Is the Iron Still Swimming? Part 2

A couple of audio clips of Homer Lindsay, Jr. as I share my last thoughts on Mac's remix of "And the Iron Did Swim":

"Jesus be Glorified"

"Its a Miracle"

- Mac is stuck on this "cutting edge" theme. Its the buzzword amongst his staff. Our communications director says on her blog that our new logo is "cutting edge". Well, we might be trying to be "cutting edge", what ever that is, but contrary to what Mac says our church was not cutting edge. We just looked for ways to teach the bible, and proclaim Jesus, and get people saved. That's all. The secret is there was no secret. What God did in "the miracle of downtown Jacksonville" was not manufactured by man trying to be cutting edge. God did a miracle in Jacksonville as we were led by called preachers who just preached the Bible, with people not having any seminary training or "certificates" but love for Jesus and knowledge of the Bible teaching and applying the Bible in Sunday School. Our "cutting edge" was people devoted not to a preacher, not to a program, and not even to the church (no need for calls for the "churchmen" to rise up) - but people devoted to Jesus Christ.

- I don't fault Mac for starting certificate programs at our church, or desiring for Sunday School teachers to have more Bible knowledge through formal training. But those who sat under the preaching of Vines and Lindsay where the Bible was preached Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and on Sunday morning in Sunday School - after a year or so people HAD MORE BIBLE KNOWLEDGE THAN MOST PEOPLE COMING OUT OF SEMINARY!!! The people of FBC Jax had so much knowledge of the Bible because our preachers weren't giving us history lessons - they really did preach the Bible every single Sunday. And our Sunday School teachers taught us lessons that WERE application...we didn't need to huddle in small groups and ask each other how a verse made us feel.

- Homer Jr. was a called preacher. Never said he wanted to be a lawyer, or that he was smart enough and had the drive and ambition to be successful outside the ministry as Mac as proclaimed of himself. He was a preacher in North Miami when his dad asked him to pray about coming to serve as co-pastor. Homer at first refused, but eventually he did come. Not to a $300k piece of land and 5000+ square foot home in Deerwood, not to have a huge pastor's office suite built, not to put Ms. Shirley on staff. Not to preach sporadically to finish his book manuscript (unlike the millionaire preachers today, Homer declared that nothing he ever said or did or wrote was copyright worthy, since God can't be copyrighted). He didn't come to raise money to put himself on national TV or hold "Time to Stand for Israel" events. He didn't come either to advertise in our bulletin "Holy Land Trips" for the very rich to travel to Israel. He came to get busy in doing local ministry, and in the first 3 years of his ministry the Sunday School attendance doubled. And Homer doesn't brag, he acknowledged over and over: it was all God's doing, nothing manufactured by man, no "theology driven ministry"...no dynamic preacher, no history-laced sermons - all a miracle of God.

- Quite interesting that Mac mentioned that the first building program after our church got out of debt in 1943 was what is now the 6th Grade Building. Mac says that Homer Lindsay, Sr. borrowed $350,000 to build that building. Why bring that up? Because I predict this is Mac signaling that he will be leading us to go into debt again. What Mac doesn't understand is that for the past 60 years God's people built the buildings at FBC Jax as they saw God moving, and space was needed. And the church used the moving through the people giving as a sign it was time to build. And the people's tithes and offerings were used to maintain our facilities. We didn't spend money on high-priced preachers and national TV time and then took special offerings for maintenance of the facilities.

- Mac again couldn't help but to continue his abusive preaching. Had to knock us for not amening enough on one of his excellent points. And he has never yelled at us more forcefully than he did Sunday about older men helping younger men see what God has done in the past. Only problem is that Mac spent his first two years telling us to NOT dwell on the past, that successes in the past have nothing to do with successes in the future - but now he screamed at the top of his lungs that we should help younger people look to the past...followed with a "Did you hear me? Is that clear? All right." as though he were talking to a rebellious teenager. That is abusive preaching. Enough to scare little kids causing them to ask "why is that guy so mad, Mommy?".

