SBC Pastors’ Conference President Danny Wood released a statement today announcing that James MacDonald will not be speaking at #SBCPC19. MacDonald had been named as one of the speakers back in October. Recently a World Magazine article about MacDonald and Harvest renewed some earlier concerns and brought new information to light that reflected poorly on MacDonald. There were growing questions and discussion about MacDonald’s participation in #SBCPC19. Wood announced the following via the Pastors’ Conference twitter account:
Statement from Dr. Danny Wood, president of #SBCPC19:
James MacDonald contacted me personally to say he is stepping away from all outside speaking engagements for a season (including Pastors Conference 2019). Thankful for this brother, and he has my prayers as he focuses upon his own local church ministry.
Glad to hear he will not be speaking. Wish he had never been invited. When will we learn?
Why should he have never been invited? Just curious.
The World Magazine report is not exactly earth shattering. While some of the specifics are new information, the general thrust of the report regarding MacDonald’s tendency toward intimidation as a leadership style is not new.
Thanks for the answer
We threw a bone to the little guys last year. Now it’s back to business as usual and the cult of celebrity.
I don’t have a problem with well known pastors speaking but they should be intermingled with those that are not as well known. By the way James McDonald is a good speaker and I have learned munched from his books but it is good he is backing off as he deals with controversy in his ministry.
Andrew, even if McDonald didn’t have this thing he is dealing with, this is called the pastor’s conference, not the speakers conference. I have a real problem calling these megachurch CEOs “pastor”.
But many of these speakers are pastors that have some great experience to impart to other pastors. Not all of them but many do. They shouldn’t be excluded because they are popular and pastor a large church. At the same time we should not exclude those that aren’t popular and do not pastor a large church.
Bill Mac, I’m curious as to what title you would give the senior minister at a megachurch? “CEO” as you stated? At what size threshold does a pastor of a church stop being pastor and become a CEO or Celebrity? I’m not trying to be confrontational, just asking for a clarification. Do you think the title of pastor is only Biblically relevant if he knows the names of the majority of those who are members of his church – if that’s the case, that would probably limit church size to no more than 1,000 in regular attendance (and that may… Read more »
David: It’s just my opinion. I think the pastor ought to know the flock. Otherwise he’s not the pastor, just the speaker (and boss, in many instances). I think the church would be far healthier if it was distributed among many smaller churches rather than concentrated in fewer, huge congregations.
Andrew: True. I just am tired of the SBC practically worshipping the megachurch and their celebrity heads. We never learn.
A good speaker does not a Godly man make. And Mega Pastor is a contradiction of terms.
A critical seemingly bitter blogger does not a godly man or woman make.
Proverbs 27:6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
I agree. Those little guys gave us the best PC I’ve ever attended. Wish they were represented every year.
There seems to be a little professional jealousy among some folks. The mega pastors are being made out to be simply “CEO’s,” bosses, etc. Not only is it inaccurate, but also disrespectful. They are men of God who happen to serve large churches. I certainly agree our PC should be balanced, but that should not be mandated by a few bloggers. It is the choice of elected leaders to choose whom they wish to speak. Maybe another small church pastor will get elected again soon. I would certainly support that. I cut my teeth of hearing Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines,… Read more »
No professional jealousy from this end. I am not a professional pastor.
I do not think asking questions means that one is jealous. I am a bi-vocational pastor of a small SBC church in rural NC – I am stretched very thin between all the responsibilities I have. Many times I have wondered how one man can ‘pastor’ a church of 5,000+ people – especially 20,000+. There is NO way that man can be a Biblical pastor…the actual pastoring is handled by lower-level staff in those situations.
Yes, asking questions does not make one jealous. Questions weren’t asked. Statements were made that God-called men cannot pastor mega churches. And that mega churches cannot be pastored. Of course they have help. So do some of us. Some of us are associate pastors. No one claims to do it alone. God is big enough to do it different ways at different churches. Apparently beyond some of our commentators comprehension, but not too big for our God., Why in the world did we (including myself and most of the commentators on this site and almost 70% of messengers at SBC)… Read more »
The president of the SBC does not have to be a pastor.
So are you implying by that statement that you do not consider J.D. Greear a pastor, and if you were not, do you believe he is a pastor?
I think I made it clear that I believe a pastor should know his flock (the word means shepherd). Jesus set that example. So I don’t believe mega-churches and their hierarchy are a good church model. I think it is particularly problematic for Southern Baptists because of our theoretical commitment to congregational polity. It is, in my opinion, also unhealthy that our denomination is so wedded to megachurch personalities. Does that mean megachurches are bad places and megachurch leaders are bad people? Of course not. I think JD Greear seems to be a great guy and an excellent choice for… Read more »
You didn’t answer the question. But, by your implication that would mean, Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines, Rick Warren, and countless others were/are not authentic pastors in your opinion. Interesting, to say the least. Pastors are shepherds for sure, among other responsibilities. But Scripture does not teach he is to do the shepherding alone. Eph. 4 says the pastor’s roll is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.” The church was also directed to select deacons to do much of the work of care in the church, widows, etc. ( Acts 6). And, in numerous places the pastor is… Read more »
Les: I’m not big on celebrity so those names don’t hold any more weight with me than a lot of pastors I have known that aren’t famous. Yes, they had the title pastor. Yes, as far as I know they are good men and served their congregations well in the church model they had. No, I don’t think their model of pastoring is what the NT intended, but as I’ve said several times, that’s my opinion, and given our history it clearly isn’t an opinion the majority of Southern Baptists share. Being out of step with the majority of Southern… Read more »
During my NOBTS days, Bryant Wright was brought in for a chapel service to speak to us on “being successful.” The underlying message of the sermon that followed was clear: bi-vocational pastors are not “successful” and you’re doing something wrong if the church is not growing by leaps and bounds.