A Word To My Readers at FBC Jax

This week the revelation of the Team Brunson sponsorship plan has generated intense interest in this blog all over the country. The hits within Jacksonville have tripled, and the hits in total have nearly doubled in just a few days as people are becoming incensed over this abuse of our church's pastor conference ministry.

I am hoping that more of our members are becoming aware of this blog so that they can at least consider another paradigm of what is happening at our church. I know the vast majority of members view Mac as the jolly ole preacher up there, the good ole boy redneck who just loves to preach, and tells a good joke and they sit in Sunday services and giggle at his antics. Well, there is another side to the story of Mac and Team Brunson that this blog is trying to get members to consider.

So keep spreading the word, FBC Jax readers of this blog...don't be afraid to email this blog to any of your Sunday School associates. If you have an email distribution list for your department, be bold and email this blog address to them. If you don't feel comfortable doing this for fear of attack on you and your family (which will likely happen if you were to do it), then go to www.gmail.com, get yourself a new email address with an email name that is not descriptive of you, and email it anonymously. It is very important that people at least consider what is being exposed on this blog. If you do suffer for daring to bring up this blog to others, you have an open venue at this blog to expose those who are trying to harm you or your family.

And if you believe that Mac is harming our church, you now have only one vote, and that is your wallet. The congregation has had taken away from it the ability to call a special business meeting in the recent bylaw changes, so there is no more congregational rule. So to withhold your giving is exactly playing by the rules of the new Brunson regime at our church. To them its all about the dollar, and he who gives the most money gets the most exposure - give Mac $300,000 tract of land and you get a 3-minute video shown smack dab in the middle of his sermon right after preaching about Jesus' suffering in the garden (is that not sick?). But on the other extreme we now know that if you can't come up with $750 for an exhibitor's booth, you can't tell pastors about your Christian ministry or business. And it doesn't get any more obscene than this: if you can't pay the registration fee for the pastor's conference, you can't even show up for the sessions - which are held at the facilties that your sacrifices paid for over the past three decades. Don't have the money, you're shut out. It sure is a "new day" at FBC Jax. That's why our logo be "Linking Wallets to Team Brunson" instead of "Linking Lives to Jesus Christ"


or

I'd like to think that our lay leaders can help us out of this mess, but they are entrenched with Brunson. The man who is the head of the finance committee (if that committee still exists) has been touring Italy with the pastor. Other lay leaders and board members who have financial interests in Israel got Mac to allow them to use the church to raise money last fall for an Israeli hospital that performs abortions, so don't look to the board members to help in this. The paid staff? They have either drunken the Kool Aid and can't look objectively at what is happening, or they do see it but for fear of their jobs they can't do anything.

So let's play by THEIR rules...he who has the dollars has the power and the privilege. It used to be the joke around town that the more you gave to FBC Jax the closer to the front you could sit. Now in a sick way that joke has come true - the more you can give, the more marketing exposure you can gain. Don't have the money, no exposure or even access to the events.

So withhold your dollars from Mac, and watch his power and influence wane faster than you can say "Come help us Calvin Carr".

Watchdog

REMINDER: Mac Said he is Accountable

Now that quite a number of members are ticked off to see how Mac and his son have prostituted our annual Pastor's Conference and transformed it into a marketing bonanza by selling "sponsorships" for $12,500 and charging the ridiculous fee of $750 for an exhibitor's booth, I want to remind everyone what Mac said to us in his sermon August 3rd, 2008:

"I have to listen to every...single...person that comes to me. And a lot of 'em come to me that ain't even members of this church.I try to answer every single email myself, personally, that comes into my office. And THAT is a full-time job, in and of itself. That's what you pay me for....I am responsible. I am accountable"

So come on church, let him know. You need to email the pastor about your disgust and expect a response. If you get a response from him that is unacceptable, send it to the Watchdog and we'll let everyone look at it. Mac needs to be shamed into reigning in his son and Maurilio's plan to sell sponsorships for $12,500 and exhibition booth space for $750. Ask him why he has turned our Pastor's Conference into a marketing bonanza...ask him where the money raised from Pastor's Conference registrations and advertising revenue goes. Last time the Watchdog checked, there are no revenue line items in our church budget that indicate money from this conference. So where does it go? He owes us an answer. He's accountable. At least that's what he said.

I hate to say it, but the Watchdog was right. I've been chronicling over a year now how this bunch is market driven, how dangerous it is that our pastor listens to the A-Group instead of the Holy Spirit. I challenge you to go back and browse my articles dating back to September 2007. I warned you all about the danger of a pastor who believes its OK to allow a Time to Stand with Israel event to raise money for an Israeli hospital that performs abortions. Get the picture church: several influential deacons and trustees go to Mac last year to hold a fund raiser in our sanctuary...now what moral ground to those same lay leaders have to tell Mac that he can't do what he is doing selling advertising at the Pastor's Conference? We're in trouble church, big trouble. These shenanigans call into question ALL of Mac's major decisions up to this point: the $500,000 he took from our church for the school, and the money he is getting ready to spend on a satellite church. I warned you all about a pastor who thinks he can clandestinely change the bylaws right under our noses without even uttering one word of explanation - if the pastor will do THAT....then it stands to reason he'll change our pastors conference into a money-making enterprise...and we can only wait to see what is next.

