In a sobering, emotional and occasionally shocking address from the pulpit on July 4, Platt alleged a conspiratorial attempt on behalf of a "small group" of church members to sow misinformation among the congregation with the goal of taking control of the church. (RNS) A yearlong legal battle over a contested election at a prominent Washington, D.C.-area church appears to be over for now. 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 . There were not enough provisional ballots to change the outcome, according to an email from church leaders. Some of you may remember him as the guy Jerry Falwell Jr. told to "grow a pair." Platt is now in the middle of a controversy over "wokeness" at the church. Lewis famously said, "Christianity, if . The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. 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. Hannaford advises pastors not to make changes too quickly and recommends cooperation from both sides, allowing believers to differ on secondary doctrinal and ethical issues. While the church is slashing spending on a variety of things including missions, discipleship, outreach, and church plants, one area of increased spending in 2021 is in the Senior Management salaries. 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. He claimed people were upset by efforts at racial reconciliation. Welcome to McLean Bible Church in the final rundown to Sunday's surprisingly contentious vote on new elders. For instance, that they would sell the Tysons location and use it to build a mosque. The July 18 vote has been surrounded by controversy, with some decrying what they saw as creeping liberalism within the church's leadership. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit echo Frazers concerns, saying that the ballots used by the church violated McLeans constitution. A series of controversies and the countrys growing political polarization have caused a rift at McLean Bible Church, where former International Mission Board president and author David Platt is pastor. 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. Christians must reclaim Jesus from his church. Platt took a shot at blogs and social media. We want to move forward in unity and we do not believe any appellate court would restrict us from doing that., RELATED: Woke war: How social justice and CRT became heresy for evangelicals, Pastor David Platt preaches at McLean Bible Church, July 18, 2021, in Vienna, Virginia. According to the church constitution, elders must be approved by a three-quarters majority, but that day the vote failed, a first in McLean history, according to a church email. In recent years, Platt, like other high-profile evangelical pastors, including former SBC President J.D. We're teaching everything that the Bible teaches. Many Christians look at the Bible and then look at the picture of American Christianity around them and think, This doesnt add up. That comes with attendance issues and budget cuts. Why is David Platt undermining elections? And it would appear that the vast majority of the church sided with Platt and the other leaders by their support of those elders. Critics say the Virginia church's leadership has . Platts 2020 book Before You Vote also drew criticism from some church members as being soft on traditional evangelical issues like abortion and sexuality. : Democrats. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. 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.. RELATED: David Platt interview: A summons to lose your life. A lawsuit brought by McLean Bible Church dissidents on Friday to reverse the results of an election for church leaders (elders) was dismissed by a court in Fairfax County, Virginia. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. With many active members participating in services online, especially those, like Frazer, who are not vaccinated, there is no way to tell who is attending. Platt said the dissident group claimed it was using the elder vote as part of a constitutional process to retake control of the church. Six people are part of the lawsuit, including both members and former members. Why does church leadership refuse to answer question. The total was either just above or just below 75 percent, depending on whether provisional ballots were counted, so a second vote was held July 18, at which all three nominees received at least 78 percent of the vote. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 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. See more. He was senior pastor at the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, from 2006 to 2014. It was then that David Platt was named Teaching Pastor. Its first service was held on Easter Sunday at Chesterbook Elementary School in McLean with Pastor J. Albert Ford. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Putting it off is only going to make it worse. We have to address conflict intentionally and face to face, Hannaford said. Earlier this year, McLean Bible Church released a draft for a discipleship resource designed for church members and leaders which is basically a baptized version of Critical Race Theory which obfuscates the issues of racism and individual sin.. A beloved Bible teacher and speaker, Platt inspired younger Christians to pursue missions work or other ministries. He is pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland, Ala., and he also writes for Christianity Today, which is how he came to report on McLean Bible Church. Steven Furtick is the lead pastor of Elevation Church, based near Charlotte, North Carolina. After new elder nominees failed to be elected for the first time in the churchs history, Platt told the congregation in a sermon in early July that 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.. The GCJR will be the focus going forward and all staff will be required to fall inline. Video screen grab via MBC. It is unclear whether McLean Bible Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention or an independent congregation. Michael Kelsey rebuked people offended that some were upset at praying for the President of the United States. After a year of litigation, the outcome of a contentious election at a renowned church in the Washington, D.C. region appeared to have been settled. Net Worth in 2023: $2 million. Platt mishandled the aftermath of the prayer. He earlier served as the senior priest at the Brook Hills Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and got the recognition of being the youngest pastor of any megachurch in the US. Platt, a bestselling author and speaker, recounted the churchs history in a sermon in the summer of 2019, about a year after he succeeded Solomon as pastor, in whichhe asked: What if our best days as a church are ahead of us, not behind us?. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Video screengrab via MBC. David Platt asked the remaining Elders to approve the GCJR course curriculum as the main theological underpinning of all other teaching and worship activities at McLean Bible Church. Sarah Merkle, an attorney and professional parliamentarian, said the incident highlights the importance in any church of establishing and following sound voting procedures. We hope you'll consider joining us on Sunday for a worship gathering. RELATED: At Founders event, Southern Baptists urged to choose the Bible over CRT. McLean stated in a Q&A on its website that Kelseys son held a poster that read, Black Lives Matter to God.. Back at McLean, Platt and his fellow elders are urging the church in that direction. Some of the older guard think that that's soft-pedaling some biblical truth. Elevation Church was founded by Furtick in 2006 with just fourteen members. David Platt is a famous US author and preacher. Last weekend a sermon by Evangelical pastor Francis Chan went viral, as in the sermon Chan shared about Communion and his discovery of the scriptural and historical basis for transubstantiation - that the bread and the wine become the literal Body and Blood of Christ. Despite its elite membership, McLean has long been a conservative theological church populated by politically conservative evangelicals. So those are some of the manifestations that show this is a larger discussion among evangelicals. But its pastor says a group . If youre the Red Cross, thats problematic. Thanks so much. Platt taught the course to about 1,000 church members. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit objected, saying anyone who joined the church after the June 2021 election should not be allowed to vote. She added that she is not familiar with the specific policies and procedures at McLean. degree in Hebrew and Old Testament (1975, summa cum laude) from Capital Bible . Platt went on to call the church to give up everything for the glory of God, echoing the message of his 2010 book, Radical, a bestseller that called Christians to give up the American dream in order to serve Jesus and transform the world. Under Solomon, the congregation had been known as a holy destination for GOP senators and Bush aides. Tensions ramped up the past two years amid political turmoil in the DC area and nationwide. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. At that time, the vote was too close to confirm the new elders because the Church's constitution states it must have at least a 75-percent . . But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Until a chance encounter with my moms old Bible opened my eyes. It was an exercise in eisegesis (p. 121). This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. But threatening McLean now is a group that has spread all kinds of rumors, Platt said. Yes, the typical political ploy used by Democrats in every election cycle has now entered Evangelical megachurches. 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. 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.
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