Carpet, Wallpaper, Chillers, and Roof Repairs...Where Did the Money Go?

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Update: Click here to listen to Mac say that we used to be known as a giving church. His sermon was a classic "sheep beater"...telling us all what our church used to be known as. One of the things we used to be is a giving church. In this clip he says if we want to stay out of debt we'll give the money for these "needs"...although he ignores the fact that he's spent money on non-budgeted expenses already, and he doesn't consider the possibility of cutting operating expenses elsewhere. Are we sure Mac isn't a democrat - he acts like a "tax and spend" liberal.

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Mac explained on Sunday that a special offering will be taken up on Sunday morning 9/28, during our annual budget commitment Sunday called "Chest of Joash" service...and this special offering will be taken up to pay for the following four items:

1. New carpeting in various parts of the campus

2. New wallpaper in selected areas

3. A new chiller (for air conditioning) in the Ruth Lindsay Auditorium

4. Roof repairs


He put the number at $900,000 needed. Like only Mac can do...he doesn't implore people to give out of the goodness of their hearts for a need, doesn't make an explanation as to why a special offering is needed...no, he instead threatens us that we will be going into debt for the first time in 46 years unless we dig deep and give the money. The guy is absolutely shameless. It really is quite an amazing sight to behold.


Mac even had pictures for us to show us a picture of the chiller in the mechanical room, and showed us pictures of the carpet and wallpaper. It was so moving, I nearly cried when I saw that poor chiller in the RLA mechanical room - all alone, not providing chilled water.



People are asked to tithe 10% of their income and there is a $15 to $16 million dollar annual budget. Mac needs to explain why a special offering is needed for maintenance expenses on our campus given the following:

• Mac chose to take $500,000 from our church funds during an unannounced Wednesday night special business meeting to fund the school start-up. Was that money in our 2007-2008 budget? Shouldn't maintenance items be paid out of tithes and offerings before money is taken to fund a brand new ministry?


• Mac took a special offering in April to raise money to put him back on nationwide TV. He never told us if we reached the goal. But we are now spending over $150,000 to put Mac on nationwide TV on INSP network. How much did we have to dip into our budget to pay for Mac to be in INSP again?


• Mac is encouraging the rich to go with him on a Holy Land trip that is not a church function. He uses our church website to advertise it, and he even mentions it in his sermons.

Here's an idea: let's bring Sarah Palin in! She will find the money!



Sarah Palin will take an objective, hard-nosed, "bulldog with lipstick" approach to our church finances. She will look at our budget and see where we can cut out the pork. She can start first over in the pastor's office and his support staff consisting of several family members. Then let's go to the church marketing budget and how much money is going to Maurilio Amorim and the A-Group, and how much we pay to fly Maurilio down for creative sessions with Mac at Deerwood and if we can't cut that budget. The, Sarah can look at where the $500,000 is going for this new school and what its being spent on. Then, we need to get to the bottom of Mac's 501(c)3 website and make sure we're not paying the A-Group for that site. Also Sarah, take a look at how much it costs to put Mac on nationwide TV and if there aren't less expensive options for broadcasting our services to the world. And then let's sick Sarah on the Pastor's Conference money - where in the world does all of that registration money go to? Does it at least pay the increased operating expenses incurred by our church, or does it all go to the pockets of the big time preachers who come to speak? I think - no, I KNOW - ole Sarah Palin might find the $900,000 that should be there for the required maintenance of our facilities.




Finally, I still don't get it...many of the lay leaders of our church are serious, seasoned businessmen and lawyers and accountants and financial planners and CEOs....men who know how to spot an amateur CEO who has his spending priorities mixed up. Why do they allow Mac to do this? Do they really think the congregation is as stupid as Mac thinks we are? He teaches legalistic tithing, then he can't manage the church's budget to pay for maintenance items - he takes money out for non-budgeted projects then comes for a special offering to pay for operating expenses at our church. We can't even pay for Muslim bibles out of the budget, so it takes a special offering. Can our church leadership perhaps make a decision: what is the criteria for what is a special offering?


So FBC Jacksonville faithful members..don't fall for it. Don't give money to this special offering for the maintenance of the church - if you're giving consistently to the church budget - YOU ALREADY HAVE GIVEN THE MONEY FOR THESE REPAIRS. MAC HAS SPENT IT ON THINGS OTHER THAN WHAT IT SHOULD BE SPENT ON.



