The Power of the People

Readers - Just a few comments as we move into the Chest of Joash Sunday:

- I have a few posts that I will be making this weekend as we get ready to be fleeced by Mac Sunday, so please stay tuned over the weekend. Readership of this blog is increasing, and more people in our congregation are opening their eyes to the abuses of Mac Brunson at our church. Granted, these abuses are not gross moral abuses like a Gilyard or Gray perpetrated at their churches and thus they won't ever gain media attention, but they are abuses nonetheless that the church should be on guard against. Many of the abuses we are facing we were warned about by our previous pastors.

- Don't be afraid to pass this website on to others in our church. We need more people to begin to think deeply about what is going on at our church. Its no coincidence that our pastor has been using Sunday sermon time to express his concern about "what you all are reading" and expressing that he thinks we are gullible enough to be led away. The pastor doesn't want people to read this blog that shines light on his actions and words because he knows the end result of people thinking about what they are hearing and seeing at their church.

- As I said in my previous post, one of the insidious actions taken by the Brunson regime and his band of trustees, was the unexplained bylaw changes that took power away from the congregation and gave it to the mostly rich lay leaders appointed by Mac Brunson. But I do declare, they can pass all the bylaw changes they desire, and grant themselves all sorts of power to exert their will in the church. But I want to remind the readers of this blog: the power will ALWAYS belong to the congregation, because the power the leaders have is derived from the willingness of the people to give.

- Mac knows this is true - that is why in his two stewardship sermons his methods to get you to give to the church were guilt, obligation, right fellowship with the church, tradition, and words of dead pastors. He never put forth the New Testament principles of giving, and to make it worse, he didn't even bother to make a biblical case for tithing but misused scripture pointing to Romans 13 - believers giving a special offering to help poor believers in another city - as justification for us to tithe when that scripture had absolutely ZERO to do with the biblical principles of tithing that Mac has legalistically taught since arriving.

So I implore you to NOT give money to the special offering. Mac admitted that we met the budget needs of the church, and that we are $800,000 below budget on expenses. The church has the money, or they can get it in the next fiscal year by better budgeting. I also ask you to consider reducing your giving to the church - this is the only way you have to take the power back from the pastor and his trustees that stole it from us last December in the bylaw changes. Furthermore, don't be afraid to pass this website on to other believers so they can get another side to the FBC Jax story than the lies of Mac Brunson.

Stay tuned...I'll be writing about the many lies of Mac Brunson in his 9/21 sermon which was chock full of legalism and lies.

A Sheep's Quick Look Behind As We Get Fleeced This Sunday...

As Mac sharpens his sheers to fleece us all this Sunday, let us gullible sheep indulge ourselves to look to the past to see what Mac has done to our church in terms of leadership, decision making, and financial expenditures. Mac is a man who never met either of the Lindsay's, yet when it comes time to whip the sheep for money he loves to proclaim to know what the Lindsay's would say or do. How convenient - he tells us to not look to the past, but he loves to look back when its convenient for him - like when he tries to hang the yoke of legalistic tithing instead of teaching New Testament giving. So we shall take an honest look backward at the past as the clippers are warming up.

Mac's sermon (infomercial) Sunday was a hurried attempt to try to paint Mac and Smyrl as innovative leaders in our church - as though they have ushered in a new day with "theology driven ministry" - as though we were previously "comic book driven ministry" or something else...but don't be fooled church. There's another side to Mac's story. That is the side that Mac has hijacked power at our church to himself to do what HE wants, irrespective of what his congregation, which is a royal priesthood of believers at FBC Jax, believes should be done.

Its been almost 3 years since the end of the Lindsay/Vines era at our church, and as time passes and we are exposed to the Brunson regime week after week through his abusive preaching its very easy to be become numb, to forget what the leadership and decision making principles were that made our church great. Don't listen to Mac when he proclaims to know what Homer Lindsay Sr. or Homer Lindsay Jr. would do - as I said he never met either man, and he is very ignorant on the history of our church as evidenced by him thinking we were "cutting edge" in years gone by.

