FBC Jax Academy Headmaster Gone

Apparently Jim Daniels, the FBC Jax Academy headmaster hired last year, is from all appearances no longer employed by the school.

Daniels was hired in 2008 to head up the school that was launched the fall of 2009. According to the academy website, Marlene Anderson is now the school's headmaster and no mention is made of Daniels.

No official word has come from FBC Jax about the change.

The Watchdog wishes Mr. Daniels and his family well, and hopes they are doing fine.

Prediction: Brunson for SBC Prez, 2010

I would like to be the first to go on the record predicting that Mac Brunson will be nominated and elected by a comfortable margin, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during their annual meeting in Orlando in June 2010.

I base this prediction on the following observations:

- 2010 SBC Keynote Address: Brunson was selected by the 2009 SBC Annual Meeting attendees to deliver the SBC 2010 convention sermon (akin to a "keynote address") in Orlando.

- Friendship with Current Prez Hunt: Perhaps Brunson is the choice of current president Johnny Hunt. After all Hunt is a very outspoken friend and supporter of the Brunson family. In his most recent show of support for his good friend Mac during these troubling times during Brunson's tenure at FBC Jax, Hunt flew in to Jax on Friday 9/25 in a plane flown by one of his church members to speak to the FBC Jax deacons and their wives at their Daytona Beach deacon's retreat. Hunt flew in that night, had a riverfront dinner at the Chart House with the Brunsons, then flew back that night after speaking to the FBC Jax deacons. Johnny Twittered during his trip, declaring his love for Mac and calling him "God's man". Another example of the Hunt-Brunson connection is that Hunt this past year hired Mac's son-in-law who just graduated from SBTS. The Hunt and Brunson friendship is deep, and Mac is very close to Paige Patterson. No doubt Mac would be an excellent choice for the Patterson CR crowd.

- State Convention Speaking Gigs: Brunson recently announced to his church that this year he has never received more invitations to speak to groups, and that is schedule is "scary" busy. He has been invited to speak at several baptist state conventions, including Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, and Oklahoma. These are great stumping opportunities for Mac to garner support for his presidency. The current controversy at FBC Jax seems to not have waned Brunson's popularity with the SBC faithful, and in fact may have served to give his image a big boost amongst the conservative pastors.

- Local Speaking Slots: I found it interesting that Calvin Carr, pastor of North Central Baptist Church in Gainesville and long-time youth minister at FBC Jax, has invited Brunson to speak at his church for their special "Harvest Banquet" day in November. On his blog, Calving Carr described Brunson: "Dr. Brunson leads a mammoth congregation with the heart of a loving shepherd. I know you will not want to miss this special night." So even Calvin Carr is on board with Mac Brunson, "the loving shepherd". Apparently smaller churches like Calvin's find Brunson an attractive preacher to be brought in to speak to their people.

- Support of FBC Jax Lay, Staff, and Leadership: Reportedly things are going very well at FBC Jax, numbers are up, giving is strong, and the ministry is thriving. Mac apparently has full support of his deacons and trustees, and all is well at FBC Jax. After all, Mac has had huge victories of late: the successful launch of the First Baptist Academy and a satellite church in St. John's County.

Why Brunson's increase in popularity of late on the preaching circuit, as Mac himself admits? I don't know, but perhaps he is viewed as the resilient, martyred, humble pastor, or on the other extreme perhaps some in the CR crowd hail him as the one with the guts to take on recalcitrant, blogging, vocal critics of SBC leadership. Or maybe its the influence of his friend Johnny Hunt.

Some may call this prediction a no-brainer, some may say "no way". But I say it is a long-shot prediction when one considers what Mac told Tim Rogers in an SBC Today interview in February 2008:

"I can tell ya right now, I've about determined I'm not runnin' for anything, I'm not going to take an office of anything, I don't want to. God would have to do something awfully, awfully unusual. I don't think my wife would let me do it, number one. But number two, I just don't want to do it."

This last year, certainly has been "awfully, awfully, unusual"....so maybe he will go for it. Needless to say, in this writer's opinion, there is much about Brunson that should cause SBC lay people concern, and the people of FBC Jax great concern, about Brunson's ascension to the convention presidency, and I'll make a few comments in the coming weeks on this.

I know its early, more than 7 months to the 2010 annual SBC meeting, but I want to be the first, at least that I know of, to predict Brunson's ascension to the SBC presidency next year, and if it comes to pass, I'll say a hearty "Congrats" to Mac Brunson!

We shall see next June in Orlando! See you all there!

Brunson Expresses "Remorse" and "Sorrow" Over His "Stumble" Last April

Finally, a step in the right direction.

As Proverbs 15:1 says: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

On November 1, 2009, more than 6 months after stating to a Florida Times Union reporter that I am mentally unstable and a sociopath, Dr. Mac Brunson gave a "gentle answer" to the resulting slander lawsuit filed against he and his church. Dr. Brunson has finally taken a step in the right direction.

In his 11/1/09 sermon entitled "Speech Therapy" from James 3:1-2, Brunson expressed "regret" and that he is "deeply sorrowful" for his comments, because of the "influence and the impact of his words", and admitted he should have demonstrated more "maturity". It was very clear that he was referring to his comments made to Jeff Brumley that were published in the Florida Times Union on April 9th, 2009, as Brunson prefaced his "regret" and "sorrow" remarks in his sermon by referring to his words that were "reported on the front page of the headlines".