Here are the sponsorship levels:

Can you believe it? They're selling everything! We're allowing companies to PURCHASE what our pastor says from the platform! We're selling placing a hyperlink on a website!

Can't afford $12,500? Well Trey and Maurilio have a 2nd option for you!!

Can't go "Platinum"? In this economy when Christian ministries might see decreased giving, FBC Jax is trying to extract maximum money from for using our facilities that were built not to sell space to the highest bidder but to spread the gospel. So you get the "Gold" treatment. But if that's too much, maybe you can go down to this level:

This is my favorite....you pastors attending the conference who believe Mac's letter that he wants to minister to you when you come....GET REAL!!! Mac views you as a marketing unit to be sold to advertisers. Look at that above "Up to 2000 at dinners each night". When you're eating your chicken dinner in our dining room, you will be shown 3-5 minute video presentations...not because we think you'll be blessed by the video, but because Mac pocketed $5000 to show the dang video!

So you're a non-profit, Christian organization that has a real ministry that you'd like to tell the pastors about to see if the Lord might move in their heart to invest in your ministry? Well, you first have to INVEST IN MAC'S WALLET and fork over $750 for an exhibitor's space! Can you believe it?

Wow, how generous! You get TWO BADGES, a DRAPED TABLE, TWO CHAIRS, and a POWER STRIP! Hey Trey, how much will a third chair cost? Oh, and we'll run the vacuum cleaner also. "General cleaning of exhibit area"? How about including "air conditioning" and "moderately worn carpet" in exhibit area.

There's the buzz word: CUTTING EDGE in the above advertisement.

Are you incensed? Mac, I'm told from inside reliable sources, is absolutely incensed over this blog. GREAT!!! Because we're incensed over this Mac.

Some other questions you recalcitrant bloggers, you 20,000 "bosses" of Mac might have:

1. Are you treating all potential vendors the same? Is Jerry Vines ministry going to have to pay for their space also? Or just the Christian vendors who aren't buddies with Mac and Trey?

2. Where is this revenue going?

3. The costs incurred by the church to put this on: namely the hourly workers in the kitchen, security costs, maintenance and housekeeping, cameras crews, A/V, etc. Are these costs paid out of the revenues generated?

4. How much is paid to the speakers?

5. Since Mac and Trey and Maurilio find it necessary to charge people for "advertising"...has Mac paid the church for advertising his Holy Land trips? He has had that on our church website and in our church bulletin for some time now, and I think he owes the church for that advertising space.

6. How much did the producers of the Bible on tape series pay us to have Mac interview Jim Caviezel during the Pastor's Conference last year?

And to top it off, here's what Trey is charging to place an advertisement in the conference brochure:

If we're charging this much money in our pastor's conference, how much longer until we start selling advertising space in our church bulletins?

URGENT MESSAGE: Spread the Word of Brunsons' Greed

The fleecing of the church. Jesus turned the tables over to drive the moneychanges out of the church. Who will drive the Trey and Mac Brunson money changes out of our church?

There you have it church. If Mac is willing to sell our pulpit and I-mags, there is not much he WON'T do....

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

I know that pastors all over the SBC read this blog daily. I'm asking you to share this blog site with pastors around the country who might be considering coming to the 2009 Pastor's Conference at First Baptist Jacksonville.

Mac and his son Trey and likely their marketing consultant Maurilio Amorim are hell-bent on fleecing to the maximum extent they can the attendees at this conference established by Jerry Vines as a ministry to pastors and was never intended to yield profits through selling the attendance of godly pastors as marketing units to the highest bidder.

Not only are they charging $260 per person, but they have now begun to charge $750 for a Christian organization to set up an exhibit booth, and they are now selling "sponsorships" valued up to $12,000 that include perks like videos shown on the video screens in the auditorium. Even your attendance at the dinners is used to entice potential sponsors as they say "up to 2000 in attendance for dinner" so you'll see marketing messages even while you're sitting down and enjoying a meal on our dining room.

The $260 per person registration will yield about $900,000 in revenue, when there is no real facility rental cost, much of the labor is volunteer from members at FBC Jax who take vacation time to help out...and now Mac and his son Trey - the one Mac bragged "raised $100,000" last year for the pastor's conference - has a web page up on the PC 2009 site giving the details of these sponsorships to generate over $100,000 of advertising revenue. And we don't even know where all this money goes.

Visit the church's website, click on the Conference header, click on the Exhibitor's link, and click on the hyperlink to view the brochure explaining these advertising sponsorships. It will turn your stomach. The hyperlink there is a pdf file that can be downloaded to your computer, and if you like email it to your pastor friends so they can know what Mac and his son are up to. Or get the file here:

Read the Exhibitor and Sponsorship Plan

Those of you attending and paying your $260 - you're a "market unit" to the Brunsons - your attendance allows them to sell advertising and marketing space.