Here are three leadership and decision making principles that made our church great that Mac has absolutely turned upside down:

1. The "Priesthood of the Believer" was recognized by the Congregational Rule form of leadership in our church and our bylaws.

Under Lindsay/Vines:

• Our pastors and lay leaders have long understood that our church was governed by "congregational rule", under the biblical principal of the "priesthood of the believer" in 1 Pe 2:9.
  
• When a decision was to be made that required special funding or capital funds, a vote was taken before the money was spent. The vote was announced, and it was genuinely taken in a regular, or previously announced business meeting. If the congregation did not approve it, it wasn't done.

Under Brunson:

• He and our yes-men lay leaders clandestinely changed our church bylaws on November 28, 2007 in a business meeting where absolutely NO explanation was given by the pastor as to what the changes were, or why they were made. These changes shifted power from the congregation to the pastor and the lay leaders of the church, thus we are in effect no longer a congregation led church
  
• The bylaw changes removed the right of the church to hold a special business meeting (thus the congregation could not call for a vote on the pastor's position);
• The bylaw changes specifically state that members agree to have all disputes with the church settled by arbitration - the end result of which is to remove a path for members to legally demand detailed financial records of the church
  
• The pastor has assumed sole responsibility to appointing trustees of the church, and the finance committee was disbanded and made part of the trustees, appointed by the pastor.
  
• Mac has repeatedly demonstrated a low view of the members of his church by constantly accusing them of not reading their bibles, not supporting the pastor, and his low esteem of his congregation was evidenced by his failure to distribute the bylaws prior to the vote. He has spoken ill of our congregation away from our church on multiple occasions, further evidence of his low view of the sheep he was called to pastor.

2. The Pastoral Authority in our church was something that was earned by the pastor, and voluntarily given by the congregation.

Under Lindsay/Vines:

• FBC was a congregational ruled church, and our pastors recognized that. Calvin Carr will vouch for that as he has preached about church polity in his new church in Gainesville. However, our church had chosen to willingly give our pastors much moral authority in making decisions. Our pastors had demonstrated their love and commitment to the church and this city after years of sacrifice; they were rewarded with loyal members following their leadership in almost all decisions;
• This moral authority was not something demanded by the pastor as a function of his position - it was granted to him by our congregation. He didn't use his power to lord over us and beat us, or to be a dictator and demand we do what he does without a vote or before the money is given. We willingly followed their loving leadership based on years and years of them demonstrating to us that they walked with Jesus, and that they loved the church and had the best interests of the church and the community.

Under Brunson:

• Mac came in from day 1 behaving as though he should have the same moral authority granted to him as a function of his position as the new "Pastor" at our church. This was evidenced by taking a salary as large as previous pastors, practicing blatant nepotism by putting wife and son on staff in newly created positions , and having our church spend $100,000 and using 3000 sf of prime Children's Building space for a lavish office suite. Its good to be da king.
  
• Even accepting the $300,000 land gift and a year's rent free stay at an ocean front condo as he did three weeks after arriving in Jacksonville send a signal that he believes himself worthy of such an honor as receiving a 6-figure gift based solely on his position, not his sacrifice. He should have politely refused that gift and urged the man to use it for the Lord's work, not to enrich the pastor.
  
• Instead of Mac coming in here and getting busy to preach and roll up his sleeves and work hard and love us, he took 2 months with pay to arrive, sporadically preached his first year, vacating the pulpit on Sunday mornings and night without letting his congregation know, sometimes by his own admission he could work on his book manuscript (the book where he counsels pastors not to accept large gifts or live in "executive" homes) began using our church to advertise for his Holy Land trips, etc. Mac embarrassed our church by not keeping his commitment to serve faithfully on the Mayor's crime prevention steering committee. In short, Mac came in as the "rock star", not as the new humble preacher coming to build good will with the people.

