Sunday, June 09, 2013

Preaching about money on Easter Sunday/"Congregational Government is From Satan"

It may sound shocking to say that a prominent megachurch pastor preached about money, and not the resurrection, on Easter Sunday..

But


Our church is so organic that I am sure on many recent Easters that the teaching/sharing didn't have a whole lot to do (directly) with the resurrection.  I am also sure it was mentioned (Kind of like Christmas..how do you NOT?).  
See also Special Days Trump Preaching Series: Andy Stanley):
…On an Easter Sunday in Dallas Texas, I visited a Bible Church with some friends. On the way they explained that their pastor was preaching through the book of Psalms.  They were in their 43d week. Easter would be week 44.  And sure enough, on Easter Sunday, this guy picked up with Psalm 44.  He made a reference to Easter at some point along the way.  But it was a stretch.  In his defense, he was teaching the Bible to people and his approach matched his goal.”
~Andy Stanley,Communicating for a Change, 2006, Multnomah Publishing, p.94



The story is about James MacDonald, pastor of 13,000 member Harvest Bible Chapel.
And for those watching the MacDonald sermon below, and realizing "Oh, my, he really did preach about money on Easter"  ( "for those who think "You can’t start a new series on Easter about money!": WATCH ME!!", 2:04ff) what doesn't show in the video is all kinds of resurrection-themed songs and skits that surrounded the sermon.

BUT there still seems to be quite an interesting backstory.



And you may not trip up the way I did, but what hit me about MacDonald's blog post is that fact that he capitalizes the word "pastor" throughout the post.  I don't mean pastor as a title ("Pastor James"), but
phrases like "Statistics tell us that Pastors move every 2-3 years"  and "Many of the Pastors who have come into Harvest Bible Fellowship these past years have." 
Every one knows (or should) that this is just wrong, according to any grammar book (It's true of "president," etc.)It may seen like a subtle thing, or a typo, but I wonder if it is just the inevitable result of wanting a pastor-led church.




James MacDonald blog:Congregational Government is From Satan

Comments  on Jesus Creed: James Macdonald: Congregationalism from Satan?

Harvest website: statements from the elders



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