From this sermon I get the sense that Mac views himself to be another Homer Lindsay, Sr. Now that I have learned Homer, Sr. was going to be a lawyer until he was called to preach, it makes sense that Mac is saying that now too! Mac views himself in the same position as Homer Sr. in 1940: he has come to save a dying church as Homer Lindsay, Sr did in 1940. That Mac sees a parallel between the $1 million in needed repairs and the debt Homer, Sr. had to retire in 1943. And that Mac will have to start a building program, perhaps borrowing money, just like Homer, Sr. did in 1943. To quote Lloyd Benson in 1988: "I knew Dr. Lindsay, Dr. Lindsay was a friend of mine..."

Lastly, at the end of Mac's sermon, a glimmer of light. Mac let's us know the Lord spoke to him that he needs to let God handle the needs for the money - what a novel thought - how 'bout if Mac trusts God, trusts the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of people, instead of beating people up with guilt and fear to motivate them to give. Its a little too late...after beating us up and not even bothering to mention the New Testament plan for Christian giving or calling on people to give out of love for Jesus, its just a little too late.

Mac will be on vacation for a couple of weeks. Let's see what the Lord does with him while he's away.

Is the Iron Still Swimming? - Part 1

Readers - I want to share a few thoughts on Mac's sermon Sunday entitled "And the Iron Did Swim". Mac on our Chest of Joash Sunday 9/28 reached back into our church history and preached on the same scripture, II Kings 6:1, that the Lindsay's often used over 60 years to recount the history of miracles at our church. Listening to Mac's sermon, which I found quite empty and uninspiring, has caused me to reflect on the question: what is the difference between Mac's preaching "The Iron Did Swim" and the Lindsay's preaching? What made the Lindsay's preaching so powerful?

Its quite an appropriate question to ask ourselves at this point, given that Mac has decided to use this scripture and sermon title from the past. Mac's sermon was full of interesting history of our church and references to Homer Lindsay, Sr. But to help understand the difference between Brunson and Lindsay I went back and listened to Homer's sermon from sometime in the early 1990's - most of the members have this as it is in the "Best of Homer, Jr" tapes we received in 2000 when Dr. Lindsay, Jr. died. I recommend that readers who have access to this sermon listen to it again.

Some random thoughts when dwelling on Brunson and Lindsay:

- Homer oft used the "The Iron Did Swim" sermon to express thanks for the many miracles that God did and was doing at our church. Very positive. Homer would go over the miracle of our youth ministry, of our men's ministry, of souls being saved, people loving Jesus and their community. Always Homer acknowledged these miracles were 100% God miracles, not man-manufactured miracles. Contrasted with Mac, who on 9/21 preached a sermon to showcase all that he and Smyrl have done through the theology driven ministry - all the wonderful things Mac has done (e.g. Shelly B: "Thank you Dr. Brunson for theology driven ministry..."). On Sunday 9/28 Mac turned the "Iron Did Swim" sermon on its head, to use the scripture to accuse us of losing our "spiritual edge" (whatever that is) as a metaphor for the axe head falling in the water...and at one point said we should "...pray to get God's spiritual edge back in your life." OK...so let's all pray: "Dear Lord, we pray to receive our spiritual edge".

- One of the very striking differences in the preaching of Homer and Brunson is: JESUS. Mac again Sunday barely mentioned the name Jesus. Just twice. Homer's sermons in general, and his sermon on "The Iron Did Swim" he mentions Jesus over and over. Love for Jesus. Love for souls accepting Jesus. A lighthouse for Jesus Christ.

- Homer loved his people. Oh, he preached hard. But Homer recognized that in his large congregation there were people at all different spiritual levels: some very committed and mature, some new Christians, some back-slidden, a few recalcitrants and some wolves in sheep's clothing. But the difference: Homer AND Vines preached the Word, always in love but in truth, and they let the Holy Spirit do the convicting. Mac just preaches hard on people, at times twists scripture to intimidate and instill fear - as though he doesn't trust God's word to be fitted to the many different spiritual hearts in the congregation. No doubt Homer loved his people.

- Another striking difference is root of the motivation for all that is done at FBC Jax. When Homer and Vines preached about giving and serving, it was to motivate us out of our devotion and love to Jesus Christ first, and out of love for our neighbors and friends second. Mac once again Sunday as he has done since arriving, tries to manipulate people to give and serve out of fear, out of duty and obligation to Old Testament scripture, and out of devotion to an institution (FBC Jax). Mac does not try to motivate people out of their love for Jesus. Why? I don't know. Perhaps Homer understood that the greatness of the church was in its people loving Christ and responding out of love, whereas Mac and Smyrl believe success is gained through legalism, through man's ideas and actions, and a well-structured "cutting edge" program like Theology Driven Ministry. Homer trusted his uneducated leaders to preach the Bible in Sunday School.

