Meet Maurilio - The New Face of the FBC Jax Way

Maurilio Amorim has flown into town to teach three sessions at the FBC Jax Conference.

As he twittered yesterday, we put him up at the Omni. Hey pastors staying in our member's homes or at a cheap motel 15 miles away...your registration fees helped put Maurilio up in an Omni suite three blocks from the church. Not cheap. He's staying at a luxury suite at the fabulous Omni downtown. Wonderful. Good for Maurilio!

Pastors, I highly recommend that you go to Maurilio's sessions. Many of you came to the conference to learn about how things are done at FBC Jax. Its impossible to learn what is going on at FBC Jax unless you sit at the feet of Maurilio, and let him teach you his ways...about church marketing, his "secret shopping" consulting service, and how to "brand" your church.

That is what our church is about these days. We are about marketing, branding, commercials, advertising, and promotions....and Maurilio is the brain child, the trusted advisor of Mac. As Watchdog blogged last year, FBC Jax cut all ministry categories in our church budget for 2009 except "Communications", which we vastly increased by a whopping 28%. We are starting a school, and while we have 600 or so children in our church that could be the start of the school, we are instead sending vast sums of money in very prime time local TV advertising - spending God's money on lots of TV advertising. We are buying TV spots featuring Mac and Debbie Brunson inviting people to come to church.

We have charged ministry's large sums of money at the Pastor's Conference this year and last for the privilege of putting up a booth in our church, and we've even charged ministries to put advertisements on the image mags in the church and the dining room! We're even selling the "emcee" mentioning the name of a ministry from the pulpit! Did you ever think you'd see the day, pastors, when FBC Jax would actually SELL the privilege of having a ministry's name mentioned in the pulpit? Well, that day is here. Not only are we charging your an entrance fee, but we are selling access to your eyes and ears at the conference through selling of promotions packages. Click here to read the promotions plan put together by Trey Brunson and our PR firm out of Atlanta. This is what Maurilio and Mac have brought to our church.

Our church growth strategy? We aren't about church planting, but establishing satellites. You see, Maurilio isn't a church planter, he is a church marketer, and he does what marketers do...he helps his clients increase market share. Like Mac told us, we are going to do what McDonald's and Starbucks does and we will be extending our FBC Jax brand to the north, south, east, and west. In fact, read what Mac said to his congregation in February 2007 about our marketing strategy:

"I've been wrapped up and caught up in the concept of how I'd love to take this church and multiply it all over this city. Why not have one church, in multiple locations. We can have one church, not various churches, we're not doing a church plant, we're not starting another church that will constitute into a church, but this church, right here, one pastor, one deacon body, one trustee group, one church with different locations. McDonald's has done that all over the world, you know....eventually we will do it [the preaching] by closed circuit...I'd love one day to see First Baptist Jacksonville downtown, First Baptist Church Jacksonville South, First Baptist Church of Jacksonville East, First Baptist Church of Jacksonville West, First Baptist Church of Jacksonville North, so that no matter where anyone went they were constantly running into First Baptist Church of Jacksonville. If we want to reach this city, let's DOMINATE IT. Let's TAKE IT."

And included in the upcoming "Next Generation" capital fund program is raising a million or so dollars to start these satellites all over Jacksonville. Never mind that we are at less than 50% capacity downtown. Never mind that our Sunday School is dwindling. Never mind that we don't even have 1/3 of the money necessary to make the needed capital repairs on our buildings downtown! Sadly, what will likey happen is these satellites will open with lots of TV advertising and the end result will be sheep stealing from other churches all over town. We're going to build our market share - we'll dominate, we'll take it.

Now, I thought I'd blog a bit about who Maurilio is and what he does...and most importantly, what it says about FBC Jax that we have retained him as our church marketing consultant - and what it means that he is a trusted friend and advisor of our pastor, Mac Brunson. The Watchdog has written about Maurilio last year here, here, and here.

One of Mac's very first moves as pastor of our church back in 2006 was to hand over the website design to Maurilio Amorim's company. Mac had used Maurilio as a consultant during his time at Dallas, and it was obvious that Mac needed to bring Maurilio with him. Maurilio was involved in Dallas and at FBC Jax in reviewing the existing staff and management structure, and was involved in assisting Team Brunson in making personnel decisions affecting our long time staff members.