One last suggestion for Mac: perhaps you can seed the fund by taking a home equity loan out and giving the $300,000 given to you by J.D. Collins when you first arrived, and then maybe the church can borrow $300,000 back from the $500,000 we gave for the start-up of the school, and we're 2/3 of the way to our $900,000!

Mac: Coming to Jax was "Terrifying" and "We Were on Trial"...

This week we were once again treated to another explanation from Mac about how poorly he was treated when he got here to Jax. Yes, according to Mac it was "terrifying" and like being "on trial". Unbelievable. I've never heard a pastor continually tell his congregation how terrible they are, how unloving they are, and how poorly they have treated their own pastor - like Mac does. He did it in July and now again. And when one examines the facts, its just a bold faced lie. Its revisionist history from a supposed historian. He wants sympathy I suppose; I can't figure out why else he engages in this nonsense.

Here is the quote from Mac on Sunday 9/7:

"When we [Mac and Debbie] came here...do you know how terrifying it is to walk in and be pastor of a church? In a place...not unless you're a pastor do you even understand what I'm saying. You walk into a place, you know nobody, you're on trial, people immediately begin to point out your flaws. 'I don't like this', 'Why did he do that?', 'Why did he preach out of that Bible?', 'Why did he say that?', 'Why did he say this'?, 'Why does he dress like that?....the least thing we can do, the LEAST thing we can do is to hold back judgement and express love"

Click here to listen to the audio clip

The above statement comes just before the invitation, after a sermon where he is telling his congregation that their gifts of the spirit are useless unless they have the fruit of the Spirit, which is love.

Some comments on Mac's little explanation of how tough it was when he came here:

- his comment is absolute rubbish, and anyone who was here the first 6 months of Mac's tenure knows it. Any pastor, of any church, is going to have detractors. Mac knows that. All preachers know that. Especially the new guy. Make no mistake, the church was 99% behind Mac Brunson when he came here. Sure, there were people who didn't like him using the NASB instead of the KJV (I myself didn't care). But he was loved by the people when he came. We trusted that our search committee, hand picked by Jerry Vines, had selected the right man for the job. We were behind Mac Brunson. Those that were here when he preached in view of a call know it, and Mac and Honey know it...and for sure the search committee and lay leadership of our church know it more than anyone. Besides, true leaders lead...they don't complain about their detractors, they don't lash out at their criticizers...they just, well, they just lead. (see also "George Bush"). So Mac, shut up about how tough it is or was. Take the money you're given, live the high life in Deerwood, and just cry on your closest friends' shoulders like Paige Patterson and Maurilio Amorim about the abuse you've had to endure. And if possible, leave open the possiblity that whatever abuse you feel you've had to endure may have been your own doing.

- Why must one be a pastor to know what he is talking about? Would he please get over the idea that being a pastor is the loftiest, most responsible, weighty position in the world? Why does he continually say that we can't understand how tough he has it? A person in a position of leadership, even in a business organization knows that he will be second-guessed, he will be mis-read, and people will be skeptical - even moreso in the secular world than in a church where a good number of the people worship the pastor. These megachurch pastors are given six-figure salaries, wonderful benefits, have grown men kissing their ring finger and telling them how great they are and how the preacher is "God's man"....and in Mac's case: we built him a $100,000 personal office suite for wife and secretary and dogs before he came using the most prime space on our entire campus...a member gave him free rent at a multi-million dollar ocean-front condo for he and his family until their million dollar mansion was built...his wife and son were put on staff...and he was given a 2-month long paid vacation before he ever showed up to start his job, and we allowed him to bring his own church marketing consultant with him from Day 1. We paid big money to promote Mac on Father's Day 2006 by holding a service at our minor league ballpark: "Sermon on the Mound" we called it (should have been "sermonette on the mound"). Now you tell me...does that sound so "terrifying"...does that sound like he was "on trial" when he came here? Come on Mac, you lose more and more credibility every time you try to poor-mouth us about how tough you have or had it!

