REMINDER: Mac Said he is Accountable

Now that quite a number of members are ticked off to see how Mac and his son have prostituted our annual Pastor's Conference and transformed it into a marketing bonanza by selling "sponsorships" for $12,500 and charging the ridiculous fee of $750 for an exhibitor's booth, I want to remind everyone what Mac said to us in his sermon August 3rd, 2008:

"I have to listen to every...single...person that comes to me. And a lot of 'em come to me that ain't even members of this church.I try to answer every single email myself, personally, that comes into my office. And THAT is a full-time job, in and of itself. That's what you pay me for....I am responsible. I am accountable"

So come on church, let him know. You need to email the pastor about your disgust and expect a response. If you get a response from him that is unacceptable, send it to the Watchdog and we'll let everyone look at it. Mac needs to be shamed into reigning in his son and Maurilio's plan to sell sponsorships for $12,500 and exhibition booth space for $750. Ask him why he has turned our Pastor's Conference into a marketing bonanza...ask him where the money raised from Pastor's Conference registrations and advertising revenue goes. Last time the Watchdog checked, there are no revenue line items in our church budget that indicate money from this conference. So where does it go? He owes us an answer. He's accountable. At least that's what he said.

I hate to say it, but the Watchdog was right. I've been chronicling over a year now how this bunch is market driven, how dangerous it is that our pastor listens to the A-Group instead of the Holy Spirit. I challenge you to go back and browse my articles dating back to September 2007. I warned you all about the danger of a pastor who believes its OK to allow a Time to Stand with Israel event to raise money for an Israeli hospital that performs abortions. Get the picture church: several influential deacons and trustees go to Mac last year to hold a fund raiser in our sanctuary...now what moral ground to those same lay leaders have to tell Mac that he can't do what he is doing selling advertising at the Pastor's Conference? We're in trouble church, big trouble. These shenanigans call into question ALL of Mac's major decisions up to this point: the $500,000 he took from our church for the school, and the money he is getting ready to spend on a satellite church. I warned you all about a pastor who thinks he can clandestinely change the bylaws right under our noses without even uttering one word of explanation - if the pastor will do THAT....then it stands to reason he'll change our pastors conference into a money-making enterprise...and we can only wait to see what is next.

Here are the sponsorship levels:

Can you believe it? They're selling everything! We're allowing companies to PURCHASE what our pastor says from the platform! We're selling placing a hyperlink on a website!

Can't afford $12,500? Well Trey and Maurilio have a 2nd option for you!!

Can't go "Platinum"? In this economy when Christian ministries might see decreased giving, FBC Jax is trying to extract maximum money from for using our facilities that were built not to sell space to the highest bidder but to spread the gospel. So you get the "Gold" treatment. But if that's too much, maybe you can go down to this level:

This is my favorite....you pastors attending the conference who believe Mac's letter that he wants to minister to you when you come....GET REAL!!! Mac views you as a marketing unit to be sold to advertisers. Look at that above "Up to 2000 at dinners each night". When you're eating your chicken dinner in our dining room, you will be shown 3-5 minute video presentations...not because we think you'll be blessed by the video, but because Mac pocketed $5000 to show the dang video!

So you're a non-profit, Christian organization that has a real ministry that you'd like to tell the pastors about to see if the Lord might move in their heart to invest in your ministry? Well, you first have to INVEST IN MAC'S WALLET and fork over $750 for an exhibitor's space! Can you believe it?

Wow, how generous! You get TWO BADGES, a DRAPED TABLE, TWO CHAIRS, and a POWER STRIP! Hey Trey, how much will a third chair cost? Oh, and we'll run the vacuum cleaner also. "General cleaning of exhibit area"? How about including "air conditioning" and "moderately worn carpet" in exhibit area.

There's the buzz word: CUTTING EDGE in the above advertisement.

Are you incensed? Mac, I'm told from inside reliable sources, is absolutely incensed over this blog. GREAT!!! Because we're incensed over this Mac.

