Crystal Cathedral in Trouble, Schuller's Take Pay Cut, but: "The Schullers' salaries are not available."

"The Schullers' salaries are not available."

This is one of the few lines that does not shock the reader in last month's Orange County Register article highlighting the Schullers' announcement that "the Schullers'" are taking a 50% pay cut for two months to help pay church vendors.

It is no secret that Robert Schullers' "Crystal Cathedral" (Garden Grove Community Church) has fallen on tough economic times since the recession started in 2008. The OCR has chronicled the financial woes of the Crystal Cathedral - it is a story of unpaid vendors and local businessmen and women facing financial disaster when the Crystal Cathedral is not paying vendors.

A couple of disturbing elements of this news story:

1. Mega-Nepotism is Alive and Well

As reported in the OCR:

"Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller, his wife Arvella, and their five children and respective spouses will all take a voluntary 50 percent pay cut for the next four pay periods, according to an e-mail from Sheila Schuller Coleman to all cathedral employees."

The glaring part of that statement is not that they are taking a 50% pay cut, but that all of the Schuller's according to this news article, ARE ON THE PAYROLL.

Nepotism is a danger to any organization, that is why most companies have a "nepotism" policy outlining the conditions by which close family members can and cannot work in the same organization. Even Jimmy Draper of the SBC wrote about nepotism back in 2005, and he says it is one of the 5 "landmines" pastors need to avoid:

"This [nepotism] is a very sensitive area. When a minister hires his wife, siblings, children, spouses of his children, etc., it opens up some areas of concern. I believe it is inappropriate unless it comes as a demand from the church itself."

2. Of Course, Salaries are "Not Available"

One line in the OCR article says:

"The Schullers' salaries are not available."

Really? Where are they?

Why are they not available? They only want to tell us of the generous 50% pay cut, but they would not dare to disclose to their church members or the public at large any raw numbers.

Why?

Compensation of mega church pastors who earn six-figure compensation packages are never, ever disclosed. They can't, because they know what would happen to the revenue flow if the donors themselves knew the truth. So people give and give and give.

3. Cutting Ministries Comes Before Cutting Salaries or Staff

While I'm sure the Schuller's are proud of their generosity of giving up 1/2 of their salary for a few months, it is interesting that this did not happen SOONER. Maybe they did take cuts earlier, but the story didn't indicate this is so.

If their wealthy family can afford to give up 1/2 their salary to make up a million dollar shortfall, why did this not happen sooner to help pay vendors?

Are all 12 family members filling essential ministry positions?

The sad reality in today's church - and not just of the mega variety - is that ministry expenditures will often be cut before salaries or professional minister positions that could be filled by lay people are cut....and in some churches ministry gets cut before advertising or marketing expenditures.

Could it be the financial woes at Crystal Cathedral are a sign of things to come for other mega ministries?

Or maybe it's just that the Schuller's didn't preach tithing hard enough.

Coral Ridge Ends "Age Segregated Worship"

This week in the news and blogosphere were reports that Pastor Tullian Tchividjian has ended what he calls "age segregated worship" at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, and has gone to a "blended" style of worship.

Tchividjian has written a very compelling article about how he arrived at this view that having a church split into "contemporary" and "traditional" services goes against the unifying nature of the gospel. He even says ""[Contemporary and traditional service splits] may be good business but it's bad worship; it's bad church."

What do you think? Is Tchividjian right? Is it "bad church" to have both contemporary and traditional services in a church?

Just a word of personal testimony from a lay person (me) at a church that transitioned into a split worship model last year: as a family with three teenagers (14, 17 and 19), this put a tremendous strain on our family worship. Our teenagers understandably were very drawn to the contemporary service, where as we the parents not so much. The segregation Tchividjian speaks of ends up just not being between ages, but between families as they determine which service they will attend! This was a very difficult time in our family's worship experience as we were at times separated during the worship hour. Our church has since gone BACK to the blended style. I know that our pastor's motives were good and he was trying to reach more young people with the gospel in the contemporary service and I had no problem with that - but now looking back I can see he was also very wise to end the "age segregated" worship on Sunday mornings and return to a blended style.

Whether you agree with Tchividjian or not, I do recommend reading his August 27, 2010 article "This is the Way It Ought to Be" article giving a very compelling reason for going back to a "blended" style of worship. He talks about how unsegregated little children are in their school, and how sad it is that society teaches them by the time they reach high school to separate into cliques and groups.

My take on it is this: Tchividjian has not discovered anything that so many other pastors have known for years!! Look at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville - under Rodney Brooks the church did move to a more "blended" style of worship with a wider variety of music styles, and Jim Whitmire has continued this. Whitmire combines the older hymns with more modern tunes and even modern day hymns - and the church has never been "age segregated" when it comes to worship. To the credit of both Jerry Vines and Mac Brunson, they have taught this to their congregations, to be tolerant of a particular song that might not suit their fancy, and to be joyful and wait for the next one that does! They have resisted the trend to segregate by age and worship style preference on Sunday morning.

As Tchividjian says in his August 27th blog post:

"The gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to look across the aisle and say, "Though this song or style may not appeal to me, I see that God is using it to move you. I love you in Christ and I'm glad you're here."

Amen. I'm glad that Tchividjian has figured this out and made a change at his church. And welcome to the club Tchividjian; many of us Southern Baptists have known for years what you are just figuring out!

FBC Jax Was Center Stage for Florida Politics Sunday - and Mac Picks Up the Endorsement

FBC Jax and Mac Brunson were front and center in the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary this past Sunday, and several newspapers around the state reported on it. But ironically on this day it wasn't a politician who got a ringing endorsement, it was the preacher, as I'll explain.

Bill McCollum and his wife were present at FBC Jax for the a.m. worship service sitting next to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and a whole team of Republican politicians. McCollum has been in an absolutely nasty, no-holds-barred campaign against his opponent Rick Scott for the Republican governorship nomination.

Why was McCollum sitting next to Huckabee in the service? Earlier in the week Huckabee endorsed McCollum for governor, announcing their intent to visit the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville during their last minute campaign swing before Tuesday's election.

In a clever, roundabout way, McCollum was presented by FBC Jax as the conservative choice for governor. Huckabee sits next to him, and Huckabee comes to the platform to a standing ovation.

The St. Petetersburg Times blog called the church service a "Tallahassee quorum", with politicians Mike Haridopolus, John Thrasher, Steven Wise (FBC Jax member), Adam Hasner, Leonard Bembry, and Holly Benson all present and accounted for. Most, if not all of these, were supporters of McCollum for governor. As is customary Jim Whitmire graciously introduced each one (see the video at end of this post) and had them stand and wave to the crowd after which Whitmire reminded the congregation of their responsibility to pray for their elected leaders.

Maybe this is in part why Scott won Tuesday. McCollum, a career politician and current Attorney General, was the choice of almost all Tallahassee insiders and in this political season the people preferred an outsider not connected with all the career politicians. Not saying this is right, but that seems to be the case. The "Tallahassee quorum" at FBC Jax Sunday perhaps didn't help.

When Mac got up to preach, he first called Mike Huckabee to the stage. While they didn't mention McCollum, the connection was apparent when the church saw the two sitting together when announced by Whitmire. Mac told the story again of how Huckabee had been a blessing back in Dallas during a difficult time. As reported by the St. Pete Times:

"The 2012 White House hopeful received a whooping (for church) standing ovation and pastor Mac Brunson, a person [sic] friend, brought him to the stage to share a few words. (By contrast, McCollum received just polite applause when he was introduced.) In his brief remarks, Huckabee didn't mention McCollum but the connection likely stuck."

