Marcus Allen, Jr. preached the Wednesday night sermon at FBC Jax tonight. Marcus is a young preacher currently serving as the minster to Singles at First Baptist. He has always done a very decent job preaching the scriptures the few times called upon to cover the Wednesday night service when Mac is gone.
But tonight Marcus laid it on a little bit too thick when he took time out of his service to announce to the congregation that we have "the very best pastor in America". Said it twice, I believe. He then went on to say that he is an awesome preacher who really "shucks the corn" when he preaches, and his "depth of knowledge and insight into history" just adds so much to his sermons....but that's not what makes him such a great pastor. Its because Mac is such an incredible, humble "servant"...and went on to give three examples of why Mac is such a "servant":
1. Mac had all his staff over to his house for dinner recently; and then the deacons on a separate occaision. Mac wore an apron and he was the "server" filling cups, picking up dishes. Why that 'ole Mac Brunson...what a SERVANT he is to be picking up the dishes and filling cups at his million dollar home. Brings tears to my eyes really. Seriously, does that reflect as to what kind of a biblical "servant" Mac is or is not? I have guests over and wear an apron and pick up the dishes
2. Mac heard on the radio that a man in Jacksonville had lost his wife and Mac "immediately rushed" over to the man's house to minister to him and Mac eventually conducted the man's wife's funeral.
3. Mac went and got a cooler, filled it with ice (yes, Mac got the cooler and ice himself according to Marcus!), and handed out bottled water to the marchers against violence who were marching downtown, telling each person "Jesus loves you".
The audience did offer applause, but it was not enthusiastic...what I call "scant" and "oh yeah, we better clap" kind of applause.
Marcus, Mac might or might not be a biblical servant...but I don't think your examples show either way.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Paige Patterson: Mac Never Got a Honeymoon
It came to my attention recently that Dr. Paige Patterson, the president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, had some choice words to say to the students at SWBTS about First Baptist Church Jacksonville on March 6, 2007, following Dr. Mac Brunson's sermon during the SWBTS chapel service. What Paige Patterson said about our church to his student body is not true, although Dr. Patterson may have been given wrong information that caused him to say what he said. Here is what Dr. Patterson said, following Mac's sermon on March 6, 2007:
"....I think that you'd agree with me that is what a sermon ought to be...he took us to the text...he brought some things to our attention that I never noticed before, and that blesses my soul. And he did it with passion, he illustrated it cogently, and furthermore it was ever syllable true. Thank you so very much. Thank you Mac for a magnificent message and challenge today, and uh, he's going to have to go pretty quick but he'll be here for just a few minutes if you want to come by quickly and, uh tell him you love him and promise him you'll be praying for him. Unbelievable, he had not been at First Baptist Church Jacksonville for even two months, until recalicantrants started on him, and uh, unbelievable to me that anyone would do that, you know used to (sic) you got a honeymoon period in a church, uh, everybody said that we'll wait at least until he makes 5 mistakes before we kill him, and uh, so, that has not been the case in Jacksonville and yet God is blessing wonderfully in that ministry. You say 'why does that happen?', I'll tell you why it happens, because the devil knows that he has to stop the man of God, if he possibly can. You can expect the devil to attack, that's what's happening to him. I want him (Mac) to see something, he's our graduate here, I want to know how many of you here will wave a hand at Mac Brunson and say 'Dr. Brunson, you can count on me, I'm going to pray for you, I'm going to ask God to bless that ministry in Jacksonville.' Will you just do that? ...we promise we will do that sweet brother, don't grow weary in well-doing, and we will pray for you."