Maurilio is a church marketing consultant. He is not a church planter. He owns a company called "The A Group" out of Nashville that does marketing, branding, and web design. His consulting portfolio includes mostly non-denominational churches, some of them near mega status. He also does web design for Calvin Klein and Tommy Bahama. You can look at these at his company's website.

Maurilio is a very big proponent of social networking. He operates a blog, and he also was one of the first "Twitterers" that this writer knew of. Twittering is a type of "real time blogging" where Twitterers will post brief snippets of information about what they are doing throughout the day.

Maurilio twitters about all sorts of things in his life: he twitters about his yoga classes - yep, he's into yoga and spin classes. He twitters about getting his teeth whitened and his hair colored and sessions at spas and tanning salons. He twitters about his disgust and frustration with fat people on planes and at restaurants. He twitters about his very expensive meals and meetings with important people. Look for yourself here. He twitters about his 6-head shower he had installed, and his trip to Vegas and his $700 tickets to Cirque de Solei. Poor Maurilio had his toes stepped on last hear when the Watchdog wrote an article about his twittering of his jet-setting and hob-nobbing lifestyle, and the Maurilio took a swipe at the Watchdog in his blog about the "Top 10 Ways to Get in Trouble With Twitter"?

"Post fun tweets about your Vegas vacation and watch some crazy, anonymous fundamentalist jerk turn you into this money-spending, luxury-loving, pleasure-driven Satanist on his loser hate blog. (Do I sound bitter?). I guess what happens in Vegas should really stay there."

So Maurilio, the church marketing consultant who earns very generous consulting fees from the good people of FBC Jacksonville, felt total freedom to lie about one of its members (Watchdog never called him a Satanist) and call one of its members "crazy", a "fundamentalist jerk", and a "loser" who owns a "hate blog". Even if its true that the Watchdog is all of these things (which he is not), how arrogant must a man be to say these things about one of the members of the church that pays him consulting fees?

Good for Maurilio. He owns a business that apparently is in high demand, and he is doing very well at it. What I have a problem with is how he seems to flaunt his lifestyle publicly in the name of "social networking". People at churches, including our FBC Jax, sacrifice and do without to donate money to church, and then pastors like Mac take that money and pay large fees to Maurilio for help in determining how to market and brand their church. Not church planting. Church marketing. Church branding. Helping pastors design their sermons. And I have a huge problem with a church like FBC Jacksonville that went after a pastor like Mac Brunson and paid him a very generous salary to lead our church, only to find out that for Mac to lead our church he has to hire a church marketing guru! We have some 20 professional staff members, many who have seminary training...and we need Maurilio to help us figure out how to reach our city? Our staff needs Maurilio?? Really?

My guess is that if many of members were given a breakdown of the consulting fees and travel expenses paid to Maurilio over the past three years, they would fall out of their chairs and wonder why our money is being spent on such nonsense as church marketing. This is why the new bylaw changes Mac initiated STINK...there is no way any member could ever force the church to share details of expenditures to the A-Group.

I wonder if we are paying Maurilio to come down here and do his three sessions, or if he's doing it as a favor to us. I'm sure this is a wonderful opportunity for Maurilio, as he might drum up some new clients while down here.

But beware pastors - he's expensive, and if any of your church members give you grief about using him and his flaunting of his high life on Twitter, he might just lie and talk down one of YOUR church members! But if you have a functioning lay finance committee, and members who ask questions about how money is spent, I doubt they would want God's money spent on a church marketer.

So go to Maurilio's sessions and learn of the NEW way FBC Jax is being run. And tell Maurilio that the crazy, fundamentalist, loser, jerk Watchdog, said "Hi".

Welcome Pastors to FBC Jax Pastor's Conference

The Watchdog extends a warm welcome to the many pastors who will be attending the 2009 FBC Jax Pastor's Conference.

If you haven't been able to stay up with events at our church since last year, the Watchdog will give some commentary here to help get you up to speed - to help give you the other side of the story of what has happened at FBC Jax under the watch of Dr. Brunson and "Team Brunson".

The Watchdog will be posting a few articles: we will introduce you to Maurilio Amorim, our church marketing consultant who is leading 3 sessions at the conference.

We will provide some questions to be asked of Dr. James Bryant and Dr. Donald M. Brunson at their session this afternoon about the Pastor's Guidebook.

