FBC Jax Completes $3.5 Million Auditorium Renovation - Debt Free

This past Sunday First Baptist Jacksonville celebrated the completion of their $3.5 million auditorium renovations, which according to John Blount was "fully funded to completion, we've accomplished the goal".

The renovations included the addition of senior adult Sunday School space on the lower floor on the two sides, new pews, new carpet, new wall coverings, larger foyer to accomodate space for a visitor reception area, and a redesigned worship platform - and new choir robes.

In the service John Blount recognized the design architects and contractors and committes that worked on the project. Mac Brunson said some nice words about what a value John Blount is to the church and how he was so instrumental in completion of the project. John gave a mini-sermon to put into historical and spiritual perspective why the renovations took place.

John's remarks included the following:

"This is our home. This is our place, our space, where we come to meet God. Where we come to hear His word. And from where we go to proclaim His word to the ends of the earth. It is a special, sacred place. It would be very easy to say 'well, we just undertook these renovations and spent three and a half million dollars just for the sake of aesthetic beauty.' In one sense that's true we did do this because of beauty but in another sense and a far deeper sense, the reason we have done what we've done here is because this is such a special and important place.

What we do in this place says a lot about what we believe about the gospel. We have a high value of the gospel in this place, we have a high regard for God's word - it is vital, it is important. When people come in here they should not be distracted by buildings and things, they should find a place that seems to match what God says in His word - we have a high value of the gospel.

Jesus Christ is the most beautiful thing in all the world. And this is our attempt to say 'We think Jesus is beautiful'. He should be shared in a beautiful place, and in a beautiful way. "

And then:

So that's why we have done what we've done: because our God is great, because our Savior is beautiful, because the gospel is powerful, it should go out from a place like this.

I agree, the place looks beautiful, and yes, Jesus is beautiful and the gospel powerful. But why can't we just say renovations are nice, we like nice things and want our space to look nice? I think it would be truer to say that BECAUSE our God is great, our Savior beautiful and the gospel powerful, it does NOT need to go out from a newly renovated auditorium.

But you have to hand it to Mac. He laid out a plan early in 2007 less than a year into his ministry at FBC Jax that included three major accomplishments to get FBC Jax ready for ministry in the future: a new school, a satellite campus, and auditorium renovations, all major undertakings any time but especially during a repressed economy. He has accomplished all three, and apparently debt free.

Kudos to Mac and John Blount and the faithful at FBC Jax, and best wishes for success in the future.

"Whistle Blower" at Church Breaks Another Jacksonville Church Sex Abuse Scandal....

Yesterday the Times Union newspaper and News4Jax reported on what seems to be another brewing sex scandal at a Jacksonville church, the Greater Refuge Temple of Jacksonville, which is part of the COOLJC denomination: the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ of Apostolic Faith, Inc. The accused perpetrators are relatives of the pastor: his son, and the son's brother-in-law.

According to the news reports, an "anonymous person" within the church reported the allegations, which led to an investigation and the arrest of the two men. The pastor's son is accused of molesting a 13-year old boy on church property for several years on at least 20 occasions, including during Bible study - the other man is accused of molesting a girl at knife-point.

The allegations go back over 10 years. The Assistant State Attorney is fighting for very high bail amounts for fear of retalliation against the victims if the men are out. This fear apparently stems from a monitored phone call between the victim and the pastor's son where he told his victim: "Your foolishness is going to destroy the ministry. The devil wants to destroy us all....this foolishness must be put in the past. Get over it. Forgive. Move on."

Same old story. Blame the victim. You'll destroy the ministry. You're doing the devil's work. Get over it. Move on.

In fact, not reported in either of the written news reports, but reported on the video report by TV reporter Diane Cho at News4Jax:

"The search warrant actually states some of these family members even knew of some of the sexual abuse that had been going on for nearly a decade but they say that no one actually reported it or did anything about it, because no one believed the victims."

This is unfathomable...after the two very high profile church sex scandals here in Jacksonville over the past 5 years at Trinity Baptist Church and Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church - church members still don't listen to kids who claim they were abused?

An interesting aspect of this story is the anonymity of the person who reported this to the police, who appears to be a concerned church member who wanted to see justice served. According to the prosecutor: "They love their church. It's all they've ever known...what their fears are are being made to feel like they've done something wrong and that they're at fault." But this is the same story over and over again - those who report the abuse - whether it be the victim themselves or someone else who has decided to take action - they are blamed by church members as the cause of the unrest in the church and are hated and told to be quiet and not cause trouble. I'm glad the Assistant State Attorney recognizes the need for the anonymity of the whistle-blower, as sadly, they too can face retribution from church members.

By the way, I first heard of this story at Tiffany Croft's blog yesterday as she provided a hyperlink to the breaking story, which is her first post in over 7 months. You might want to visit her site, and I'm sure Christa Brown will follow this story as well.

Interestingly, the COOLJC denominational leaders from all over the country are meeting here in Jacksonville in April for their "71st International Congress" - they are all staying down at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront.

Fellowship Church Hypocrisy?

While we work to get the Ed Young, Jr. videos restored on Vimeo, I just wanted to point out the hypocrisy of Ed Young, Jr. and Fellowship Church, regarding their take down of videos containing excerpts of his sermons by claiming a copyright infringement.