"....I think that you'd agree with me that is what a sermon ought to be...he took us to the text...he brought some things to our attention that I never noticed before, and that blesses my soul. And he did it with passion, he illustrated it cogently, and furthermore it was ever syllable true. Thank you so very much. Thank you Mac for a magnificent message and challenge today, and uh, he's going to have to go pretty quick but he'll be here for just a few minutes if you want to come by quickly and, uh tell him you love him and promise him you'll be praying for him. Unbelievable, he had not been at First Baptist Church Jacksonville for even two months, until recalicantrants started on him, and uh, unbelievable to me that anyone would do that, you know used to (sic) you got a honeymoon period in a church, uh, everybody said that we'll wait at least until he makes 5 mistakes before we kill him, and uh, so, that has not been the case in Jacksonville and yet God is blessing wonderfully in that ministry. You say 'why does that happen?', I'll tell you why it happens, because the devil knows that he has to stop the man of God, if he possibly can. You can expect the devil to attack, that's what's happening to him. I want him (Mac) to see something, he's our graduate here, I want to know how many of you here will wave a hand at Mac Brunson and say 'Dr. Brunson, you can count on me, I'm going to pray for you, I'm going to ask God to bless that ministry in Jacksonville.' Will you just do that? ...we promise we will do that sweet brother, don't grow weary in well-doing, and we will pray for you."
Well, Dr. Patterson, we used to think you loved FBC Jacksonville. I don't think a man would say such a thing about a church - equating our treatment of our pastor to wanting to "kill" him, unless he first confirmed those things to be true. So in light of your remarks I thought I would set the record straight for you and more importantly for the many SWBTS students that heard your remarks in chapel and that we know are regular readers of this blog.
1. You proclaim that "recalcitrants" started on Mac "not even two months after he got here". Most FBC Jax members can tell you this is just not so. Our church voted unanimously for him, we eagerly awaited his arrival, and we openly and warmingly embraced Mac and his family into our congregation when he arrived. There may have been those who didn't like his use of the NASB over the KJV and they might have sent him some emails, but that is it. To say that recalcitrants started attacking him right away is so very wrong. I would challenge Mac to tell his congregation how recalcitrants at his church started on him shortly after his arrival. Care to explain that to us Mac?
2. You proclaim sir that Mac didn't get a honeymoon period at FBC Jax. That is a lie. Either you knowingly lied or Mac lied to you and you repeated the lie to hundreds of your students. Any of the SWBTS students could only wish that they receive 1/10th of the "honeymoon" at one of their churches like Mac received at FBC Jax. Let's look at the facts:
- The church completed a very expensive renovation of the ground floor children's building to convert it into an office suite for the Brunsons. Attendees at the Pastor's Conference will remember Mac taking the seminary students to his office so they could "tour" his study and 15 foot ceilings and grand book cases and massive book collection? The church renovated this office space, which was formerly a large conference/meeting room, for Mac and Debbie and their secretary BEFORE THEY EVER ARRIVED.
- The search committee graciously agreed to allow Mac to keep his speaking and travel commitments he had already scheduled for 2006 before he accepted the call to Jacksonville. As a result Mac traveled quite a bit during 2006, often times not telling the congregation when he would or would not be preaching
- Mac and Debbie were given a full 2 months "vacation" with pay between the time we voted Mac to be pastor, and when he finally arrived in Jacksonville. This is more than the customary 1 month period given to new pastors. The church paid speaking fees and travel expenses during this 2 month period for some very high profile preachers to fill the gap and pave the way for Mac, most of them telling us how great Mac was going to be.
- Mac and Debbie were given free use of a mult-million dollar, ocean-front condominium on Amelia Island for almost a full year waiting for their 5000+ square foot house to be built on the property they were gifted (see next item)
- Mac and Debbie were given a 0.5 acre property in a high-end, exclusive gated community, backing up to a golfcourse fairway. The market value of this property is currently $307,000. Construction of their home began just a few months after they arrived in Jacksonville and has since been completed.
- Mac's wife and son were put on paid staff - most in the congregation don't know if this was agreed upon by the search committee as a condition of hiring, or if Mac did it after he came. But obviously the lay committees approved this, representing yet another expression of love for Mac and family. To this day the congregation still has not been told what their official area of ministry responsibilities are.
