How NOT to Preach a Stewardship Sermon

On election day November 4th, our beloved pastor will travel to Dallas to preach at the SWBTS chapel. He will march in, Paige Patterson will have some glowing words to say about Mac, might mention how much poor Mac is being attacked....and then Mac will get up and talk. He'll sound impressive, and the his deep, bellowing voice will fill the hall and the students will be impressed. His sermon will start with a year, no doubt. "It was [1492, 1854, 1904, 1961, 1993, or 2006]" and he will start with a historical illustration. And he'll sound so good.

But as Lee Corso says, "Not so fast, my friend".

Before the SWBTS students think Mac is some kind of A+ preacher...before they think he is the next Jerry Vines or Adrian Rogers....we want the students at SWBTS to see Mac in action from a recent sermon. Preaching a really important sermon to his congregation. A stewardship sermon, where Mac has the duty of calling his sheep to action, to spur them to give and to serve like they've never done before. Mac's church faces a steep hill in 2009. Our neglected facilities need $1 million in urgent repairs - urgent in the sense of "neglected" while other out-of-budget special projects were undertaken. We have a school starting soon. Mac is opening a satellite church despite our facilities being at less than 1/2 their capacity. So we need a real stem-winder from Mac - one that will just motivate us to love Jesus, love the church, and to commit our time and money. What does Mac do? What sermon does he pull out of his holster? What did Mac learn at SWBTS? How did they train him to preach to his sheep on such an important occasion?

Watch this brief video, the first of three parts that we will show in advance of Mac making a return trip to his alma mater to preach at chapel, and you can decide for yourself. And please, when its over, say a prayer for FBC Jax. And SWBTS students, remember: this is how NOT to preach a stewardship sermon. The last scene is "how to come across as an angry, fundamental, legalistic" - its a classic.

Enjoy.

People Don't Like It When Leaders Use Position to Gain Wealth

Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty yesterday of failing to report about $250,000 in gifts he accepted from a wealthy oil contractor. As I blogged about in June, Senators are required to publicly disclose any income, including gifts, that they receive in addition to their $180,000 salary.

The reason Senators are required to disclose gifts is obvious - accountability. If a Senator receives a gift and reports it, his voting record can be examined by his constituents to ensure that he has not provided political favors in return for the gift. So its a serious matter when a Senator fails to disclose $250,000 in gifts from a corporation that did benefit from Stevens' actions as a Senator.

Our society does not like it when people in positions of power and public trust use their position to enrich themselves and their family. And they REALLY don't like it when they use their power to benefit the giver of the gift.

Mac Brunson is a man in a position of power. He is the pastor of one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. Many Christians trust him as the "man of God" and above criticism and scrutiny, thereby increasing his power since this trust results in little disclosure of financial matters to his congregation such as his pastor salary and benefits and salary, and benefits of family members. He even can use believers' Bibles to preach to them that God says they need to give his church more money; all tax-free revenue to the church. Point is: Mac Brunson has LOTS of power.

We would therefore expect him not to use his position as pastor to accept large gifts, if for no other reason than just the appearance of impropriety. And certainly we would expect him NOT to engage in official actions as pastor that would give any appearance of him using his position to return favors to the giver of such gifts.

Yet this is precisely what has happened at our church. And no one seems to care, save for a few recalcitrant bloggers. And I won't let it go. In light of his continued abusive preaching, and his recent display of arrogance in coldly DEMANDING that we fork over $1 million cash in two weeks' time for neglected repairs of our facilities, when we as a congregation DID meet our budget while Mac spent our money on non-budget special projects - this arrogance further demands disclosure and explanation of his gift of 2 1/2 years ago. Maybe a loving, humble man we might let bygones be bygones - but its clear now that he needs a check on his power.

I'll rehash it: Mac Brunson accepted a land gift in 2006 that at the time was valued at $250,000 (how ironic) from a wealthy developer in our city named J.D. Collins - JUST THREE WEEKS AFTER BRUNSON BEGAN HIS PASTORATE. Thus it was not a gift based on years of friendship and trust. It was a gift from a man who barely knew Mac Brunson. It is reasonable to assume that the gift was given to Brunson solely based on his position and nothing else. I wonder why MAC got the gift, and not say, John Blount. Or Calvin Carr. Or anyone else. It was given to the new pastor, the man coming in who just so happens to have the most power. I find no fault in J.D. Collins - he can give gifts to whomever he chooses. He has a long record of donating money to people in positions of power and is free to do so. But it was not a gift Mac had to accept. To use a favorite Mac-ism: "See also David Tarkington" (and see Mac's own book).

If that was not bad enough, Mac then took an unprecedented action that gave the appearance of using his position to return a huge favor to the giver of the gift. I'm not saying it was "quid pro quo", but the unprecedented nature of this action gave the appearance of such. On March 16, 2008, Mac aired a testimony/infomercial highlighting "Collins Builders", a home construction company owned by the sons of J.D. Collins. The professionally produced testimony/infomercial, complete with on-the-job clips of their office and job sites - showed how the owners of the company made the bold and courageous decision to close their business on Sunday out of their Christian convictions. It is not uncommon for us to show testimonies at church. But Mac aired this one RIGHT SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS SERMON - actually at the climax of his sermon. Right after discussing Jesus trusting God in the garden, Mac aired this professionally produced testimony to show how the Collins' trusted God in their business decision. Then Mac asks us if we trust God enough to start a school and satellite ministry. As far as I know, never in the history of our church has a pastor aired a testimony highlighting a members' business during the sacred preaching hour. This ensured of course that the video would be shown the following week on TV in the local market when Mac's sermon would be aired. You can listen to the audio of the sermon excerpt containing the commercial here.

