UPDATE: Greg Bradshaw, Harvest Bible Chapel (HBC) lead ministry pastor, says James MacDonald has filed for arbitration against the church. Bradshaw says “among the things (MacDonald) is seeking is Walk in the Word. HBC is in the preparation stages of our response.”
Disgraced former Harvest Bible Chapel pastor, James MacDonald, just posted a message to a closed group on Facebook called Walk in the Word Partners, indicating that he’s returning to ministry. Here’s the message, which was just sent to me from a member of the group and is posted without any corrections to grammar or spelling. (I believe the picture is of MacDonald and a man who reportedly approached him in Wyoming and tearfully urged him to start preaching again.):
Greetings loved ones,Please continue in prayer for Kathy and I – there has been a great deal of loss for us this year but we love one another and the Lord and have prayed fervently not to say or do anything during our trial that would undermine our many years of teaching you God’s Word.We have prayed to practice our biblical teaching on love and God has surely allowed us to be stretched. There is much we could say, as so much is not at all what has been portrayed. But we look to the Lord for forgiveness where I did fail as a leader and for vindication of false statements that will not cover forever what others have done.God is in control, truth will come to light in his time. When Our Lord moves to remedy these injustices and bring healing between hearts humbled before him, we will have all the more reason to praise Him. We are ready now with open arms and pray for others to meet us in genuine Christian reconciliation.Our health is good, our children have found other places of fruitful ministry and many prayers have been answered along these lines.Our broadcast partners are our family now and we will be back soon w fresh messages from God’s Word. All free – all digital – all the time, as promised. If you want to write to us – we are reading all mail personally at:James and Kathy MacDonaldPO Box 5368Elgin IL 60121
Just this week I met a man at a gas station in Casper Wyoming (while travelling to see our grankids) who approached me with a strong word He knew it was me and I wouldn’t look up but just began to weep as he said boldly: “James, I love you and many others do too. I can’t make sense of all that has happened in your ministry – just seems like it all could have been worked out. God is not done with you yet– get back to preaching God’s word, as we all need to hear from you.”Wow – i cannot tell you what these suprise and very kind words, so on point and from the Lord have meant to me. I am so thankful for a faithful messenger. In God’s time we desire to be that messenger in your life again, afresh.Great days of triumph and victory always follow days of testing – we look forward to sharing with you in brand new ways – all the Lord has been teaching us and what His calling is for us.Much love to you in Christ,James and Kathy
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58 Responses
“Just happened to meet a man at a gas station in Wyoming…”
Sorry, macdonald, I simply don’t believe that.
“just seems like it all could have been worked out. God is not done with you yet”
versus:
“Wow – i cannot tell you what these suprise and very kind words, so on point and from the Lord ”
And here is the odium of crowd practiced fallacy. Men assigning God’s voice to words of men to control and manipulate other men. MacDonald is well practiced in this shenanigansism and llie. Yet the crowd still feeds on this despicable poison.
Conman and fraudster MacDonald needs to be behind bars and not the pulpit.
Why are people so naive about James? Have we so quickly forgoten the damage he had caused? So far we haven’t seen or heard of a true repantance from him, at least I haven’t. Should a fallen and distressed pastor come back to full time ministry over an impulse of one man?
Since you like Desiring God’s website you may want to read their offering on False Teachers located here
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-surprising-truth-about-false-teachers
It does a pretty good job of pointing out the characteristics of greedy wolves in sheep clothing:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
God can work good out of any evil but woe unto them who practices evil. MacDonald will receive zero credit for anyone God, through his grace and goodness, has saved out MacDonald’s fake ministry.
I agree that believers can take comfort knowing God can and does work good from evil but it seems as though you’re not getting the fact that this man is still at it. He has yet to accept responsibility for what he’s done or seek repentance.
As Christians we have a responsibility to hold this man accountable for his harmful actions and to protect those he’s seeking to mislead and abuse. We can’t go looking for rosy Bible verses all the time. We must deal with sin in our midst.
I hope that since this man (and his enablers) refuse to accept the chastisement of the church that earthly authorities take action. He needs to go to jail for theft and possibly trying to put a hit on someone if that is true. He also needs stripped of any minister’s licenses he has and barred from soliciting money from the public.
As a former member of HBC, the thing that most reveals his heart is his lack of ever addressing his former flock. This season is all about his own hurts, his own trials and now his new “family” of online supporters. Where is the shepherd’s heart for his flock who have never heard any rebuttal of anything from our pastor? This affected all of us. This left our family without a church. Finding a new church is not as simple as commenters make it appear. We were invested and yes, our love for Christ had not swayed, but our understanding of the headship of a church certainly has given that we were abandoned in a moment without explanation. I’m a mom raising young children, looking for a place of refuge where we can lay down roots and get under the faucet of God’s presence and teaching. Harvest was that place for us, until it suddenly wasn’t. Every sermon ended with “You are loved”, and we are loved by God. But we also thought we were loved by our pastor whom we loved and respected and sought wisdom thru. We were very wrong about that.
What total bull! It is amazing that a man can search for a hitman and others will still loudly proclaim the good works he accomplished! There are simply none! Jesus and the Holy Spirit always must get the credit for what they have always done. What JMac has done is a big smoke and mirror job. And their has been lots of proper quoting of passages in their proper context about Jesus warning us about greedy, abusive and even murderous false teachers.
Kristy: Julie Roys never reports the “sins of pastors like ……” Rather, Julie Roys, and the “The Elephant’s Debt” website, and many many others have reported the well-documented, and Public PATTERN of abuse, financial misconduct, ethical and moral problems, and spiritual issues in the life of James MacDonald because it is a BIBLICAL command to do so. Do you even comprehend this, Kristy? Julie Roys is obeying Scripture here. There is a well-documented and public PATTERN here of moral and ethical misconduct in James MacDonald whose claim to “well, I should be a Pastor because I want to” should be challenged and confronted by discerning Christians everywhere.