Click below and you can hear the 2 minute sermon excerpt. If you want to hear the entire sermon, it is available on his I-tunes podcast here, or at his Inlight Ministries podcast website.

A few comments about Mac's comments:

- I commend Dr. Brunson for admitting that he has regret and sorrow for his deeply offending words. These were long overdue. Perhaps if he had been more proactive in apologizing, the defamation part of the FBC Jax lawsuit would never have materialized. And most encouraging to me is that his remarks are more than anyone else at the church has expressed over their own pastor's words, including A.C. Soud, his trustree president who unfortunately followed Brunson's lead and called me a "coward" to the same reporter a few weeks after Dr. Brunson called me a "sociopath". Maybe now many of those who come onto this blog and others who proclaim "Mac was right about you", will be more Christ-like in what they say and how they say it.

- Of course, I hope that if Dr. Brunson truly is regretful and sorrowful and understands how hurtful his words were, that he will contact the Times Union and issue a retraction or clarification of his remarks in the same medium in which they were reported. Calling me a sociopath and mentally unstable to a Times-Union reporter, which ultimately made front page headlines, can not be "corrected" by a statement in a sermon. The audiences are vastly different.
- Also, if you listen to the sermon excerpt, you'll hear Dr. Brunson refer to his statements as a "stumble", and while he does express regret, he defends his misdeed by saying that "we all do it". I respectfully disagree. You see, Dr. Brunson still does not realize that not everyone in the congregation does what he did. Mac was the ONLY person in the 8000+ people in attendance Sunday who was interviewed by the media about the criminial investigation into this blog site by Brunson's friend and body guard who decided to defend the church's actions by stating without reservation that I was mentally unstable and a sociopath. So Dr. Brunson wasn't the victim of the media as he seems to imply in this sermon and others previously. His statements to Brumley were not a "stumble". He knew what he was saying, why he was saying it, and most importantly, to whom he was saying it.

In other word's, Dr. Brunson's remarks were not off-the-record remarks caught on tape; this was no dirt dug up on him, no embarrassing private conversation was overheard, and it wasn't him speaking off-the-cuff in anger. Those might be "stumbles". In the context of him knowing an embarrassing news story was about to come out, it seems he decided to defend his church's actions by proclaiming the blog author to be a nut case. This was Dr. Mac Brunson, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, in a newspaper media interview, sitting in front of Jeff Brumley, on the record, premeditated, stating a very harmful lie about me. He KNEW his comments would be reported. That is not just a "stumble", that everyone does every now and then.

And to make matters worse, he has let 6 months go by without retracting, clarifying, defending, explaining, or apologizing for his comments. And sorry to say, no one in the church, or even Brunson's pastor peers in the SBC has dared to publicly call for Brunson to explain or clarify his remarks....perhaps making Brunson's remarks in his 11/1 sermon all the more commendable.

But, as I said, this is a step in the right direction, and I applaud Dr. Brunson for making this step. Let's see where this might take us. His sermon also mentioned how one needs to apologize to the person harmed personally. Who knows, a personal apology, and clarification through the same medium that what he said was in fact not true, may make a defamation lawsuit against him unnecessary.

But at least this is a step in the right direction.

Ed Stetzer: "Superman Pastors" and "Pay, Pray, and Get out of the Way" Mentality

Readers - the more I listen to Ed Stetzer, the more I really like this guy.

I recommend watching this video of a presentation on "missional leadership", delivered I believe at a conference of pastors in Oklahoma.

He makes some very on-target comments on the trend of "superman" pastors that is destroying the modern church (start 6:45 mark), and the trend of the "clergification" of the church which hinders God's work, and the lowly view that many "clergy" have toward their lay people that they should "pay, pray, and get out of the way" for the real men of God to minister.

All relevant comments for Watchdog readers.

He also address the trend of the "cult of personality" amongst pastors today:

Says Ed: "....what pastors lead people to is a cult of personality. 'You can come because I'm great, I'm Superman, I'm here, come follow me, you can listen to me here, you can read my stuff here, you can meet me here, I'm everywhere, I'm kind of a big deal, people know me, I have many leather bound books.' A cult of personality leads ultimately to a fall of the cult of personality."

Ed is definitely stepping on some toes. Good for him. Guys like this give me just a glimmer of hope that there are some guys in the upper echelon of the SBC that get it.

Would love to hear your thoughts after listening to Ed.

Missional Leadership from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

"Who Chooses Who?" - A Sermon Series by Jimmy Scroggins

Readers - wanted to recommend to you a sermon series currently being preached by Jimmy Scroggins, pastor at First Baptist Church West Palm Beach.

It is entitled "Who Chooses Who?" and Scroggins deals with issues like predestination and the sovereignty of God versus the free will of man. Those who are interested in the current Calvinism debate in the SBC will find these extremely interesting, thought-provoking messages. He has preached the first two sermons in the series, with more to come in future weeks.

For those of you that don't know, Scroggins grew up at least in part at FBC Jacksonville under Vines and Lindsay, and completed his seminary education at Southern Seminary. You will find his preaching style very refreshing and down-to-earth. He doesn't mix in the convoluted history lessons and greek verb tenses and stories of himself - he is truly interested in preaching a simple, truthful message from the Bible that is practical and helpful to his congregation.

You can listen to Scroggins' sermons at their church website here.

You can view video of Scroggins' sermons here.

If you want to subscribe to Scroggins' podcast via I-Tunes, click here.