- The church paid tens of thousands of dollars to rent the Jacksonville minor league baseball stadium to hold a "Sermon on the Mound" event on Sunday evening of Father's Day 2006...this was our chance to introduce Mac to the community. We invited our friends and family members to come here the new preacher, along with Dennis Swanberg at the ball park.
- The church embraced the Brunson family, as evidenced by the wedding reception held at the church by the deacons and church body at large for Mac's son Trey and his new wife just weeks after Mac arrived in Jacksonville.
I realize these are mostly monetary expressions of love, but anyone that was here during Mac's first 6 months will tell you that indeed there WAS a honeymoon period between FBC Jax and Mac and Debbie when they arrived, and it is to an extent still occuring! The crowds have grown on Sunday morning, people are being saved, giving is up, our church is following Mac's lead in the area of missions - how could it be described as though the church wanted to "kill" Mac and that he had no honeymoon? The evil "recalcitrants" started in on Mac around January 2007, but only after our long-time staffers started leaving, and some church members began to see a lack of leadership on Mac's part after 8 months of him being pastor, and as the things above and other things came to light as possible abuses by Mac and/or the lay leadership.
3. Lastly Paige Patterson you were not honest about your explanation as to why this sort of thing happens to pastors. You attributed these "recalcitrant" attacks to the workings of the devil trying to "stop the man of God." That is dangerous theology Dr. Patterson, and you know it and you spread it to your students who will be preachers in SBC churches some day. Mega church pastors who are not open and transparent with their congregations, who earn CEO-salaries, who put their families on staff, who have standards of living much, much higher than the average church member are open to much scrutiny these days as people view these types of actions as potential abuses of money and power. Sure, pastors are subject to unwarranted attacks by "recalcitrants" but not all the time when questions are raised about a pastor is it the work of the devil. When people dared expose Bob Gray at Trinity Baptist Church for the monster he was, the accusers were labeled troublemakers and heretics - how dare they raise questions about "the man of God". As Mac says: See also "Frank Harber in Texas" and "Bob Reccord at NAMB" those who brought their abuses to light also were viewed as instruments of the devil by defenders.
I wonder Dr. Patterson if you would ever have dared to say something like this about FBC Jacksonville in the presence of Dr. Homer Lindsay, Jr. I think not...Dr. Lindsay wouldn't stand for someone to say something like this about his church. Now we're left wondering why Mac would travel to SWBTS and stand idly by why you uttered those words about the church that treated him and his family so well upon his arrival. Perhaps its another of Mac's attempts to paint himself as the victim.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Chest of Joash - Its About Stewardship
FBC Jacksonville this Sunday will conduct another of our annual "Chest of Joash" services where the entire church marches by replicas of King Joash's chest which was used to collect money for the rebuilding of the temple (see 2 Kings 12), into which we all place our pledge card for the church budget and building fund for the next 12 months.
The chest of Joash service each year really is a call to stewardship - for members of the church to show themselves to be good stewards of their money and make a pledge for the on-going ministry of the church. It can be said the pledging of our gifts is also an act or demonstration of accountability - the church member is declaring what they will be able to give, they sign the card as an indication they are willing to be held accountable.
Just as the membership is called to stewardship and accountability - so also the church leadership must be called to demonstrate stewardship of the money they are given, and they must be accountable to the congregation for how it is spent to further God's kingdom. And proving themselves to be accountable is not just on the Sunday before the Chest of Joash Sunday having some pastor from New Orleans stand so our pastor can arrogantly boast: "WE PAY THAT GUY'S SALARY, SEE THAT GUY, WE PAY HIS SALARY" (which is probably about 1/10 of Mac's annual income tax), nor is it just trotting out Pastor Daniel Jones to boast about how Trey "negotiated" a great deal for air conditioners for his church...these don't prove the church to be good stewards...its too little, and too late.
The church leadership needs to be accountable to the congregation. Mac Brunson in his sermon last Sunday did make an attempt to explain in what ways the church is a good steward, but there are still some major questions that need to be answered by the leadership - not just Mac Brunson but lay leadership as well.
