Unsolicited Advice to McLean Bible Church Congregants - From a Friend

All right, well, the video from this morning, definitely getting a very good response. I wanted to do kind of an addendum because people have been emailing me, a lot of people, probably like 10 at this point, giving me some bits and pieces of information about what's been happening in McLean Bible Church, and it's even more crazy than I was thinking.

So, I found this article somebody had sent to me about some of the backstory here, and I just wanted to offer some unsolicited advice to the congregants who are understandably fed up with what's been going on.

I think so. I mean, I don't know everything that's gone on, but from what it appears on the surface—and again, I could be wrong here, this is just what it appears like—it appears to me that the congregation's gripes and their points of order, or whatever you want to call them, they're valid.

Very valid. Let's just read some of this article, and then I want to give the congregants some advice. I want to be helpful to you. Not trying to attack you, but I'm trying to be helpful. So here is where we go.

The McLean Bible Church Controversy and David Platt's Leadership

David Platt had a dream for the future of McLean Bible Church. 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, business leaders, to the church's evangelical messages and values.

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. Platt, a best-selling author and speaker, recounted the church's history in a sermon in the summer of 2019, about a year after he seceded Solomon as pastor, in which he asked, what if our best days at our church as a church are ahead of us and not behind us?

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.

But a series of controversies and the country's growing political polarization have turned Platt's dream into a nightmare. Critics say the church's leadership has become woke and has substituted critical race theory and social justice for Bible teaching.

There's no question about that, by the way. Let me step out of the article. David Platt is completely woke. He did a message at the T4G conference that I reviewed in its entirety. I mean, it's just total social justice rhetoric.

It's not biblical, even though he uses the verse, let justice roll down like waters. It's a scam. Anyway, let's continue. Platt and other leaders, they say, have abused their power by violating the church's constitution.

In response, Platt has claimed that the church is trying to fight off a hostile takeover and that Satan is trying to divide the church. This is what this is what people always say. Whenever there's anyone trying to hold anyone in leadership to an account, that's Satan trying to divide us.

This happened in the experience that I mentioned this morning as well. I was on the side at the time. I was maybe a little brainwashed. Not quite, but I was on the side of the church and I remember this exact thing came up.

Anyway, let's continue. The dispute at McLean may now end up in court. Now this is what I wanted to discuss. I'm going to continue reading, but let me just say at the outset, I think that the McLean Bible Church congregants that are bringing up these issues, the guy with the point of order and the people that had all of these frustrations, the frustration in that video was so palpable.

I mean, it was uncomfortable. You know, if you're like me, you felt uncomfortable watching that. There's just no question about it. So I think that their gripes are legitimate, but I want to caution you about this.

Now it's going to end up in court because I don't think that that's the right move, guys. I don't. I don't think that's the right move and I think it goes beyond me not thinking it's the right move. I think that the Bible specifically rejects that kind of approach.

Let's continue reading. In a complaint filed Thursday, five McLean members allege that Platt and other leaders illegally barred them from voting at a recent congregational meeting to approve new church leaders.

The plaintiffs also claim a follow-up election at the church this weekend violated the church's constitution. This is a breach of contract action seeking to remedy defendants' illegal actions to deny plaintiffs their rights to cast a free and fair vote, to have those votes lawfully counted and to enjoy their right to a secret ballot, according to the complaint.

The church came to a head on June 30th at a congregational meeting held to approve three new elders to the small group that wields most of the authority at the church. According to the church constitution, elders must be approved by three-quarters majority, but that day the vote failed, a first in McLean history, according to a church email.

In response, Platt accused his critics in a sermon of spreading disinformation and stuffing the ballot box with voters from former members and inactive church members. Man, if he did this from a sermon, like, I just, I hope he had receipts if he did this from a sermon because otherwise, yikes, yikes.

All right. Quote, I want you to listen closely to the words I'm about to say, he said in a sermon in the following Sunday, quote, a group of small 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, end quote.

A follow-up election held this past Sunday was held under new rules. Church members were required to show identification and ballots were labeled with members' names. Any church member on McLean's inactive list was given a provisional ballot.