While Huckabee didn't mention McCollum, Mike took the mike and instead gave the Brunsons a ringing endorsement of their Christian character. He said when he met them he "fell in love with them", and "they are some of the most authentic, most genuine Christian examples I've ever known in my life." Now THAT, is a strong endorsement from the Huckster. But I just wonder - are the Huckabees and Brunsons that close of friends where Huckabee knows them that well to give such an endorsement? Seems odd to me, unless they are very close friends. Huckabee added that the "platform team" of Brunson and Whitmire is the best in the country. Mac then gave a nice little endorsement of Huckabee's TV show. I thought next they both might plug each other's latest book - or hand out brochures on each other's respective 2011 Holy Land trips ("Walk Where Jesus Walked", while walking with Mac or Huck; sign up here, Master Card and Visa accepted: Mac's Holy Land Trip and Huck's Holy Land Trip).

Ironically, in that evening's service, Mac did give an explanation to his congregation of why he "tolerates" such brazen political displays in the church:

"Now thank the Lord I don't think we have any politicians [here] tonight....I so badly want them to experience and encounter Jesus Christ that I tolerate what we do, if they'll stay here and listen to me preach - with the prayer, that maybe, MAYBE, the word of God will penetrate somewhere."

Interesting comment. Just as he tolerates politicians, probably the politicians at City Hall tolerate the preacher's invocations in their chambers, with the hope that he'll stay and be genuinely concerned about the city's needs instead of vacation excursions and church building renovations. And Mac would probably agree that his Bible sermons don't penetrate very far into the thick skin of politicians. After he preached on unwholesome speech and false attacks Sunday, McCollum continued his bashing of Scott over his company's Medicare fraud case and spending his fortune on political commercials. But Mac's sermon on lying in July didn't penetrate very far into Scott either when he heard it, as he continued the misleading ads including a last-minute ad linking McCollum to a corrupt politician, even putting a phony "mug shot" of McCollum matching the original mug shot of the politician.

But as I said, McCollum lost despite Huckabee's endorsement and their last minute campaign swing through conservative northeast Florida. And if you think this campaign was ugly, wait until Democratic candidate Alex Sink starts going after Rick Scott in the general election - this will be very, very ugly, and I predict a Democratic Florida gubernatorial victory in November.

Here is the video of Whitmire's introductions, followed by the Mike and Mac exchange on the platform.

Mac Loves Mike, Mike Loves Mac from FBCJax Watchdog on Vimeo.

Re-Run: My Favorite Church Parody Video

I put this parody video up earlier this year, but wanted to post it again because it is so darn funny....and true...and extremely well done.

Love the quote before the offering: "...it's between you and God, but....we're tracking it."

And the pastor's many different speaking techniques - love it.

Enjoy, it is courtesy of Andy Stanley's church, Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta. Stanley and his bunch must have a very good sense of humor, willing to poke fun of themselves.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Making Environmentalists and Muslims Mad at the Same Time

A story is developing where a local open burning ordinance may prevent a Gainesville, FL church from carrying out its "Koran Burning" ceremony scheduled for September 11, 2010.

Hey, why doesn't Dove World Outreach Pastor Terry Jones do this in an environmentally responsible manner? Why make the Muslims AND the environmentalists mad at the same time?

Why not have a Koran SHREDDING service? Everyone can bring their shredders from home, and they can each run the pages through a shredder, then use the shreddings for kitty litter.

Or why not have a "Koran Dumping service" where everyone symbollically throws the Korans in a big 'ole Waste Management dumpster and haul them to the landfill?

As reported by VERTEX News:

"City officials in Gainesville, Florida have denied a burning permit to a local church that wants to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9-11. The Dove World Outreach Center announced the planned Koran burning last month on Facebook and urged other religious groups to join in, quote, "in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam." Gainesville officials say book burnings like the one planned by the Dove World Outreach Center are prohibited under the city's burning ordinance. Interim Fire Chief Gene Prince warned Wednesday that the church would face a fine if it went ahead with the burning of the Korans on 9-11. That doesn't appear to be deterring Senior Dove World Pastor Terry Jones. The pastor, who has written a book called "Islam is of the Devil," sent out an e-mail saying the church would "still burn Korans" despite the possible consequences. The Koran burning has been condemned by a number of Muslim and Christian groups. "

Should be interesting!

Sadly, this is eliciting a response from certain militant Islamic groups who are threatening violence in Gainesville over this.