James MacDonald, the embattled pastor who for so long seemed to have been able to get away with just about anything and everything, is finally out as pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel. The decision follows a failed lawsuit against bloggers who did little more than tell the truth and report the news about his ministry. … Read more
Like his friend and fellow scandalized pastor, Mark Driscoll, James MacDonald is largely unwelcome anywhere in evangelicalism except for the dark, seedy corners of charismaticism. Charismatics, modern practitioners of the ancient heresy of Montanism (also known as the “New Prophecy Heresy”), deny the sufficiency of Scripture by insisting that God continues to speak outside the … Read more
Harvest Bible Church has released a statement, explaining to its members that James MacDonald has been released from his leadership position. Oddly enough, they have retained him as a preacher and teacher, but don’t want him to help lead the church. The Elders want to do a better job of overseeing our church during challenging … Read more
The Southern Baptist Convention’s 2016 Pastors’ Conference will be held in St. Louis, MO on June 12-13. This year, the theme is a repeat from last year–a promotion of President Ronnie Floyd’s prophecy of a Great Awakening. Already announced is a plethora of dubious speakers, including James MacDonald and Jack Graham. Last year, at the … Read more
P&P has reported on the demise of James McDonald and the meltdown of Harvest Bible Church on numerous occasions, including here, here, here, here, here, and here. Most of this reporting is due to the diligent work and journalism of Julie Roys and a few other independent reporters. As a sad part of this story, … Read more
The latest report by Religion News Service details exactly how James MacDonald was spending all that sweet, sweet tithe money while his church was tens of millions of dollars in debt. The list is pretty stunning. Okay, so we all knew that James MacDonald is the stereotypical megachurch pastor who broke-bad. Like his compatriot, Mark … Read more
I should’ve written about this days ago, or had someone on my staff write about it, but I’ve been busy with the new webcast set-up (it looks awesome, by the way) and preparing our church’s disaster trailer to haul off to do its thing this flood season. Thankfully, Julie Roys was on it, who is … Read more
Editor’s Note: The elders of Harvest Bible Chapel released the following announcement to their congregation this morning (dateline February 13, 2019). Dear Harvest Bible Chapel Family: It is with great sadness that we as the Elders of Harvest Bible Chapel wish to convey to you a very recent development that has caused us to take … Read more
[Julie Roys] I never thought I would hear an evangelical, mega-church pastor talk about planting child pornography on the computer of an executive at a Christian publication. But today, Chicago radio personality Mancow Muller played shocking clips of someone sounding exactly like Harvest Bible Chapel Pastor James MacDonald discussing putting child porn on the computer … Read more
[Julie Roys] John Secrest, the founding pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel Naples, today announced that he wants his church back. In an email to his congregation, Secrest said that he had asked top leadership at Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago to reverse their decision to allow Pastor James MacDonald to preach at the Naples church amid swirling controversy. He said … Read more
Pulpit & Pen has been threatened to be sued hundreds of times. Greg Locke, Clayton Jennings, Jonathan Cahn, Perry Noble, and many more, have threatened to sue us and, in some cases, sent us cease-and-desist letters, which we ignore (or post them online, because they’re funny). P&P has ruined careers by doing nothing but basic … Read more
[WARHORN] Pastor James MacDonald runs a pretty shady operation in Elgin’s Harvest Bible Chapel. The Elephant’s Debt blog and others have documented its financial shenanigans for years. Most recently Julie Roys of World magazine has written an article with stories of expelling kids from the church school when their pastor father refused to sign a noncompete agreement, revising church bylaws to move authority from … Read more
Remember when James MacDonald stormed the gates of Grace Community Church to pass out his continuationist garbage-book with Mark Driscoll? Remember when James MacDonald scoffed at Mark Dever and those who opposed the satellite church model, right before his own satellite empire collapsed? Remember when James MacDonald was fired as CEO of his church and … Read more
Seventh Day Adventist, Ben Carson, has launched his appeal to evangelical voters in Iowa through his Revive714 events. According to the website for Revive714, it is a “prayer worshiping experience aimed at sparking our passion for prayer,” quoting the oft-cited verse 2 Chronicles 7:14 for its biblical motivation. Keep in mind, this is (1) a campaign … Read more
The Gospel Coalition, a network of evangelical churches founded by D.A. Carson, and Tim Keller, has been in a downward slide since it’s inception. While the original intent of the coalition seemed well, the accountability within the organization has been less than stellar. In other words, the members of the council of the TGC hold eachother to such a high regard, that any criticism of it’s members is looked at as malice. Besides Tim Keller, a well known evolutionist, who does not hold to the absolute authority of Scripture, TGC has aligned itself with many liberal members over the years. Members, such as Mark Driscoll, and James MacDonald, whose association with the organization has backfired, yet TGC has managed to stay alive and well.
