Watch Video Below: It Demonstrates Why Crystal Cathedral Has Hit the Skids (And This is NOT an SNL Skit)

Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral has hit the skids. Family turmoil, lawsuits between family members over millions of dollars, Catholic Church buying the property, arguments over gays in the choir, family members hired and fired.

Now their Senior Pastor, Sheila Schuller Coleman, has announced that she is leaving the Crystal Cathedral to start her own church.

Watch the video above of Sheila Schuller Coleman, and you'll see what her new church might be like.

And you'll see why Crystal Cathedral has been in turmoil since the elder Schuler departed.

And you'll see the best case against church nepotism ever caught on camera.

And no, this is not a Saturday Night Live skit spoofing a Crystal Cathedral church service, it is an actual service.

Note: I have repented of my criticism of Perry Noble after watching this video.

More Ordaining of Political Candidates at SBC Mega Churches

Who would have thought that just six years after the Vines, Lindsay, and Rogers era at FBC Jax and Bellevue Baptist Church that political candidates would be featured as part of the worship services. The pulpits where men simply proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ are now used by preachers to promote their preferred candidates for political office.

It happened last May with Mac Brunson performing a "laying on of hands" ceremony and pious prayer for mayoral candidate and FBC Jax member Mike Hogan. Then, last Sunday we are treated to Steve Gaines holding a similar ceremony for presidential hopeful Rick Santorum.

Steve Gaines brought up Rick Santorum and his wife to the Bellevue Baptist platform and had two men lay hands on Rick as Steve offered up a most holy and humble prayer. While sappy music played softly in the background, Steve asked for the congregation to "lift your hands up your hands toward these people like you're touching them and you'll be touching them in the spirit."

Then they all sang "Kum-bay-ya".

Of course Brunson and Gaines try to mask their efforts by trying to sound non-partisan. Gaines said multiple times that anybody can come to worship whether they be Republican, Democrat or Independent.

But only conservative Republicans get the laying on of hands by the holy men of Bellevue and FBC Jax.

Florida Baptist Convention Statement on Gilyard: Passes the Buck to JBA, But They ARE Concerned About Church's Lack of Giving

Below is the statement issued by the Florida Baptist Convention, headed by John Sullivan pictured at left, on the Darrell Gilyard matter and Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Yesterday Bob Allen of the Associated Baptist Press published an article on this and the Jax Baptist Association statement I posted on Sunday.

Here in my own city, a Southern Baptist Convention church has hired a convicted pedophile. Not as the janitor. Not as the maintenance man, or even as an adult bible study teacher. As the preacher. He is a confessed, serial adulter in multiple churches, and then he was convicted of having sex with a minor in his church, and sending lewd text messages to others.

So how does the Florida Baptist Convention (FBC), under the leadership of John Sullivan, respond to this? How does John Sullivan and the staff at the FBC respond to the knowledge that women and children are at risk at a church who is Southern Baptist and a member of the Florida Baptist Convention who has hired this man? Below is their official statement, with my commentary.

"A hallmark of Southern Baptist life is the autonomy of the local church. Southern Baptists do not have a hierarchal (sic) system and do not appoint pastors to serve in local churches. The local congregation determines who will serve its church."

OK, this is already known. Obviously no agency appoints pastors to Southern Baptist churches, the congregations pick their pastors. However it is true that if a church selects a female pastor according to their interpretation of scripture, there is a "system" by which that church can be removed from the SBC.

"The Florida Baptist Convention has taken a proactive stance to encourage all churches to run background checks on employees and volunteers—as we do with every volunteer who works with children and teens in Convention-sponsored events and programs"

How ironic that this is brought up in the context of the Gilyard saga. Had Shiloh Baptist done a background check on Gilyard he would have come out clean back in 1993 - he had no criminal record. But he was KNOWN to be a serial adulter by Paige Patterson and Jerry Vines, and had confessed to having sex with women he had counseled in his churches prior to coming to Shiloh, yet a background check would never have revealed that when Shiloh hired him in the early 1990s. Of course now if we run a background check, he is a convicted sex offender.

Christa Brown and others have called for the Southern Baptist Convention to establish a database to track ministers who have been convicted of crimes, or credibly accused of serious misconduct. The SBC heavies have opposed such a system, and the Gilyard disaster is example #1 of why such a system is required. The FBC statement above painfully points this out.

"Christ Tabernacle Baptist Church (sic) in Jacksonville has been affiliated with the Florida Baptist Convention since 1998. During that time, the congregation has not demonstrated cooperation as defined by our Bylaw 2, which includes participating in the Cooperative Program giving and providing statistical information. They have given nothing in the past six years."