3. Decisions were voted on by the church, after the pastor presented the plans and asked people to pray and to give.

Under Vines/Lindsay:

• When the pastors determined what major direction they believed the church should go in, they brought it to the church and clearly communicated it - why it was necessary, how it was rooted in scripture, and they asked us to pray.
  
• If it required capital funds (as many decisions did during our high growth years), the financial needs were communicated, and the people were asked to pray and give as the Lord moved. When the funds were raised and we were ready to launch, a vote was taken of the congregation to spend the money.
• Our church historically has used the people's willingness to give as a sign that the Lord was moving in the church. The pastors did not go into debt for several reasons, one of which was they knew that if the Lord was in something, at least as God had moved in our church for decades, then God would move the hearts of his people to give the money needed! It wasn't just a desire to stay out of debt; but the pastors trusted the people to give as evidence that God was moving.

Under Brunson:

• Because of his low esteem for the people of God, that we don't read our bibles, we don't even bring our bibles, and we're a bunch of legalists with "no real relationship with Jesus Christ": because of this, the congregation must be told what to do.
  
• After Mac tells us what he wants to do, then he builds a case to convince us that its a good idea. For those who might disagree or don't respond as he asks, he will mischaracterize or minimize their concerns from the pulpit. Case in point his anger at the church for not being behind totally behind the satellite concept. He'll use guilt to try to convince people to go with him.

I have blogged about many instances making the above case. The latest one I will point to is the decision to start a school downtown. Mac wanted a school. He believes that it is necessary. He lied to us and said that knocking on doors doesn't work, and thus, we MUST start a school if we're going to reach Jacksonville with the gospel. That's a lie out of hell. Its not a requirement to reach our city. But Mac wants it. An endeavor like that takes start up costs...to the tune of $500,000. So what did Mac do? Well, I can tell you what Homer or Vines would have done. They would have communicated the vision, and asked for people who were behind this vision to give to a fund. When the money was raised, a vote would be taken to start the school and spend the money. What did Mac do? He held an unannounced business meeting to vote to take $500,000 from our church funds, money given by God's people to the ministry of FBC Jax, to start the school. Shameless.

And as further evidence of how stupid he thinks we are, he holds out his hand for $1 million in maintenance costs when these should have been taken care of when he first came on board, or certainly before spending money on pastor office suites, INSP broadcasts, and start-up of a school for the very rich. And now that we don't have the money we should put it in the budget for next year.

But the sheep will give deep...and Mac will receive a hefty Christmas bonus for his wise and able leadership. And Smyrl writes his "Theology Driven Ministry" book.

And the sheep march to the sheerer....

Fleecing the Sheep: Mac Needs a Million Dollars

Like most of you have I'm sure, I have received Mac's annual "Chest of Joash" letter telling the church about our special budget commitment Sunday that we've held at our church for over 50 years.

Click here to read Mac's Letter

But in his letter this year, he has included a list of "emergency" spending items for which he is asking our church to give a special, one-day offering of $1,000,000 dollars to. Yes, he uses the word "emergency" to describe this list.

1. RLA Chiller - went out in June - $200,000

2. Preschool Building Roof Replacement - $250,000 - been on the repair list for 5 years, hardly an "emergency" as we've know about this for a LONG time.

3. Preschool Building Waterproofing - $100,000 - on the repair list for 3 years

4. Preschool Wall Paper replacement of $60,000 - caused by failure to act on number 3. above.

5. Preschool Carpet Replacement - $125,000 (when the building will be fully renovated in 1 to 2 years!)

6. RLA roof repairs and ceiling repair - $50,000 - on the list for 5 years

7. Admin Building carpet replacement - $80,000 - on the list for 4 years

8. Children's Building Renovation for the new school admin offices - $125,000.

I wonder what Mayor Peyton and Councilman Davis, both who expressed disgust over "sorry churches" who don't use their money to help the poor and needy here in our own community, will think when they hear of this letter asking for $1 million in a special offering. Not $1 million in hurricane relief. Not $1 million for a new ministry to the poor in our city, or even for a new capital fund for ministry (THAT will be coming in the spring, so hold on to your wallets). Not even a million to catch up on giving that is behind budget. No, our church is holding out its hand at the end of its fiscal year to pay for REGULAR ON-GOING MAINTENANCE OF OUR FACILITIES because we didn't budget this maintenance into our $15 million budget the past few years that according to Mac that according to Mac the faithful people at FBC Jacksonville have met!

So while we're spending money and rushing as fast as we can to start a satellite church in southern Duval, and while we're spending money to start a downtown school for the very rich, we have not spent money to water-proof and re-roof the building where our preschoolers and babies are. Interesting isn't it that we found the $100,000 and 3000 sf of prime ministry space needed to construct a lavish pastor's suite and library, but now no money was found the last 3 years to keep water from seeping through the roof and walls of our preschool building! Interesting that while we somehow found the money in the budget to hire wife and son in new positions, and we from somewhere found the $180,000 to put Mac back on nationwide TV there is no money for our chiller to be replaced in the RLA. And while Mac was taking a $300,000 gift from one of our wealthiest members and immediately began construction of his million dollar home in Deerwood, the Admin building was in need of new carpet and the RLA needed roof and ceiling repairs. Misplaced priorities.

Misplaced spending priorities on the part of Mac and our lay leaders does not constitute an "emergency" on our part.

I know Mac's sermon/infomercial yesterday was designed to tell us just how wonderful his leadership has been but he can't mask the utter failure to not have taken care of the essentials of our maintenance using the $15 million we gave this year to the budget, while holding special offerings for extra ministries and holding unannounced budget meetings to take $500,000 to start a school for the very rich.

Earlier this year Mac shamelessly, showing us to be the millionaire elitist he is, told us all how happy he and Jesus are that we didn't get a raise:

"The number one false financial thought: 'We need to make more money'. THINK ABOUT IT! If you make more money spending the way you spend now you would be deeper in debt. Thank Jesus he hadn't allowed you to get a raise. He has saved you from getting further in the whole. The issue is not more salary, the issue is discipline. Have you heard that word in America lately? The government would do well to look it up in the dictionary."

Listen for yourself

So easy for a millionaire preacher living in a million dollar home to say something like that to his congregation, many of whom are being squeezed by a tight economy and rising prices.

Well Mac, we'll tell you there at the church like you told us: the issue is not that you need more of our money, the issue is "discipline". Cut expenses somewhere Mac. You said yesterday our spending is under budget and we're in the black...great, cut a little more and we'll have the money you need. Don't be like the government who wants to raise taxes when there's a short-fall - try fixing it on the spending end, and make sure you put enough money for maintenance in our budget for next year.

Lastly, let me remind you that earlier this fiscal year we had another budget "crisis": we were "behind budget" by $500,000 because we had overspent on missions. This was never fully explained to us, but Mac bragged about how we overspent on missions and poked fun of our finance committee as having "no faith" - again, behind our backs while preaching in North Carolina. Go here to read it and hear Mac in his own words. Maybe our finance committee tried to stand up to Mac because they knew that while Mac was overspending on missions that we had serious needs in our facilities - and Mac's response was to spend it and accuse them of having no faith.

I can hear the clippers getting warmed up for this Sunday! Its going to be one close shave as Mac tries to fleece us all! All together now: "Baaa...baaaa"

Mac's Indictment of FBC Jax - Part 3 - And a Strong Dose of Legalsim

In our final installment of "Mac Indicts His Church", we see that on Sunday September 14th Mac not only indicted his church for not being cutting edge in Sunday School and not being evangelistic...but Mac stuck the knife in deeper and said:

"You Used to be Known as a Church that Loves Pastors"

and

"You Were Known as a Giving Church"

All year long Mac has said giving is strong, and July was the strongest month of giving in the summer in years Mac said. So aren't we STILL known as a giving church? Notice in this clip that Mac challenges us to give to the maintenance needs of the church to prove that we are a giving church. No, we gave the money already, and Mac and the lay leaders have squandered the $15 million and now there is no money left for things that SHOULD have taken priority...but more on that in my next article.