Pastors that find this blatant display of opportunism and greed - where the conference established by Jerry Vines in the 1980's to minister to pastors is now set up to charge $750 for a stinking table and two chairs to display a Christian ministry or Christian business - where $12,000 or the highest bidder gets certain marketing perks...PASTORS IF YOU FIND THIS DISTURBING, PLEASE LET MAC BRUNSON KNOW. LET'S SHOW MAC DURING THESE TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES THAT WE'RE DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND AGAINST HIS GREED. I hope that pastors will cancel their registration and demand a refund, and pastors will email Brunson to tell him enough is enough and you're passing this year.

You can make a difference. But your attendance at the conference will be a vote for the greed and arrogance and marketization being brought into what used to be the flagship church of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Shame on you Mac Brunson and shame on your son who is responsible for this.

Mac "The Double-Dipper" Brunson - 1 Week out of 4 Ain't Bad!!

The people of FBC Jax are beginning to get a complex in that maybe our pastor, Mac Brunson - the man hand-picked by Jerry Vines and pursued and enticed vigorously by our search committee to be our loving pastor and to minister to the city of Jacksonville - doesn't like to spend much time in Jacksonville!

He just finished a two week European vacation taken immediately after asking us all to dig into our wallets and give $1 million to do facility maintenance because we just couldn't find the money despite $40 million being given since he arrived. And while he was gone we watched a video produced to show how caring he is of the poor in Jacksonville by agreeing to man a Salvation Army kettle...what a generous man!

So Mac is enduring one week with his recalcitrants at FBC Jax after his two week vacation, and then off again for another week! Where does he have to go? Its a tough assignment, one that only the bravest of ministers will go to shine the light of the gospel...he's going to preach to a senior's conference at Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee october 20, 21, 22, and 23rd.

Yep, four days. He's going for four days to preach at his buddy Phil Waldrep's "Senior Adults' Celebrators" conference in beautiful Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee. Not going to preach a revival. Not preaching to seminary students. Not seeking to save the lost. No, he's going to preach to a group of seniors. For four days. Not that they don't deserve a quality speaker, but Mac is a busy pastor of a large church - he has a DAY JOB is what I'm saying, so to preach a four day sermon series is a bit much.

Why does he do this? Why does his church allow him to take 4 days off WITH PAY to go earn an honoraria or stipend to preach a conference? Does anyone out there have an employer who would give you time off with pay to go to another employer and earn some additional money?

The more we observe Team Brunson, the more its apparent - we are not purpose-driven, we are not theology driven...we are a MARKET DRIVEN church. Its about hiring a church marketing firm to increasing market share, its about showing videos in sermons of people who have donated large gifts to the pastor, its about using guilt and intimidation to prompt people to give 10% of their income to the church, its about using money given for ministry to start a school to reach those in the community who have the most money, and sadly its about selling sponsorships of up to $12,500 for our pastors conference. Its about revenue, its about money. These guys are so market driven it calls into question every other decision they make like the satellite ministry. Now Mac is going to earn an extra buck by preaching to Aunt Bertha, Uncle Charlie and Grandpa Willie in Pidgeon Forge. I'm sure the demographics tell Mac that he can sell some of his books since many Seniors who go on these retreats likely have considerable discretionary income.

The Watchdog has at least one attendee at the conference who will check in and let us know which of Mac's sermons he recycles there at the conference, and who it is that man's the Brunson book and tape sales table.

Cynical? Yes. Surprised? No, not a bit.

Mac "Jeremiah" Brunson: God Is the Cause of High Gas Prices and Economic Crash

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Bonus clip for my readers: listen to Mac 'get fundamental' and rail against those who wear their britches too low (and hear the red necks hootin' and hollerin'), and against those who wear words on their hineys. OK, be legalistic Mac, but at least can't you and Jimmy coordinate your legalism? Jimmy the Pearl Smyrl says those who wear slacks and button down shirts are "worldly" while the flip flaps and ratty jeans are fine, but now Mac decked out in his power tie and monogrammed cuffs complains about certain peoples' style of clothing.

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It's official: Mac is the Jeremiah Wright of the Southern Baptist Convention. We can now call him Jeremiah Brunson. Maybe Jerry Brunson for short.

I'm trying my best not to think Mac is a false teacher. I'm trying hard to view him as just a preacher who has an anger problem who likes really nice things and who tries to manipulate his congregation by stretching the truth and scripture every now and then. But then he goes and says something like what he said Sunday night and I then have to wonder how this guy is even in the Southern Baptist Convention, how this guy ever landed a preaching gig paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars per year...and I wonder did he really did get a doctorate degree from SWBTS. Have we checked this guys credentials?

Mac was preaching Sunday night October 12, 2008, that God's goodness to us is God's way to get our attention, but if God's goodness doesn't do the trick, then God resorts to purposely seeking ways to hurt us.

