(Two posts in one day? I know. Crazy.)
I checked out the MFI leadership page, and it appears that Dick Iverson has stepped down as leader of the organization and Frank Damazio is now the Chairman of MFI.
A few years back there was a rumor that Dick was going to hand the reigns of MFI over to Bob MacGregor. However, it appears that hasn't happened. Frank Damzaio is now leading MFI.
I haver zero insight into how or why this happened. I can however speculate/gossip. (cause that's how I roll) My guess is that Dick Iverson's marriage to his long time secreatry forced him to take some unscheduled time off. It also likely reduced his influence on the board of MFI. And with this gap in leadership, Frank Damazio was able to convince the board that he should be the new Chairman. Again, pure speculation on my part, but a plausible guess I'd say.
Yeah, I’ll bite.
Dick Iverson is nothing but a kind older saint, one who believes the best for people. That’s been my experience of the man whom I’ve been ministered to by and talked to personally.
My grandmother remarried twice when her husbands died..sometimes in less than a year…is that wrong? Older, and lonely, it’s not uncommon for folks to find good friends and to marry for companionship.
Unless you have some sort of evidence of an affair, kindly take your speculation and keep it to yourself.
Disputing prosperity teachings or word of faith teachings is one thing, defaming and accusing a man of God who is everybody’s kind elderly grandpa of sexual immorality is something entirely different.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
As to the business end, between Damazio and MacGregor, have at it. I could care less. But it’s rather foolish of you slander an nearly 80 year old man who’s such a father in the faith to so many…without any proof and only your old wounds from CBC to go by…
Am I missing something here? Who said anything about an affair, Mrhopper…other than you of course?
Catalyst clearly states marriage not affair:
Looks to me like You are the one bringing the accusation of an affair into this post…you ought to be ashamed of yourself…and I’d watch out for that. You do know what the Bible says about Touching God’s Annointed…don’t you?
From what I’ve seen of SPFD, he’s all about control. I don’t think it would be possible for anyone else to hold any reins as long as he’s around.
(not said in anger or bitterness. just the facts, ma’am.)
[Comment ID #37894 Will Be Quoted Here]Haha, I’ll take that as a confirming word! I’ve thought the same, and judging from how many of the leadership team have bailed out in the last few years, I’m not alone.
Agreed. I also think that they are struggling financially, and can’t afford to pay these pastors much in the way of salary.
Probably true. Doesn’t mean he didn’t cheat on his wife. A lot of very kind wonderful people, still make poor decisions.
That said, I don’t think he had a physical affair with Roxie. I think it was much more of an emotional affair.
This was phrased in such a delightfully weird way!
A Grandafather of sexual immorality. Like Father Time or Mother Nature.
Just in case y’all missed out on the PBC experience… now you can pay $170/credit hour for their classes online. Check it out!
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Online Ed is a pretty big business. So this doesn’t really surprise me. And PBC is more like an online college, anyway.
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I know! Isn’t it great?! It’s basically the same thing as the CLTI courses, which were audio listening on CDs with a notebook of homework for several hundred dollars (not counting the books). Great courses, in my opinion, and as a PBC student, I learned a lot, but seriously… isn’t “being” there part of the whole experience? Or, is it now an internship with no interaction and all head-knowledge? I’m really confused. Back in the day (while doing the audio classes), I didn’t even have to attend any chapels, which were truly the best part about PBC.
How about some hearsay to add to the speculation? The other day I happened to be in Portland and stopped by to see an old friend from the old PBC days (70′s). Her husband is an MFI pastor and during the conversation said “Well, you’ve heard what’s been going on with Bro. Dick…and proceeded to say that after he married Roxie some of the MFI members were unhappy and had a meeting with Bro. Dick that got very heated and strong words were exchanged. He then said that Bro. Dick did hand the reigns off to MacGregor, but that MacGregor didn’t feel they he should be in charge so it was MacGregor himself that handed it over to Frank.
He also said that Bro. Dick had a heart attack after the meeting that resulted in a bypass operation and he was doing fine now. He said it happened on the way home from the heated meeting. I don’t know, that part sounded a bit soap opera to me. Regardless this guy said the thing with Roxie didn’t bother him. But he did refer to the tight control they had over couples in PBC and BT. He said when you holding others to a certain standard but then don’t apply those same standards to yourself it can come back to bite you.
This seems to be the general consensus.
