October 2006 --- Last season, as a participant in the Fantasy Church League (FCL), Brad Paulsen won the 2005-06 championship by putting together a fantasy team of real-life ministers whose combined church growth statistics were best in the league. Because of this success, some FCL observers considered Paulsen a shoo-in to repeat this accomplishment for the 2006-07season. However, his attempt at building another top fantasy church team was severely damaged when he made a huge blunder during this month's FCL Draft Day by accidentally selecting an elderly, small-town Baptist pastor as his first round draft pick. “What can I say,” Paulsen remarked afterwards. “Any hope of building the top fantasy mega-church for 2007 was gone as soon as I found out my No. 1 pick was still using a hymnal.”

Paulsen, an insurance salesman from Columbus, OH, had intended on selecting perennial All-Pro favorite Richard D. “Rick” Warren of Saddleback Community Church, but inadvertently submitted the name of Richard B. Warren, an eighty-year-old pastor from Viburnum, MO, whose small congregation consists mainly of AARP members. The mix-up was not recognized until after Bernard Gleason, the player with the next draft selection, saw Paulsen's typographical error and quickly snatched up the Purpose-Driven pastor for himself. Afterwards, League officials ruled that Gleason had drafted the Saddleback pastor legally, and that Paulsen must keep his official selection despite his honest mistake.

Privately, Paulsen suggested that the recent return of biblical standards in some evangelical circles had contributed to his mistake and taken away the purity of the game. "I thought the Church Growth Movement got rid of all these old-timers," he said, referring to his top draft pick. "I blame Calvinism… and George Bush."

FCL experts seem to concur that Paulsen's draft fiasco leaves the door wide open for a number of other businessmen-turned-church entrepreneurs to scale to the top of the league this season. Turner Plimpton of Abilene, TX, is expected to be a contender with his risky, but formidable "All-Emergent" team, while Lincoln Bailey of San Diego, CA, is poised to mount a comeback this year after losing his starting pastor to a pulpit injury last season when he collided with a clown during a comedy skit.

Back in Missouri, the FCL controversy seemed to have little effect on the little-known Pastor Warren and his small Viburnum Baptist church. When told that he had been drafted, the elderly Warren suddenly shouted, "Remember Pearl Harbor!," then went to his attic to find his old Army uniform.

His wife, Vera, however, had a different reaction. "I think Mr. Paulsen made a fine draft choice, bless his heart,“ Vera pronounced in a sweet grandmotherly tone. “My husband’s congregation loves the Lord with all their hearts and truly loves their neighbors as themselves. There isn't one corner of our small community that hasn't been shown our church’s active witness for Christ and His Gospel and been prayed for year in and year out. That ought to help Mr. Paulsen win another championship, I would think."