We will also provide some other interesting information and commentary on the conference as it unfolds - pointing out any inconsistencies or contradictions that might be uttered by our pastor. Of course the Watchdog, as always, welcomes your comments and criticism as well.

We have had quite a cold spell recently, but there is relief on the way and you should have some warm Florida weather next week.

Welcome to Jacksonville!

Smyrl's Sermon on 3 John

Last night Jim Smyrl gave a sermon on the book of third John, much of it dealing with gossipers in the church, and what should be done with them. He used the man "Diotrephes" from 3 John 9-10 as his text:

9 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

Smyrl applied this to gossipers in the church and defined gossip as this: causing one believer to doubt the integrity and intent of another believer, causing one believer to doubt the sincerity or passion of another believer. Jim said based on his 20+ years as pastor, the sin of Diotrephes is the great sin hindering Baptist churches today. So Jim's standard of gossip is pretty low - not "lies" about people, just if you're calling into question someone's integrity or passion. Wow...then he and Mac are guilty of that just about every single week from the pulpit.

Jim went on to declare that not just gossipers are dividing the church, but people that listen or read "gossip" are just as guilty as the gossiper. Not if they spread the gossip, but just reading or listening to it is bad. He said in fact if you read "gossip" you are just as much a divider of the church as the person who originates it. Hmmm....so simply listening to someone gossip is dividing the church. Really? On what basis, Jim?

Jim addresses those who might respond by saying that "gossip" is "important information that we need to know"...Jim says something to the effect of "Really? Does it [the 'information'] stir you to be like Jesus? Does it cause you to walk in godliness?" Well, if there are problems in the church and you're reading about them or listening to someone express concerns about the church, no, that doesn't cause me to walk in godliness exactly. But that doesn't mean I'm dividing the church by listening and using my brain to be a discerning consumer of information. Using Jim's standard we must never read the newspaper or watch TV because it does not cause us to walk in godliness.

Again, cultic tendencies. Jim can't stand for people at FBC Jax to be confronted with facts about what is happening at the church. He is using this scripture to intimidate his listeners into not even listening or reading about information that might call into question the integrity of another Christian. He wants people who might listen to another Christian express concern about our church, or those who might happen upon this website, to think they are guilty of dividing the church just by taking that information in. Cultic, Jim.

Jim gave I think a partial view of who Diotrophes was and what was his position and standing in the church. Commentators on this passage on Diotrophes say that he was not some lay person just calling into question the integrity of another as Jim said. In fact Diotrophes was likely a leader, a very prominent man in the church. John says he was a very prideful man. He wanted to be first. He put his concerns and desires first. In fact he wanted power so much that he put certain Christians out of the church that he might have to share power with. He wanted the church to do what HE wanted it to do. In his quest for power, he walked over people. He used his power and position in the church to put down other people, to slander them and tell lies about them. He has split the church, pitting believers against one another. Imagine a church leader who would do all of those things? Unimaginable, right? An out of control leader like this? One who the people in the church are unwilling to stand up to? A bully that must be stopped because no one in the church is willing to stop him?

Well, John was saying in effect...if you guys won't stop this abusive leader, I'll come in and do it, and confront him, and let everyone know of his sin. Apparently those in the church were powerless, and/or unwilling, to hold their leader accountable for his abuses. Huh, imagine that.

Sorry to have to say it, but Mac Brunson fits the mold of a Diotrophes more so than those who are expressing concern over the abuses at our church (that Jim would classify as "gossipers"). Mac is the one who accepted a land gift and never told us and put his family on staff and built a million dollar home and had a pastor's suite constructed in our Children's Building. "...but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them..." It was Mac and his trustees that changed our bylaws changing conditions of membership and transferring power to the pastor and his trustees. Its Team Brunson first, like Diotrephes. "Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth"

Mac is the one who week after week whips his congregation with his anger and his criticism and his condescension and accusations. We have endured the wrath of Mac calling us a "hotbed of legalism", "worshipers of the past", and we've listened to Paige Patterson characterize the FBC Jax treatment of Mac as wanting to "kill him" when he first came. "prating against us with malicious words..." Mac is the one using his power and his position to slander Sheri Klouda from the pulpit and never apologize. Jim Smyrl was the one telling us about blasphemous self promotion at FBC Dallas, it was Jim who called Catholic Priests "cult leaders" (ok, we'll give him a pass since he doesn't consider them Christians so its OK to call into question their integrity), and Jim: IT WAS YOU WHO LAST WEEK POSTED ON YOUR BLOG CALLING INTO QUESTION THE INTEGRITY OF THOM RAINER, THE HEAD OF LIFEWAY. Come on, Jim, at least if you're going to be that narrow about what gossip is, live by your own standard or confess when you've violated it.