OK, that is interesting. Glad to know that in addition to hiring a pedophile and kicking the kids out of the church, they also are guilty of the terrible offense of not giving any money to the Cooperative Program. Who really cares that they have given no money to SBC missions, if they are putting a pedophile in the pulpit?

"Under Bylaw 2, the Convention affirms the role of the local association as the theological guardian of theology, faith, practice and polity. We affirm the leaders of the Jacksonville Baptist Association in that role."

OK, so they were saying that they would rather have the local association handle this matter. So John Sullivan passes the buck to Rick Wheeler and David Tarkington. Now in the next paragraph, the Florida Baptist Convention does say what is important to them, what DOES cause them to jump to action.

"Our staff has attempted to contact church leaders of Christ Tabernacle Baptist church even before the appointment of Darrell Gilyard as a preacher to discuss their financial situation. Since the current situation developed, we have made additional attempts to contact church leaders. Yesterday we were able to contact the chairman of the deacons and express our concern about the on-going relationship with the congregation."

Interesting. They just said in the previous paragraph that the matter of one of their own churches hiring a pedophile needs to be handled by the JBA. But by golly, the Florida Baptist Convention wants everyone to know that what is important to them, where they WILL jump to take action is when your church stops giving money to the Cooperative Program.

So the matter is put to rest now. We now know: the Florida Baptist Convention will pass the handling of serious matters such as pedophile preachers at churches down to the local associations that really have very few resources as compared to the state association. But when it comes to collecting money from the churches, the Florida Baptist Convention will get involved.

Their statement above does specify the CTMBC offense of not giving money to the Cooperative Program, but doesn't detail the offense of greater importance: putting women and children at risk by hiring a pedophile preacher.

Finally, I do commend Rick Wheeler and David Tarkington for taking the ball from the Florida Baptist Convention and getting Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church to agree to remove their membership from the JBA.

And thank you Rick and David, for getting CTMBC removed from the JBA church website so no one is directed to that church from your database.

Sadly, CTMBC is still as of this morning, showing up on the Florida Baptist Convention Church website.

John Sullivan, can you at least get CTMBC removed from your church database?

At least until they begin contributing money again to the Cooperative Program.

Jax Baptist Association Issues Statement Regarding Darrell Gilyard - Gilyard's Church is Withdrawing from the JBA

Friday an anonymous commenter on this blog posted an email they had received from David Tarkington and Rick Wheeler of the Jacksonville Baptist Association regarding Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church (CTMBC) agreeing to withdraw from the JBA over their hiring of Darrell Gilyard.

David Tarkington is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Orange Park (suburb of Jacksonville), and Rick Wheeler is the head of the JBA being appointed as the "Missional strategist/Director of Missions" last year. Prior to his JBA appointment he worked on staff at the Florida Baptist Convention.

I did contact Rick Wheeler Friday to confirm that the email posted on my blog was legitimate, and he did respond back that both the JBA and the Florida Baptist Convention had issued statements regarding the Gilyard matter and that they "...represent a great deal of hard work and sincere, prayerful leadership conversations." I have posted the JBA statement below exactly as Rick Wheeler sent it to me on Friday night. I will be posting the Florida Baptist Convention statement next week in a separate article.

This is good news. Although it seems the CTMBC has not been active in the JBA in any way for at least 9 years, it is important that the association take a public stand on the matter of Gilyard being allowed to stand in the pulpit of a church affiliated with the JBA. They are one of the largest local associations in the Florida Baptist Convention. They have a local, state, and international ministry, and I have been most impressed with their Haiti ministry through their orphanage and school in Cabaret, Haiti. It is right for the JBA to disassociate from a church that would put women and children in harm's way here in our city by putting a serial adulterer and registered sex offender in the pulpit. I commend the JBA for this action.

However, sadly, as of Sunday morning, Gilyard's church is still in all three of the SBC national, state, and local denominational church databases. Rick did not email me back Saturday when I asked him if and when Gilyard's church would be removed from the state and local databases.

I would have liked to see the JBA statement deal more directly with WHY they sought CTMBC's removal and condemn the hiring of Gilyard, rather than just referring to their objection over a "recent pastoral staffing decision." The Gilyard matter is much more serious than just a poor hire! CTMBC is putting a registered sex offender in a position of spiritual leadership where he can again build the trust of women and children and possibly abuse again. The JBA statement says we should all pray for "...the unity throughout the entire body of Christ in our region and for the purity of our faith and practice." I don't think at all the Gilyard matter has anything to do with unity in the body of Christ or purity of faith and practice - it has to do with the safety of women and children in our city who are purposely being exposed to a registered sex offender and serial abuser in a position of spiritual leadership who is scripturally unqualified, and the JBA statement should have explicitly said so.