Now as you listen to those, some of you will say, "Mac isn't saying you AREN'T these things, just that in past years you WERE known as these things". True...but in this sermon Mac makes no attempt at all to say anything positive about our church NOW...he does what he has told us for 2 1/2 years not to do: dwell on the past and look to the past. That is what he does now, pointing to the past, and cleverly painting a picture of a church that is past its prime.

If this isn't disgusting enough, to hear a pastor talk down his church just 2 days before he sends a letter out asking for a million dollars to pay for upkeep of our facilities, believe it or not this sermon got even worse. In this one sermon Mac not only decided to rake us over the coals and tell us how sorry we were, he also chose to motivate us through legalism. Yes, that's right. Mac the historian who loves to talk down "legalistic lists"...Mac the slanderer who told his pastor friends in North Carolina that we were a "hotbed of legalism" behind our backs, that we are a people with lists but "no real relationship with Jesus Christ"....lo and behold Mac passes out his own dose of legalism in an attempt to motivate us to do what we should.

Here is what Mac said after indicting his church.

"When you joined this church you were making a commitment to do several things. We probably ought to write these things down and give them to everybody who joins [CAN YOU SAY "LEGALISTIC LISTS"?]. There are some things that are expected out of you. There are some things you expect out of the church but I want to tell you something when you join this church you are expected to be a tither [how's that for loving motivation - this is legalism my friends]. Not because I said it but because the word of God teaches that. You say 'I didn't know it'. [ and then threateningly] You know it now. You're expected to be faithful. You ought to be here every service. We have three services a week. Some of ya'll didn't know that did ya? Sunday morning, we'll be back here at 6:10 tonight and Wednesday night. You're expected to pray for one another. That is a ministry you commit to when you join this church....if you prayed for one another you'd like each other better."

Listen to Mac Yourself

No mention of love as a motivation. No mention of how we might benefit from church attendance. No mention of giving out a love for the Lord to His church. No allowance for some who can't make it every service. This is classic, old-fashioned, KJV, fundamental legalism.

And we can't leave off this classic Mac legalistic yoke that he hung on our necks Sunday:

"Everyone of you that knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior you have a spiritual gift. You have a stewardship of that gift. And if you come in here and God's given you the gift of singing, of playing, of teaching, of leading, of working with children and all you do is sit on a pew and soak it up, you're sinning against the Holy Spirit. You say 'well that's mighty strong'. Yeah its strong."

Listen to Mac

We didn't say its "mighty strong"....you misheard us Mac, we said its "mighty wrong". There is nowhere in scripture that says a person who just comes to church sits in the services and doesn't serve is "sinning against the Holy Spirit". They might have family problems that keep them from serving. They may be ill. They may have a child with special needs. They may have to work two jobs to make ends meet and can't serve in any capacity but all they can do is come to the church service and worship the Lord (and when they get there to hear an encouraging word from the Lord they hear Mac's anger and legalism). Church, this is dangerous stuff. A man so arrogant, so puffed up that he thinks he can throw this garbage around judging people to be sinning against the Holy Spirit, trying to scare people into serving. I declare if anyone is sinning against the Holy Spirit, it is Mac for preaching this garbage.

