Happy Birthday Watchdog!

Readers: Today, August 30th marks the first anniversary of the Watchdog website. In the first year, the site has logged over 100,000 visits, and a quarter of a million page views from all over the United States, and countries all over the world. There is extreme interest among Christians in our city and all around the SBC of what is happening at our church under the leadership of Team Brunson.

Thank you to the readers of the Watchdog who have kept this site going. I ask that those of you in the Jacksonville area share this site with others so that they can keep up with what is going on at FBC Jacksonville, particularly as it pertains to the "Life Links" and "South Campus". I will continue to share on this blog what is happening at our church, and my personal observations and analysis.

Blessings to all....

The Watchdog

Satellites and "Life Links" - It IS All About Mac After All

Just some brief notes (and questions and observations) about the FBC Jacksonville's plan to expand their church through the use of what they call "Life Links" and satellite churches. I received several emails from congregants who attended an informational meeting Sunday 8/24 about these plans. The meeting was poorly attended, only 50 or so people showed up. Below are some answers you might have about this ministry.

- Why Satellites? 'Cause Mac is AWESOME! Jim Smyrl gave several reasons for going the satellite route versus a mission church; main reason? According to Smyrl, few if any preachers in Jacksonville or the country, are preaching spiritual truth in wonderful sermons like Mac Brunson. There you have it...we actually need to get more visibility for Mac in ALL of Jacksonville. He's just so darned talented in his preaching!! Our model for church growth? Build the brand of Mac Brunson. Can Jim point us to an example of where a stagnant downtown church, one that is legalistic and traditionalist, has achieved growth through a satellite ministry? Aren't most satellite concepts born out of necessity, a growing, vibrant, alive church busting at the seams needing more space?

- Where will the Satellite Be? Where the rich, er I mean the "unchurched" are, of course. The first satellite, the "South Campus" will open up Easter Sunday 2009. I'm not sure, but from the information I have it might be at Nease HS or some other location on 210 near Nocatee.

- Can You Be a "Life Link"? Only if you give up the beer and illicit sex! In advance of launching the satellite the church is enlisting volunteers to be "Life Links" - holding bible studies or in-home church, including child care, in their homes on Sunday evenings to disciple new believers. But you do have to sign a pledge card which I'm told were passed out at the informational meeting! On the pledge card you have to agree to the following:

• you cannot allow any of the current church members to attend your home church (you wouldn't want us anyways, we're so traditionalist and legalistic). Church staff will be driving by and doing spot checks to make sure none of the downtown legalists infiltrate your home church;
• you must agree to abstain from consumption of ANY and ALL alcoholic beverages and any illicit sexual activity (at least until you stop being a Life Link leader). Maybe that's a wise policy, but can we get any more legalistic than that? So a person at our church who might enjoy a glass of wine isn't qualified to hold a Bible Study at his house? Get REAL! Not only is that legalistic, its so hypocritical! Mac in 2 1/2 years has never, ever from the pulpit encouraged his congregation to abstain from alcohol. But he needs to put that legalistic yoke on the Life Linkers? Is that the same requirement for Sunday School teachers? Has the "No Limits" class adhered to this policy?
• You agree to do everything you can to ensure the safety of children. Strange that this would be on the commitment card - isn't that common sense? Is this to limit church liability if someone gets hurt on the property? "We told them to ensure the safety of the children!!" Good question for a LifeLinker to ask Smyrl: does the church's liability insurance cover me while I am hosting a FBC Jax sponsored event in my home?
• LifeLinkers must agree to do everything they can to launch another LifeLink home within so many months. They also agree to submit required data on their meetings Monday morning, attend all LifeLink organizational meetings, attend church downtown Sunday mornings...you know, a list...a legalistic list that is preached against Sunday after Sunday.
• Have to agree to not send any anonymous emails to the pastor, or read any of the Watchdog blog entries, must bring your Bible to church, and you must "stop sitting there and do what the pastor says". (OK, I made this one up...but I hear the above parts of the commitment are true).

- Who Will Preach The Services? Who Else? Our Rock Star Preacher! when the South Campus opens there will be 2 services, a 9:00 am service where Mac will preach live, and that sermon will be recorded and shown in a 10:30 service. Yep, we're exporting Mac Brunson to southern Jacksonville! This is going to be tough for Mac, since he only averages about 1 sermon a week lately. We need to pray for him that he can do it! But research does show that sheep beatings are much less effective and motivating when delivered by tape or satellite feed. Might need to invest in some Bose speakers to get the full affect of Mac's anger.

