Testament principles?
I am uninterested in disfellowshipping from either church. But frankly, Southern Baptists, we had better wake up. We are being fed a bill of goods when we are told that disfellowshipping from FBC Decature is about "the Bible." It is not. If it were truly about the Bible and the biblical qualifications of pastors in the SBC, then we would be just as concerned for Immanuel Baptist Church, Rogers, Arkansas as we were for First Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia.
This is about power, control, and the good old boy network.
I refuse to be silent while the ship is sinking, and for heaven's sake, I need others to help right it.
P.S. For those of you who wish to flame in the comment section in defense of Tom Hatley and his church, I would simply ask that you consider offering the same defense on behalf of Julie Pennington-Russel and her church.
I desire fellowship with both."
Watchdog:
ReplyDeleteGuess I wasn't very clear. I didn't mean to say that your pastor and his wife are like Jim and Tammy; I was merely saying that the focus on self was in a similar vein as they used to be, though granted, not to their extent. I was making a comparison that the focus seems to be drifting into self-promotion. Since I don't attend there, I only know what I read here. Hope this clears up any confusion.
D
As I watch these TV advertisements Mac is putting out, in both TV land and radio land, the following questions come to mind:
ReplyDelete1. How much money does FBC Jax spend on TV advertising? The 2009 FBC Jax budget had a cut in all but two ministry areas: COMMUNICATIONS and BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION. Under the "communications" category, we are spending $546,620 on "communications outreach", a 39% increase over last year, and over $1 million in "Media", a 29% increase over last year. Both of those categories of expenditures are more than the annual budgets of most SBC churches.
2. Who is the intended "market" of these ads running late at night after midnight? I assume that if FBC Jax and other churches purchase advertising dollars, that they have evidence that it "reaches people" by drawing them to the church, else they wouldn't be buying it. So who does it attract? Who comes to FBC Jax when they see Mac and Deb sitting on a bench inviting them to church? Are lost people attracted to church by that? Or are dissatisfied church members looking for a new church home drawn to that?
3. Is TV advertising a requirement to grow a large church? Has the SBC done any research on the effectiveness of including TV advertising in a church's budget? I dare say that the churches in Jax that have grown the most over the past 10 years have NOT done TV and radio advertising. Aren't churches grown by word of mouth, personal evangelism, and a structured visitation program? TV advertising is a MUST?
4. Is it a wise use of funds to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase local TV spots - and the associated costs to produce them? Given that just about every other area of church ministry was cut, while media outreach was significantly INCREASED - why did we steal from other areas of ministry to purchase advertising dollars?
5. In a time when churches and seminaries and church agencies all over are facing budget cuts and reductions, and when people at FBC Jax will soon be asked to fork over 20 million dollars to implement Mac's vision and avoid going into debt, should Mac be paying his marketing consultants s to produce TV commercials of he and his wife to appear in the midnight to 5:00 am time slot?
6. Who in the church does Mac consult with as he makes decisions on how to spend the budgeted advertising dollars? Or do he and Deb and Maurilio pretty much make those calls on how to spend the budgeted media dollars?
7. Given Mac's decisions his first 3 years, do you trust Mac to make decisions on expenditures solely on what is best for our church and the advancement of our church's mission? Hmmmm....
Just a few questions for Mac - and his trustees that have been charged in the new bylaws to "mange the legal and finanical affairs of the Church". And I suppose the deacons can think about these questions too, even though Mac said they are not to be "businessmen". And if deacons are not to be "businessmen", you stupid sheep definitely don't need to be asking these questions, right? Just shut up and dig deep to show what a "willing heart" YOU have.
Back on Jim Smyrl - do you think Jim will be apologizing Wednesday night for lying about the FBC Dallas commercial and purposely misleading his audience about that commercial produced by FBC Dallas? Or is that what preachers joke about, what they call "ministerially speaking", when a preacher pulls out selected words from selected phrases when quoting for the expressed purpose of slandering a person or a church?
ReplyDeleteAs I said in my previous article, Jim is learning from the best, Mac himself. Mac purposely misled his church about Sheri Klouda and her testimony concerning her lawsuit, and now here comes Jumbo Jim Smyrl to tell us how FBC Dallas produced a "blasphemous, self promoting" TV advertisement by parsing together a few words from selected phrases of the commercial. Its sad to watch Jim Smyrl do this - the preacher who had so much promise when he was under the tutelage of Jerry Vines - now resort to the tactics of Mac Brunson.
Has Jim repented of this sin he has committed? Will the church discipline committee spring into action and demand that they meet with him about the diviseness of Jim's statements?
I don't think so...but that's OK....the congregation is on to you Jim...just preach on brutha! We're eager to hear your next tale...but you better believe your listeners are going to check every quote you give, every story you tell, because we NOW know not to trust you anymore to tell us the whole truth.