According to Mac, all that America has suffered of late: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, an oil crisis with $4 a gallon gasoline, and an economic crash - its all caused directly by God in an attempt to punish us for not responding to him during times of blessing:

"You think God hadn't been actively doing something? God says 'I've been active all this time. I've been active putting into place all these things [referring to 9/11, Katrina, oil crisis, economic crash], I've been actively seeing how high I can get gasoline for you Americans, I've been actively seeing how I can cause the economy to crash because if you will not turn to me in my blessings on you I will take them away as Hosea took away the blessings of Gomer."

Listen to Jeremiah Brunson Yourself

and Chickens Do Come Home to Roost

Mac isn't saying that God can teach us some things through these difficulties. Mac isn't saying that God might allow these things to be used to draw people to him...no, Mac is saying God is actively, purposely, CAUSING, God is the AUTHOR, God is bringing into existence all these things as punishment for us not turning to him when he gives us blessings. Even worse, MAC IS SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF GOD...Mac is presuming to know what God says about these events, Mac presumes to speak the mind and heart and will and intent of God.

This is heretical. This is abusive. This is cultish. This is dangerous. For a man to speak as though he speaks on behalf of God and tells his followers that God is ACTIVELY PUTTING INTO PLACE terrible events in our lives is to lead his followers astray, trying to implant an irrational fear of God, seeking to distort their view of God's role in the affairs of man - this is dangerous stuff.

But this is Mac's view of God. Its not the first time Mac has given us his dark vision of who God is and how He deals with us. Mac believes that God is waiting to "Zap" us. I blogged about Mac's distorted view before. Click here to listen to Mac explain that God is waiting to "zap" Christians. This is consistent with Mac's preaching on giving. He doesn't preach giving out of love, but out of fear of God and duty to Old Testament scripture.

So let's deliver the message to all of Jacksonville - we have the answer for all of that ails our economy and world - straight from God's lips to Mac's ears - the rotten economy is not the result of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and people taking mortgages out that didn't pay them. Its God! God is doing it to us! Hear that Jacksonville! Hear that recalcitrants?

Our new chorus:

Praise God from whom all calamity flows!

Fear him all recalcitrants here below.

Thank him for Katrina, 9/11, and crashing stocks,

God is looking to fill your stocking with rocks.

And our new motto: "That Jacksonville May Fear Christ."

May God help us.

Chest of Joash is a Royal Bust?

Looks like the 9/28/08 Chest of Joash service may have been a royal humdinger of a bust.

As of 10/3/08, the budget committments were $8.5 million, compared to an annual budget likely to be around $16 million. Mac tried to fleece us for a cool million in cash that day, but only got $245k (which ain't bad).

I said it before and I said it again: those of you who are wising up to Mac and Honey's fleecing of our church, the ONE AND ONLY way we can make a difference and be heard by Mac and his hand-picked trustees is to stop the money faucet.

Maybe more money and pledges will trickle in. Maybe this is typical for us to be so low on pledges as compared to our budget and I'm just whistling Dixie. But its worth noting that the giving is way down.

If we have to tighten our belts and cut, let's see is Mac gives up some of his salary. Or his wife's. Or son's. Not likely.

By the way, if you haven't been able to drive through Deerwood to check out your preacher's pad because its a gated community, here is a front picture of Mac's digs that your tithes and offerings help pay for - this is the 2-story, 5200 square foot, 6 bedroom, 4.5 bath home valued at $1.1 million. It sits on the 0.6 acre tract of land valued at $275,000 that was given to Mac just 2 weeks after he arrived in Jax in the spring of 2006. The picture below wasn't wide enough to show the entire house, it is so wide.

Ain't God good?

What to Do After Asking for $1 Million Cash

Immediately after our Chest of Joash service on Sunday September 27th in which Mac was attempting to collect 1 million dollars CASH MONEY for facility maintenance, and after a series of sermons prompting his church members to give more to the church, what did Mac Brunson do?

Why, do what any very rich mega church pastor would do! Take a two-week vacation to Europe! Go shopping in Milan, Italy! See ya later, suckers!

Yep, after his sermon series to tell us that we are spending our money carelessly because we're only giving on average 3% of our income to Mac's church, after poor-mouthing about how we have to get by with only $15 million in our budget because the 5000 "giving units" of our church aren't tithing...Mac packs his bags with his wife and heads off on a two-week vacation to Europe.

Mac likes to do that apparently, after asking for special offerings to fleece his sheep he heads out of town, out of COUNTRY, on expensive vacations that most of his congregation could only dream of. While we're staying in Jax and maybe splurging to see a movie after we gave sacrificially for the maintenance of our facilities, Mac heads off to Europe - what a tough life he has as our pastor. He did it on Easter Sunday - asked for $180,000 to put himself on nationwide TV, and left actually before the service was even concluded to begin his Mediterranean cruise. Then two weeks ago he asks us to give $1 million for church maintenance that our church failed to take care of with the $45 million that we have given since Mac arrived as pastor...Mac and Honey bolt for Europe. Must be that beating the sheep for money is very tiring, necessitating a long vacation after he gets us to open up our wallets.