- What About Life Links in Other Parts of the City? Smyrl said that they are interested in Life Links all over Jacksonville, not just the southern part. Perhaps the longer range plan is to start campuses in other parts of the city...which makes sense, because if these other preachers aren't preaching the Word like Mac does, then by golly we need to get satellites all over Jacksonville and quick! News flash: like many of you, I've heard pastors all over this city, from the independent fundamental baptists to the "seeker friendlies"...and Mac doesn't have anything on most other preachers in this town...except that he is angrier, yells louder, assumes the worst of his congregation, doesn't make Jesus the center of most sermons, doesn't check his historical facts, and even tells an occasional slanderous fib about former church members. Seems to me that Mac is what we could call a "hybrid preacher" - he has combined the worst of "fundamental" and "seeker friendly" preaching styles....in short: angry, negative preaching, and not much Jesus. Not sure who the target audience in southern Jacksonville is for that brand of preaching.

On Sunday morning Mac told of a wealthy man that he had breakfast with earlier in the week - he was a professing Christian, but not a Southern Baptist...and this man stroked a check for a large sum of money ($20,000 I believe) to help pay for a FBC Jax satellite in Jacksonville. Mac used this little story as proof of there being a great demand for our church in southern Jacksonville. This made me wonder: would Mac would have accepted the $20k if the man had tried to give it to Mac personally out of "love and affection"? Hmmm....Mac, be sure to give this man's name and number to our Director of Special Projects - a good source of cash when he needs to raise another $100k for the pastor's conference like last year.

Well, that's what I know about the Life Links and Satellite plans for southern Jacksonville. Sorry, if you need more info you need to contact Jim Smyrl. Churches in that area, you have about 8 months to prepare for the "FBC Jax Southern Campus" invasion...yes, we're concentrating on just new converts now, but you can bet there will plenty of sheep stealing going on as we start the new campus in 2009. But not to worry, once people get a dose of Mac Brunson cruising in his "luxury car" from his "executive home" to preach Sunday mornings, and his anger and animus and arrogance from the pulpit, they'll be longing to return to their humble shepherd pastor down the road. Besides, the FBC Jac members are a "hotbed of legalism", so who would want to link with that kind of church anyways?

Life Link converts: Just be careful of the Kool Aid that will be supplied by the church and served at the Life Link locations; I hear its quite addictive. ;)

How Shall We Vote?

Readers: I know this is awfully late in the game as we go to the voting booth tomorrow to vote for Circuit Judge, choosing between Adrian Soud (left) a member of our church, and Mark Hulsey (right), but I received the following email today from a reader and it got me to thinking about the vote for judge tomorrow and thought I'd share it with you:

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Mr. Watchdog - I read your site occasionally. The email below was forwarded to me by a family member. Please feel free to post it for your readers if you think it relates to your topics. In my opinion, it looks like lay leaders at FBC Jax think they can handpick leaders, even inexperienced judges to rule over us.

Jacksonville voters: If you are planning on voting Tuesday, you may not have much information on the judge candidates. Please help make our judicial system better for yourself as a future person in front of our judges, and for our attorneys, who will be practicing in front of these newly elected judges. OUR CIRCUIT JUDGES MUST PRESIDE OVER AND DECIDE CASES IN FIVE AREAS OF LAW - criminal, civil, family law, probate and juvenile law.

MARK HULSEY (http://hulsey4judge.com/experience.html) has 25 years trial experience, including family, commercial, products liability and negligence litigation and is a great candidate with over a decade of military experience as well as having raised a family. He is running against 34-year-old Adrian Soud, who is a personal injury lawyer who worked only one year with a large law firm (did he ever actually see ANY client's during that training year before he left the firm?) before working for himself in his own office ever since. He has NO JURY TRIAL EXPERIENCE in four of the above areas of law he will be presiding over if elected! Why is Adrian Soud even running against Mark since Adrian admittedly has no experience with family law, juvenile law, probate cases or criminal law? It may be because his dad was a judge with a reputation of integrity and people know the family name. Also, Adrian also has the support of influential people at the First Baptist Church downtown, who would like to see one of their own elected, regardless of any legal experience deficiencies he may have. As reported in the Jacksonville Times Union (who has endorsed Mark Hulsey): "Soud's father, A.C., was a Circuit Court judge for 26 years. His mother, Ginger, spent nine years on the City Council. But the elder Soud said a spot on the bench is no hand-me-down."Forget politics," the retired judge said. "No one should assume they're going to get a position on the Circuit Court bench as a matter of entitlement or legacy. It's just simply too important." I agree! Please vote for Mark Hulsey, not Adrian Soud!