There is a well-documented and public PATTERN of moral and spiritual character problems in the life of James MacDonald The fact that there are commentators above who continue to put James MacDonald on a pedestal reveals the Alarming LACK of Biblical Discernment in the church !! There is very little authentic Biblical Discernment in the Church !! And this lack of Discernment is revealing when you still have …..to this day…..naive and gullible people defend a man who specializes in bullying and padding his wallet with millions via tithes and offerings !! And yet people still continue to defend Macdonald ?
To see Pastor James move forward so quickly and unashamedly is jaw dropping to say the least. So basically, he chooses to abandon his church…chooses to repent of nothing… there is a James but he is no longer a Pastor.
Well put. I’m a bit late to the discussion but I completely agree. I try to reserve making judgments until all the evidence is in, however, the fact that several people have come forth and spoken raises a huge red flag. It’s incredibly grievous. Why would a man want to return to the ministry so quickly when he would be wise to use this time to work out his repentance (aka salvation), and work on restoring his family (which takes a lot of time) and based on his comments he’s apparently still doing (another red flag) that. Until he can prove without a doubt that he is innocent, he should never, ever, EVER be a pastor.
Phil. 1:15-18 expresses gratitude that Christ is proclaimed but it is not an endorsement of those who proclaim Christ with impure motives or their overall behavior. Indeed, most commenters here and elsewhere have generally been thankful for the fruit borne at HBC. The issues at hand are MacDonald’s sinful behavior and 1 Tim. 5:20 is more on point with respect to those issues.
Reading what James wrote makes me shudder and fills me with disgust. No repentance at all = no Holy Spirit in this man. “…we need to hear from you”?! Clearly IF this message was proclaimed to him, it’s not from the Lord. We hear from the Lord alone. We don’t hear from James – we hear from the Lord alone and the Lord can use anyone. Who is this man who elevates his importance to this degree that we NEED him (i.e. James). What he has gone through is not a trial – it’s a suffering (finally, and if you can even call it that) because of sin. Like you LOVED to say, James, “choose to sin; choose to suffer.” You never did understand repentance or grace. May the measure in which you were harsh, punishing, and cruel to others be doled out in equal measure to you! Ugh, there is such wickedness in this little man!
How many people’s lives have been saved by this “ministry”? not referring to JMAC’s.
Kristy please stop and listen to yourself, “even today, churches are planted based on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in pastor James.”
We’re you baptized into James? Was James MacDonald crucified for you?
The church eternal, worldwide is made up of people whom the father draws, who become obedient to Jesus and Jesus alone. God says he will share his glory with no other. Your viewpoint about James MacDonald looks dangerously like blaspgemy.
Good question. At the new Harvest church plant I once attended the sanctuary was packed with over 700 on a typical Sunday. Of whom only FIVE were new followers of Jesus. Everyone else came from other area churches. In some places that is called sheep stealing. In other places pew shifting. From what I saw there and heard from other Harvest plants, the model appeared to be designed to attract existing suburban Christians, not to reach people far from Jesus.
Tiffany, this is your testing time, too. Take heart and keep trusting: Writings of the great Apostle Paul in Romans 8:35-39 (KJV): 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (King James Version (KJV) Public Domain.) Philippians 1:6 (NIV): 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. In Christ’s love….
MacDonald has proven himself to be deceptive, devious, two-faced, and a lover of money.Why would anyone continue to trust his preaching any longer? I would not look to a filthy swam hoping it would provide sweet, clean water. He has covered himself with the very same sinful filth that he preached against and couldn’t see on himself. I wouldn’t trust him to guide me safely across the street if there a penny on the ground for him to focus on.
Hé must nées the money
Fisher – I have a friend that pastored a church in an area where Harvest started a new church about 12 – 14 years ago. He said that the other churches in town would ask one another whether they had been “Harvested yet”.
Unfortunately, this isn’t something new or only reserved for Harvest – the church I work for once approached its life and ministry in the same way. Something that continues to impact our identity to this day.
Unrelated, I was a faithful Walk in the Word listener for many years – attended two of the Vertical Church conferences back in the mid-2000s. There is no doubt that God graciously used James MacDonald to help strengthen my faith in Christ. I can honestly say that I don’t think I’d still be in ministry if it wasn’t for Harvest/James/Walk. There are still lines that come out of my mouth that I “stole” from James and that shape my own faith and my ministry.
In saying all of that, I’m not downplaying the seriousness of the things he has potentially/apparently done. The fallout is sad, frustrating and incredibly disappointing. I too would like to see a repentant James in response to things – but as I/we have learned from other “celebrity pastors” that have “fallen” (btw, I feel the weight of turning him into a celebrity pastor in my life and the life of others), that probably won’t happen anytime soon.
James MacDonald sounds like the Satan that fell from heaven…….I will never trust a church or a pastor again although I will continue to attend church on Sunday mornings…….because there IS a true God and He
IS still in control…..heart wrenching for so many…….what an evil man……..God help him because life is short……..
Julie,
I’m glad you’re keeping people informed, however, can it possibly feel justifiable to be getting your information from someone who is clearly betraying someone who considers them a “loved one”.
It’s sad to know that on either side of the discussion there is a lack of innocence in the matter. We are all better than this backstabbing. Have some compassion in your heart.
Think about it.
Yes!
I pray he makes that return. Victorious for the Lord… Father bring us Your servants humble and unafraid. When selfish words and actions cause so much devastation please create a restoration like only You can. Thank You for being a good Father
He “didn’t even look up”, but he took a selfie.
Yeah. Okay.