And to top it off...Mac has the church show a video on the Sunday he is gone telling everyone how much he and Honey care for the poor:

"This Christmas season Debbie and I are going to man one of those kettles, and we're doing it in the name of Jesus Christ [actually, in the name of "FBC Jacksonville"] and I'm asking everyone of you in this congregation to join Debbie and myself in being a part of this...we care about those who have so much less than we do."

Yeah, right.

So FBC Jax Cares for the Poor?

"What an important thing we can do for this community, what a message it would send to the city for them to see the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville out there joining hands with other Christian churches saying 'We care about those who have so much less than we do'.
Mac Brunson on the Salvation Army Kettle Drive

Interesting that Mac declares that by us manning a Salvation Army Kettle at the Avenues Mall near our new satellite campus that we are showing the community how much we care about the poor.

Really? Is that what this kettle drive says? A 25,000 member, $15 million annual budget church manning a kettle to generate a net $3000 for the poor in our city?

I find no fault with the church coordinating a kettle drive. Its a great idea. We can do it with no problem at all. Its the least we can do. With our numbers we could man 3 or 4 kettles. We should do it. And we can feel good about it.

But let's be straight: it in no way tells our community that we care for the poor despite what our pastor says in his Santa Hat and Salvation Army Apron. As I said in my previous post the net contribution of our manning the kettle will be around $3000.

Mac a few Sundays ago used a pie chart to guilt us all, the church's "giving units" he called us...into giving more to the church. His pie chart showed what terrible givers we are, that we only give on average 3% or our total income to charity. We sat there stunned. No attempt to remind his church about the New Testament principles of giving. No loving reminder of how much we are indebted to Christ. No, Mac closed out his sermon with a pie chart to show that we are spending so poorly, and declaring "you're not going broke by giving to the church."

Click here to listen to Mac lecture us with his pie chart

So Mac likes to use pie charts? That's great. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Below is our own little chart. Not of the pie variety like Mac's, but of the bar variety.

Conservatively we can estimate the salary and benefits of Team Brunson to be $300,000. A wealthy member offered Mac a $275,000 piece of land upon his arrival in Jacksonville, and Mac accepted it. On Easter Sunday, Mac used the largest crowd of the year in an attempt to raise a special offering of $180,000 to put himself back on national TV on the INSP.

Got that Jacksonville? Mac held a special offering to get $180,000 to put himself on national TV on a Christian channel, even though we can reach nationwide through the Internet.

Salary of pastor and family: $300,000.

Land gift from wealthy member to newly hired pastor: $275,000

Money for TV broadcasts of pastor: $180,000.

Funds to Build Pastor's Lavish Office Suite: $100,000

Amount raised for the poor: $3000

Mac's claim that we care about the poor: PRICELESS

Salvation Army Kettle - New Marketing Gimmick for Satellite Campus

I don't know if this is the brain child of our marketing consultant Maurilio Amorim, but I find it quite interesting:

First Baptist Jacksonville is "sponsoring" a Salvation Army Kettle at the Avenues Mall in Southern Jacksonville - we have committed to "man" the kettle for the entire holiday season and church members can sign up for an hour slot at the FBC Jax website.

Yesterday at the beginning of the service we were treated with a video promo piece for this "ministry" featuring Mac in a Santa's hat and Salvation Army apron in his swank library in his office suite, where Mac unveiled this incredibly generous gesture on the part of FBC Jacksonville. The kettle poster has the FBC Jax logo on it so that donors will know we are from FBC Jax...and Mac said this is a great way to spread the gospel - but didn't say exactly how we would spread the gospel by having church members ring a bell.

But here's an excerpt from the FBC Jax Website that shows Mac's real motive for having us ring the bell:

Our kettle will be located at the Avenues Mall off of Philips [sic] Hwy. and Southside Blvd. just south of I-95 (Food Court area). This will allow some exposure in the area of the new south campus. All proceeds will got [sic] to help the Salvation Army'd [sic] effort to help the needy families with food, toys, etc. during the Christmas season.

How can we get "exposure" for our new campus? Let's ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the Avenues Mall! We can get our "brand" down there! Free exposure!

Since this is a marketing move, we need to maximize the FBC Jax brand exposure, and we need to make sure we have coordinated marketing messages to those who put coins in our bucket. So for those of you ringing the bell, the Watchdog has just received from the A-Group some of the scripts you can use while ringing the bell that will help draw people to our new satellite campus:

"Ring a ring....Merry Christmas! Thanks for the change and digging deep, come hear Mac Brunson at our new campus, he'll be beating his sheep!"

"Ring a ring...Thank you for sharing your money with the poor...visit our south campus on Easter and Mac will be asking for more!"

"Ring a ring, ring...Have a blessed Christmas season...that gift you gave sure was swell...our new satellite campus will be where you can hear Mac yell."

"Ho, Ho, Ho...Merry Christmas, thanks for the coin, visit our satellite and agree to tithe, and you will be welcome to join!"

"Happy Holidays...isn't the weather getting cool? Drop in a quarter, and let me tell you about our new for-the-rich downtown school!"

"Ring, Ring, Ring....thanks for the dime even though you're short on money these days...by the way our pastor says 'Praise Jesus you got no raise'!!"