For the out-of-town readers: Adrian Soud is a former Treasurer-Secretary at our First Baptist Church, and has grown up at the church. I believe he is a Sunday School teacher as well. His dad has been a judge and member at FBC Jax for decades, and his mom also a long record of stellar public service. A great family with an impeccable reputation. I personally want Christians like Adrian Soud to run for office - that is great - but now I'm a bit perplexed on who to vote for in this election. It seems hard for me to fathom how a man with limited trial experience at all, at just 34 years of age, and who has very limited experience in practicing law in 4 of the 5 areas of law that he would preside over as judge...could do a good job in that position whether he be a Christian or not. For those FBC Jax church members who might be inclined to vote for Adrian because we know of him, his family, and his reputation...would not the wiser choice be to vote for a more seasoned, experienced man? Do we really want a 34-year old personal injury lawyer from our church to take over the important role of Circuit Judge?

Would be interested to hear some thoughts from the rest of you. By the way, you can visit Adrian Soud's election website at: http://www.soudforjudge.com/.

"How Not to Garner Support for Your New Ministry" by Mac Brunson

In the next clip from Sunday 8/17, Mac decides to whip the sheep into submission. Instead of displaying the love, care and compassion of a shepherd, Mac likes to put his hands on the sheep so-to-speak. His sheep are concerned over his plans to start a satellite campus. How does he motivate? How does he encourage them to get involved?

Before the quote let me explain the plan for satellites. I've blogged about this plan before, and here's how it works: Mac is getting couples to commit to hosting "Life Links" in their homes - which are a re-hashed version of "cell groups" from the 1990's...but these cell groups will meet on Sunday night while church is held at FBC Jax. The people hosting these cell groups have agreed to allow the church to come in and inspect their home to make sure that it is suitable (including an inspection of their browser cache to make sure they're not reading the Watchdog). The cell groups, er I mean Life Links will be focusing on reaching "unchurched" people in their neighborhoods.

Then, after these Life Links are formed and we have new sheep, when they're ready for fleecing we'll be moving them to a satellite church or two...with the first satellite to host the inaugural service on Easter Sunday 2009! We can then teach them about tithing, introduce them to Mac's 501(3) website and Holy Land Trips, and we can start sheep stealing from the other church's in that area to build the FBC and Mac Brunson brands.

So that is how it works. Mac needs to motivate people to sign up to be a part of this ministry, so how does he do it? Well, only like Mac can do it, he decides to bully us. Instead of focusing on the positive, that he has a significant number already but that we need more...and that its an exciting ministry....no Mac decides to take the dark, negative road in motivation.

"We're desperately trying to get couples to come and sign up to be hosts for these Life Links. We're going into the southern part of Jacksonville....[then mockingly quoting his opposition]: 'Well I'm just not really for that'. You're not for reaching the southern part of Jacksonville for Jesus Christ? [again mockingly quoting opposition:] 'Well I just don't want our people to leave'. I'm not here to hold warm fuzzy meetings. So we can all be close, and all be tight, and all be wonderful. [screaming:] I WANT TO REACH PEOPLE FOR JESUS!! That's why we're here. This isn't a club. This is the church. The church exists to give God glory and to reach a lost generation. That's why we're here...."

Click Here to Listen to Mac Yourself

and

Click here to Listen to Mac Reprimand for Not Clapping Enough

Instead of lovingly explaining to us again the ministry (some still might be confused about what it is), instead of telling us the benefits of becoming involved...he instead decided to attack the motives of some who might have reservations! Instead of honesty, humbly, lovingly addressing some of his sheep's concerns over this major change that will greatly affect every area of our church, he decides to condescendingly belittle and mischaracterize and dismiss their concerns. In Mac's world, if you're not in favor of his new ministry, then you are out of God's will because you don't want to reach people for Christ. I might be opposed to his ministry, but still be in favor for reaching people with the gospel. Not in Mac's mind. You're either for his ministry, or against God's plan to win the lost in southern Jacksonville. What a jerk. These are not the words of a shepherd pastor. Shepherd's don't whip their sheep into submission.

Some people who are concerned about how this will affect our fellowship had Mac insult their intelligence by sternly saying "this isn't a club". We know its not a club. And because its not a club, its not to be used for fund raising for Israeli hospitals where abortions are performed when a couple of influential deacons decided to use our church for that last fall (with Mac's lame excuses like: "last time I checked the Old Testament is part of our Bible" and "Jesus was a Jew"). You ought to also realize sir that its a church, not a travel agency to be used by you to promote your own 501(c)3 Holy Land Trips!! Come on Mac! Can't you see what a hypocrite you are?