This is very interesting. If true, makes me think that Bob MacGregor just didn’t think it was worth it to run MFI. Dealing with a jealous Frank and running an organization that may be witnessing it’s declining years of influence, probably isn’t that much fun.
I think it’s pretty fun, but that’s just me
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Wait… isn’t this the same Johnpaul Morton who just commented Pastor Marc Estes blog that he had a great time talking with him over lunch?
The same Johnpaul Morton who blogs here at the citybusiness church site? Totally trashing Pastor Frank, CBC, MFI and others? Even insuating that Bro. Dick had an affair?
And yet, here he is having lunch with a staff pastor from CBC…strange. According to him and the others, they’re all abusive, controlling, and teaching false doctrine…
Is God doing a healing work? Is Johnpaul going to recant his comments? More to come…
I normally wouldn’t approve the above comment. But he’s attacking Johnpaul. So, you know, enough said…
Apparently, you’re new to this blog, because Johnpaul quits and recants his comments after every meeting with a CBC pastor. It’s kind of his thing.
What an interesting comment. I certainly can’t wait for the “more to come…”
Anonymous, would you like to be invited along for my lunch appointments?
Most days I eat at Subway so hopefully you can handle a lot of sandwiches. At my lunch with Marc I had an open faced Turkey Sandwich that was simply superb. They also put lemon in my Diet Coke…which I thought was real nice.
Yesterday, I had some Chicken Pad Kee Mao at this wonderful Thai Restaurant by my work. As usual, I substituted the broccoli for mushrooms and drank a Thai Iced Coffee (very refreshing). Level 3 on the spice…not too hot and not too mild…as Goldilocks would say it was “just right”.
Today was Buffalo Chicken at Subway and tomorrow will likely be a noon time decision.
I think that about covers it. Thanks for your interest in my lunch habits. I’ll try to keep you up to date as the week progresses.
Come on John Paul! and where have you been? Why did it take this one comment to strike a nerve – because it had such truth in it? Albeit from the other side. Don’t miss the forest for the trees – this comment had nothing to do with your lunches. You are stalling while you think of an answer for where you were and the weird flip- flop thing you went through. Sorry truth therapy.
We were sadly disappointed when they lured you back to their camp for a time.
Ok think of us as your friendly neighborhood chapter of AA — you can fool everyone else but not another recovering addict!
We were disappointed that you apologized for every clear thing you had said on here in a quest for truth. Yes we all have our days of mixed – confused feelings, but it felt like you were apologizing on this blog for everything you had said on here at one time and thus stating we were all ‘off’ too. It undid alot of good – just to be honest.
Just today Detox and I were talking about how we watch people go through various stages of getting free. Its like they are bobbing on the water after a boat accident –they stay on the surface but than something pulls them under again. Guilt for being a ‘bad Christian’ for asking questions of other Christians. Seems like Paul had a lot to say about that to the Bereans –like you are supposed to ask questions. Yes it hasn’t all been pretty on here esp. when you are in the early stages of getting truth. Coming out of this level of denial only usually comes with a sharp scalpel of truth. Once you realize you were lied to, this can’t be true Christianity you are mad and angry on so many levels.
Than you might run into someone you used to worship with, a good friend or teacher. They seem like nice Christians still so you start questioning yourself. If you don’t than others do it for you. You must be bitter, offended and unforgiving. Thats a line all cults use to keep us from asking questions esp. on blogs. Am I right? Its a power controlled technique and its effective!
Did you ever read the book Toxic Faith or Toxic Church. Your words on this blog have had an effect because you were questioning things and having the courage to say things aren’t right there. Don’t let this comment from anonymous throw you off the trail again. Get up and keep going. If you don’t get to the root of this thing – they will have you. We’ve known too many people who started to question than got hit with false guilt for asking about truth and went under again at the new church plant out of our old church. They are truly worse off than they were at Capial because they have not questioned anything they were taught there. Yes there is a pattern here with all these churches.
So what could it be about their beliefs that leads to such problems with control and bad fruit? We keep screaming at the top of our lungs its not just Portland!
Have you really researched what do they all have in common? Get down to the roots and the false guilt will go away – this is for everyone not just John Paul.
Free, since your comment was for everyone, and not just JohnPaul, I guess that means I can respond.
I totally understand what you are saying — totally. And yet… when you’ve been friends with people for decades, they are good people, and you know they love God with all their hearts… well, how do you relate to them?