Some other questions you recalcitrant bloggers, you 20,000 "bosses" of Mac might have:

1. Are you treating all potential vendors the same? Is Jerry Vines ministry going to have to pay for their space also? Or just the Christian vendors who aren't buddies with Mac and Trey?

2. Where is this revenue going?

3. The costs incurred by the church to put this on: namely the hourly workers in the kitchen, security costs, maintenance and housekeeping, cameras crews, A/V, etc. Are these costs paid out of the revenues generated?

4. How much is paid to the speakers?

5. Since Mac and Trey and Maurilio find it necessary to charge people for "advertising"...has Mac paid the church for advertising his Holy Land trips? He has had that on our church website and in our church bulletin for some time now, and I think he owes the church for that advertising space.

6. How much did the producers of the Bible on tape series pay us to have Mac interview Jim Caviezel during the Pastor's Conference last year?

And to top it off, here's what Trey is charging to place an advertisement in the conference brochure:

If we're charging this much money in our pastor's conference, how much longer until we start selling advertising space in our church bulletins?

URGENT MESSAGE: Spread the Word of Brunsons' Greed

The fleecing of the church. Jesus turned the tables over to drive the moneychanges out of the church. Who will drive the Trey and Mac Brunson money changes out of our church?

There you have it church. If Mac is willing to sell our pulpit and I-mags, there is not much he WON'T do....

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

I know that pastors all over the SBC read this blog daily. I'm asking you to share this blog site with pastors around the country who might be considering coming to the 2009 Pastor's Conference at First Baptist Jacksonville.

Mac and his son Trey and likely their marketing consultant Maurilio Amorim are hell-bent on fleecing to the maximum extent they can the attendees at this conference established by Jerry Vines as a ministry to pastors and was never intended to yield profits through selling the attendance of godly pastors as marketing units to the highest bidder.

Not only are they charging $260 per person, but they have now begun to charge $750 for a Christian organization to set up an exhibit booth, and they are now selling "sponsorships" valued up to $12,000 that include perks like videos shown on the video screens in the auditorium. Even your attendance at the dinners is used to entice potential sponsors as they say "up to 2000 in attendance for dinner" so you'll see marketing messages even while you're sitting down and enjoying a meal on our dining room.

The $260 per person registration will yield about $900,000 in revenue, when there is no real facility rental cost, much of the labor is volunteer from members at FBC Jax who take vacation time to help out...and now Mac and his son Trey - the one Mac bragged "raised $100,000" last year for the pastor's conference - has a web page up on the PC 2009 site giving the details of these sponsorships to generate over $100,000 of advertising revenue. And we don't even know where all this money goes.

Visit the church's website, click on the Conference header, click on the Exhibitor's link, and click on the hyperlink to view the brochure explaining these advertising sponsorships. It will turn your stomach. The hyperlink there is a pdf file that can be downloaded to your computer, and if you like email it to your pastor friends so they can know what Mac and his son are up to. Or get the file here:

Read the Exhibitor and Sponsorship Plan

Those of you attending and paying your $260 - you're a "market unit" to the Brunsons - your attendance allows them to sell advertising and marketing space.

Pastors that find this blatant display of opportunism and greed - where the conference established by Jerry Vines in the 1980's to minister to pastors is now set up to charge $750 for a stinking table and two chairs to display a Christian ministry or Christian business - where $12,000 or the highest bidder gets certain marketing perks...PASTORS IF YOU FIND THIS DISTURBING, PLEASE LET MAC BRUNSON KNOW. LET'S SHOW MAC DURING THESE TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES THAT WE'RE DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND AGAINST HIS GREED. I hope that pastors will cancel their registration and demand a refund, and pastors will email Brunson to tell him enough is enough and you're passing this year.

You can make a difference. But your attendance at the conference will be a vote for the greed and arrogance and marketization being brought into what used to be the flagship church of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Shame on you Mac Brunson and shame on your son who is responsible for this.