1. Why did the church arrange for a $250,000 piece of land (now valued at over $300,000) to be gifted to Mac Brunson and Debbie Brunson upon their arrival in Jacksonville? This is for all to see on the city of Jacksonville website...the previous owner of this property "sold" it to Mac and Debbie Brunson for $10 and for "love and affection" (its in the city records that can be looked up at the property appraisors website at http://www.coj.net/). The transaction was completed exactly two weeks after their arrival in Jacksonville. This subject has come up before on other websites, and the only answer given by someone in lay leadership is that it was a "personal" gift to Mac and that his private dealings are nobody's business. Oh really? So the church had NOTHING to do with this gift? A member or friend of the church felt called, on his/her own, with no compelling by anyone at the church to give a quarter of a million dollars to the new pastor coming to Jacksonville? Can the church leadership assure us that no church funds were paid to the giver of this land, or no favors were granted in return for this property? Also, why did the church arrange for the Brunsons to live rent free in a multi-million dollar ocean-front condominium on Amelia Island? If this was a free and clear gift from a member, was the Brunson's relocation package adjusted accordingly? Were any church funds used to compensate the owner of this condominimum for their generosity? Did the church pay for any of the resulting Brunson income taxes generated from these "gifts"? Were these treated as income to the Brunsons or just "gifts"? There have been other mega church scandals in the SBC involving land deals, and nothing less than open, full disclosure of the circumstances surrounding these gifts will do.
2. We've already mentioned numerous times that the salaries of Team Brunson are quite extravagent and that if known to the congregation most would consider it not a wise use of our resources to be paying them upwards of 10 times the salary of the average family in the church. Mac told the congregation Sunday that an independent firm conducted a salary review of our church to make sure that our staff salaries are consistent with other like-size churches, that "bands" of salary ranges have been established to ensure we stay within reason. Did Debbie and Mac's salary together count as "pastor" salary in this analysis? Or did they split up Mac's salary with Debbie so that his number would look better and fall more neatly into the senior pastor band? I know and most members know of ladies in our church who serve as lay persons and spend many, many hours in our church each week, just as much if not more than Debbie Brunson and they earn ZERO salary while their husband's salary is 1/10th of Mac's. Are other staff member's wives serving in the church earning a large salary like Debbie Brunson? Why not? What are Debbie Brunson's ministerial responsbilities? What are son Trey's official ministerial responsibilities? If the salaries are not excessive; if the salaries would not be a concern to the congregation as Mac said on Sunday, then release the results of the independent study of church salaries. Do these new bands developed by this consultant (was it the A-Group?) have anything to do with the rapid staff departures over the past year as staff members were placed in bands with ranges beneath their current salaries?
3. Why do we use "Word for You Today" (http://www.wordforyoutoday.com/) as our daily devotional? This at first appears to be the most trivial of all possible points, but it does raise serious questions - especially when we see our Pastor on their "testimonial" page, using our church name to tout the benefits of this authorless devotional (gee, if anonymous emails are bad, wouldn't anonymous devotionals be worse?). Word for You Today is a non-denominational, for-profit daily devotional, purposely authorless so that churches who purchase it can provide it to their congregations as though it comes from the pastor. Let's refresh some memories: the first months that Mac came to FBC Jax he proclaimed he would be emailing devotionals written by him to the church membership. We even had visitors at special events write their emails on the back so we could be sure to send them Mac's devotional. This never happened, but we started using Word for You Today on the FBC Jax website. Why are we subscribing to a for-profit company's devotionals when there are numerous FREE, reputable, well-know daily devotionals, to which we could link (that don't hide the identify of their contributors or editors). If FBC Jax is not paying ZERO for providing Word for You Today on our website, we are paying too much. All of this makes me wonder: is Mac one of the paid contributors to this devotional? Or is he paid for his testimonial?