Three new elders were approved by about 80 percent of active member votes. There were not enough provisional ballots to change the outcome, according to an email from church leaders. Longtime member Bill Frazier, 69, believes Sunday's election violated the church's constitution, which states that any member who misses services eight weeks in a row can be designated as inactive.

COVID -19, Frazier said, has made that rule unenforceable. With many active members participating in services online, especially those like Frazier who are not vaccinated, there is no way to tell who is attending, and the church has not regularly tracked individual attendance for years, he added.

Frazier also believes that church leaders disqualified people who they thought would vote, quote, 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.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit echo Frazier's concerns, saying that the ballots used by the church violated McLean's constitution, quote, the heart of the complaint really comes down to truth, transparency and free and open and uncoerced process, said plaintiff's attorney Rick Boyer.

Boyer said that courts are often reluctant to get involved in church disputes, but he argued that Virginia law does require churches to follow rules outlined in their constitutions. Plaintiffs hope that a court will declare Sunday's election void and require the church to hold a new election.

This is just like so hard to even hear this, right? It really is. Quote, because of the nature of the lawsuit, unfortunately, I'm sorry, Platt and other church leaders declined to respond to specific questions about the lawsuit and disputed church election.

Quote, because of the nature of the lawsuit, unfortunately, we cannot provide any further comment at this time. End quote. The elder said in a statement, quote, We praise God for our church families, affirmation of new elders, and we would deeply appreciate your prayers for all of McLean Bible Church as we move forward in our mission.

End quote. 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.

Doing that in a large church is difficult, Barber said, as McLean is discovering. Barber pointed out that voting is usually done in a public way, by voice vote or raising hands, so there's no historic expectation of privacy.

But using a ballot with a church member's name on it, especially for a leadership role, would be unprecedented in his experience. Platt came to McLean in 2017 while he was still president of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board.

He became pastor in 2018 after resigning from the IMB, where his tenure had been disappointing and included the loss of almost 1 ,000 missionaries to resignations and early retirement. It sounds like David Platt is just an organization killer.

I mean, it's not the first time that this kind of thing has happened. It seems like David Platt is just completely inept. That's my comment, not from the article. All right. Back to the article. A beloved Bible preacher and teacher and speaker, Platt inspired younger Christians to pursue missions, work, or other ministries.

Many Christians look at the Bible and then look at the picture of American Christianity around them and think, this doesn't add up. Something is wrong here, he told the Religion News Services in a 2013 interview.

And I so think, and so I think, I simply put into words what many people were already sensing.". In recent years, Platt, like other high-profile evangelical pastors, including SBC President J .D. Greer and Texas Medical Church Pastor Matt Chandler, have been outspoken about racism and social justice issues, saying that the Bible teaches them to address those issues.

It's just so funny how they frame this kind of stuff. That's led to accusations that Platt and others have become woke and liberal. A dispute over critical race theory, which describes how systemic racism affects society, was one of the major topics at the recent SBC annual meeting in Nashville.

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. "'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,' Platt said during the prayer, quoting the biblical book of Proverbs with his arm around Trump's back.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction, God, give him wisdom.". Platt later posted a letter on the church's website, since removed, and on social media, saying his decision to pray for the president had angered some members.

Platt has angered other members for maintaining the church's reputed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention. This is very interesting here. The church's 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 the SBC church planning programs and it has donated about $100 ,000 a year as a core operating church. When Platt began preaching at McLean, the church was identified as an SBC church in press accounts.

Current McLean leaders have denied that the church is a member of the SBC and posted a letter from the SBC's executive committee to support that claim. The letter describes McLean as a partner with the SBC, but not affiliated denominationally with the SBC.

But a spokesman for the SBC, while saying, quote McLean Bible Church, like all Southern Baptist churches, is an independent and autonomous local church, confirmed that McLean is considered an SBC church.

So McLean's not an SBC church the way every SBC church is not an SBC church. But it is an SBC church in every way that the other SBC churches are SBC churches. I just can't even fathom the way that someone would lie in this way.

