David Tarkington Speaks on The Gift...

Readers: As Mac and FBC Jax are mobilizing their Fay relief efforts (by the way the church canceled all Wed 8/20 activities), I wanted to give a brief update on Pastor David Tarkington of the First Baptist Church of Orange Park. This past Sunday before his sermon he did address the controversy directed toward he and his church after he decided it best for his church to refuse the $600,000 gift from one of the church members - the gift reportedly was a tithe on $6 million in lottery winnings.

David Tarkington has been silent since the story broke, refusing to speak to the news media, but did feel an obligation to speak to his church - very reminiscent of how Jerry Vines handled the controversy when his sermon at the 2002 SBC Pastor's Conference gained national news attention. Vines did not speak publicly on the controversy until he was in front of his people the following Sunday, when he gave a brief statement and has been mostly silent since about the controversy.

But Sunday David Tarkington did address the Lotto tithe gift controversy, and you can listen to his statement and his sermon by clicking here:

David Tarkington Explains His Decision to Refuse Lotto Gift

This link is a download of the entire .mp3 file, and it may take several minutes to download.

In his statement he explains that he did struggle with the decision, that he made his decision because God spoke to him through His word, and he stated that he is friends and pastor of the family offering the gift and they agreed with his decision. He said that since, his decision has been confirmed by people, pastors, and friends who have spoken to him. When I listen to David Tarkington I hear a humble man, a man who desires to be a shepherd of his people, a man who genuinely loves his people, who made a decision that was in the best interests of his church.

Lord bless you David Tarkington. You made the right decision, and God has been glorified, and you have shepherded your church well. May other pastors learn a lesson in all of this.

Mac's Hurricane Prep: "I Pray the Government Doesn't Get Involved"

"If a hurricane hits this city, I PRAY that the government doesn't get involved. I pray that the church rises up and does what the church is supposed to do." Pastor Mac Brunson, 2008

CLICK HERE TO HEAR MAC TELL US THAT HE HOPES THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT GET INVOLVED IF A HURRICANE HITS

Just wanted to remind everyone of the brilliance and bravery of Mac Brunson declaring that he prays the government doesn't get involved in hurricane relief, but hopes the church does it. Really? He's praying that? Is he even doing anything about it?

Now that the first tropical system is headed to Florida, people are making their preparations...and the GOVERNMENT begins to mobilize forces like moving National Guard forces into place. Government officials track the storm and alert people and get ready to issue evacuation notices if necessary...the National Hurricane Center (run by the GOVERNMENT) flies planes into storm to gather data; the state GOVERNMENT makes recommendations to the citizens, interacts with the federal GOVERNMENT to move federal resources through FEMA if necessary. Local GOVERNMENTS are opening up shelters and are enacting their emergency response plans. We are getting ready.

Last time I checked, FBC Jax is doing nothing to get ready for a hurricane hitting Jacksonville.

I'm glad the people, through the government, do rally the resources of our country to help prepare, and to help recover. How ignorant must a preacher be to say he "prays the government doesn't get involved?" Its ignorant because the reason the government has to provide the aid and not the church is that so many churches today are primarily interested in building buildings, in going on Holy Land trips, and giving money to CEO pastors. Churches like FBC Jax are not at all interested in using a significant portion of their budget to helping hurricane victims. I'm not making the case they should...just pointing out the stupidity of Mac's statement. So until you start to put your money where your mouth is Mac, I'm glad that the government will be involved.

While Mac is high-tailing up I-95 to North Carolina when the first hurricane heads this way, FEMA and the National Guard will be coming to help people.

Thank God for the government in hurricane preparation and relief.

A Strange Explanation of Pedophile Priests...

Jim Smyrl, Mac Brunson's right-hand man at FBC Jax who has been preaching Wednesday nights this summer, gave an interesting explanation of the root cause of the Catholic Church pedophile priest scandal in a recent sermon on the decline of the church in America :

"...how could that happen [12,000 pedophile priests]?....There was a little historical event called the reformation that was denied. And when you deny the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only mediator and the sufficiency of scripture alone as the only authority you will unleash all your sin."

Click here to listen to the entire clip.

I'm not sure I buy that explanation. It sure doesn't explain why there are many Southern Baptist and Independent Church pastors who have abused boys and girls.

