It is a mega church in the DC area with 5 locations and claims an attendance of 13,000 each weekend. Why is that? The podcast is two hours on the use of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality at the MLK50 Conference and the T4G Conference sermon by David Platt. Platt was forced to defend himself in 2019, when then-President Donald Trump showed up on a Sunday morning at McLean Bible with little notice and asked Platt to pray for him. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. This internal document was a response to Platts promotion of The Gospel, the Church, Justice and Racism whitepaper. I want you to listen closely to the words I am about to say, he said in his sermon the following Sunday. [Picture was posted on Facebook, but was removed after a couple months]. Copyright 2020, Religion News Service. Rumors had begun to circulate around the church that Platt and other leaders planned to sell a church building to a local Muslim congregation for a mosque. While tens of thousands flocked to campus, school officials met in a storage closet to make decisions that would honor what is happening.. Less than 25 percent of members were part of the vote Wednesday night, Platt said. In fact, in a sermon around the time of the November 2020 Presidential Election, Platt dared conservatives to leave the church over his welcoming of those supporting pro-abortion candidates, i.e. He became pastor-teacher at McLean Bible . Welcome to McLean Bible Church in the final rundown to Sunday's surprisingly contentious vote on new elders. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. McClean Bible Church Pastor David Platt addresses his congregation on July 4, 2021. Read More FILE - Stacie Wood and her husband, Andy Wood, stand for a portrait on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Stacie Wood, the woman pastor at the center of . But a series of controversies and the countrys growing political polarization have turned Platts dream into a nightmare. This year, the church had an election of three church elders, which would normally be a sleepy affair. David Platt is an academic prodigy. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to journalist and pastor David Roach about an ideological rift at a Washington, D.C.-area church that highlights similar divisions in evangelical groups across the U.S. We have a story now of divisions within a single church that suggest wider divisions in many churches. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. McLean Bible Church is one of the most influential churches in the United States. See more. Disposition definition, the predominant or prevailing tendency of one's spirits; natural mental and emotional outlook or mood; characteristic attitude: I'd like to thank the general manager for his hospitality, kindness, and always cheerful disposition. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Similar to Naples, McLean Bible Church recently held a vote to confirm three elders the first vote failed. For instance, that they would sell the Tysons location and use it to build a mosque. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Video screen grab via MBC. A group of five former leaders at McLean including a former elder, former staff member and lay leadership warned David Platt in a letter dated February 3, 2021, about numerous moves by Platt and his elders to divide the church along racial lines. College Park Church in Indianapolis was accused in a blog post this spring of caving to ever-increasing social justice infiltration. Dallas pastor Matt Chandler and former SBC president J. D. Greear both have been accused of being woke, and the SBCs emerging Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) has charged some convention leaders with advocating critical race theory and downplaying the Bibles sufficiency. Platt and his family are members of the Washington, D.C., area church, where Platt also serves as elder. At the congregational meeting on 12/9/20, David strongly disavowed Critical Race Theory. Attendance at the church was steady for most of the early period of the COVID pandemic; however, following the racism class and David Platts book on the voting, attendance began a precipitous decline. Frazer also believes church leaders disqualified people who they thought would vote the wrong way. Since the ballots included church member names, he said, leaders would know how church staff and other members voted, opening them up to retaliation. Are the culture wars changing how Christian students choose colleges? Some may wonder what Lon Solomon thinks about the heretical social justice teachings. Also, Sadly, within evangelicalism, and the MBC pulpit, we see the following principle at work: the presence of preaching/teaching based on the wrong assumptions, resulting in wrong conclusions, thereby leading to the wrong solutions. Dr. James White dissected David Platts errors in a podcast examining that T4G sermon. And that leadership is not listening, he said. But then you have some of the younger evangelicals who say, look. Those dissident members argued that church leaders, including senior pastor David Platt, a best-selling author, had violated the churchs constitution. On Friday, a Fairfax County . Six people are part of the lawsuit, including both members and former members. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Some older evangelicals see it as sort of a coup.. Join us to see why God's family is no ordinary family. DAVID ROACH: It is a megachurch in the Washington, D.C., area. And there really were some wild conspiracy theories that came out of that. Frazer said the confusion over McLean's relationship with the SBC and the election controversy reflect a bigger problem with the church. The Local Church Wins Out in David Platt's Decision. Video screengrab via MBC. A small group of people, inside and outside this church, coordinated a divisive effort to use disinformation in order to persuade others to vote these men down as part of a broader effort to take control of this church., Pastor David Platt preaches at McLean Bible Church, July 18, 2021, in Vienna, Virginia. But a spokesman for the SBC, while saying "McLean Bible Church, like all Southern Baptist churches, is an independent and autonomous local church," confirmed that McLean is considered an SBC church. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The best examples are the woke church movement, and the takeover of many seminaries by critical race theory. Much of that growth had happened under former pastor Lon Solomon, a Jewish convert known for his Bible preaching, zeal for evangelism and passion for serving children with special needs. Critics say the Virginia church's leadership has . David Platt, pastor of McLean Bible Church near Washington, D.C., and founder of Radical, a resource ministry that serves churches, preaches during the second session of the two-day 2019 Pastors' Conference held June 9-10 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Thats led to accusations that Platt and others have become woke and liberal. (He recently preached one funeral in the building.) This is extremely important, Platt said with the sound of desperation. Some church members who had been attending online, rather than in person, claimed their ballots had been disqualified. Lon Solomon made one statement in opposition to the Social Justice heresy. Many of its members come from the top ranks of government, media, and business. One of the churchs pastors expressed outrage over it. If youre the church of Jesus Christ, thats really problematic.. June 27, 2022. The largely conservative northern Virginia church across the Potomac from Washington had grown from a group of five families in the 1960s to a congregation of more than 10,000 spread across several campuses, attracting politicians and business leaders to the churchs evangelical message and values. There were some who expressed the thought that David Platt and the other leaders were soft on issues like abortion and sexuality. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Attendance is also suffering under the Platt regime with many longtime church leaders and members leaving, according to numerous letters and e-mails received complaining about the Woke teaching at McLean Bible Church. Platt took a shot at blogs and social media. Get the most recent headlines and stories from Christianity Today delivered to your inbox daily. That is not acceptable for the Body of Jesus Christ. espaol. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Copyright 2021 NPR. It was an exercise in eisegesis (p. 121). Your daily news briefing from the editors of CT. Evangelical Seminary Explains Why It Enrolled First Muslim Student, I Was the Proverbial, Drug-Fueled Rock and Roller, Everything Everywhere All at Once and the Beautiful Mystery of Gods Silence. Platt and other church leaders declined to respond to specific questions about the lawsuit and disputed church election. A drop of 39%. Michael Kelsey rebuked people offended that some were upset at praying for the President of the United States. The church was rocked by controversy in 2019 when President Donald Trump stopped by the service for prayer . Platt is a polarizing figure. In that election, the elders were approved, which led dissident members to file a suit. The church was rocked by controversy in 2019 when President Donald Trump stopped by the service for prayer. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. David Platt, the President of our International Mission Board, recently became the preaching pastor at the Mclean Bible Church, a megachurch in the DC area. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. When I first came to faith in Christ in 1971, as a Jewish college student, I never imagined that the Lord would lead me to pastor a church. Which enabled a small group, just to put it in perspective, less than seven percent of our current membership on Wednesday night, including some people who we know are not actually members, less than seven percent kept elders from being overwhelmingly affirmed by our church family for the first time in our history.. The dispute at McLean centered around a failed June 30, 2021, election. Under the "woke" new pastor who succeeded the legendary Lon Solomon, however, it may soon not even rank as the biggest church in McLean. Despite its elite membership, McLean has long been a conservative theological church populated by politically conservative evangelicals. Pastor David Platt preaches at McLean Bible Church, July 11, 2021, in Vienna, Virginia. People who were actively serving at other churches.. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. David Platt is so desperate to cling to powerthat he will portray a diverse group of conservative McLean Bible Church members as racists. Bart Barber, a Texas Baptist pastor who is writing a book on congregational forms of church governance, said that church voting is aimed at finding consensus about what God wants the congregation to do. While Platt raised concerns that the opposing group deceived members at the Tysons location into voting against the new elders, a lawsuit filed July 15 alleges that church leaders at McLean illegally barred some of their opponents from voting in the follow-up elder election. Platts 2020 book Before You Vote also drew criticism from some church members as being soft on traditional evangelical issues like abortion and sexuality. This past spring, hoping to resolve the dispute, McLean leaders decided to discard the results of the July 2021 elder election. July 20, 2021. Early life. (RNS) A yearlong legal battle over a contested election at a prominent Washington, D.C.-area church appears to be over for now. for less than $4.25/month. No current McLean elders signed the document. Frazer said the confusion over McLeans relationship with the SBC and the election controversy reflect a bigger problem with the church. The churchs constitution describes it as an independent church that shall not, and cannot, be affiliated with any denomination. But in 2016, under Solomon, the church began to give money to SBC church planting programs and it has donated about $100,000 a year as a cooperating church. It does not store any personal data. McClean Bible Church is or . Allegations that leaders were seeking to join the SBC in violation of the churchs constitution led McLean to suspend all contributions to SBC causes this month. Bob Smietana. It sits in what can only be described as one of America's Elite areas. According to former members and staff, these former elders have left MBC for what reasons, no one will say: Jim Battle, Mark Gotlieb, Craig Proulx, Jimmy Mitchell, John Baber, and Lon Solomon. Life of Christ dramatization The Thorn comes to big screens March 67, New book outlines importance of every Christian knowing theology, Southcrest Baptist in Bessemer hosting Holy Destiny on March 3, Start a new subscription at the group rate. The church in question is a prominent one, McLean Bible Church, where many Washington Republicans worship. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Also, there are close ties to the SBC since the NAMB . From 2014 to 2017, Platt was president of the International Mission Board. Every time this lawsuit has been filed or amended or refiled, it has resulted in a dismissal, he said. Rick Boyer, attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said his clients plan to appeal. All active members were allowed to vote. On June 30, 2021, McLean Bible Church (MBC) in Vienna, Virginia, held a members meeting to affirm three new elders via vote.MBC is pastored by former Southern Baptist's International Mission Board (IMB) president and bestselling author David Platt. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Until a chance encounter with my moms old Bible opened my eyes. SBC Elites cite distinguished lawyer and Southern Baptist Matthew Martens; however, Martens has written persuasively, Supporters of a constitutional amendment to ban women pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), New intel points to Covid origin in a lab leak, remember when this was a, NAMB PR VP Mike Ebert emerges as key witness in McRaney v. NAMB What will, David Platt explodes at McLean Bible Church, plays the race card, the man responsible for dividing McLean Bible Church by teaching Critical Race Theory, It couldnt be that David Platts Woke rhetoric has driven about 40% of church members to attend church in other non-Woke evangelical churches in that part of Virginia, Ed Litton Plagiarism Scandal: A Sermongate Timeline, Baptist professor strongly suspects former SBC President J.D. By. According to sources close to McLean Bible Church, Platt was told about this many times and seemed unconcerned about it, but finally complied with the demand to remove the divisive political photograph. The entire Sunday, July 4, 2021, sermon was filled with David Platts performative outrage. Solomon would forfeit his retirement package if he spoke out about the problems. These leaders were also worried about Mike Kelseys promotion of the Black Lives Matter movement on social media. 13-minute video summary, pastor Kelsey talking about "torching all white people" 51-minute detailed presentation, The sacred duty, and the money trail of . Some say it is now a running joke that McLean refugees are showing up in other area churches looking for the truth and the Gospel instead of racial identity politics. This letter urged Platt and the current elders to reject the Woke path. Platt said the dissident group claimed it was using the elder vote as part of a constitutional process to retake control of the church. Attendance began to decrease significantly after the first class as attendees realized the Woke content. It's great to be with you. Specifically, Platts course reveals his assumption that disparity is proof of racist systems. We glorify God by making disciples and multiplying churches among all nations beginning in greater. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Last Updated: February 2023. (Reformation Charlotte) A sad sight to behold is the trajectory that David Platt has been on over the last several years as the Evangelical racial reconciliation movement a movement rooted in Marxist Critical Race Theory has consumed him in nearly every aspect of thought and decision. Online posts on blogs, Facebook, and email charged Platt with pushing critical race theory, revising biblical teaching on sexuality, and aligning with the SBC despite McLeans constitutional prohibition of affiliating with any denomination. We praise God for our church familys affirmation of new elders, and we would deeply appreciate your prayers for all of McLean Bible Church as we move forward in our mission.. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Putting it off is only going to make it worse. In its Q&A, McLean states that it is not Southern Baptist and links to an undated letter from SBC Executive Committee employee Ashley Clayton stating, The SBC Executive Committee recognizes that McLean Bible Church is an independent, nondenominational Bible church, and they are not affiliated denominationally with the SBC., However, Baptist Press, the SBCs news service, stated in a July 21 article, McLean Bible Church is a cooperating church with the Southern Baptist Convention, yet like all Southern Baptist churches, remains independent and autonomous in its functionality and governance.. INSKEEP: This, according to your reporting, seems to have surfaced as a conflict in a way that wasn't directly about the pastor but a kind of church election. Platt chose to ignore those entreaties and promote divisive teachers and divisive concepts like Critical Race Theory. Save McLean Bible Church. Platt begged church members who support the Woke regime to adjust vacation plans to be at the special meeting. Steven Furtick is the lead pastor of Elevation Church, based near Charlotte, North Carolina. The conflict at McLean Bible Church is significant not only because of the congregations size and influencewith several thousand attendees and a prominent place in the DC church landscapebut also because the incident marks the latest salvo in an ongoing clash within American evangelicalism. ROACH: Thank you, Steve. As Solomon transitioned from leadership following a 37-year pastorate, McLean made major budget changes, scaling back the percentage of income spent on personnel and incentivizing staff departures. The Washington-area megachurch led by best-selling author David Platt has affirmed three new eldersbut only after a public tussle over politics, race, and alleged liberal drift, plus a lawsuit .

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