- Mac's statement is consistent with his view of our church ever since he came here, and it explains why he treats us as he does. I wrote last year about how Paige Patterson told the student body at SWBTS that Mac was under attack ever since he came to our church by "recalcitrants", and likened his treatment by FBC Jax as wanting to "kill" Mac Brunson. Mac is a liar. He lied about his treatment at our church to Paige Patterson. He then slandered us to the pastors in North Carolina earlier this year that we are a "hotbed of legalism". He lied in the FBC Jax pulpit about Sheri Klouda, a former church member of his at FBC Dallas and he will not apologize. Mac Brunson and Debbie Brunson were treated like king and queen when they came...and yes, when you draw a $300,000 dollar salary, and you run an organization as big as our church, you're going to have a very small percentage of the people give you a hard time - it comes with the territory and with the large salary. Ask Jerry Vines.

- Mac makes no attempt to try to understand his congregation. He only wants to be understood, but doesn't want to understand us. If he doesn't feel enough love, than we are an unloving congregation. If he feels there are people not happy with his leadership style or direction because they are sending him questioning emails, then the congregation is a bunch of complainers. Its never possible in his mind that the problem is with HIM. Its always the congregation. A pastoral transition can be difficult for a congregation, and the first year or so was very tough. And to see him come in and start taking liberties with our church with jobs for family, unannounced absences from the pulpit, complaining how we are stuck in the past, yelling at us because not enough people volunteered to pray with the pastor...all of this is tough on us too. But in Mac's mind, like many of the big names in the SBC that he's buddies with - if there's a problem in a megachurch, its the people and never the preacher's fault.

- His view of the congregation as treating him poorly, and being complainers and stuck in the past and unloving toward people...is how he in general views congregations I'm convinced. Mac wrote a book "Why Churches Die"...and the book is basically a thorough examination of all the possible ways a church congregation or church members can screw up a church. In fact the introduction of the book is entitled "Church Would be Easy Without People".

So Mac, everybody knows you were treated well when you came. And they know now, through this blog, why you're having difficulty leading FBC Jax. Its not the congregation, sir. Its you. Take a long look at yourself Mac before you look down your pious nose at us. If you were a truthful, discerning man, you would lavish praise on your congregation for how they are treating you, and how they treated you when you came and you would lead us in love and not in harshness and demanding our followship. But you can't do it. You must desire us all to line up and kiss your ring and follow you in lockstep and never question your authority, else in your book we're mistreating you.

Mac Doesn't Like Councilman Referring to "Sorry Churches"

In Sunday night's sermon, Mac Brunson makes a strange reference to "city council members" who "criticize churches in this city and say they're 'sorry' ". Listen to the clip:

Mac's Reference to Councilman Daniel Davis Comments

A couple of things very interesting about Mac's comments. Be sure to read my previous column to understand what prompted Mac to mention this certain "city council member".

- Why did Mac feel the need to condescendingly mention Davis' comments about sorry churches? Must be Councilman Davis stepped on Mac's toes and Mac feels that his church, FBC Jacksonville, is one of the "sorry churches" Davis referred to that are not doing their job in this city to help the needy but instead are falling all over themselves to send missionaries all over the world and build magnificent structures instead of helping the poor in their own city.

- Mac's reference to Davis' comments doesn't even fit the context of Mac's remarks about his constitutional freedom to speak out on issues. Davis' comment had absolutely ZERO to do with preachers' rights to speak freely on public issues. Davis said that if "sorry churches" would make ministry to the down and out in our city a priority then the local government wouldn't have to spend so much tax payer money. Sounds reasonable to me. Does Mac take issue with that? Of course not, because Mac already said that churches should "rise up" and do hurricane relief and not the federal government and Mac is already on the record as praying that the government doesn't get involved if we get hit by a hurricane. But Mac is a blowhard...he likes to say anything that will get the crowd riled up.

- Notice the response of the congregation and the hootin' and hollerin' after Mac makes his remark. Can you say "gullible sheep"?

- Interesting that Mac doesn't like the councilman being critical of the churches in this city. Readers I ask you, which is worse? A councilman in a city council meeting, in his hometown, calling for churches to do their job and minister to the poor...or a pastor, a PASTOR, traveling out of town and calling his church and possibly the entire city "a hotbed of legalism" where "everybody has a list of rules but no real relationship with Jesus Christ?" Yes, that's what Mac said about his own church and city last March. Click here to listen! Only unlike Davis, Mac said it behind our backs to preachers in North Carolina, and unlike Davis, Mac doesn't have the backbone to explain his comments, not even to his own church. Davis has given interviews and has explained his comments. How 'bout you Mac? Are we here in Jacksonville all just a bunch of legalists with no real relationship with Jesus Christ? No wonder you had to bring Maurilio in from Nashville to help you decide what to do at our church, we're all a bunch of legalistic dolts down here in Jacksonville!