"Merry Christmas - we're starting a satellite campus and that ain't no lie...come and visit and you'll see Jim Smryl preach without that legalistic tie."

A Hint of Things to Come? Mac says "Let's See if I Make It Here..."

In our Chest of Joash service September 28th, right before Mac left on a two-week vacation (what's up with Mac always taking a vacation immediately after asking us to dig deep for a "special offering"?), Mac said the following near the beginning of his sermon:

"This past Monday morning by eight-o-clock I had been to two different hospitals and had listened to Dr. Lindsay's sermon on this passage [2 Kings 6], all before eight this past Monday morning. And God just used his message - one day down the road I'm gonna share with you something that God said to my heart out of that message but I'm not gonna do it for a while, let me get, uh, let me see if I make it here for a while, if I do I'll share with you what God said to me out of what Dr. Lindsay said. It spoke, really, to my heart..."

Listen to Mac Yourself

Very interesting. Why would he tell his church that he has to see if "he'll make it here a while" before he tells us what God said to him? Why not just tell us? Was it similar to what God told him while riding the camel in the Holy Land in December 2005?

Is he saying that he might be leaving soon? Does he sense his job is in jeopardy? Or is it him signaling that he's just so fed up with his recalcitrant sheep that he doesn't know how much longer he can take it?

He leaves it up to his listeners to assume what he means. I've never heard one of our pastors plant doubt about his tenure at our church - at least not in a serious way. Mac was serious when he said it. He wasn't kidding when he spoke these words. If you want to hear the clip in its complete context, go to Mac's website http://www.inlight.org/ and you can hear it. He says it in the first two minutes of his sermon "The Iron Did Swim".

I'll go ahead and assume what he means...even though as Jim Smyrl says "assumption is the lowest form of knowledge." But Mac must want us to have to assume what he means, else why utter such a statement planting the thought with his sheep without explaining it?

My assumption is that he wants to plant the thought with his congregation that he's the embattled pastor, trying to do the right thing, but there are those out to remove him and he's not sure how much longer he can hold on. Another attempt at garnering sympathy, to tell us just how darn tough it is to be our pastor. Why tell us twice in the same sentence that he was busy visiting two hospitals and listening to a Dr. Lindsay sermon all before eight? "Here I am busting my butt to be your pastor, getting up early, visiting the sick and infirmed, and you guys want me out and I'm not sure if I'm even going to be here long."

By the way, did anyone hear the dollar amount we gave to the special offering for maintenance of our buildings? I was shocked that we didn't get an update in church yesterday. I'm sure Mac will tell us when he gets back next week.

Welcome Dr. David Allen

This Sunday Dr. Allen will be preaching at FBC Jacksonville in the absence of our pastor Mac Brunson who is on vacation. Our church has always been very fond of Dr. Allen's preaching and we look forward to having him at our church on Sunday. He is the Dean of the Southwestern Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Allen preached a number of times in advance of Mac Brunson coming to our church in the spring of 2006. After we voted to call Team Brunson to our church, it took nearly two months for them to come to Jacksonville in which time we had a number of very high profile preachers "preparing the way" for Mac.

Those of us present back then will remember the theme of Dr. Allen's messages, that the cloud would move again for our church - according to Dr. Allen God was going to again begin moving in our midst once Mac came. Those 2 months between calling Mac and him actually arriving were great months of anticipation in our church. Most of the preachers devoted parts of their sermon to heap praise on our new pastor, and we were so hopeful.

Mac finally arrived in April 2006, and it didn't take long to see that maybe the cloud wasn't going anywhere too quickly. In fact after about a year, it seemed that the only cloud moving was the steam coming from Mac's head as he raked us over the coals. Instead of a pastor coming to love us and get busy ministering to our church and our community, it seemed like we were viewed more as a source of capital for the projects and promotion of Mac Brunson and a new market for the Brunson brand than we were a church in need of a loving shepherd to move us into the next generation.

Dr. Allen, Mac tells us that you are one of his closest friends, that you were Mac's prayer partner as he considered the call to come here. We know that perhaps you are getting one side of the story of his first 2 1/2 years, and we want you to know a few things as you come to preach to us:

- its been a rocky 2 1/2 years for our church to say the least. Although Mac has told you and Paige Patterson that he never got a honeymoon at our church, that is a lie so please don't believe that. Our church welcomed Mac with open arms, we prepared a lush office suite for him, put wife and son on staff, and he was given the reigns of our church. We introduced him to the community on Father's Day by renting our minor league baseball stadium. He had our full support. We even allowed him to bring his marketing consultant and put him on our payroll. There were some people alarmed over Mac using the NASB, but that was a small minority and that might be expected in a church that has used the KJV for decades. So we were behind Mac fully, but within the first few months he squandered the good will through his tepid effort at pastoring and preaching and his acceptance of land gifts and free rent at ocean front condos upon his arrival - made all the worse when we found out he counsels pastors in his pastor guidebook to NOT do the very things he did when he came to our church.