Mac "The Double-Dipper" Brunson - 1 Week out of 4 Ain't Bad!!

The people of FBC Jax are beginning to get a complex in that maybe our pastor, Mac Brunson - the man hand-picked by Jerry Vines and pursued and enticed vigorously by our search committee to be our loving pastor and to minister to the city of Jacksonville - doesn't like to spend much time in Jacksonville!

He just finished a two week European vacation taken immediately after asking us all to dig into our wallets and give $1 million to do facility maintenance because we just couldn't find the money despite $40 million being given since he arrived. And while he was gone we watched a video produced to show how caring he is of the poor in Jacksonville by agreeing to man a Salvation Army kettle...what a generous man!

So Mac is enduring one week with his recalcitrants at FBC Jax after his two week vacation, and then off again for another week! Where does he have to go? Its a tough assignment, one that only the bravest of ministers will go to shine the light of the gospel...he's going to preach to a senior's conference at Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee october 20, 21, 22, and 23rd.

Yep, four days. He's going for four days to preach at his buddy Phil Waldrep's "Senior Adults' Celebrators" conference in beautiful Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee. Not going to preach a revival. Not preaching to seminary students. Not seeking to save the lost. No, he's going to preach to a group of seniors. For four days. Not that they don't deserve a quality speaker, but Mac is a busy pastor of a large church - he has a DAY JOB is what I'm saying, so to preach a four day sermon series is a bit much.

Why does he do this? Why does his church allow him to take 4 days off WITH PAY to go earn an honoraria or stipend to preach a conference? Does anyone out there have an employer who would give you time off with pay to go to another employer and earn some additional money?

The more we observe Team Brunson, the more its apparent - we are not purpose-driven, we are not theology driven...we are a MARKET DRIVEN church. Its about hiring a church marketing firm to increasing market share, its about showing videos in sermons of people who have donated large gifts to the pastor, its about using guilt and intimidation to prompt people to give 10% of their income to the church, its about using money given for ministry to start a school to reach those in the community who have the most money, and sadly its about selling sponsorships of up to $12,500 for our pastors conference. Its about revenue, its about money. These guys are so market driven it calls into question every other decision they make like the satellite ministry. Now Mac is going to earn an extra buck by preaching to Aunt Bertha, Uncle Charlie and Grandpa Willie in Pidgeon Forge. I'm sure the demographics tell Mac that he can sell some of his books since many Seniors who go on these retreats likely have considerable discretionary income.

The Watchdog has at least one attendee at the conference who will check in and let us know which of Mac's sermons he recycles there at the conference, and who it is that man's the Brunson book and tape sales table.

Cynical? Yes. Surprised? No, not a bit.

Mac "Jeremiah" Brunson: God Is the Cause of High Gas Prices and Economic Crash

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Bonus clip for my readers: listen to Mac 'get fundamental' and rail against those who wear their britches too low (and hear the red necks hootin' and hollerin'), and against those who wear words on their hineys. OK, be legalistic Mac, but at least can't you and Jimmy coordinate your legalism? Jimmy the Pearl Smyrl says those who wear slacks and button down shirts are "worldly" while the flip flaps and ratty jeans are fine, but now Mac decked out in his power tie and monogrammed cuffs complains about certain peoples' style of clothing.

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It's official: Mac is the Jeremiah Wright of the Southern Baptist Convention. We can now call him Jeremiah Brunson. Maybe Jerry Brunson for short.

I'm trying my best not to think Mac is a false teacher. I'm trying hard to view him as just a preacher who has an anger problem who likes really nice things and who tries to manipulate his congregation by stretching the truth and scripture every now and then. But then he goes and says something like what he said Sunday night and I then have to wonder how this guy is even in the Southern Baptist Convention, how this guy ever landed a preaching gig paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars per year...and I wonder did he really did get a doctorate degree from SWBTS. Have we checked this guys credentials?