Does it make sense to trace the pedophile priest scandal back to the Catholic church's failure to acknowledge the reformations of Martin Luther? Or could it more be blamed on sick, abusive men who feel empowered to abuse their power as "God's man" to seduce the innocent, operating in a climate where there is no organizational structure by which "God's man" is held accountable by other men, and where the needs and welfare of the "church" organization trumps the welfare of the abused?

I think that explanation is more realistic than tracing the problem back to the reformation. And it sure explains the abuses of Darrel Gilyard and Bob Gray.

A Pastor Refuses Gift From Lottery Winnings

Pastor David Tarkington of the First Baptist Church of Orange Park (Orange Park is a suburb of Jacksonville, Florida) is showing pastors what integrity is all about when it comes to gifts. And he's showing that even very large gifts - given to the pastor or to the church - sometimes aren't worth accepting if its possible that the gift might cast a shadow on the church.

A news report came out today that Pastor Tarkington (see picture at left - he, like Brunson, is a SWBTS grad) has refused a $600,000 gift to his church from Robert Powell, who recently won $6 million in the Florida Lotto and attempted to give a tithe to Tarkington's church.

Tarkington is not speaking publicly about his refusal of the gift, at least not yet, but what an example Tarkington is setting for pastors when it comes to gifts. Perhaps Tarkington believes it would be a poor testimony for his church to accept a gift that was generated by the vice of gambling. Perhaps Tarkington has preached to his congregation that playing the lotto is not wise and Christians should avoid it - and accepting the gift would make him look like a hypocrite. Tarkington knows that the potential....just the potential....of bad press by accepting "lotto money" just wasn't worth it. So he refused the gift. Wow. Now that's a testimony. That's integrity.

Contrast Pastor Tarkington with Mac Brunson. As I have written about numerous times here on this blog (here and here), Mac Brunson accepted a $300,000 land gift from one of the donors of his church, FBC Jacksonville, just three weeks after Brunson was hired. When this blog called Mac out on this and said he had no business accepting a gift from one of the church members, especially just weeks after Mac was hired and given a generous salary and benefit package by the congregation, Mac's supporters have said repeatedly that the gift was God's blessing on "God's man", that it was a private matter. To make matters worse and raising even more suspicion, about a year or so after the gift was given, Mac aired a commercial for the business of the sons of the man who gave him the gift - right in the middle of his sermon.

Too bad Mac didn't have the integrity of Pastor Tarkington when he was faced with the decision to accept or not accept the $300,000 land gift. Too bad he didn't realize that people would learn that in his textbook for pastors that he cautions pastors against accepting large gifts and he would be viewed as a hypocrite if he himself took a large gift. Sure, the local media hasn't reported on Mac's gift...not yet...but if and when they do, he'll have to a bit of explaining to do as why he accepted the gift, why he did it when he tells others to not do it....why the deed says "for love and affection" when he barely knew the giver...and why he never told his congregation about the gift. So many answers he'll have to give, and when it hits the press it will set FBC Jacksonville back a few more decades when people again accuse FBC Jax being a church of rich, money-hungry fat cats. Too bad Mac couldn't see that the problems the gift is causing him now in his ability to lead the church, and WILL cause him when the media shines light on it.

Jim Smyrl preached tonight about how America is becoming a "post-Christian nation", and that perhaps in the next generation churches will be turned into bars or coffee houses as in Europe. Jim says people in America are becoming less interested in church and Christianity - and he likes to blame this on stuck-in-the-past Christians, traditionalists, legalists - you know, those crusty old church members who like the preacher to wear a tie. Maybe one of the contributors to this problem too, Jim, is pastors like Mac who seem hell bent on using their people and their position and their power to enrich themselves and their family. When people see a preacher earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, putting family on staff, accepting $300,000 land gifts from his church donors on the side, driving luxury cars and using God's money for building luxury office suites and putting himself on national TV...maybe THAT is one of the major problems in Christendom today Jim Smyrl. The lost seeing men like Mac using Christianity to gather riches unto themselves while calling others to sacrificially give. Its not just complacent church members that are the problem Jim - its preachers among your own ranks that are hurting the church.