What a world we live in!
ReplyDeletePastor Smyrl, instead of addressing his incorrect usage of an example from FBC Dallas TV Ad, he is now questioning the role of women pastors, Life Way, Shack, Magazine of women pastors on a cover and the Life Way controversy ...
I get the feeling he is attempting to do the opposite of what Pastor Wade is doing.
Jim Smyrl: Lifeway without the Way
Wade's blog: A Tale of Two Churches and Their Leadership
Wade's blog: The Southern Baptist Convention Is Not a Cult: We Just Sometimes Act Like We Are
Over this past weekend, the most read article on Foxnews.com was entitled Magazines Featuring Female Pastors Pulled From Shelves, "Treated Like Pornography."
Wade's blog: Fundamentalism's Fury Needs One Who Needles
The Christian Century, an evangelical magazine who once counted Reinhold Niebuhr as a contributing editor, has posted an article about LifeWay's decision to remove the Gospel Today Magazine from their bookshelves because of Gospel Today's October cover story.
In The Christian Century article, the writer quotes several sentences from my blog as I offered my opinion regarding the controversial LifeWay decision. What caught my interest was the phrase the writer used in introducing me:
Burleson, a pastor in Enid, Oklahoma, who often needles SBC officials, asked September 24 on his blog . . .
And also, Shack's author is scheduled to talk at Pastor Wade's Church and this is causing some controversy, here.
"(9). I will get more email about William Paul Young, author of "The Shack," and his speaking at Emmanuel April 3-4, 2009 than any other event in 2009.
Before you write me, read number eight again. (smile)."
Its not surprising Thy Peace.
ReplyDeleteSmyrl, again, has learned from Brunson.
Smyrl and Brunson have a disdain for laypeople.
Brunson abuses and talks down to his congregation...assumes they don't read their bibles, don't know when to Amen, and he yells and screams at them.
Brunson has taken our Church Training (called "Christian Life University") and all but disbanded it...lay people are apparently too stupid and uneducated to teach other Christians during church training - need to bring in the seminaries to offer classes.
Need to move from bible teachers to "group leaders" since lay people just aren't qualified to actually stand and teach a 30 minute bible lesson. I've heard lay bible preachers at FBC Jax that would preach circles around Mac Brunson - and they did it out of the love of their hearts for Jesus and people - not for six-figure salaries like Team Brunson and Jim the Pearl Smyrl.
And now Brunson and Smyrl need to worry about what people read. Mac himself read the Shack, and has quoted it several times from the pulpit. But we're all too stupid to read what he reads. Smyrl wants to tell Lifeway what books they can offer.
Too bad. Smyrl is wasting his breath. No one will listen to Smyrl. He's a lightweight, a wannabe. And certainly no one in the SBC will listen to Brunson, as they know his antics at FBC Jax, and the more Smyrl opens his mouth the more people will see he's a chip off the old block (Mac).
Smyrl is just aching for attention. He's toiling under Mac Brunson - he watches Mac get the TV time, Mac makes the big dollars and lives the high life, and Smyrl wants people to notice him. He thinks his TDM is really something, and he is going to teach everyone how great it is at the Pastor's Conference. He has called Catholic priests "cult leaders", has accused FBC Dallas of producing a "blasphemous" commercial, and now he needs to save us SBC laypeople from the "poison" of books that don't measure up to Jim's standard.
Jim Smyrl is displaying cultic tendencies, and the people of FBC Jax need to start getting concerned.
Keep on speaking Jim! Eventually someone will notice you!
Check out Jeff Brumley's front page article in the Florida Times Union this morning: http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-01-27/story/bad_economy_hurts_area_churches_too
ReplyDeleteIt seems once again, Jeff makes assumptions about cause and effect without getting any input from the people that actually give the money. Jeff just assumes finances are tight because of the economy. He doesn't bother to ask about increased salaries for staff, increased media expenditures by these churches, or even increased giving by many folks in the pew. He also fails to investigate if giving is down for other reasons, such as extravagant spending by the pastor, or poor stewardship of the church on luxury buildings or programs that do not meet the needs of the congregation or the needs of the poor in the community.
And finally, maybe the lack of transparency and lack of accountability, by those who have been spending the donations, make people more uncomfortable in these times where all of us are cutting back.
What a story that would be. Find out all the factors as to why giving is down. Maybe a news reporter at the T-U, or Folio Weekly will actually dig deeper and give us some interesting stories to think about so we can all work together to get "God's money" doing God's work and not man's work.
Look at the bright side...so little of FBC Jax's mammoth budget actually goes to helping the needy in our community, that even if their giving goes down people in need in Jax won't be affected much. The only thing that will be affected at FBC Jax is more cuts for the ministries to themselves....I'm sure they won't even think about cutting advertising and marketing and promotions budgets. Mac is a CEO, and he knows "you have to spend money to make money"...and advertising is key to that.
ReplyDeleteSo all of us FBC Jax people can keep digging deep in this tough economy to help Team Brunson maintain their salary and advertising budget....but if we cut back it won't hurt the poor and homeless since hardly any of our money goes there anyways.
Just trying to view things from a positive persepctive!
If you people stay in that church,(FBCJ) the way it is being run now, you're just plain stupid.
ReplyDeleteI stay in the church, but don't believe I am stupid. I will say that I am one that has decreased my giving as the Brumley article reports. This economy has caused me to do some self correcting and self discipline of some loose spending I did in the past. Like Dr. Brunson preached, I still have my big screen TV, multiple cell phones, multiple cars, and take my vacations every year. Yet, I have had to make some tough financial decisions. In doing so, I have come to scrutinize my spending habits. This has also caused me to scrutinize the way my tithes and offerings are being spent at the church. Perhaps the church also needs to self-correct, or cut back in some areas where spending was loose during the booming economy. Since I see the church plowing forward with starting satellites and starting up a school (I saw expensive TV ads for the new school as well as for our church) and increasing advertising budgets while cutting ministry budgets, I disagree with how the money is being spent.
ReplyDeleteI realize that I am supposed to "just give the tithes and offering and let God worry about how it is spent." This is how I was always taught. Yet, I feel I can no longer trust the leadership. Dr. Brunson clearly said if we didn't give the money he would put us into debt, and so we better give a million dollars in two weeks. I was very hurt and upset by this. No talk of tough financial decisions or cut backs or his own sacrificing of his salary, or how his family has had to cut back.
So, I just wanted to share that I will be prioritizing my giving "to God" and will not be giving 10% of my income to the church. Instead, I will give 10% to "the Lord" by giving it to organizations that are ministering to those in need and not those that need millions just to keep their own doors open and their own lifestyles afloat.
Thanks for the forum to share my thoughts. I assume there are hundreds that feel the same way I do.
GG
Hey, why should I leave? They haven't come after ME yet! Anyone they have mistreated must have deserved it right? And if they hurt others in the process, so what, right? That's what you get for criticizing the blatant abuses of "God's man." I will stay, and I will pay for the ads for the church and the school. Hopefully, other Christians will leave their church and come to ours and be blessed by all of our luxuries and programs and buildings and will help pay for it all! (We even have TV's in the parking garage so I can read announcements when I walk through it or am waiting on the elevator.) And we have a lighthouse on one of our garages. Do you know how many people have been saved because of that? But man, to see my kid sing on TV and in front of that big crowd, makes me feel so special. No, I won't be leaving. And I will be continuing to give so the pastor's son and wife can support their families, and so Maurilio can continue to twitter about his fancy Vegas shows and expensive dinners and 5-head shower. This is what God wants me to do. It's in the Bible, right. I read my Bible everyday and it is all in there. "Touch not God's annointed" right.
ReplyDeleteMOST IMPORTANTLY, they are meeting MY needs. That is why I go to church and give my money, so that MY needs can be met. I have no concern for the lost, only MY children and my spouse. So, I don't like your blog. It criticizes my priorities and my comfort level with the blatant abuses I choose to ignore.
Focusing on Jesus would only make other people see the ridiculousness of my church and my heart. So, I hope nothing changes, I just hope you go away.
Thanks.
1. Smyrl's blog seems to have gone "poof"!
ReplyDelete2. Copying and pasting a long link in a comment often cuts off the end, making it useless.
How to Put a Link in a Comment
Try it a few times. It's easy!
"1. Smyrl's blog seems to have gone "poof"!"
ReplyDeleteIt [Smyrl's blog going poof] reminds me of this book of Tintin:
Tintin: Shooting Star by Herge
"2. Copying and pasting a long link in a comment often cuts off the end, making it useless."
The links are folded as shown here. Of course, if you are viewing in Post a Comment On ... mode, then it will be truncated.
Yes, it's easy to hyperlink.
I know I'm really late to be commenting on this, but I couldn't help being reminded of a billboard I saw downtown when I attended the Pastor's School in 1995. It featured larger than life pictures of Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Vines and the message said, "First Baptist Church invites you to come and hear our pastors." That may not be a verbatim quote but I promise you it's pretty doggone close.
ReplyDeleteI remember being surprised that these two great men of God would allow that kind of promotion to be done, as it seemed to be more about them than it was about HIM.
I'm not anti Lindsey and Vines. I was greatly blessed by attending their Pastor's Schools in 95 and again in 97. I'm also not anti or pro Brunson. Just thought I'd mention that Mac's not the only one who sometimes makes it about himself.