Mac was preaching Sunday night October 12, 2008, that God's goodness to us is God's way to get our attention, but if God's goodness doesn't do the trick, then God resorts to purposely seeking ways to hurt us.

According to Mac, all that America has suffered of late: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, an oil crisis with $4 a gallon gasoline, and an economic crash - its all caused directly by God in an attempt to punish us for not responding to him during times of blessing:

"You think God hadn't been actively doing something? God says 'I've been active all this time. I've been active putting into place all these things [referring to 9/11, Katrina, oil crisis, economic crash], I've been actively seeing how high I can get gasoline for you Americans, I've been actively seeing how I can cause the economy to crash because if you will not turn to me in my blessings on you I will take them away as Hosea took away the blessings of Gomer."

Listen to Jeremiah Brunson Yourself

and Chickens Do Come Home to Roost

Mac isn't saying that God can teach us some things through these difficulties. Mac isn't saying that God might allow these things to be used to draw people to him...no, Mac is saying God is actively, purposely, CAUSING, God is the AUTHOR, God is bringing into existence all these things as punishment for us not turning to him when he gives us blessings. Even worse, MAC IS SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF GOD...Mac is presuming to know what God says about these events, Mac presumes to speak the mind and heart and will and intent of God.

This is heretical. This is abusive. This is cultish. This is dangerous. For a man to speak as though he speaks on behalf of God and tells his followers that God is ACTIVELY PUTTING INTO PLACE terrible events in our lives is to lead his followers astray, trying to implant an irrational fear of God, seeking to distort their view of God's role in the affairs of man - this is dangerous stuff.

But this is Mac's view of God. Its not the first time Mac has given us his dark vision of who God is and how He deals with us. Mac believes that God is waiting to "Zap" us. I blogged about Mac's distorted view before. Click here to listen to Mac explain that God is waiting to "zap" Christians. This is consistent with Mac's preaching on giving. He doesn't preach giving out of love, but out of fear of God and duty to Old Testament scripture.

So let's deliver the message to all of Jacksonville - we have the answer for all of that ails our economy and world - straight from God's lips to Mac's ears - the rotten economy is not the result of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and people taking mortgages out that didn't pay them. Its God! God is doing it to us! Hear that Jacksonville! Hear that recalcitrants?

Our new chorus:

Praise God from whom all calamity flows!

Fear him all recalcitrants here below.

Thank him for Katrina, 9/11, and crashing stocks,

God is looking to fill your stocking with rocks.

And our new motto: "That Jacksonville May Fear Christ."

May God help us.

Chest of Joash is a Royal Bust?

Looks like the 9/28/08 Chest of Joash service may have been a royal humdinger of a bust.

As of 10/3/08, the budget committments were $8.5 million, compared to an annual budget likely to be around $16 million. Mac tried to fleece us for a cool million in cash that day, but only got $245k (which ain't bad).

I said it before and I said it again: those of you who are wising up to Mac and Honey's fleecing of our church, the ONE AND ONLY way we can make a difference and be heard by Mac and his hand-picked trustees is to stop the money faucet.

Maybe more money and pledges will trickle in. Maybe this is typical for us to be so low on pledges as compared to our budget and I'm just whistling Dixie. But its worth noting that the giving is way down.

If we have to tighten our belts and cut, let's see is Mac gives up some of his salary. Or his wife's. Or son's. Not likely.

By the way, if you haven't been able to drive through Deerwood to check out your preacher's pad because its a gated community, here is a front picture of Mac's digs that your tithes and offerings help pay for - this is the 2-story, 5200 square foot, 6 bedroom, 4.5 bath home valued at $1.1 million. It sits on the 0.6 acre tract of land valued at $275,000 that was given to Mac just 2 weeks after he arrived in Jax in the spring of 2006. The picture below wasn't wide enough to show the entire house, it is so wide.

Ain't God good?