I have more to say about some of Mac's antics on Sunday, how we knew Homer was a God-called preacher, and a few other insights as well as some audio clips of Homer and Brunson. If you have thoughts you'd like to share about the sermon Sunday, or about Homer Lindsay Jr. or Sr. that you might have thought of after Mac preached about our church history, chime in here!

Pie Charts and "Giving Units"

How does Mac choose to motivate his sheep to give to the Lord's work? Not by teaching the New Testament principles of giving. Never once in his two-week series on stewardship did he present the New Testament principle laid forth in 1 Cor 9:6-7. He didn't even bother to make his case for the legalistic teaching of tithing. I noticed he wasn't quoting John MacArthur on the issue as he does most Sundays, as John MacArthur knows that the Old Testament practice of "tithing" is not applicable to Christians today and to hang the legalistic yoke of tithing on Christians is unfair and unscriptural.

I don't wish to debate the issue here, just point out how Mac doesn't use the Bible to teach on the subject, but instead, in his closing remarks the Sunday before Chest of Joash, Mac puts a pie chart showing the average American household budget on the image screens and says:

"You spend 24% of your salary on housing...you spend 22% on recreation and pleasure, that's amazing...we spend 19% on healthcare...we spend 17% on our cars...and 15% on food...under 3% is what you give to charity. You're not going broke because of the church. You're not going broke because you're giving something to the church."

Then Mac says:

"If we've got 5000 giving units in this church, if we make on the average $50,000 that would be $25 million to the church and we're struggling to meet a budget between $15 million and $16 million. If everybody gave a tithe we would never have to mention the issue again."

Listen to Mac Yourself

Sounds like a good Amway pitch. Yeah, right. If we had given them $20 million Mac would have spent it and would be holding his hands out for more, trust me on that. Poor Mac, he had to "get by" with just $15 million when if his stupid sheep weren't spending so much money on entertainment and cars, Mac WOULD have had $25 million! Mac sure doesn't sound very grateful does he?

And yes, Mac views us all as his "giving units". Hear that southern Duval County? Mac is counting up his "giving units", and make no mistake, he wants you to go to bible studies at our Life Link homes so he can get you and your giving unit over to the satellite. Once they do the "bait and switch" by drawing you into a home Bible study and moving you over to a "satellite church"- once you're there you'll be taught the legalism principle of tithing, that you are required as a member in good fellowship, to fork over 10% of your income to Mac Brunson. Yes, you people over at someone's home, you will be expected to give 10% of your income. Listen to Mac say it right here. We'll take that tithe you give not for your local satellite church, but it will come back to the FBC Jax coffers downtown so Mac can do what he wants with his school, give Maurilio a raise, and other "special projects" that Mac needs. "For God so loved the giving units...." and "The giving units did swim"....some great stewardship sermons in there somewhere.

And in the divisive Brunson way...Mac makes the case that either you tithe or you're "out of fellowship" and if you're out of fellowship, its "obvious".

"Now I realize preaching on this makes some people uncomfortable. And that tickles me to death. You don't know how I enjoy that, maybe too much, maybe that's a little bit flesh. But I want to tell you something. Those of us who tithe don't mind hearing about tithing. Those who don't get uncomfortable. But I want to tell you something, it's Biblical....Church, let me tell you something...we will tithe, we will give...the church is made up of people who made a resolve under Jesus Christ that we will have certain things in common...one of the things we have in common is we're going to give and support this ministry. And that makes some people uncomfortable because they're not part of the fellowship. They're out of fellowship. They're out of fellowship. And its obvious."

Listen to Mac

So give, tithe, because if you don't you will be out of fellowship, and we'll note it because its so darned easy to spot you recalcitrants.