Why did Mac choose THIS business to highlight in the middle of his sermon? Why not one of the many other businesses in our church that trust God? Why THIS one? I don't know. But the fact that his dad gave Mac a $250,000 gift gives the appearance that it was a returned favor for his land gift.

This concerns me. It should concern others in our church, especially in light of recent developments at our church. In addition to how little financial information concerning the spending of our offerings is shared with us, we now know how the Brunson regime is now involved in "raising funds" through marketing of the church. The prostituting of our pastor's conference this year and next year through selling of advertising space, and even selling platform time (did you ever think you would see the day when people could BUY time on the platform in our santuary? That day is here my friends) - this tells me that Team Brunson is very congnizant of the power of promotions and Christian "testimonies" in the sanctuary - to the point that Brunson now brazenly SELLS them. But Mac delivered a huge gift to the Collins - for free.

So our justice system works. Senator Ted Stevens' will likely go to jail. His greed did him in.

Ted Stevens should have read Mac's most recent book where Mac says:

"Guard against greed. It will do you in."

Amen, Mac.

Promoting Even a Missions Conference

Hate to be a nit-picker, but I can't ignore once again how promotions-minded the Team Brunson regime is at FBC Jacksonville. In November the church is hosting a mini Missions Conference for some missionaries. One of the events is a "Golf Tournament" at the private golf club "Deerwood", Mac's home course. The registration fees are a whopping $95 per person, and if someone or some business wants to "sponsor" a hole, they can donate $200. This means that a small sign advertising the donor's business would be placed at the tee box for the hole. Does everything FBC Jax does now include money-making through advertising? Why charge $200? The donors will likely have deep pockets, so why go for $500 or $1000?

Mac's house backs up to hole #12, so perhaps the back 9 will include a quickie tour of Mac's million dollar, 5600 square foot home. Then these missionaries can see what they could have had if they had just stayed here in the states and tried to become a megachurch pastor...and our members participating in the tournament can see what their tithes and offerings they give to God for the furtherance of the gospel help pay for!

The tournament involves prizes and giveaways...rumor is that one of the prizes is a one-night stay at the Brunson "Lincoln Bedroom", with a private tour of the Brunson office suite at the church. All participants in the tournament get 10% off any exhibit booth at the 2009 Pastor's Conference and 50% off any Mac Brunson books and coffee mugs. A drawing will be held for all hole sponsors for a 30 second commercial to be played in the middle of Mac's Easter Sunday message next April.

Here is the information from the FBC Jax website showing the golf outing costs and promotional fees. Watchdog will be there, as he is a near-scratch golfer and is looking forward to playing on Mac's home course.

What the Fleecing of a Congregation Looks Like

Below is a video clip that will show how an abusive, arrogant, unloving pastor can fleece his congregation - on TV no less! And get Amen'ed while doing it! Like a skilled sheep sheerer, he smoothly applies the sheer down our backs while holding us about the neck to immobilize us. Watch it in full color, with caption commentary for maximum effect. You can actually see what a "fleecing" looks like!

This is a clip from September 2008, in a service that was two weeks before FBC Jax's "Chest of Joash" Sunday where the church members submit their pledge card for the church's annual budget.

In this video Mac explains that there are some serious facility maintenance issues that must be corrected immediately, and they total nearly $1 million. He even has pictures. And he doesn't bother to explain why these weren't taken care of in our operating budget which the church met - he doesn't explain why other "special projects" that he unveiled during the fiscal year were addressed before these important repairs. And he doesn't even bother to lovingly ask the congregation to sacrficially give to meet these needs. Instead, he asks us which of us have homes in such disrepair - and then he plays the "debt card" as he likes to do. He actually threatens us that our 60+ year record of being debt free is in jeopardy unless we pony up and fork over to him $1 million in two weeks' time. As though the facility problems were caused by US and not him and his misplaced spending priorities. And the manner that he says it is about as unloving and arrogant and condenscending as it could be done.

Why the videos you ask? Easy. When I saw Mac put a video on our website with him in a santa hat telling everyone just how much he and Honey care for the poor, and they are proving it by ringing a bell...I realized that he will spare no expense to use all church resources available to let everyone know what a great, loving, caring pastor he is. He knows how to use the power of the visual to build his brand. But so can we use the power of the visual to show what is happening to our church. Enjoy.

Mac Brunson: Our Faltering Economy is God's Judgment on America

Below is a video clip showing Mac's assessment that the current stock market crash and the spike of fuel prices this summer was the direct result of God working behind the scenes to get the attention of Americans. He preached this on Sunday October 12, right at the time when many Americans were very fearful of what was happening to out stock market and economy - especially seniors whose retirement income is directly tied to their hard-earned life savings and investments. The message they got from their preacher was not one of hope, but one of fear. In this video Mac builds the case that what we see today is from God, and he even starts it all with the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, 9/11, Katrina, all precursors to God causing our economic crash...its all been God, like the evil magician, working to bring calamity on Americans.

Its amazing really, that this sort of thing is now coming forth from the pulpit of First Baptist Jacksonville. To explain that God is causing this calamity and the suffering of innocent people is beyond the pale. It not only gives people the wrong impression of the nature of God, but it strikes fear into the heart of God's people. Using Mac's logic, I suppose we can explain other calamities and suffering, such as children dying everyday from starvation and malaria - is that God's doing to in an attempt to get our attention?

This is what happens when a preacher gets away from expository preaching and begins to rely on his oratory skill and story telling and history. Mac here takes the story of Hosea and Gomer from the Old Testament, and spends several minutes translating that into modern day to tell us that God is punishing us.

Preachers, just stick to preaching the Word.