- Mac gave a glowing explanation Sunday morning of what a "hypocrite" is from the Greek text. Well, Sunday night Mac's reference to the councilman gave a very nice real life picture of what a hypocrite is, and no Greek text was needed...its Mac condescendingly mentioning Davis' remarks which were intended to spur churches to get more involved in meeting social ills, while Mac himself takes six-figure gifts from our church members to enrich himself and takes half a million from the church operating budget to start a school that only the very rich will be able to afford, and Mac uses our church website to encourage members to go on expensive Holy Land trips. What is Mac doing to help in our city? Well, when Mac was called on to sit on the mayor's crime prevention steering committee with Nat Glover (former sheriff), Wayne Weaver (owner of the Jags), John Delaney (former mayor and president of UNF) and other prominent leaders in our city....Mac could find the time in his busy pastor schedule to attend only 2 of 7 meetings! Now he's poking fun of the councilman's comments, and the gullible sheep hoot and holler about it!

So Councilman Daniel Davis, keep speaking out on this issue, but don't hold your breath waiting for FBC Jax and Mac Brunson - their plate is full: millions to start a school for the very rich, need millions in campus renovations, need workers not to help the poor but to start a satellite church in southern Duval county so Mac can preach via satellite, and we need money for Mac's nationwide sermons. But when a real need arises like hurricane relief, Mac will have the ushers hold buckets at the exit after Sunday for us to throw some change in - which is what Mac did on Sunday. Maybe some money from our church budget should go to hurricane relief, and we should hold buckets at the exits to pay for Maurilio's consulting time, Mac's nationwide sermon broadcasts, and for the new school.

By the way readers, Bob Allen at Ethics Daily has a more detailed story out today on Davis' comments that you can read here.

On a side note: I wanted to let my readers hear a quote from one of our younger ministers who spoke in the Sunday evening service on the topic of illegal immigration during a forum Mac had on current events. According to this minister, a Christian worldview says we should not seal up our borders, but we should welcome all illegals since they are all "souls", and instead of closing up the border we should evangelize it and be happy that so many are coming to our country so that we can get them saved. Maybe churches should be handing out tracts to the illegals coming across the border? Listen to the remarks yourself here. After this minister spoke I heard Mac utter "that's a good word" as the young minister sat down. No Mac, that was a bad word. We need to, for security reasons, to do a better job of controlling who comes into our country. Once they're here, yes, minister to their needs...if any money is left after paying the pastor and wife, the school, the satellite churches, and the campus renovations...or we could collect change in buckets to help the illegals.

"Sorry Churches"

Click here to read an article written by Ron Littlepage of the Florida Times Union, about one of Jacksonville's city councilmen who proclaimed in a city council meeting recently that it is because of Jacksonville's "sorry churches" that government money must be spent to give underprivileged kids scholarships to the Don Brewer Early Learning Center. The city government has been seeking private funding of the center to avoid spending hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars to keep it open.

The councilman's name is Daniel Davis (picture at right) - and he said government will have to step up and help fund the center because of "sorry churches" in our city who don't "fulfill their mission", and are instead "building magnificent structures" and "tripping all over themselves to witness in foreign countries" but not doing what they should at home.

I'll lump FBC Jax in with the "sorry churches"...and I think reporters like Ron Littlepage and city councilmen like Daniel Davis don't even realize the extent to which what Davis says IS true.

Millions of dollars, TAX EXEMPT dollars...are spent on things like huge pastor and pastor wife salaries enabling them to live in exclusive neighborhoods and drive fancy cars and put their son on staff, spending money on 3000 square foot lavish pastor office suites for pastor and wife and dogs...all while neighborhoods just up the road are in need of the love of God and the resources of God's people.

OK, let's assume that FBC Jax needs to spend its $15 million budget primarily on buildings, salaries, and overseas missions. Where are the efforts to reach people in the poorer, crime-ridden areas of Jacksonville? The pastor is hot and heavy to broadcast video of his sermons in a branch church in southern Duval. He and Jim Smyrl are trying to convince hundreds of families to give up their Sunday nights to start home churches to evangelize their neighborhoods in southern Jacksonville so that next spring they can be used to start a satellite church in the wealthiest part of our county...but what if he used his influence to start a tutoring program for underprivileged kids like he told us over a year ago? What portion of our 15 million dollar budget is being used to help the poor and down and out in our city? Not much, not much at all. And I realize this didn't start with Brunson. However, his actions since coming just make it all the worse - spending money on projects that don't help the needy, BUT ALSO are not even in step with the mission and scope of our church!

This is why the news of our pastor accepting a $300,000 land gift from one of our richest members just three weeks after arriving here is so troubling - that certainly didn't help the needy in our community or further our church's mission. To accept such a gift so early in his tenure here in our city just sends a terrible message to the people of our city that we're all about enriching a man instead of helping God's people. Or that our pastor earns a $300k plus income along with his wife being on staff and we used $100k and 3000 square feet in our children's building to construct a lavish office suite for pastor and wife and dogs. Didn't someone ask "how does this office suite further the gospel or help those in need?"

We gullible sheep sit and watch as the pastor uses our church resources like his own source of project capital - taking $500k out of our church budget (not special gifts...OUT OF OUR MINISTRY BUDGET) to start a school in the fall of 2009 that will benefit only a very few in our congregation that can afford tuition to the tune of $8000 per kid...holding a special offering on Resurrection Day to collect $150,000 to put himself back on national TV...using our church website to market "Holy Land" trips to the very wealthy in our church...all things that might, MIGHT be worthwhile activities...but they don't help many people in our community and they are not within the mission statement of our church.

So dig deep people of FBC Jax that have been told you must tithe to experience God's blessings...because FBC Jax needs hundreds of thousands every week...you are the revenue source to keep it going. But not to worry, Mac "Jeremiah Wright" Brunson is praying that the federal government doesn't come here if a hurricane hits us, and he is "praising Jesus" that you all didn't get a raise last year because you're all so stupid you'd just use it to get further in debt. Mac's hurricane relief comment just shows what a blow-hard he is...if he thinks the church should "rise up", then why isn't he leading the charge?

Keep calling out the "sorry churches" Daniel Davis. But the only way these pastors and lay leaders will be held accountable is when God's people stop forking over 10% of their income while they carelessly watch the pastor and lay leaders spend it on the pastor and his family and on projects inconsistent with the mission of the church.

Maybe we need a "Sarah Palin"...someone to come in and stop the wasteful spending and hold "the good ole boy network" at our church accountable for the abuses at our church under Brunson.

2009 Pastor's Conference - Still Waiting...

To those of you visiting this Website who are looking for the registration web site for the 2009 First Baptist Church Jacksonville Pastor's Conference, you've reached this website, a blog that is devoted to attempting to hold Pastor Mac Brunson accountable for his abuses at our church. Browse just a few of the articles that are available in the right hand column to get the story of what has been happening at our church since you last visited FBC Jacksonville.

Unfortunately as of this writing, September 4th, our "Director of Special Projects" is late in starting the registration for our 2009 Pastor's Conference. We are now into September and the Pastor's Conference website has given a list of speakers, a rough agenda, but has not listed any of the workshop topics and no information on fees or the registration process. No information on the cost of meals, and the cost of the "upgrade" premium sessions. But we have made some progress in getting ready for the conference: with the help of our ace church marketing consultant from just up the road from Jacksonville in Nashville (Tennessee), we came up with the catchy slogan for the conference of "Healthy Pastors, Healthy Churches" with the a similar green apple and peel that he used for Mac's "Fresh" sermon series in 2006. Just my guess, but judging from the portly status of our pastor and sidekick Jim Smyrl, the "Healthy Pastors" is not speaking of physical health. Sorry, couldn't resist.