And to think we're rushing to get Mac to preach out in the southern side of Duval County and northern St. John's county with this mean, legalistic preaching in a satellite campus? And to think we allowed him to use $200,000 of our church funds to spread his legalism on nationwide TV on the INSP network while our babies are put in a leaking, soggy, preschool building in need of repair. All you pastors in southern Duval who might be concerned about the big dog sheep stealing from your church: JUST LOVE YOUR CONGREGATION, PREACH THE WORD AND YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR FROM MAC THE KNIFE. Christians who are under the nurturing care of a loving, humble, faithful pastor will take one listen to Mac's meanness, his legalism, his anger... and they'll be running for the doors.

So there you have it. Poor Mac. He is stuck in a backwards looking, non-evangelistic, un-giving, un-loving church. And he chose the Sunday to tell us just two days before he sends us a letter asking us to give a million dollars to upkeep on our facilities that he has let slide for 2 1/2 years while spending money on everything else.

"The Letter" will be the next article this weekend.

Mac's Indictment of FBC Jax - Part 2

In the last post I gave the quote and audio clip of how Mac Brunson "built a case" against his own church, like an ace prosecuting attorney, in the area of how we are no longer creative in Sunday School. Mac says we're no longer "cutting edge" (whatever that means, as he didn't say), we've lost our "entrepreneuralish in Sunday School" (again, he didn't define this). He says we "nearly had a nervous breakdown" when he asked the Sunday School teachers to do "one thing" (the "one thing" I'm told was a very significant change in certain areas of our church as to how the Sunday School is actually conducted - that we've moved away from the "teacher" model to "small groups").

So Mac pokes a finger once again in the eye of his congregation, telling them in vague terms of how they are not performing, complains that some aren't falling in lockstep with his changes, and doesn't even bother to tell us what he expects to make us "cutting edge" or "entrepreneurial". So is the life of FBC Jax under the regime of Mac Brunson. Negative, negative, negative.

In this post I want to give the next indictment Mac made against our church, that we are no longer evangelistic. Mac said:

"You were known for your evangelism...how 500 people would go out on Tuesday nights from this church. You divided up into zip codes, nobody ever thought of that [news flash: most churches have done that for visitation, large and small ever since zip codes were defined!]...and we said 'man, what an unbelievable thing, we don't run 50 in church and they've got 500 going out' and you were 'cutting edge', you were knockin' on doors, you were seeing people. Is that not the committment you made when you came to Jesus Christ? [yelling now]. Ye shall be my witnesses! Or they just gonna talk about what you used to do? Are they gonna talk about FBC Jax in ther past tense for the next 30 years?

Listen to Mac indict FBC Jax for no longer being evangelistic.

Its interesting that he points to how we used to go out "knocking on doors". Interesting. Is Mac knocking on doors today? If we're not, and he is, go ahead and challenge us to meet you somewhere to go on visitation. Is he showing up on Tuesday night to lead people out on visitation? Why not lead by example Mac? And anyways, Mac flat out told his congregation that "knocking on doors" is not a valid way to reach people anymore as one of the reasons that starting an FBC Academy was an absolute MUST ministry to reach our city. He said the following last December as we were considering starting a school:

"How do we reach people in the year 2007? Now I've had tons of you come to me and say 'Pastor, in the 70's we used to go knock on doors, we'd go knock on doors'. Now you can't ever find anybody at home. Listen, let me tell you something. I'm never at home, you're never at home. I've tried to come see some of you, and I know you're not at home. Nobody else is ever at home. One of the most effective ways we have of reaching the next generation and reaching their parents is through a school."

Click here to listen for yourself

Quite an amazing statement. We're all living in our cars, sleeping in the streets apparently - nobody is ever at home! Knocking on doors doesn't work anymore because no one is home. There are many good reasons to start a school. But because "no one is home anymore" is not one of them. And the school will absolutely NOT be a primary means for reaching the people of Jacksonville.

But Mac doesn't tell us what we need to do. He doesn't point out to his listeners who in our highly paid executive staff is the one that is trying to coordinate Tuesday night visitation, or what we all should do since no one is "knocking on doors". No call to specific action. Just tearing down to tell us "we ain't what we used to be".

More to come...