Mac and his Trustees are the ones issuing trespass warnings to put people out of the church and treating several of our former staff members very poorly as they were dismissed. "...neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church."

So good people of FBC Jax, you have to be very discerning these days when you listen to sermons by Mac Brunson and Jim Smyrl. Do your own research into what they say. Measure their words from the pulpit against their own words and actions, and as Mac has taught us, look at historical context, the whole picutre. And consider their biases they have toward protecting their own power in the church.

And don't be afraid to listen to, or read criticism of your church and its leaders. Ask the members of Trinity Baptist Church and Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church.

By-Laws Part 4: "Members Waive their Right to...."

So far the Watchdog has posted 3 articles summarizing the FBC Jax by-law changes that were voted on November 28, 2007. This is the last article, addressing an important addition concerning a "right" that all members of the church have waived by joining with FBC Jax.

I believe this last article touches on the most arrogant, egregious change made to the bylaws.

The other three articles:

Part 1: "Hyper" Pastor Led System

Part 2: Committees, Deacons, and Trustees

Part 3: Minimizing Pastoral Accountability

Now, the last portion:

Under the new by-laws, Article XIV entitled "Discipline", Section 2 is explained a process that must be followed for any church member that has a "grievance" against the church, including Pastor and/or staff. The process involves first Matthew 18 reconciliation, followed by arbitation with the Florida Baptist Convention. But after this process is explained in Section 2, the section closes with this statement:

"By joining this Church, all members agree that biblical conciliation efforts shall provide the sole remedy for any dispute arising against the Church. All members waive the right to file any legal action against the Church in a civil court or agency."

So defining a process was not enough. The Pastor and the Trustees decided to go the extra step and include this clause that members can't bring any legal action against the church.

As students who have learned from Mac Brunson over the last 3 years, we know in order to understand why this change was made we should look at the historical context within which these changes were made. What was happening in Jacksonville, and in the SBC that would make our leaders want to declare that all of its members have given away their right to file legal action against their church without telling them why?

Since our pastor and the president of the Trustees moderating the business meeting didn't explain this clause, or explain why this was necessary, they must not have wanted us to know. So we will be good students of history...and the Watchdog notes two prominent events that may have served as the impetus for such a change to our bylaws:

1. Trinity Baptist Church and the Bob Gray scandal; and

2. Two-Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, TN

Trinity Baptist and Bob Gray

During 2006 and into the spring of 2007, the news about the sexual abuse by Jacksonville's Trinity Baptist Church's former pastor, Bob Gray, was front and center in Jacksonville. This formerly beloved pastor was accused of sexual molestation of little boys and girls at the church's school and church in the 1980's and 1990's. Lawsuits ("legal action") were brought against the church by the victims seeking monetary compensation for the terrible pain and suffering that was inflicted on them by their pastor. Some of the lawsuits were thrown out because of the statute of limitations, but some are still working their way through the courts. Click here for a list of First Coast News articles on the subject.

What is amazing is that Trinity Baptist Church denies any wrong-doing in these matters, even though First Coast News has reported that there was a cover-up and that the current pastor stated he knew of the abuse when it was going on. Obviously their church had a faulty system of church governance and discipline. There was such a lack of accountability between the pastor and the congregation, they put the pastor on such a high pedestal...that it provided a fertile environment for a monster like Bob Gray to operate for years. So yes, the church, the ones that allowed this monster to feast on little boys and girls, shares in the responsibility and liability.