I can’t speak for JP, but for myself, these friends know how I feel about the church. And we just don’t talk about it. We talk about our kids, our own journey with the Lord. If they rave about CBC, I just let them. If they can find some nutrition in cotton candy and koolaid, well good for them. But I digress! (sorry)
In my heart of hearts, I keep telling myself, “Grace, grace, give them grace. If they want information, they will ask.” That’s what is so great about this blog. We can respond publicly to what is preached publicly. I don’t have a problem with my friends. I have a problem with the church doctrine. Hopefully my friends will have grace for me too, because *ahem* I have been known to be wrong.
But what I really want to know is the Thai place JP loves. My favorite is Tsunami.
Exactly. You can be friends with someone and still disagree with them.
I have lunch with people from City Bible and you know what, we just don’t talk about City Bible when we get together. We talk about other things. It’s not really all that hard.
I think what Free at Last is referring to is the somewhat formal apologies JP made, either on the blog or directly to Frank and then blogged about it, a few years back. Free isn’t referring to whether you guys still go to lunch with ppl from City Bible. We have been known to meet with ppl still at CCC too and we are nice to them if we bump into CCCers in coffee shops (Yes. we are all so nice to each other, all the while both sides carefully suggesting life is hunkie dorie and God is blessing us so we MUST be the ones with the corner on truth).
Without meaning to, I think you are missing the point since you are steering the issue to forgiveness and moving on when Free is specifically talking about when JP apologized for things that most likely caused the Franks to gloat: ‘See, we KNEW they would eventually come to their senses and admit they are wrong for blogging and acting so
different than the rest of usunChristlike.’ Even though JP was wellmeaning it FELT like a concession which felt like a set back when we thought we were making headway in learning to have a voice.I’d look through your archives to find the posts, but it’d take awhile. Maybe later when I have more time. But Cat even referred to it here:
No offense to JP for doing what his heart led him to do at the time. We just had issue with the apology line of thinking because it inisinuated that we were sinning or something. It’s like handing back your voice and saying it doesn’t count after all.
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This comment was interesting. When I finally switched churches, one of my best friends asked me, “So, does this mean we can’t talk or see each other anymore?” I told her, “Of course we can! We’re still friends… we just go to different churches.”
That’s one of the reasons I left… I like hanging out with her, but I basically feel like the “bad guy”, even though I’m a gal – a gal who likes to keep friendships going, even when churches change. Goodness! All the other churches let you have friends outside your circle.
Well, Brother Dick is not totally out of the picture in the hearts and wallets of MFI. This came from Brother Frank today:
From what I was told Bob MacGregor was offered the position and he turned it down. (Good job Bob!) MacGregor has become the new face of BT reformation and droves of people who were and are fed up with Franky D have moved North to his church. Bob has become a compassionate, caring, Christ centered pastor with a focus on people and the community over selfish individual numbers, material possessions, and a large bank account. I believe Frank and CBC will continue to spiral over the next 5 years and be just a shell of what it used to be.
Already is.
I’m not saying this isn’t true. But I definitely checked MFI’s website a couple months ago, and Bob was listed as the Acting Chairman. Maybe that was just a transitional position. But it seemed like he was definitely on track to be the head of MFI. Something happened in the interim to make him change his mind. I’m curious what that was.
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Right. Which makes me wonder why MFI is so happy to have Frank leading their organization. It’s not like he’s done wonders with City Bible. He turned PBC into a glorified internship program. He has overseen a dramatic decrease in enrollment at City Christian. Attendance at City Bible hasn’t really grown all that much, it’s just spread out among several different campuses . And let’s not forget the biggest black eye for City Bible, which all happened under Frank’s watch…. this blog.
“Thank You! Thank You! I’m honored. But I couldn’t do it without the readers. You’re the best. No really, the best.”
True, true. City Bible has changed. It’s sad. My new church is packed from the moment you walk in… everyone shows up on time for worship – NO stragglers. They engage in the message… and everyone has learned a wealth of information upon leaving the building, and been able to spend time in fellowship. And, guess what?! No point 1, point 2, point 3. Great quotes, great insight, and great Bible teaching. We even stand to read the Bible together as a congregation instead of standing to read a Bible proclamation and then never opening the Bible. One of the things that put me over the top at CBC, was that there would be references listed next to each bulletin point, but when I went back to look at many of the verses, they either didn’t exist or they didn’t fit the message. This happened several times, and I showed my family. They verified it. Weird.