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Jacksonville Baptist Association (JBA) Statement Regarding Gilyard

Recently, the Jacksonville Baptist Association (JBA) became aware of an issue relating to one of our constituent member churches. The church in question is the Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church (CTMBC) and the issue at hand relates to their recent pastoral staffing decision. While affirming the autonomy of member churches, and recognizing our role as an association in Baptist polity, the circumstances of CTMBC do concern us. Further, we are broken and saddened by the information shared regarding CTMBC in recent reports.

While the church is currently listed on our membership rolls, they have not contributed to the JBA since 2003 and have not provided statistical information to the association.

In addition to following the clear teachings of Scripture, the JBA has a by-law process in place for responding to such issues with related churches. With Christ Tabernacle, we have taken those steps by contacting CTMBC to communicate our concern. These conversations with church leadership produced the mutual understanding that it is necessary for CTMBC to leave the fellowship of the Jacksonville Baptist Association. They are currently forwarding a written confirmation of that understanding.

We ask that all church leaders and members of the Jacksonville Baptist Association continue to pray earnestly for the unity throughout the entire body of Christ in our region and for the purity of our faith and practice. We seek to honor the name of Jesus in all we do and in how we conduct ourselves in these matters.

Rick Wheeler, Lead Missional Strategist
David Tarkington, JBA Moderator

Perry Noble Uncovers Hidden Tithing Message in the Sermon on the Mount: "Seek Ye First the Kingdom" Means "Give First 10% of Income to Church"

As we've seen over and over again, preachers who push the nonsensical "first-fruits tithing doctrine" are willing to use Jesus, use the Bible, use their celebrity status - use anything and everything at their disposal to convince Christians that forking over a minimum of 10% of their income is the pathway to favor with God.

Case in point: this past weekend Perry Noble used an important verse in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and declared that it is about specifically about tithing.

Says Perry:

"When He says 'seek first'...Jesus is specifically talking about our finances. He is saying 'seek first, put God first'. People who say that tithing does not exist in the New Testament simply misunderstand this verse. Jesus is specifically referring to the tithe."

So darn it, Christians for centuries simply have misunderstood the Sermon on the Mount. Perry now helps us finally see the hidden message: Jesus wants us to tithe 10% to the church.

Perry continues:

"Jesus said 'seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness' and what's the rest of that verse say? 'And all these things' - all what things? Money, clothes, food. 'And all these things will be added to you.'"

Jesus' teaching to "seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness" was not a prescription for tithing so you can have your needs met. It had absolutely nothing to do with the Old Testament practice of tithing. One could better make the case that Jesus was referring to the practice of circumcision before claiming he was referring to the tithe! Jesus was teaching his followers to forsake the pursuit of temporal possessions on earth and replace those with pursuits of eternal significance - like those things Jesus prayed for in the model prayer earlier in Matthew 6.

But megachurch preachers can't preach what Jesus actually was saying, because they might have to lead the way in forsaking their enormous incomes and lavish lifestyles. So Perry just conveniently says Jesus was referring to the tithe.

But on the bright side, Perry gave the best advice I've heard from him, immediately following the Sermon on the Mount scripture twisting. Perry said:

"Close your eyes and run."

Yes, close your eyes and run away from Perry's church and his teachings on this subject.

"Close your eyes and run" was Perry's advice to blindly trust his scripture interpretation about the absolute necessity of Christians to tithe. Perry was telling his peeps that if you even the slightest inkling that you should not be tithing 10%, or that your circumstances dictate something less than that or even nothing at all - Perry says you should just blindly close your eyes, and run - that is start forking over the money and trust God to feed you and clothe you.

Sorry, Perry, we are not bound to Old Testament laws of tithing and sacrifices and circumcision to earn favor with God, or to receive blessings and provisions from God. It doesn't matter how you often try to say it or how much scripture you trample over to convince us; it just ain't so.

As we learned in E-church this weekend, from Wade's excellent sermon, Christians have the greatest law written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that directs our lives, even how and when we give our finances:

"For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Heb 10: 14-16

So open your eyes and run, Christian, from this legalism taught by Perry Noble and others concerning your finances. Instead, follow the law of love, and give where, when, and to whom the Spirit leads you. And when you do give, be generous, and do it cheerfully.

And for sure, when a manipulative preacher tries to get you to give under compulsion:

Close your ears and run.