One wonders: does Mac Brunson and our lay leaders who dreamed up this new clause in our bylaws think that these victims are wrong to bring a lawsuit against Trinity? They must, because OUR bylaws now state that we are to bring NO legal action against the church under any circumstances. The question becomes: if our pastor or any staff member or even layperson is accused of sexual molestation, and there is evidence that the church's negligence contributed to it, does the church leadership expect the victims to never bring a lawsuit under any circumstances? If they do, will the victims be thrown out of the church using the church discipline process? Does our church leadership think it wrong and immoral for a Christian to seek relief within our legal system when abusive church leaders harm them and won't admit to their wrong doing? We see that Trinity will not admit to ANY wrong-doing...so legal action is the only recourse available. Is our church leadership seeking to shield itself from lawsuits by this clause in the by-laws? It sure makes one wonder, since the timing of these by-law changes came right after the news of the many lawsuits against Trinity Baptist Church.

Two Rivers Baptist Church

Back in early 2007, a church squabble erupted at Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. The Watchdog has blogged about their church dispute several times (here and here). What started out in 2006 as some members having questions about how money was spent and personnel decisions made, grew into a dispute where some 70+ members brought a lawsuit against the church to gain access to spending and salary records at the church after they claim their questions were not answered sufficiently. The lawsuit gained national attention in SBC circles - but the judge threw out the lawsuit but did allow some access to records. The members who brought the lawsuit were voted out of the church for their diviseness. Eventually the hurt ran so deep that the pastor resigned last July and now is a professor at Liberty University.

Perhaps the pastor and our trustees watched the events unfold at Two Rivers Baptist Church, and they feared that some at FBC Jax might make the same maneuver as did the "recalcitrants" at Two Rivers and take legal action to have access to records like pastor and pastor wife salary and benefits, A-Group church marketing expenditures, personnel records related to staff departures, etc. This by-law change gives the church grounds to withdraw the membership of anyone bringing any kind of legal acction, effictively nullifying their right to have access to any church information since their membership can be revoked for having brought legal action. Brilliant move, if the purpose is to let the pastor and trustees now AND IN THE FUTURE know that what they do with the money can NEVER be found out by the people giving it.

OK, what now? The by-law changes are made. The Watchdog still says that a legal challenge could be brought to nullify the new bylaws, unless the church can prove that 2000 members were present and voting on November 28, 2007. Given attendance at Wednesday night services, its likely there were less than 2000 members on that night and without casting ballots, there is no way to prove it.

FBC Jax members should consider:

- this kind of clause empowers abusers (in the present and far into the future) and is another move in the direction of LESS accountability and LESS transparency. This clause makes it rock-solid, 100% certain that no lay person can get their hands on any financial records of the church that the church leadership doesn't want them to see.

- did we really want to forfeit our right, and the right of future church members to bring legal action against the church? Could there not conceivably be SOME reason in the future, whether with this pastor or some other pastor, that would be a reason for the laity to have the force of law at their disposal for church records?

- if through our church's negligence we or our children are harmed, and the church and/or their insurance carrier refuses to settle for damages and a lawsuit is brought...do we really want the church to be able to kick that member out of the church?

- what does this say about the pastor and church lay leadership that they would make this change and NOT desire to explain it to people that they know are voting on it?

- should members resign their membership to preserve their "right" to bring legal action?

- what does this say, once again, about how the leadership views the laity? They lay out a process by which grievances are to be resolved, but to make sure the stupid sheep don't ever bring a lawsuit under any circumstances, we need to tell them in the bylaws that they forfeit their right to bring legal action.

Well, that is all on the by-law changes. Again, if any member wants to read them for his/herself, they can be checked out at the library.

The overall lesson here in these articles for churches, especially mega churches where these kinds of shenanigans are more likely to occur: if you're going to propose significant changes in your church by-laws that affect how the church is governed, how off-budget spending is approved, how church discipline will be exacted on its members, and rights that members forfeit as a condition of membership....MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR DEAD-LEVEL BEST TO EXPLAIN AND COMMUNICATE THESE CHANGES TO YOUR CONGREGATION BEFORE YOU TAKE A VOTE. If you're not willing to distribute these changes and openly explain them and allow questions in an open forum: DON'T MAKE THE CHANGES!!

99.9% Accuracy of the Bible and Hardened Church Members

Not much to add to the quotes of Mac on Super Bowl Sunday night. Our Bibles are 99.9% accurate (and thus 0.1% inaccurate) no matter what version we use...and the "vast majority" of the FBC Jax church are hardened Christians who probably aren't saved....and Mac plays the part of "Cap'n Mac" to declare us all "haaaarrrrrrrrd".

Listen for yourself.