But thank goodness for the David Tarkington's out there...that still can look at a gift and rightly judge the wisdom of accepting or not accepting it. His decision to turn the $600k down probably wasn't easy, some in his church will no doubt tell him all the good he could have done with it...some might even call him a "legalist", a "traditionalist", and a "fundamentalist" for not accepting it. As I've written before, Mac could have used his influence on the giver to encourage him to give the gift to the church, as a down payment on the school, to perhaps serve as a seed to encourage others to sacrificially give - but he didn't. But Pastor Tarkington, you advanced the cause of Christ in your decision to refuse the gift. Good for you and good for your church.

Too bad Mac couldn't do the same.

Visitor's Reception - Its All About Mac

What makes Mac's rapid departure Sunday and cancellation of the visitor's reception particularly egregious is that our church paid for a TV commercial spot Saturday evening on the local NBC affilitate during the Olympics at around 9:00 pm - it was Mac's "make FBC Jax your third place" commercial where he tells prospective church members to visit and after the service "the coffee's on me". No telling how much we paid for that prime time spot to air during the Olympics, but couldn't Mac perhaps arrange his preaching gigs so that he can make it to the visitor's reception on the Sunday immediately following a high-priced TV spot inviting visitors? NO ACCOUNTABILITY

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Again Mac left the church service during the invitation this Sunday. He had to catch a plane to "go to the mission field up north to preach to Yankees". As soon as he said "Come to Jesus", he made a beeline for the exit door, bouncing off the plebe coming to the front wondering why the pastor was leaving so quickly.

Again, where's the accountability? I thought he said he was accountable to his congregation LAST WEEK? If he was accountable to his congregation he would show us the respect of at least staying for the entire service and not leaving before the invitation is over like he's some high-paid rock star. Can't our lay leadership explain the rules to Mac: don't leave services early...ESPECIALLY when you bless-out the church when THEY leave early!

Listen to Mac scold people for leaving early, and giving the ONE acceptable reason.

Yep, that's Mac a few months ago angrily telling us to "sit down for once in [our] lives". Does he look for ways to sound like a jerk? And notice he gives the one acceptable reason to leave early: medical reasons. He needed to add a second acceptable reason: "...if you have to leave to catch a plane so that you can earn some supplemental income at another church by recycling the sermons you've already preached to your congregation."

And to make matters worse, poor Brother Jim Whitmire had to announce to everyone that the guest reception was canceled because our pastor has to catch a plane after the service. Why oh why do we need Mac Brunson to hold a guest reception? What happened to the cup of coffee that Mac promises visitors ("after the service, the coffee is on me" is what Mac tells our visitors in our "third place" commercial running after midnight on TV-12 and Fox News channel)? Can't we still greet them, have our highly paid executive staff there to greet them and answer their questions about our ministries? Was John Blount too busy yesterday? What about Smyrl, was he needing to get to Golden Corral? Most of these executive staffers could stand to skip a meal anyways. How about George Kemp? And the others...they aren't qualified to greet our visitors?

NOTICE TO LAY LEADERS, SPECIFICALLY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND CHAIRMAN OF THE DEACONS: Will you please do your job, and go to Mac and our "executive staff" and explain that we expect them to hold a guest reception EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY MORNING? Mac has told us that "people aren't home anymore", so our one chance to perhaps shake their hand, showcase our ministries, and ascertain their spiritual condition might be while they're at the church! We have AMPLE staff members to do a first class visitor's reception every single Sunday morning. That should be a priority every single week - we have people COMING TO OUR CHURCH TO VISIT and we need to do everything we can to have our staff personally greet them - having representative staff members to explain ministries that would be of specific interest to them.

But apparently our executive staff is either too lazy to hold this event on their own, or they won't stand up to Mac and convince him that Mac and Honey are not the focus of the reception, but the GUESTS are the focus of the reception. If we can't trust our highly paid, seminary-trained, executive staff members to do the right thing on their own, then the lay leaders need to come forward and explain it to them. Brother Jim Whitmire, you might be the one man down at the church who might be able to exert the influence. Tell these young whipper snappers to greet our visitors, that you're tired of explaining to our guests to "come back" next week to see the pastor.

But its amateur hour at FBC Jax. The Watchdog is trying to help, but they won't listen.