I just don't get it. But anyway, that's my comment. Fraser said the confusion over McLean's relationship with the SBC and the election controversy reflect a bigger problem within the church. The key problem here is a lack of transparency, and that leadership is not listening, he said.

Once the first vote of elders failed, Fraser believes that Platt and leaders should have stopped and listened to the congregation's concerns. Church members are asked for their opinions on things like what color to paint the women's bathroom, he said.

Why not ask their opinions on more substantive matters such as political race theory or joining the SBC? Fraser, who is not a plaintiff, said the lawsuit and controversy at the church were unfortunate and that he hated to see the church's dirty laundry aired in public.

Still he is hopeful. I think we're going to work through this, he said. So there's the article. And I wanted to read the whole thing because, you know, the controversy, it seems to me that the congregation has a very valid point.

I mean, look, you know, you have a vote that fails and you claim that there are these irregularities and these factions and stuff like that. It might be time. I mean, you would think it'd be wise to take a step back, push the pause button and address the issues.

Instead, what you do is you ramrod, you change all the rules and ramrod a different vote that allegedly violates the constitution of your church. Maybe you ought to figure that out and iron that out before you have the vote.

But no, no, no. You got to get your guys in play here. It's just, it just is so, it's so shady that it's just not even, shady is not the word for it. It's just, it's so ridiculous. This is Big Eva all over it, right?

This is Big Eva. I hate every single thing that I read there. And it just, and it burns me up too, because when I was a new believer, I read radical, you know, and actually when I was a new believer, I didn't quite agree with a lot of radical.

I thought that a lot of what he said was good. But this whole idea of like, like the only real, the idea was almost like it's almost the only faithful way to be a Christian is to sell everything you have and to go be a missionary and stuff like that.

And that's not correct. I mean, we need Christians, you know, that own glass factories and other things and, you know, making money to send to the missionaries. Like there's ways to be in the kingdom of God, to be faithful to God that don't involve you going over to Cambodia or wherever it is, or Ethiopia and stuff like that.

You know, you can make a ton of money and start funding things like that and, and, and and participating in other ways, giving your money to the poor. Like there's that, that I like, I didn't like the impression that the book gave.

I wasn't all that impressed with that. Although I liked the thrust of it in the sense of, yeah, maybe everyone should consider, you know, what does God, what would God have me do? Right. And it's possible that God would have you be a banker on wall street, right?

That's possible. You know what I mean? So I, I just didn't like that part of the book, but, but I did like the book in general and it really made me think and, and I just got to think like, like if plat is doing this stuff, just being very shady about the vote and whether or not they're in the SBC, which they obviously are in the SBC, like all this stuff, like there's just, there's gotta be a reason that he's being shady in this way.

And I can't really think of a good reason besides money or power. And those are supposedly the things that the book radical was like, you gotta reject it, man. You totally got to reject the money and the power.

This is the American dream. And it's just like, it pisses me off because like, I feel like an idiot. Like I believed you, David, I believe that book radical. I mean, again, I didn't agree with everything, but I believed you, I believe you believe that stuff.

And if this is all true, what's going on here, you kind of look like a fraud, you know what I mean? You look like a fraud. And so that really angers me and I feel personally slighted by that. Now it might be unreasonable because I just read his books.

I don't personally know him. I'm not in McLean Bible Church, so I don't feel as personally involved as some of you, but I feel it, man, because I trusted this guy. You know, I know he's woke. I don't agree with everything he says, but I, I, at the very least, I'm like, oh, he's a brother.

I mean, he's obviously feels this way for real. You know, he wrote the book. He must feel radical. But here's the thing, guys, and this is where I have to offer my advice in an unsolicited way. I'm not trying to attack you.

I think you should withdraw your lawsuit. I really think you should withdraw your lawsuit. I don't think that taking this to the pagan courts is the way to handle it. I support the point of order. I support that little chaotic scene at that meeting.