Mac Brunson's Hand Is in Your Pocket

Mac Brunson's sermon Sunday September 21 was a classic sermon that characterizes perfectly his first 2 1/2 years at our church. It had it all. It was full of half-truths, misuses of scripture, attempts to persuade not through the truth of the Word and prompting of the Holy Spirit but through coersion and guilt. Mac did all he could to get his hand on your wallet this Sunday - only problem is he has a problem with the truth. Mac admitted early in the sermon he didn't really want to preach that morning - perhaps he should have stuck with his gut feeling and spared us the ensuing abuse that was about to come.

Here are some of the "highlights" (or "lowlights") of Mac's sermon from Sunday:

1. The Church in Rome was a Group of Satellite Churches: Mac again this Sunday told his congregation that the churches in Rome were really a group of "satellite" churches. If by that he means "satellite" in the way we use that term today, he's a liar. There was no mother church that the churches reported to. The churches in Rome met in people's houses. There was no rock star preacher who went around preaching to them. In fact just the opposite: the case can be made that the collective churches were "autonomous" churches and certainly not "satellites". But Mac thinks enough of his sheep are biblically illiterate that he can make them think his plan for satellites is directly from the scripture - just by saying it. But I've shown multiple times that Mac plays loose with historical facts and scripture if it suits his purposes. This is a classic example of that. But his sheep are smarter than he thinks.

2. You Should Keep Your Commitments: Mac showed what a hypocrite he is by again this week lecturing us on how we should be keeping our commitments. "When you make the commitments, you stick with the commitments" he proclaimed. He said it once, and got no response from the congregation...so he repeated it again...and then again until he got a smattering of "Amens". Only problem is he should be preaching to himself. He embarrassed our church by not keeping his commitment to attend meetings of the Crime Prevention Steering Committee set up by Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton and to which Mac committed to attend. So who's not keeping their commitments?

3. Mac Says Not to Use Your Gifts in the Community, Only in Church: Mac proclaimed that Christians have a responsibility to use their gifts not in the community but in the church. In Mac's mind, the world starts and ends with First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, that any good that will come to Jacksonville must be through his church. At least he's consistent: he says we should only be serving in church and not in the community...and so very little of our church budget goes to helping the needy in Jacksonville - in fact many more times the annual FBC Jax budget that goes to helping our community goes to paying Mac and family their salary.

4. Mac Says Inlight Ministries is the Preaching Ministry of FBC Jax: He says several times "he gave this ministry to the church" and that Inlight Ministries is the "teaching ministry of FBC Jacksonville." That's a lie. Its his ministry. Its the teaching ministry of Mac Brunson, not FBC Jacksonville. You say "what's the big deal?" It shows how disingenous Mac is. When Mac left Dallas, he brought this ministry with him because its HIS ministry. When he leaves FBC Jacksonville, he will take that ministry and the programming brand equity that the hundreds of thousands of dollars from our church have purchased, with him to his next endeavor just as he did when he left Dallas. When he says he "gave" this ministry to us and its "our ministry", he means that money coming in to the ministry goes to FBC Jax to buy air time - OF COURSE IT DOES! It would be scandalous if it did NOT, since our church members funded the INSP program costs! If this is our ministry, then he can shut down his http://www.inlight.org/ website. But Mac has come under pressure for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of money from us to broadcast HIS sermons on INSP network, so his response is to tell us that its "our" ministry when it is NOT.

Most megachurch pastors have their own websites. The sermons they prepare and preach are their own intellectual property and they can make them available on their websites. Not a problem. Robert Jeffress who replaced Mac Brunson at Dallas, has his own ministry called "Pathway to Victory" separate and distinct from the ministry of FBC Dallas. And if the church decides to contribute money to the pastor's ministry to help fund his broadcast, and its communicated to the church and its in the budget and the church votes on the budget, great. But look at how Mac does it: he has his ministry, he wants to be on national TV like his fellow mega pastors, he holds a special offering on the largest attendance Sunday of the year to put his ministry back on TV, he gets back on TV using money from FBC Jax, and now he is telling us that its "our ministry" and not "his ministry". This is Clintonesque parsing of words. He did the same with the "Time to Stand with Israel". He told us "we're not sponsoring it, we're just hosting it."