I wonder if Fellowship Church contacted Gatorade to get approval to use their logo and to make a parody of their trademark name by calling it "Haterade", and then having Ed Young, Jr. take a sip acting and turning his nose up at how nasty it tasted.

Most companies guard the use of their trademarks and logos very carefully, so I doubt Gatorade would actually give approval for the use of their logo and trademark name in this fashion. But who knows, maybe Fellowship Church lawyers sent letters to Gatorade asking for approval and received it. One would hope so, especially considering the video in which this logo and trademark name parody exists had a commercial purpose - unlike my use of his sermon videos - as the entire video was a plug for a church conference to which people had to shell out money to attend.

I enjoyed the Wartburg Watch's post yesterday taking Ed Young to task for the takedown move. Go read it here.

Below are still shots from the Ed Young YouTube video for the Hillsong Church Conference containing the "HaterAde"....and I'm using these under the Fair Use doctrine. That would be funny, if Fellowship Church files a copyright infringement claim with Google regarding my use of pictures of his video in which he is using a copyrighted logo and trademark of a commercial product - but I wouldn't be surprised!

Senator Grassley Issues Report - Some Very Good News for Those Calling for Transparency and Accountability

In 2007, Senator Charles Grassley, head of the Senate Finance Committee, opened an investigation into six "televangelist" ministries over matters of finances, taxes, gifts, housing allowances, etc.

Well, yesterday Grassley issued a "staff memo" and other documents from his committee that summarize their findings thus far.

Don't be fooled by the headlines that oversimplify, and seem to minimize the importance of Grassley's work, or give the appearance that this issue is "over". For instance, from the first line of the Associated Press story:

"A senator's investigation of televangelists has wrapped up after more than three years with no penalties for pastors who refused to cooperate and no definitive findings of wrongdoing."

But this is not the story, and the story is not completed! Keep reading! The bigger story behind the story, if you read the reports and the documentation that Grassley's team put together, is that the Senate Finance Committee has essentially told the religious community that there are major problems with how religious organizations (especially large churches and ministries) are handling their finances - they discuss parsonage allowances, private jets, and million dollar homes, compensation to pastors relatives, lack of proper board oversight, etc.

And the message from Grassley's committee to mega churches and televangelists should be loud and clear: the religious community had better clean up their act else the government will do it for them - through revisions in the tax code.

Sometimes this is how change occurs in American politics - the federal government perceives an injustice or misbehavior by an industry, the government investigates, finds problems to be rectified, and they may give the industry a chance to make changes themselves, to self-regulate BEFORE Congress gets involved. Grassley's team DID investigate, and they absolutely did not like what they saw, and they didn't like the response from most of the "Grassley 6" who did not comply with subpoenas for information. So Grassley has been communicating with the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability (ECFA) to spearhead this effort of self-regulation before tax-code changes are made.

But we know that televangelists will not, nor will mega churches, ever decide to make changes towards financial accountability and transparency. It is not going to happen for to do that would create financial disaster in their "industry". The government absolutely will have to get involved in changing IRS tax codes. But the process is starting, and that is good news.

I intend to write more on this in the coming days but wanted to give you some links if you're interested to read for yourself what is behind the story that is actually GOOD NEWS for those of us calling for financial transparency in our churches.

Staff Memo to Grassley - THIS IS THE "REPORT" - 60 pages, pdf format

Grassley's Press Release - at bottom are links to the Staff Memo, and other documentation

Associated Press News Story

Christian Post News Story

Fellowship Church Claims Copyright Infringement, Gets Videos Removed from Vimeo

Update: There is one place you can still listen to the Ed Young sermon excerpt asking for his church to fill out forms with their checking account and routing number. It is at Fighting for the Faith, on the November 2nd podcast, starting at about the 9:00 minute mark. Chris Rosebrough analyzes the audio of the video that was removed. So far Fellowship Church hasn't successfully removed it from the Rosebrough website.

Fighting for the Faith - Nov 2, 2010

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If you try to view the Ed Young videos here on this blog that highlighted Ed Young's request for the account and routing numbers to auto-withdrawl the tithe from his church members' checking accounts, you will see the message at left.

Yes, "this video does not exist", says the message.

Actually, the video does exist, just not anymore on Vimeo where it originally was posted, and more than 40,000 views were logged, and where many bloggers had linked to allow their readers to see for themselves a pastor actually request the account and bank routing numbers from his members.

Fellowship Church has claimed the videos - which were for non-commerical use, and for the purpose of educating and providing negative commentary which most agree are legitimate uses that do not constitue a copyright infringement - to force Vimeo to remove the videos from the Watchdog Vimeo account.

We believe these videos absolutely are allowed under the copyright laws under the Fair use doctrine, and are looking at how best to respond.

Interestingly, I don't see that the entire sermons are even still available on the Fellowship Church website. I could be wrong, but I don't seem them anywhere. Must get rid of the evidence, I suppose.

Too bad. Not only does Fellowship Church not want its members to see how the money is spent, they don't even want them to see clips of the preacher ASKING for the money.

Another example of "takin' it to a whole 'nutha level."....which reminds me, here is another video they need to take down: