Fleecing the Sheep: Mac Needs a Million Dollars

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

Click here to read Mac's Letter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listen for yourself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and

"You Were Known as a Giving Church"

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

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

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

Here is what Mac said after indicting his church.

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

Listen to Mac Yourself

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

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

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

Listen to Mac

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

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

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

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

Mac's Indictment of FBC Jax - Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here to listen for yourself

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

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

More to come...

Mac's "Indictment" of FBC Jax - Part 1

Mac Brunson on Sunday 9/21 "built a case" against his church (his words...as he said again he wanted to be a lawyer) gave a sermon that was chock full of legalism and negativity...it was Mac's attempt I'm sure to be a strong leader, talking directly to the people of the plight they're in. But what is so sad, is that Mac doesn't know the first thing about leadership; leadership is not tearing people down and asking why can't they do better...its casting a positive vision, a call to specific action, calling on the people to muster the strength they have to rally around a shared vision. Mac gives no vision. Instead he seems to enjoy more telling his church how far they've fallen, pointing out their faults, rather than extolling their virtues and casting a POSITIVE vision.

In Mac's indictment, he rips us because:

we used to be creative in Sunday School;

we used to be evangelistic;

we used to love our pastors and staff;

and we used to be a giving church.

It was very discouraging. Maybe our church has fallen far. If it has, he has to accept some of the blame himself as he's been at the helm for 2 1/2 years. But he doesn't accept any responsibility, in fact he uses the word "you" instead of "we" an awful lot in his lambasting of his congregation.

Here is the first of Mac's indictments of the church.

"FBC Jacksonville was a church that was innovative in Sunday School. 20-30 years ago you were doing stuff in Sunday School that the [SBC] Sunday School Board hadn't even thought of...you were on the cutting edge...go on and applaud yourselves 'cause I'm 'fixin to 'get ya'. I'm building a case; that's why I wanted to go to law. You used to do cutting edge things in Sunday School. You were out in front. When you mentioned FBC Jacksonville you thought the most creative, the most innovative Sunday School. But let me ask you something. We ask you to do one thing in Sunday School now and you just about have a nervous breakdown. Where's your creativity? Where's your courage? Where's the entrepreneurialship (?) in Sunday School. Where's the 'cutting edge'? [now yelling]. Where did it go. What has happend to us? Why can't we be cutting edge once again in Sunday School?"

No positive vision. No call to specific action. What the heck does "entrepreneurialship" mean in Sunday School to the average lay person? What does "cutting edge" mean? What is he asking faithful Sunday School teachers to do that they aren't doing? We have very dedicated people in Sunday School who have devoted their entire lives to teaching people the bible.

The truth is there was nothing fancy going on in our Sunday School all these years that Mac is talking about. It was just people who were taught to love the Word of God, taught to love Jesus, and taught to love the people of Jacksonville. That was it. In fact, what Mac the pseudo-historian doesn't understand, is that while other churches were falling all over themselves to be "cutting edge" (whatever that means) back in the 70's and 80's and even '90's, we were just doing the same 'ole thing: loving Jesus, loving the Bible, and loving people. And here's a "good word" for you Mac: whatever things we did in Sunday School that were "cutting edge" - it was the strong, clear, and loving leadership of our pastors and staff that led us there. If we're floundering now, perhaps its more an indication of the failure of your leadership than some moral failing of hundreds of Sunday School workers.

But this was just the first of Mac's indictments against our church. It gets worse, and I'll share the other three with you in the coming days.

Our church is in bad shape. We need a leader. We need someone to cast a positive vision for all the people, and not someone who wants to tear down as he struts around the stage.

NEWS FLASH: Brunson Discovers that Churches in Rome Were All Satellite Churches!

Mac Brunson thinks his congregation are a bunch of biblical illiterates. In his sermons recently he has expressed concern over how gullible we are when we read books and watch TV, that we're all being led astray by heretical writers and TV preachers. Here is an example from this past Sunday.

So while he likes to beat us up for not being people of the Bible and not bringing our Bibles to church, he also likes to use his perception of our biblical illiteracy to his advantage.

Case in point this Sunday, while preaching out of Romans Chapter 1, he declares that the churches in Rome were actually a group of "satellite churches", comparable to what we are doing here in Jacksonville by opening a satellite church in southern Duval County. If he actually believes that there is any similarity between his plan for satellites (a huge mother church starting "branch" churches where a "rock start" preacher drives in to preach and money is collected and sent back to the mother church) and the first century believers in Rome, then he needs to study his bible a little more closely.

"There were many churches across the city of Rome. They met wherever they could. There was not just one congregation...people ask...well what about...you know...you've got a downtown location for a church and then you're gonna go and put a satellite out somewhere...well that's exactly what the church in Rome was. It was a group of "satellite churches".

Click here to listen yourself

That is absolutely ridiculous! If anything, if we were to follow the pattern of the churches in Rome and elsewhere in the New Testament, we would be interested in starting a new church in southern Duval County with their own pastor perhaps, not a millionaire preacher who will drive in his BMW to preach to people live and via video tape at some branch church where all the money and power and control comes back to the "mother church" in downtown.

So readers, another example of how careless Mac Brunson is with the truth. His "brand" is one of bible scholar, historian....yet he pulls off a ridiculous statement like this. I've said it before when he fibs in his supposedly historical illustrations, and when he lied to our faces about Sheri Klouda: if he will fib in the pulpit over historical facts and tell lies about former church members, he'll also take liberty with the scriptures. We used to be able to trust the words from the pulpit at FBC Jax, but while Mac is filling the pulpit we all need to be very careful and measure his every claim.

There might be many reasons to start a satellite church. None of the reasons have anything to do with the churches in Rome also being satellites. Mac knows it. Every preacher reading this blog around the SBC knows it. But he still puts it out there because he thinks we're biblical illiterates and will believe anything he says.