- Mac has likely told you that he has been opposed at every turn, that he has had a rough time for the last 2 years, we want you to know it has been EQUALLY as hard on us. Mac has preached hard. Not hard on sin, but hard on people. Not only have we had to deal with the departure of most of our staff in the first year and a half, but we've had to deal with Mac slandering us when preaching at other churches. We're used to pastors preaching the truth in love, but we're getting preaching of some truth, lots of history and legalism, and unhealthy does of pastoral anger. We're not used to it. He has told us that we are worshipping the past, that we are worshipping previous pastors. He hired one of our favorite "preacher boys" Jim Smyrl who many thought was Vines-esque when he served under Vines, but now Smyrl has followed Brunson in the style of hard-on-people preaching with very little love and even less wisdom. We've seen Smyrl transformed right before our eyes under the tutelage of Brunson.

- And we've had to deal with a pastor who seems to be a legalist. While he denounces legalism, and even declares that we are a "hotbed of legalism", he himself preaches legalism in the areas of service and giving in the church and church discipline. Our previous pastors did preach tithing, but they also balanced this with the New Testament principle of giving out of love for our Savior. But we don't get that from Mac.

So many of us are hurting. We feel like we've been brought an uncaring, self-serving preacher who wants to exert his will on the church. He changed our bylaws without even explaining why, and didn't even care enough to hold an honest vote on starting a school. We've been told that if we don't follow his lead and direction we are sinning.

We are praying Dr. Allen that you are bringing a message of hope to our church this Sunday. We've had Mac bring in preachers in his absence that also preached hard on us in defense of Mac - even our own former pastor Dr. Vines came in February 2007 and angrily preached to us about anonymous emails and people complaining about the pastor's salary - with the disgusting sight of the two men high-fiving each other on the platform after Vines declared about a troublesome church member "...I don't get paid enough to be yo pastor, bruther." Some laughed. Many of us cried at that sight.

We hope you aren't going to come in and judge us. We are a loving people. We aren't legalists. We want to follow a loving pastor-shepherd. We hope you can speak the truth to Brunson about his actions these first 2 1/2 years - and on Sunday we hope you can speak some love and truth to us.

After all, its been 2 1/2 years, and we are still waiting for the "cloud to move".

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.

A Sheep's Quick Look Behind As We Get Fleeced This Sunday...

As Mac sharpens his sheers to fleece us all this Sunday, let us gullible sheep indulge ourselves to look to the past to see what Mac has done to our church in terms of leadership, decision making, and financial expenditures. Mac is a man who never met either of the Lindsay's, yet when it comes time to whip the sheep for money he loves to proclaim to know what the Lindsay's would say or do. How convenient - he tells us to not look to the past, but he loves to look back when its convenient for him - like when he tries to hang the yoke of legalistic tithing instead of teaching New Testament giving. So we shall take an honest look backward at the past as the clippers are warming up.

Mac's sermon (infomercial) Sunday was a hurried attempt to try to paint Mac and Smyrl as innovative leaders in our church - as though they have ushered in a new day with "theology driven ministry" - as though we were previously "comic book driven ministry" or something else...but don't be fooled church. There's another side to Mac's story. That is the side that Mac has hijacked power at our church to himself to do what HE wants, irrespective of what his congregation, which is a royal priesthood of believers at FBC Jax, believes should be done.

Its been almost 3 years since the end of the Lindsay/Vines era at our church, and as time passes and we are exposed to the Brunson regime week after week through his abusive preaching its very easy to be become numb, to forget what the leadership and decision making principles were that made our church great. Don't listen to Mac when he proclaims to know what Homer Lindsay Sr. or Homer Lindsay Jr. would do - as I said he never met either man, and he is very ignorant on the history of our church as evidenced by him thinking we were "cutting edge" in years gone by.

Here are three leadership and decision making principles that made our church great that Mac has absolutely turned upside down:

1. The "Priesthood of the Believer" was recognized by the Congregational Rule form of leadership in our church and our bylaws.

Under Lindsay/Vines:

• Our pastors and lay leaders have long understood that our church was governed by "congregational rule", under the biblical principal of the "priesthood of the believer" in 1 Pe 2:9.
  
• When a decision was to be made that required special funding or capital funds, a vote was taken before the money was spent. The vote was announced, and it was genuinely taken in a regular, or previously announced business meeting. If the congregation did not approve it, it wasn't done.

Under Brunson:

• He and our yes-men lay leaders clandestinely changed our church bylaws on November 28, 2007 in a business meeting where absolutely NO explanation was given by the pastor as to what the changes were, or why they were made. These changes shifted power from the congregation to the pastor and the lay leaders of the church, thus we are in effect no longer a congregation led church
  
• The bylaw changes removed the right of the church to hold a special business meeting (thus the congregation could not call for a vote on the pastor's position);
• The bylaw changes specifically state that members agree to have all disputes with the church settled by arbitration - the end result of which is to remove a path for members to legally demand detailed financial records of the church
  
• The pastor has assumed sole responsibility to appointing trustees of the church, and the finance committee was disbanded and made part of the trustees, appointed by the pastor.
  
