Mad Macs, Bad Boys, and the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Ministers: The Legacy of Grace Church and Co.
It’s a truth well understood that birthdays are a blessing. It causes you to take stock, have some carbs, spend time with the family, and otherwise give rise to those same existential questions that keep us all up at night. It’s because you’re a good person (a given if you're reading this) and you have a conscience guided by the Holy Spirit. We are never without instruction in that regard.
But, there are those in our leadership that simply do not think in those terms. They have lied, fired, cheated, manipulated their way to those positions without impediment and with the full blessing of their subordinates, their elders. They are given millions of dollars for their churches to tow the line and “stay within the fold”. They recruit heartily and look for those rare specimens who will say nothing, do what they are told and before you know it, you just bought a house at a 4.7% APR for $830,000 which was purchased previously for $340,000, putting down a whopping $164,000. (The Lord is good. The Vuolos testified that Jeremy did not make any money from Grace Church in their deposition. Math doesn’t check out.)
I suppose I spoke too soon.
Happy Birthday, now Repent
Today is John MacArthur’s 85th birthday and I am sure they will throw a very elaborate do at the MacArthur Ranch. No expense is spared. To the man who has everything and has everything given to him that the rest of us must work and pay for, what can you give him?
He is at the age where people will have nothing but empathy for him and will not give him news that is too distressing because of his advanced years. He has suffered through many ailments these past few years and I have no doubt that the stress of various procedures has taken a toll. These sorts of trials God brings in our lives for our good. Yet, after all this, his heart has hardened even more so.
He continued to perpetuate the lies of Covid, and to congratulate himself on how he handled everything, even to the point of installing a plaque in the middle of Grace square.
He continued to not acknowledge those suffering around him, calling it a “bug”, a “flu” and insisting to his congregation that they had a “divine immunity to the virus”.
He continued to call any reporting on the church to be lies.
He called the SEC indictment against his son, Mark MacArthur, a trivial thing and untrue.
And perhaps most telling, his outright refusal to “do justice” when a former elder, Hohn Cho, implored John and the rest of the elders to do what the Bible and everything that is holy is telling him to do for a family that they had wronged. Eileen Gray’s story sent shock waves throughout the GCC sphere and we are grateful that she had the bravery to tell it.
He has been given every opportunity to right wrongs and bring glory to God. With the same authority that he has to excommunicate and “discipline”, as “pastor-teacher” he chose to put himself and his ministry always first. The leadership that he currently has now has been carefully curated in the past 4 years, but here’s the plot twist: they are not MacArthurites or have the future of GCC in mind. They are hirelings 2.0.
They are waiting for John to leave to begin more seeker-sensitive programs, more hyper-Calvinism, and eliminate any trace of the Dispensationalism that John espoused. When I speak to them, there is no love for John. They haven’t said his name in years. He hasn’t been present in any way, shape, or form. They are done with the whole MacArthur agenda and they are moving on to Operation Blackbriar.
They want to build up the Shepherds’ Conference and make it larger than the current G3 offerings, but again, it won’t happen until a few people are no longer at the helm. In a word, they moved on a long time ago and are just waiting to…have you seen the Last Days of Stalin? A bit like that.
IF
I am sure that most people have heard about the Robert Morris and Dr. Tony Evans’ scandals. It is truly disgraceful when you consider that it was the leadership at these churches who knew, did nothing, or in the case of Robert Morris’ congregation, knew and put the pedophile preacher through a time of “restoration”. Now you can go back in time and blame the victim, or blame the leadership who installed this man years ago, and they can all share in it to some regard, but how can anyone remain in ministry after such a scandal?
I am sure that fans of Morris would have exclaimed, “30 years of Faithfulness” and “35 years of Faithful ministry”, the same praise I see of other pastors, but let me appeal to you, Dear Reader, of this one basic truth: he was never qualified. It should have been that simple. He should not have pursued ministry in the first place.
It’s the same thing with John…
If the elders at the time in 2001 had done their job, they would have disciplined David Gray and not Eileen.
If the elders had heeded the testimonies of Wendy Guay, they would have dismissed Paul Guay and not CONTINUE TO EMPLOY ABUSERS.
If, and the biggest if, the Grace Community Church of the Valley had chosen a pastor from their own congregation as the Bible instructs you to do and not have chosen an unknown and untested pastor (John was an associate pastor at his father’s church who preached rarely), none of this would have happened. We are not living in that sacred timeline.
The Party’s Over
What more is there to say? I recall a Youtuber once asked if John MacArthur was even saved, if he indeed was a biblical “wolf in sheep’s clothing?” That was one of those questions that I had no answer to, until now. I am constantly thinking of better answers far past the original discussion and it makes me feel old.
IF John MacArthur is a Christian, then he should repent.
If not, same answer.
If that is a distasteful notion, then perhaps you should read the Pauline admonishment to “Examine yourselves”. It is over. It is firmly over. Those days of spiritual and intellectual cowards preening on a panel to give you the latest word on the latest controversy. They sit there waiting for the other shoe to drop with decades of covering their own sins or the crimes of others and don’t have a clue about real ministry.
Leave a large church. Know your pastor. Don’t let them bring shame to the name of Christ. Don’t give them any platform. They don’t deserve it.