But I do want to offer an alternative for those of you who might be considering coming to the FBC Jax Pastor's Conference this year. Our church has problems, and it might be best to skip it this year and try another conference. You see, Mac and Jim Smyrl have spent the last year "lovingly" telling their congregation how stuck in the past we are, how traditionalist, how legalistic we are, and even Mac's church consultant has used the word "fundamentalist" to describe me on his website. (I've hyperlinked articles on this blog so you can see their dim view of the people of FBC Jacksonville). They are obviously very frustrated over the lack of progress they have had in transitioning our church from its current "legalistic", "fundamental", and "traditionalist" ways and now is just not a good time to learn much from FBC Jax. And why would you want to come and worship with a bunch of people who our pastor has described as a "hotbed of legalism" that "have a list but no real relationship with Jesus Christ"? According to Smyrl we're stuck in our traditions, and we need to be looking at the methods of churches who are reaching people with "flip flops and tee-shirts", and we are obviously not there yet (although Jim Smyrl "bravely" preaches without a tie on Wednesday - the crowds are beginning to build!).

Although still there is no information about the fees for the conference, you might anticipate an increase again this year as we saw last year. Earlier this year I received several emails from pastors disappointed in the huge increase in FBC Jax Pastor Conference tuition from previous years and I have permission to share one of them with you:

....In your blog, you mentioned the rise in registration fee from $100 with meals to $175 w/o meals. Has there ever been any reason given for the increase?

This increase is one reason why I did not attend this year [Feb 2008]. Instead, I went to Dr. John MacArthur's Shepherd's Conference in Southern California. I thought you might find this interesting. The registration was $300.00 for Wednesday through Sunday, although Saturday is a free day to be a "tourist". With that registration fee it included lunch for Wednesday-Friday, lite breakfast fare consisting of fruit, cold cereals, fruit juice, coffee, donuts, milk, chocolate milk, etc. We had snacks such as vegetable trays, cheese & cracker trays, bottled water cold drinks, such as coke, diet coke, dr. pepper, root beer sprite, Pepsi, etc. And these things are stationed EVERYWHERE you turn in multiple locations. But it gets better. (Sounds like a cheesy infomercial, doesn't it.) Every year they give you a gift, it may be a watch or a briefcase, this year it was a $50 gift card to the book store. Now, what pastor is not going to buy books at a conference? Nice touch, wasn't it? In case you tallying this up $300.00 registration minus a $50.00 gift card we're now at $250.00.

But in addition to all of that on Thursday of the conference at lunch they also passed out canvas bags full of books and resources to every attendee. In total there were 14 books a DVD and a CD. If you do the math real quick if you spent $20.00 for each book, alone, that is now $280.00 now I am in the black $30.00.

As you can see, it just made sense from a financial standpoint to attend the Shepherd's Conference and I was blessed immeasurably and will attend again. And just like you, at FBCJAX, I have to also be a good steward of the resources God has given me and the church I pastor.

So while we have no idea what the registration fee will be at FBC Jax even at this late date, I'm sure it will be at least as high as last year's $175 plus "premium" sessions and much higher if you add meals. We shall see, as soon as the Director of Special Projects and Maurilio Amorim get back to this project.

If you want to find information about the Shepard's Conference at John MacArthur's church March 4th-8th, 2008, go here:

https://www.shepherdsfellowship.org/

Although their conference is a month later than ours, their registration site is open and full of information about the speakers, workshops, and theme. Not the big list of speakers, but perhaps you will hear from God at this conference from men who are not angry, who don't take advice on how to run the church from a church marketing consultant in Nashville, and you'll learn from lay and staff members at that church who aren't looking at churches who are winning souls with "flip flops and tee-shirts" to see what the latest Purpose Driven technique is to appeal to the masses. And you won't have your intelligence insulted by having to hear Mac Brunson talk about the evils of pastors who "negotiate salaries like an NBA super star" when he himself is a pastor earning the big dollars and accepting huge gifts from members of the church), and bragging about how he has the "skill, drive, and ambition" to be successful outside of the ministry...or hear him praise his son for "raising $100,000" to offset the costs of the conference when really the credit of any money "raised" goes to God and God's generous people at FBC Jax.

So in the absence of specifics on our 2009 Pastor's Conference at this point, use this as an opportunity to try a different conference next year. Maybe the Shepherd's Conference, or maybe one that is run by people in tee-shirts and flip-flops. Besides, you can still watch the Pastor's Conference from FBC Jax on the Internet, and you can come back to the Watchdog for some interesting analysis.