The church leadership wants YOU to be accountable. Fine. The leadership wants YOU to prove yourself to be a good steward of your money by pledging it to the church and signing your name. Great. But is the church leadership willing to be accountable to the givers of the money and to show themselves to be good stewards? Think about that before you decide to drop your card into the chest this Sunday.
The chest of Joash service each year really is a call to stewardship - for members of the church to show themselves to be good stewards of their money and make a pledge for the on-going ministry of the church. It can be said the pledging of our gifts is also an act or demonstration of accountability - the church member is declaring what they will be able to give, they sign the card as an indication they are willing to be held accountable.
Just as the membership is called to stewardship and accountability - so also the church leadership must be called to demonstrate stewardship of the money they are given, and they must be accountable to the congregation for how it is spent to further God's kingdom. And proving themselves to be accountable is not just on the Sunday before the Chest of Joash Sunday having some pastor from New Orleans stand so our pastor can arrogantly boast: "WE PAY THAT GUY'S SALARY, SEE THAT GUY, WE PAY HIS SALARY" (which is probably about 1/10 of Mac's annual income tax), nor is it just trotting out Pastor Daniel Jones to boast about how Trey "negotiated" a great deal for air conditioners for his church...these don't prove the church to be good stewards...its too little, and too late.
The church leadership needs to be accountable to the congregation. Mac Brunson in his sermon last Sunday did make an attempt to explain in what ways the church is a good steward, but there are still some major questions that need to be answered by the leadership - not just Mac Brunson but lay leadership as well.
1. Why did the church arrange for a $250,000 piece of land (now valued at over $300,000) to be gifted to Mac Brunson and Debbie Brunson upon their arrival in Jacksonville? This is for all to see on the city of Jacksonville website...the previous owner of this property "sold" it to Mac and Debbie Brunson for $10 and for "love and affection" (its in the city records that can be looked up at the property appraisors website at http://www.coj.net/). The transaction was completed exactly two weeks after their arrival in Jacksonville. This subject has come up before on other websites, and the only answer given by someone in lay leadership is that it was a "personal" gift to Mac and that his private dealings are nobody's business. Oh really? So the church had NOTHING to do with this gift? A member or friend of the church felt called, on his/her own, with no compelling by anyone at the church to give a quarter of a million dollars to the new pastor coming to Jacksonville? Can the church leadership assure us that no church funds were paid to the giver of this land, or no favors were granted in return for this property? Also, why did the church arrange for the Brunsons to live rent free in a multi-million dollar ocean-front condominium on Amelia Island? If this was a free and clear gift from a member, was the Brunson's relocation package adjusted accordingly? Were any church funds used to compensate the owner of this condominimum for their generosity? Did the church pay for any of the resulting Brunson income taxes generated from these "gifts"? Were these treated as income to the Brunsons or just "gifts"? There have been other mega church scandals in the SBC involving land deals, and nothing less than open, full disclosure of the circumstances surrounding these gifts will do.
2. We've already mentioned numerous times that the salaries of Team Brunson are quite extravagent and that if known to the congregation most would consider it not a wise use of our resources to be paying them upwards of 10 times the salary of the average family in the church. Mac told the congregation Sunday that an independent firm conducted a salary review of our church to make sure that our staff salaries are consistent with other like-size churches, that "bands" of salary ranges have been established to ensure we stay within reason. Did Debbie and Mac's salary together count as "pastor" salary in this analysis? Or did they split up Mac's salary with Debbie so that his number would look better and fall more neatly into the senior pastor band? I know and most members know of ladies in our church who serve as lay persons and spend many, many hours in our church each week, just as much if not more than Debbie Brunson and they earn ZERO salary while their husband's salary is 1/10th of Mac's. Are other staff member's wives serving in the church earning a large salary like Debbie Brunson? Why not? What are Debbie Brunson's ministerial responsbilities? What are son Trey's official ministerial responsibilities? If the salaries are not excessive; if the salaries would not be a concern to the congregation as Mac said on Sunday, then release the results of the independent study of church salaries. Do these new bands developed by this consultant (was it the A-Group?) have anything to do with the rapid staff departures over the past year as staff members were placed in bands with ranges beneath their current salaries?
