Posted on 07/26/2021 4:47:02 AM PDT by 11th_VA
(RNS) — 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 and business leaders to the church’s evangelical message 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 bestselling author and speaker, recounted the church’s history in a sermon in the summer of 2019, about a year after he succeeded Solomon as pastor, in which he asked: “What if our best days as a church are ahead of us, 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 biblical teaching. 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. The dispute at McLean may now end up in court. In a complaint filed Thursday (July 15), five McLean members allege that Platt and other leaders illegally barred them from voting at a recent congregational meeting …
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
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% of active member votes. <
Never heard of the place but if it is trying to put ANYTHING in place of the Gospel: CRT, MAGA, prosperity preaching... a, etc. then God is not pleased.
Wow. This is disturbing. McLean used to be one of the good places to go in NVA.
Things were much better when fags self segregated in gay bars. Now they’re infiltrating all our institutions and redesigning them along marxist lines.
It’s a pretty influential church in DC area - I believe Anne Coulter attends there.
He sounds like he has that right, except he doesn't realize he is a tool of Satan.
Platt’s silent embrace of the radical Black Lives Matter movement and the promotion of Kelsey along with Social Justice Bible studies including Platt’s own book legitimizing Christians who vote for Pro-Abortion Democrats, conservatives are leaving the church for new homes.
Attendance is down about 40-percent year-over-year. So, in May 2020 just before Platt’s hard social justice push, McLean Bible Church reported attendance averaged 12,154. In May 2021 following the Social Justice push and Platt’s book on politics, McLean Bible Church reported average attendance of about 7,300. A drop of 39%.
Because of the mass exodus McLean cut spending. The church approved a 2021 budget slashing $2.5 million from what it budgeted in 2020. That follows the 2020 budget being about $1.5 million below the 2019 budget, according to a member of McLean Bible Church. Thus, McLean is spending about $4 million less in 2021 than in 2019.
https://capstonereport.com/2021/06/09/david-platt-is-harming-mclean-bible-church-with-woke-social-justice-theology/36219/amp/
These things never suddenly pop up in conservative churches.
Most likely its been going on for awhile and just like in America, the ultra-left is no longer hiding their agenda.
This should be an easy fix if the membership unites.
Platt’s first book was the most vainglorious self promotional fluff I have ever read, and I’ve been reading Christian books for a very long time. I knew as soon as they brought him in at McLean, there would be trouble. Amazing that things fell apart this quickly, though!
(To be fair, there was a scandal in the church a year or two prior to Lon’s departure that caused a large chunk of the volunteer staff to walk out, something about not allowing unpaid volunteers to work there or something like that.)
https://youtu.be/asM8w_BVJfM
Where can a read a copy of what critical race theory is in their own words?
“...Most likely its been going on for awhile
..”
churches have been quietly infiltrated since the social revolution of the 1960/1970’s, as they have the government and educational system.
A well-known pastor of a large Baptist church once opined “This church will likely die after me. The next guy will do things his way and the people who like it done this way will leave. The guy after him will lose the rest”.
Probably true of most large churches with charismatic leaders.
Ron Solomon was a good pastor.
Used to always like hearing his “ Not a Sermon, Just a Thought” commentaries on secular radio stations. They were always thought provoking and certainly brought unsaved people to his door to hear the gospel.
Lon Solomon vs “Ron”
TEN RULES FOR CONVERTING NOBODY
1. Let your supreme motive be popularity rather than salvation.
2. Study to please your congregation and to make a reputation rather than to please God.
3. Take up popular, passing and sensational themes to draw the crowd and avoid essential doctrines of salvation.
4. Denounce sin in the abstract but pass lightly over the sins that prevail in your congregation.
5. If asked, “Is it wrong to dance, play cards, or attend the theater?” answer very pleasantly, “Oh, this is a matter for private judgment. It is not for me to say you shall or shall not.”
6. Preach on the loveliness of virtue and the glory of Heaven but on the sinfulness of sin and the terrors of Hell.
7. Reprove the sins of the absent but make those who are present pleased with themselves so that they will enjoy the sermon and not go away with their feelings hurt.
8. Make the impression on worldly church members that God is too good to send anyone to Hell, if there even is a Hell.
9. Preach the universal Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, so as to show that no second birth is really needed.
10. Do not rebuke the worldliness of the church but fall in with the amusement policy. Instead of meeting for prayer, let the people ‘sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play.
Churches have become big businesses. Big business pleases its customers. The customer values are changing.
We need to get back to the New Testament style churches.
I belong to a conservative church and liberals attend there too. I bet it’s the same at most conservative churches and it won’t be long before the spin begins. There are women right now in my church who believe that women should have more important and lofty roles in the church such as elders or serving communion. It is a glacial process but I can see the creep.
My son attended the SBC this year as a “messenger”. I signed up online to watch a good bit of it. The way the “power elite” w/in the org acted....I felt like I was watching a DNC convention.
I imagine they lost lots funding from churches after that. It is incredibly corrupt.
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