I think that that stuff is good. I support trying to get support outside. I mean, I would suggest going to local churches, other people that are respected in the Christian community in the DC metro area.

Have them come to, to with you, to David Platt. Have them come, come together, excuse me, try to set up an appointment, and when they, when they reject you, which of course they will, go without an appointment and come with these men, come with men that are respected, that can, you can, you can say, look, guys, we got to do this above board, like, like, like do whatever you can do.

Like there's other strategies that you can do, right? Some people are, I saw some, I saw one woman post something to YouTube. I saw a Facebook page about saving McLean Bible Church. All of that is fine.

I support all of that and I'd like to help if I can, right? I'd like to help if I can, but you can't bring this to the pagans. You just can't. And I'm sorry, but like, I know that it doesn't seem like they're playing by the rules that are set up by the church that are going against the constitution.

I don't know that. I've never seen the constitution, but let's just take, let's just take it the most extreme case. They, they know the constitution says these things and they just don't care. They're going to ramrod this guy in there or the three guys, whatever.

They don't care. They're just going to do whatever the heck they want to do because we're, I'm David Platt. You know what I mean? I'm, I'm the great radical David Platt. I've got my offices in the church, you know, radical offices in the church.

I'm David Platt. So let's just say it's the worst case scenario. They know exactly what the constitution says and they just don't care. They don't care. Their word means nothing to them. They will lie.

They will break the road. They'll do whatever. Let's just skip. I'm going to grant you all of that for the sake of argument. You still shouldn't go to the pagans to adjudicate that. Do everything else as long as it's not sinful.

Whatever you have to do, covert ops, whatever you have to do, I'm for all that stuff. I think there's a lot of things that the church ladies at McLean will be like, Oh, you're not being Christlike that are obviously totally on the table.

The brother that was at that meeting, the point of order guy, uh, well done man. Well done because I know that your heart was racing. I know that takes some guts. I know that's uncomfortable and I was, I loved it.

I loved what you did there. That's the kind of thing you should do, but you can't bring this stuff to the pagans, man. I know, you know the verse. I mean, I'm going to read it. I know you've considered this and I'm not trying to say anything besides that.

I just, I think you should consider again what this verse says. Brothers, I know you've read this and I just think that this applies directly to a situation like this. It, I'm not telling you to lay your weapons down.

You've got to fight this. You've got to fight this and you've got to find allies locally, find the allies across the nation. Whatever you have to do, fight this. But here's the word of God. Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world and if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?

If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one who will be able to judge between his brethren?

But brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers. Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept the wrong?

Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat and you do these things to your brethren. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. I know you've considered that, okay, and I'm just here, I think that your concerns sound legitimate, so know that.

I'm not trying to attack you, but I do want to caution you. I believe that this lawsuit should be retracted, not because you think they did the right thing, but I do believe that it violates this command from God.

And one of the arguments that I'll probably get in response to this is, hey, you know, but these woke cultists are not really believers. I get that, you know, people have said that kind of thing to me.

Well, you know, they're unbelievers, you can sue them. Okay, maybe they're unbelievers or not, but the point is they bear the name of Christ. They're in the visible church. That's what it's talking about here.

In fact, I think that's why Paul goes into that whole thing about how these pagans aren't going to inherit the kingdom of God. And so sometimes you've got to leave things up to God. Like worst case scenario, you have to leave McLean Bible Church.

As much as this sucks, you might have to leave it to the pagans to do their woke cult. You know what I mean? Dust the feet off your sandals and all that kind of stuff as a testimony against them. But they will not succeed because idolaters, fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covets, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, these people do not inherit the kingdom of God.

It will suck if you have to lose McLean Bible Church, but justice will be done. God won't tolerate it. And it could be that God's removing the lampstand for McLean Bible Church. And so I would just say this, I know that they started it.

I know the leadership appears to be completely corrupt. That's no excuse though for violating this passage. I think it's, listen, I'm sure that you thought this through and God bless you guys. I hope that God moves mightily here because this is just chaos.

But that's my unsolicited advice. I hope you found it helpful. God bless. 1.