3. Why do we use "Word for You Today" (http://www.wordforyoutoday.com/) as our daily devotional? This at first appears to be the most trivial of all possible points, but it does raise serious questions - especially when we see our Pastor on their "testimonial" page, using our church name to tout the benefits of this authorless devotional (gee, if anonymous emails are bad, wouldn't anonymous devotionals be worse?). Word for You Today is a non-denominational, for-profit daily devotional, purposely authorless so that churches who purchase it can provide it to their congregations as though it comes from the pastor. Let's refresh some memories: the first months that Mac came to FBC Jax he proclaimed he would be emailing devotionals written by him to the church membership. We even had visitors at special events write their emails on the back so we could be sure to send them Mac's devotional. This never happened, but we started using Word for You Today on the FBC Jax website. Why are we subscribing to a for-profit company's devotionals when there are numerous FREE, reputable, well-know daily devotionals, to which we could link (that don't hide the identify of their contributors or editors). If FBC Jax is not paying ZERO for providing Word for You Today on our website, we are paying too much. All of this makes me wonder: is Mac one of the paid contributors to this devotional? Or is he paid for his testimonial?
The church leadership wants YOU to be accountable. Fine. The leadership wants YOU to prove yourself to be a good steward of your money by pledging it to the church and signing your name. Great. But is the church leadership willing to be accountable to the givers of the money and to show themselves to be good stewards? Think about that before you decide to drop your card into the chest this Sunday.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Pants and Ties
Anyone going to church on Wednesdays has noticed two interesting changes:
1. All, and I mean ALL, male leadership are no longer wearing ties. No ushers, no deacons, no pastors, no one in any leadership position. No one. And the youth leaders are wearing khakis and a thin brown t-shirt.
2. A good number of the women in the church that used to wear dresses and skirts are now wearing pants.
I really don't care what people wear to church.
But its very obvious that an edict went out to the leadership of the church: NO TIES ON WEDNESDAY FOR MALE LEADERSHIP. Or they got the hint from Jim Smyrl preaching about ties.
But if it wasn't an edict from the pastor of "NO MORE TIES", wouldn't logic be that some WOULD wear ties while others didn't?
What's so wrong with ties on Wednesday that would cause the pastor to tell the leadership of our church to not wear them anymore.
Things get more bizarre by the week.
1. All, and I mean ALL, male leadership are no longer wearing ties. No ushers, no deacons, no pastors, no one in any leadership position. No one. And the youth leaders are wearing khakis and a thin brown t-shirt.
2. A good number of the women in the church that used to wear dresses and skirts are now wearing pants.
I really don't care what people wear to church.
But its very obvious that an edict went out to the leadership of the church: NO TIES ON WEDNESDAY FOR MALE LEADERSHIP. Or they got the hint from Jim Smyrl preaching about ties.
But if it wasn't an edict from the pastor of "NO MORE TIES", wouldn't logic be that some WOULD wear ties while others didn't?
What's so wrong with ties on Wednesday that would cause the pastor to tell the leadership of our church to not wear them anymore.
Things get more bizarre by the week.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Planned Giving or Impulse Giving?
Mac Brunson on Sunday night introduced Pastor Daniel Jones of the "Christ Ministry of Changing Lives" in Jacksonville. Pastor Jones' church ministers in a very crime-ridden neighborhood in Jacksonville, and his church building was nearly destroyed by arson in March 2007. Articles and videos documenting the arson and his rebuilding efforts are found here and here.
Mac introduced Pastor Jones to the FBC Jacksonville congregation because our church has decided to help him with some of the rebuilding process; we have garnered the support of several businesses to buy some air conditioning units and perhaps some other things as well. Mac of course is to be commended for reaching out to the community in this fashion to help Pastor Jones and his church.
