Sunday Message: The TV Guy, The Bully, and Ronald McDonald

In a way, this post will be a sequel to the Funeral Priest and the Lambo Pastor from last week.  In some ways, this will be a lesson from 1 Peter 2.

So naturally, let me begin with a verse from Proverbs 21:

Pro 21:30  No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD. 

Because this is the structure I will use to build a story with a lot of moving parts.  And they all start after I typed up last Sunday's message.  I have decided to type this up without a lot of names, because the names are not the point- the point is the same as last week:

Listen to what they SAY, but look at what they DO.  And apply that to yourself.

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So after the Sunday Message published, I turned on a TV pastor I had not heard before to listen to while I exercised.  He had a pretty good message, and I enjoyed that he wasn't over the top promoting something he was selling.  There was something, though, that bugged me way in the back of my mind, and I made a mental note to look into him a bit more.  For the purposes of this post, we'll call him "TV Guy".

Later in the day, I became curious about the drawing power of megachurches, and learned of one harrowing story from the Pacific Northwest of a megachurch pastor who bullied his way into dividing his church into oblivion.  He was set up as an example of how not to do it, and we'll call him "the Bully".  After reading his story, I remembered TV Guy and began looking into him.  Lo and behold, I found out he was a friend of Lambo Pastor- and that both of them had ties to a name I will mention, since he is the "prosperity gospel" example of all that's wrong with televangelism- Joel Osteen.

So here's question one- do you judge the preacher by the company he keeps?

To start to answer that, I want to tie into two things.  One from our Proverbs verse- "..no wisdom..."  The other comes from a set of three lessons I listened to Friday that I believe apply here.  David Jeremiah was doing a series on the Christmas story, and was talking about all the times the story features the phrase- "Fear not."

My fear was, in seeing TV Guy ties to Lambo Preacher, and I hadn't really found anything bad about him, had I misjudged Lambo pastor?  So in searching TV Guy, I added a word to the name- "complaints".  Now I found a plethora of things, none of them especially damning except in the eye of the writer (a common thread of my internet research.  But what I did find was this:  He was running two churches- one on each coast- simultaneously.  Preach at the east coast church, "shake a few hundred hands", throw his family on a private jet, shoot to a west coast church that evening, spend two days taking care of business there, fly back east Tuesday and repeat the cycle.  His two young children were along with the ride.  And two things I noted in the whole story:  He saw the commutes as "quality time with the family", and he worked out a deal with the kids' school (s?) that made it okay for them to miss Monday and Tuesday EVERY WEEK whilst out west.  Two more things:  He "enjoys the jet-set lifestyle" (his quote) and the question raised by the author of the story- how can you shepherd a flock only spending half of every week with them?

God hadn't shown me the connection between the two pastors to admonish ME- but to question THEM.

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So now, let us turn to the "...no understanding..." part.  The second sermon was Allistair Begg wrapping up that same series on Joseph I've mentioned before.  His focus was the fact that where Abraham and Jacob had been faithful because God had spoken to them, Joseph was even more faithful- and we have no Biblical evidence that God EVER talked to him audibly.  He just had faith.  And that brings us to the antithesis of faith- the internet.

This whole ball of wax I've told you about led me to the subject of false teachers, and what was false about them.  One that I looked at was David Jeremiah, and there were only two things I found.  One guy had made a list of things that Jeremiah "believes that are NOT Biblical"- but when you read the list, it is a lot of hair splitting stuff that is "not Biblical" only because it is not completely spelled out in one spot, like a lot of things from Revelation.  (I will note here that that same Sunday I heard Jeremiah express regret at a relatively minor concept he taught previously that he changed his mind on after several people showed him why he might possibly be wrong!)  The other was an idiot who posted over and over, "Google 'David Jeremiah caught stealing'- the results will blow you away!"  So I did, and the only thing you actually find is somebody claiming he plagiarized Hal Lindsay in one of his books, citing an admission of the fact by Jeremiah's publisher, complete with a link to the "admission" that doesn't function...

I also found a page that claimed a list of teachers of false doctrine, and it pretty much had every famous preacher you may or may not know.  INCLUDING Billy Graham (because in 1948 he thought the Ecumenical Council was from the antichrist, and in 1976, he went to one of their conferences, and thus does the work of the antichrist) and Martin Luther (because he taught Sola Scriptura and yet still supported the "work" of baptism).  BTW, I think I should add that he TRIED to condemn Charles Stanley- but wrote "Paul Stanley" instead, and in all his time with Kiss, I never knew Paul Stanley was a preacher.

