Brunson to lead First Baptist Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)–In a historic vote Feb. 19, members of the 28,000-member First Baptist Church in Jacksonville voted to call Mac Brunson, 49, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, as their new senior pastor.

Members turned a stand-up vote into a spontaneous standing ovation in a special called business meeting following the morning worship service where they listened to Brunson preach in view of a call and watched a video-taped feature in which he shared his testimony and introduced his family.

Judson Whorton, chairman of the pulpit committee, told the congregation Brunson was the unanimous recommendation of the committee.

Acknowledging the throng of congregants who stood in favor of calling Brunson, Nelson Sturgill, chairman of the deacons and moderator of the short meeting, asked Brunson to accept the church’s invitation after Sturgill had looked out over the auditorium and noted: “that looks like the vast majority of us.”

“I can’t imagine God bringing me to such a wonderful place like this,” Brunson said, re-entering the sprawling sanctuary with his wife, Debbie. “But in my heart, I sense this is where God has called me, and with your help, I will do my best to be your pastor.”

First Baptist, Jacksonville, announced Feb. 12 Brunson would preach in view of a call Feb. 19. The announcement came five days after Jerry Vines – pastor of First Baptist, Jacksonville, for more than 23 years – preached his final sermon to the congregation, which has been led by a series of co-pastors, starting with Homer Lindsay Sr., and continuing with Homer Lindsay Jr. and Vines.

In a multi-media presentation “Meet Mac Brunson” during the morning worship service Feb. 19, Brunson said he was born in the small cotton mill town of Greenwood, South Carolina — “a little Mayberry kind of place.”

Son of a Gideon, Brunson said a counselor sat down with him at a Gideon camp his father had founded and shared John 3:16 with him from a red Gideon New Testament. The counselor asked then 12-year-old Brunson to insert his own name after “For God so loved” in place of “the world” and Brunson agreed.

“And that became real for me at that moment, when I heard that, and it was in that moment that I asked Christ to be my savior,” Brunson said.

Like other teens, Brunson said he went on his own way but “knew and sensed that God was always there.”

As a sophomore at Furman University in South Carolina, Brunson said he was home at Thanksgiving weekend and after feeling for two years that he might be called into some kind of ministry, finally “felt God’s call very keenly.” At that time he “walked the aisle” and shared his decision to enter full-time ministry with his pastor.

In a friendly give and take report, Brunson told of knowing Debbie since kindergarten. “So she’s been after me ever since,” he joked.

Debbie Brunson said she wasn’t interested in dating Brunson until after a friend told her to take pity on him. He almost lost out after showing up two hours late “back when he had hair,” she joked back.

Naming each of their children and describing their personalities, Debbie said the couple double-dates with their children and they are all very close as a family.

“My children are my life,” Debbie said, quickly adding, “next to my relationship with the Lord, and, of course, my husband.”

Brunson said Debbie felt called to the mission field. “This is her mission field,” he said to laughter. Describing her role as one who has traveled and visited with him, he said she has always worked in the church office with him, especially being a part of counseling sessions.

“Mac and I really work together as a team,” Debbie Brunson said. “He casts the big vision and I’m the one that comes behind with a note pad…. We work together like hand and glove.”

Sharing what he believes is the purpose of the church, Brunson outlined two New Testament directives:

“One is to win the lost: the other is to disciple believers,” Brunson said. “That’s very simple, but the New Testament is very clear…. [I] think that any church that gets concentrated on anything else, other than those two things, is in trouble.”

Quoting nineteenth century British preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, Brunson said: “‘Life and death and eternity and worlds unknown may hang on the preaching and hearing of one sermon.’

“It is critical that everything we do presents Christ to a Christless world,” Brunson said.

Following the video presentation with a sermon based on Acts 3, Brunson spoke of a family in the Midwest who had saved their farm in the 1990’s after a flood hit. The family had barricaded themselves in, but the entire community and city had been lost.

“As I looked at that I thought to myself, how much like the church that is. We have built these magnificent facilities and we have saved ourselves, but the church, in our day, having saved ourselves, is watching the world drift down the river of sin to a Christless eternity.

“We’ve saved ourselves but we’ve lost our community,” Brunson said passionately. “We saved our church, but we’ve lost the city.”

In Acts 3:10 the city was taking note of the lame man as being one who used to sit and beg, Brunson said. In that case the people in the city get excited because they see “what the power of God can do.”

Brunson told listeners it was an important day for First Baptist, Jacksonville, but not because he was there or they were there, but “it is important for the glory of God.”

“You are a great congregation, you don’t need me to tell you that,” Brunson said, reminding them that three great men of God have preached to the city and the world. “And it is a critically important day … because there is a decision that needs to be made as to whether or not this church will renew itself and recommit itself to reach this city for Jesus Christ.”

The vision of the church—the “heartbeat” of the church—is it should have a “heart for the city,” Brunson said. “The question is, ‘do you still have a heart to reach the city for Jesus Christ?’”

The vision for having a heart for the city is outlined by three characteristics found in Acts 3: 1) Passionate commitment; 2) A heart of genuine concern; and 3) Spiritual and physical concern.

Looking at the care that was extended to the lame man, so that the “power of God” could be shown in his healing, Brunson asked, “when was the last time somebody walked into this church with you?”

For those who might say to him, “you are just preaching in view of a call, don’t you get meddling with us,” Brunson said he’s just teaching what Scripture says.

Crediting First Baptist with reaching out through ministries including its annual Pastors’ Conference, he said “you can be sure the city of Jacksonville is taking note.”

Recalling a bit of history when Marco Polo in 1296 pleaded for one hundred teaching priests to go into China to spread the Word in order to see mass conversions, Brunson reminded listeners only a few priests were finally sent out from Rome but didn’t even make it across the sea.

“The Gospel never went to the Orient [at that time]” Brunson recalled, noting how different it might be now — and instead of a billion Chinese walking around with a red book on the teachings of Mao Tse Tung they would instead be reading the Bible.

Noting there are thousands and not just hundreds at First Baptist, Brunson predicted: “We will take the city for our Lord and our Savior.”

First Baptist Church in Dallas reported on their Web site that Brunson’s last Sunday there is March 5 and Brunson confirmed in a press conference Feb. 19 he will begin at the Jacksonville church on Palm Sunday, April 9.

Brunson has been senior pastor at First Baptist, Dallas since 1999. He served as pastor of Green Street Baptist Church in High Point, N.C., from 1992-1999, and previously served in churches in Virginia and South Carolina. He was president of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference in 2003 and president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina from 1997-1999. In Texas, he has served as a member of the executive board of the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention since 2002 and is the Chancellor of Criswell College in Dallas. Married for 26 years to Debbie, Brunson and his wife have three children: Courtney Chesney, 24; Trey, 20; and Wills, 18.

Brunson was one of the featured speakers at this year’s Pastors’ Conference at First Baptist, Jacksonville, and Vines called him out of the audience to pray at the beginning of the Feb. 7 service in which Vines preached his last sermon.

Co-author of Why Churches Die: Diagnosing Lethal Poisons in the Body of Christ, Brunson also authored two other books: The God You’ve Been Searching For and The Miracle You’ve Been Searching For.