When Mac introduced Pastor Jones he described how the events were set into motion to help this ministry: Mac's son Trey saw a news article about this man's church and his struggle to rebuild, and brought it to Mac's attention, and then they (Mac and Trey) decided to help them out. According to Mac, Trey then sprung into action and "negotiated" to get reduced pricing on the air conditioning units to be purchased by FBC Jax. Mac then called out and volunteered several men in the congregation to go "door to door" with Pastor Jones to invite people to his church.
As I said, that is good. By all appearances this seems to be a worthwhile ministry to Pastor Jones on the part of FBC Jax. The only reason I bring this up here on the blog is this: the way Mac explained the events leading up to the decision to help this church, this seemed to be somewhat of an "impulse" giving decision. Other than Mac and Trey deciding that this was a worthwhile investment of our church's time and money, did our church do its due diligence into examining this ministry and making sure our involvement is worthwhile? This does remind me of the hot water that Steve Gaines got himself into at Bellevue when he decided to donate a sum of money from the Bellevue church to a local non-Baptist church that had been damaged. Upon further investigation this church was found to be very liberal, had a woman pastor, was a church that took a strong pro-abortion position, and many members at Bellevue were irate that a decision to donate money from the church coffers could be made by the pastor with little lay oversight and no due diligence.
So the question is: how did we arrive at the decision to give to this church, and not other churches (some of them our Southern Baptist brethren) that perhaps also might need our assistance? Did serious-minded men look into this pastor and his church and their doctrinal stances to make sure that it is a worthwhile investment of our time and money (sorry, this question DOES need to be asked!)? Did we have this planned in our budget (as Mac said our giving should be "planned" and not "impulse")? Why are we volunteering our lay people to go help him knock on doors to help him build his church? Why did Mac decide to announce this when he did, bringing the man up to the platform?
Mac introduced Pastor Jones to the FBC Jacksonville congregation because our church has decided to help him with some of the rebuilding process; we have garnered the support of several businesses to buy some air conditioning units and perhaps some other things as well. Mac of course is to be commended for reaching out to the community in this fashion to help Pastor Jones and his church.
When Mac introduced Pastor Jones he described how the events were set into motion to help this ministry: Mac's son Trey saw a news article about this man's church and his struggle to rebuild, and brought it to Mac's attention, and then they (Mac and Trey) decided to help them out. According to Mac, Trey then sprung into action and "negotiated" to get reduced pricing on the air conditioning units to be purchased by FBC Jax. Mac then called out and volunteered several men in the congregation to go "door to door" with Pastor Jones to invite people to his church.
As I said, that is good. By all appearances this seems to be a worthwhile ministry to Pastor Jones on the part of FBC Jax. The only reason I bring this up here on the blog is this: the way Mac explained the events leading up to the decision to help this church, this seemed to be somewhat of an "impulse" giving decision. Other than Mac and Trey deciding that this was a worthwhile investment of our church's time and money, did our church do its due diligence into examining this ministry and making sure our involvement is worthwhile? This does remind me of the hot water that Steve Gaines got himself into at Bellevue when he decided to donate a sum of money from the Bellevue church to a local non-Baptist church that had been damaged. Upon further investigation this church was found to be very liberal, had a woman pastor, was a church that took a strong pro-abortion position, and many members at Bellevue were irate that a decision to donate money from the church coffers could be made by the pastor with little lay oversight and no due diligence.
So the question is: how did we arrive at the decision to give to this church, and not other churches (some of them our Southern Baptist brethren) that perhaps also might need our assistance? Did serious-minded men look into this pastor and his church and their doctrinal stances to make sure that it is a worthwhile investment of our time and money (sorry, this question DOES need to be asked!)? Did we have this planned in our budget (as Mac said our giving should be "planned" and not "impulse")? Why are we volunteering our lay people to go help him knock on doors to help him build his church? Why did Mac decide to announce this when he did, bringing the man up to the platform?
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