Lesson here- God gives a person enough understanding NOT to take everything they read as the truth.  Test everything.  Go to more than one source.  Perfect lead-in for part three.

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The third chunk- "...no counsel..." ties to the third sermon I heard, from Chuck Swindoll (who also made that last 'naughty list') on the meeting between Jesus and the teacher Nicodemus.  It was the thing Jesus said to him- "You are the Teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?"  It struck me that what Jesus was saying is, here is the ultimate authority of faith and religion in the world, the cream of man's knowledge of God- and he doesn't understand the MOST BASIC THING about that faith- you must be born again.

And that leads me to the next step in my research journey, two days before.  I read an article in the Christian Post about how a pastor (Let's call him Ronald McDonald) who has had a semi-regular show on our Christian radio is under attack.  His story is almost a carbon copy of "Bully"'s:  Runs a huge organization, accused of intimidation and severe financial misdealings.  Apologizes, promises reforms, 'backs away from the financial end of things.'  Two blogs- one run by a lady, another by two guys (and yes, this is important), find evidence against him.  An electronic paper trail that shows not only his domination and the means thereof of the organization, but also that he never got out of the financial end, just put another face in front of his mouth.  The organization then sues the two blogs- and the one blog duo's WIVES- for defamation.  Why sue the wives?  A couple of neutral researchers asked the church for comment, and they gave none.  Which pretty much tells you it's the intimidation factor- and that pretty much goes with the previous complaints against Ronald McDonald, including the inclusion in the blog evidence of demands to "hush the story" in return for an equitable financial solution.  A solution that includes a payment of half-a-mil to- have you guessed it?- the Bully!

Birds of a feather?  My point being here, someone who knows the meaning of being Born Again wouldn't be doing this- he would have humbly confessed the first time, and repented of the sin.  Footnote: the blog releases coincided with Ronald taking himself off the public speaking circuit indefinitely, in order to get himself together- which "had been prayed about and decided before all this came to light".  Long story short- his reputation as a pastor became more important to Ronald than living up to that rep- something Lambo pastor can certainly identify with should he choose to.

Oh, and apparently, Ronald's church kept secret the fact that they had a youth pastor engaged in sexting with students for 10 MONTHS without saying anything- until an outside tipster clued in the Police and they arrested him.  That goes with the rep thing, and makes one think of the sorry state of the Catholic Church right now, which has grown to a point this week that a respected priest said that  “the Vatican has become a theological Chernobyl. We are in dangerous territory,” and, “The quality of reasoning and information of facts is so fugitive, that frustration yields to sheer embarrassment,” and topped it off with, “While constrained by respect for the Petrine office,

and aware of the strains that imposes, it is distressing to look for a train of thought and find only a train wreck.”

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So now, we are confronted with a two headed beast- how do we discern who is right and who is wrong, " and how do we apply it to ourselves?  This is where 1 Peter 2 comes in.

1Pe 2:1  So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 

1Pe 2:2  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- 

1Pe 2:3  if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

1Pe 2:4  As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 

1Pe 2:5  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

1Pe 2:6  For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 

1Pe 2:7  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," 

1Pe 2:8  and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 

Lesson one- Don't listen to attacks that can't be backed up- born of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, and slander.  Like Billy Graham serving the antichrist.

Lesson two- "The honor is for you who believe"- and if you believe, you can ask Jesus for discernment through the Holy Spirit.  Don't be overwhelmed by all the voices you hear- including mine, as I am prone to jump to conclusions.  You have a Bible, and access to God, use them.

Lesson three: Find out about them- did they disobey God in their actions?

Lesson four: application.  Don't let Satan buffalo you into doubting yourself.  Remember Doc Martin's Rule- Satan accuses from hate, Jesus admonishes from love.  Check everything- including your own belief system.  I went on this journey wondering what the draw to the megachurch was, and found that #1 was the lure of the charismatic leader.  If you hear an accusation about your pastor and your first reaction is, "How dare you!" instead of, "Is there truth I can find about this", then you likely have a problem.  And finally, examine YOURSELF for disobedience.