Let's just hope that Mac's plan for the satellite campus is to use some of our other preachers like Marcus Allen, Jr. and Rush Whitt to preach, and that it wont' be a weekly dose of bashing from Mac Brunson. However, based on Mac's explanation of satellites back in 2006, his plan is to drive and preach at each location until we get live satellite feeds. Now that's motivation: let's all work hard so Mac can whip the sheep via satellite.

One other option for those of you interested in reaching your neighborhood for Christ: instead of doing a "Life Link" and having your home inspected; instead witness to your friends by being a loving, helpful neighbor, tell them about Christ and what he's done for you and your family, and encourage them to go to a local church where they can be loved on by a humble, pastor-shepherd and congregation, and where they can be fed from the Word...and not subjected to the verbal abuses of Mac Brunson each week.

How Much Pastoral Abuse Must We Take?

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Storm Update: Sorry Mac, the government is on the way. President Bush has declared Florida a disaster, and thus FEMA has been activated. Thank you President Bush for offering the assistance of FEMA, even though our Pastor Mac Brunson has been praying that you do NOT send FEMA, we are very happy that you have and we welcome the assistance. So until Mac "rises up the church" we'll take the government's help!

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This past Sunday the members of FBC Jax were treated to another childish rant by their pastor Mac Brunson. He doesn't learn from his mistakes, and its so painfully obvious that he doesn't have anyone who is willing to speak the truth to him about how he needs to stop abusing his congregation from the pulpit. His negative rants against his congregation are becoming more frequent, and more abusive.

Case in point: in Sunday's sermon Mac presumed to know whether his members had or had not filled out the "316 cards" that were passed out to members a few weeks ago. The "316 cards" were a gimmick to get people to write three names of lost people, and to agree to pray for them 1 time a day, for six weeks. Pretty clever, huh? Get it: 3 - 1 - 6, as in John 3:16). Do you think Maurilio Amorim, Mac's ace church marketing consultant, came up with this? Good job Maurilio if it was your creative team in Nashville that came up with the 316 card! After we get the A-Group to print more of the 316 cards maybe we can have them work on archiving and making available video of our services on the Internet!

Sunday Mac says the following to his congregation, in an accusatory, negative tone:

"We passed out two weeks ago '316 cards'; we asked you to fill those out. I wonder how many did that. I'm afraid to ask you to raise your hands. You all just sit there and you don't ever do what I ask you to do. I asked you to fill these things out....How many of us have taken those 316 cards and we're everyday praying for three people that are lost. See, we won't even pray for 'em. We won't even write their name down because if I write their name down then I'm under obligation...YOU'RE ALREADY UNDER OBLIGATION!! Not my word, if you got a Bible, Paul says it right here!"

Click here to hear it yourself!

Wow Pastor...thanks for painting everyone with a broad brush. How the h-e-double-hockey-stick do you know who has filled out the cards? Who's telling you that we aren't praying for people to be saved? And do you really think that preaching this way is going to motivate people to fill out your little card? Where's the love pastor? Why the anger, pastor? Not only that, how legalistic is this. Mac and Jimmy Smyrl like to preach about the dangers of legalism, even accusing our church of being legalistic, yet Mac boils down our faithfulness in witnessing to whether we participate in he and Maurilio's latest gimmick of writing names on a 316 card. Like you've told us Mac...YOU'RE LEGALISM STINKS.

This kind of anger expressed by a pastor, this kind of presumption to think the very worst of his congregation and lashing out...its just so against a pastor's calling to be a shepherd of his people. Even Mac knows this, as he has written in his "The New Guidebook for Pastors", where he is discussing a pastor's leadership and "shepherding" of God's people:

"It is obvious that God chose someone [David, as an example of a shepherd of God's people] who was tender and gentle and a reflection of Himself...The method of biblical leadership is one of tenderness, gentleness, and compassion. We are never more like Christ when we are shepherding God's people." ("The New Guidebook for Pastors", page 75)

Another example of how Mac is making money from his book (which is required reading at many of our seminaries) by telling pastors how THEY should behave, while he himself behaves in another way. Maybe Darrell Gilyard will write a book on marital fidelity and youth ministry and we can make that required reading too.

This case is not just an isolated event. Most Sundays Mac takes a swipe at his congregation. Whether its about bringing Bibles, or paying attention, or presuming to know what we're doing or not doing...how we are legalistic, or worshipping the past...he seems to find a reason to assume THE WORST in his congregation, not the best. So sad.

Later in this same sermon, Mac decided to whine about how he is not getting enough support for his "Life Links" initiative. But I'll save that rant for a post later this week.

Watchdog checking out...weathering the storm waiting for Mac and the church to "rise up" and bring their aid to help!