• Mac has repeatedly demonstrated a low view of the members of his church by constantly accusing them of not reading their bibles, not supporting the pastor, and his low esteem of his congregation was evidenced by his failure to distribute the bylaws prior to the vote. He has spoken ill of our congregation away from our church on multiple occasions, further evidence of his low view of the sheep he was called to pastor.

2. The Pastoral Authority in our church was something that was earned by the pastor, and voluntarily given by the congregation.

Under Lindsay/Vines:

• FBC was a congregational ruled church, and our pastors recognized that. Calvin Carr will vouch for that as he has preached about church polity in his new church in Gainesville. However, our church had chosen to willingly give our pastors much moral authority in making decisions. Our pastors had demonstrated their love and commitment to the church and this city after years of sacrifice; they were rewarded with loyal members following their leadership in almost all decisions;
• This moral authority was not something demanded by the pastor as a function of his position - it was granted to him by our congregation. He didn't use his power to lord over us and beat us, or to be a dictator and demand we do what he does without a vote or before the money is given. We willingly followed their loving leadership based on years and years of them demonstrating to us that they walked with Jesus, and that they loved the church and had the best interests of the church and the community.

Under Brunson:

• Mac came in from day 1 behaving as though he should have the same moral authority granted to him as a function of his position as the new "Pastor" at our church. This was evidenced by taking a salary as large as previous pastors, practicing blatant nepotism by putting wife and son on staff in newly created positions , and having our church spend $100,000 and using 3000 sf of prime Children's Building space for a lavish office suite. Its good to be da king.
  
• Even accepting the $300,000 land gift and a year's rent free stay at an ocean front condo as he did three weeks after arriving in Jacksonville send a signal that he believes himself worthy of such an honor as receiving a 6-figure gift based solely on his position, not his sacrifice. He should have politely refused that gift and urged the man to use it for the Lord's work, not to enrich the pastor.
  
• Instead of Mac coming in here and getting busy to preach and roll up his sleeves and work hard and love us, he took 2 months with pay to arrive, sporadically preached his first year, vacating the pulpit on Sunday mornings and night without letting his congregation know, sometimes by his own admission he could work on his book manuscript (the book where he counsels pastors not to accept large gifts or live in "executive" homes) began using our church to advertise for his Holy Land trips, etc. Mac embarrassed our church by not keeping his commitment to serve faithfully on the Mayor's crime prevention steering committee. In short, Mac came in as the "rock star", not as the new humble preacher coming to build good will with the people.

3. Decisions were voted on by the church, after the pastor presented the plans and asked people to pray and to give.

Under Vines/Lindsay:

• When the pastors determined what major direction they believed the church should go in, they brought it to the church and clearly communicated it - why it was necessary, how it was rooted in scripture, and they asked us to pray.
  
• If it required capital funds (as many decisions did during our high growth years), the financial needs were communicated, and the people were asked to pray and give as the Lord moved. When the funds were raised and we were ready to launch, a vote was taken of the congregation to spend the money.
• Our church historically has used the people's willingness to give as a sign that the Lord was moving in the church. The pastors did not go into debt for several reasons, one of which was they knew that if the Lord was in something, at least as God had moved in our church for decades, then God would move the hearts of his people to give the money needed! It wasn't just a desire to stay out of debt; but the pastors trusted the people to give as evidence that God was moving.

Under Brunson:

• Because of his low esteem for the people of God, that we don't read our bibles, we don't even bring our bibles, and we're a bunch of legalists with "no real relationship with Jesus Christ": because of this, the congregation must be told what to do.
  
• After Mac tells us what he wants to do, then he builds a case to convince us that its a good idea. For those who might disagree or don't respond as he asks, he will mischaracterize or minimize their concerns from the pulpit. Case in point his anger at the church for not being behind totally behind the satellite concept. He'll use guilt to try to convince people to go with him.

I have blogged about many instances making the above case. The latest one I will point to is the decision to start a school downtown. Mac wanted a school. He believes that it is necessary. He lied to us and said that knocking on doors doesn't work, and thus, we MUST start a school if we're going to reach Jacksonville with the gospel. That's a lie out of hell. Its not a requirement to reach our city. But Mac wants it. An endeavor like that takes start up costs...to the tune of $500,000. So what did Mac do? Well, I can tell you what Homer or Vines would have done. They would have communicated the vision, and asked for people who were behind this vision to give to a fund. When the money was raised, a vote would be taken to start the school and spend the money. What did Mac do? He held an unannounced business meeting to vote to take $500,000 from our church funds, money given by God's people to the ministry of FBC Jax, to start the school. Shameless.

And as further evidence of how stupid he thinks we are, he holds out his hand for $1 million in maintenance costs when these should have been taken care of when he first came on board, or certainly before spending money on pastor office suites, INSP broadcasts, and start-up of a school for the very rich. And now that we don't have the money we should put it in the budget for next year.

But the sheep will give deep...and Mac will receive a hefty Christmas bonus for his wise and able leadership. And Smyrl writes his "Theology Driven Ministry" book.

And the sheep march to the sheerer....