5. Mac Proclaims to Know what the Lindsays Would Say About Satellite Ministries: Very interesting that Mac proclaims to know what two men that he never met, Homer Lindsay Sr, and Jr, would say about his plan to start satellites. Its likely that neither would be in favor of a satellite church that Mac has planned, but might be for a church plant. But whatever the case, can't he stand on his own and make the case himself for satellites? Must he lie about churches in Rome being satellites, and telling us that our deceased pastors would be for it? He has yelled at us as always looking to the past and worshipping previous pastors, but when it suits his purposes he not only looks to our previous pastors, but presumes to know what they would say when he never even so much as shook their hands in his life. Interesting that he only tells us what the dead pastors would say...I wonder what Vines would say about satellites?

6. Mac Calls Those Who Don't Serve "Blackmailers" and "Sinning Against the Holy Spirit": Mac is a divider. If there are people in the church who aren't serving in any official capacity, he doesn't appeal to them to serve out of love for Jesus, or to give of their time to serve out of love for their church or fellow church members...but out of guilt. And if you don't serve - then you are a "blackmailer" and you are "sinning against the Holy Spirit". No scripture to back up his claim. Doesn't have to. In Mac's church, if he says it, then it is so. Our pastors warned us of this kind of abuse - they have always told us to measure words said in the pulpit against scripture..

7. The Group That is Not Happy About God Moving in Our Congregation: In Mac's church, if you're not fully behind Mac, you're against him and against God. Mac refers to those in our church who are not happy about God moving in our congregation. Again, Mac's attempt to divide his church - be happy about what he wants, or you're against God. Mac loves to do this with his opposition: instead of dealing lovingly and gently with those who have concerns with his leadership, instead of addressing directly concerns that people have, he instead mischaracterizes them as being "not happy about God moving" in our church, and thereby belittles them and can conveniently ignore their legitimate concerns. Classic Mac Brunson strategy.

In the next article we'll look at Mac's legalistic approach to motivating people to open their wallets and give to his church.

The Power of the People

Readers - Just a few comments as we move into the Chest of Joash Sunday:

- I have a few posts that I will be making this weekend as we get ready to be fleeced by Mac Sunday, so please stay tuned over the weekend. Readership of this blog is increasing, and more people in our congregation are opening their eyes to the abuses of Mac Brunson at our church. Granted, these abuses are not gross moral abuses like a Gilyard or Gray perpetrated at their churches and thus they won't ever gain media attention, but they are abuses nonetheless that the church should be on guard against. Many of the abuses we are facing we were warned about by our previous pastors.

- Don't be afraid to pass this website on to others in our church. We need more people to begin to think deeply about what is going on at our church. Its no coincidence that our pastor has been using Sunday sermon time to express his concern about "what you all are reading" and expressing that he thinks we are gullible enough to be led away. The pastor doesn't want people to read this blog that shines light on his actions and words because he knows the end result of people thinking about what they are hearing and seeing at their church.

- As I said in my previous post, one of the insidious actions taken by the Brunson regime and his band of trustees, was the unexplained bylaw changes that took power away from the congregation and gave it to the mostly rich lay leaders appointed by Mac Brunson. But I do declare, they can pass all the bylaw changes they desire, and grant themselves all sorts of power to exert their will in the church. But I want to remind the readers of this blog: the power will ALWAYS belong to the congregation, because the power the leaders have is derived from the willingness of the people to give.

- Mac knows this is true - that is why in his two stewardship sermons his methods to get you to give to the church were guilt, obligation, right fellowship with the church, tradition, and words of dead pastors. He never put forth the New Testament principles of giving, and to make it worse, he didn't even bother to make a biblical case for tithing but misused scripture pointing to Romans 13 - believers giving a special offering to help poor believers in another city - as justification for us to tithe when that scripture had absolutely ZERO to do with the biblical principles of tithing that Mac has legalistically taught since arriving.

So I implore you to NOT give money to the special offering. Mac admitted that we met the budget needs of the church, and that we are $800,000 below budget on expenses. The church has the money, or they can get it in the next fiscal year by better budgeting. I also ask you to consider reducing your giving to the church - this is the only way you have to take the power back from the pastor and his trustees that stole it from us last December in the bylaw changes. Furthermore, don't be afraid to pass this website on to other believers so they can get another side to the FBC Jax story than the lies of Mac Brunson.

Stay tuned...I'll be writing about the many lies of Mac Brunson in his 9/21 sermon which was chock full of legalism and lies.