Free Republic

In July 2021, McLean Bible Church (MBC) in Vienna, Va., which is pastored by David Platt, was sued by five of its members (current and former) for allegedly barring them on illegal grounds in June of 2021 from voting in an important congregational meeting to approve new church leaders. MBC’s constitution says that elders must be approved by a three-quarters majority, but on June 30, 2021, the vote failed for the first time in the church’s history. Platt accused some MBC members of organizing a planned effort to thwart the election in a Sunday sermon, saying that a small group...

(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...

On Wednesday night, Pastor David Platt of McLean Bible Church hosted a simulcast called Something Needs to Change, part of an ongoing initiative from The Gospel Coalition. In the simulcast, Platt, an author and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, shared an interview with a missionary named Yazim. “He lives and works in a part of the Middle East where, not only is it illegal to share the Gospel, it’s life-threatening to talk about how the Gospel is advancing,” Platt shared. In the simulcast Yazim, a Middle East church planter shared with Platt and the listeners...

WASHINGTON — On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public. Colonel Davis on patrol in Khost Province last August. Since enlisting in the Army in 1985, he said, he had repeatedly seen top commanders falsely dress up a dismal situation. But this time, he would not let it rest. So he consulted with his pastor at McLean...

She is persuasive, influential and does a lot of good, but Christians should be careful when Oprah speaks about spirituality, warned two apologists who recently co-authored a book on the subject. To a crowd of more than 1,500 people at McLean Bible Church outside of Washington, D.C,. on Friday evening, renowned apologist Josh McDowell and up-and-coming apologist Dave Sterrett explained the danger of adopting Oprah’s spiritual teachings from a Christian perspective. They pointed out that the talk show queen and the spiritual teachers she promotes teach pantheism – God is all and all is God – and that there are...

Today, many people generally view Mormons as a people with strong family values and clean living, according to one pastor at McLean Bible Church. Some also believe they are just one of many Christian denominations. But that view is the result of a multibillion dollar campaign over the last couple of decades by Mormons who have attempted to present themselves in such a way, according to Todd Phillips, teaching pastor at Frontline, the young adult ministry of McLean in Virginia. Many Americans, including Christians, see Mormons as "just another branch of Christianity who talk about Jesus all the time and...

MCLEAN, VIRGINIA (ANS) -- In spite of the continuous spate of bad news coming out of Iraq, unprecedented religious freedom has finally come to Iraq because of U.S. military action there, and more Iraqi Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus Christ today than at any other time in the history of the country. That was the message delivered by retired Iraqi General Georges Sada May 22 at a private dinner just outside of Washington, D.C., and then at McLean Bible Church in northern Virginia where Sada spoke to more than 1,000 people, according to Joel C. Rosenberg, the New York...

Top 50 Most Influential Churches The 2005 survey was sent to 2,000 church leaders with the goal of ranking the nation’s fastest growing churches and churches with more than 2,000 weekend attendance. The 127 churches nominated for the 50 Most Influential Churches survey were located in 32 states and represented 27 affiliation groups and/or denominations. The term affiliation is used to include networks of unaffiliated, independent churches.

Born in NY, moved to NM at 9, back to NY at 21, and now live in Alexandria, VA. I went to college at 14. This explains part of the reason I am odd and do not always relate well with women my age. I had a pretty dysfunctional childhood. This explains more of the reason I am odd. Raised catholic, I was taught to worship God or risk hell. Fell away from the faith as a know it all college freshman and then I returned to the fold and gave my heart to Jesus in 94, this time worshipping...

Dozens of evangelists with Jews for Jesus will hit the streets of Washington starting next week for a monthlong campaign at Metro stops, downtown areas and college campuses aimed at the Washington area's 215,000 Jews. More than 600 people took an evangelism-training course last month at the 10,000-member McLean Bible Church to prepare for the "Behold Your God" campaign. The blitz also will involve radio and newspaper ads. "We want to make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to Jewish people in the Washington area," said Stephen Katz, Washington director of Jews for Jesus. "We want to ask them:...

When the Rev. Lon Solomon says he aims to persuade every soul in Washington to believe that "Jesus is the only ticket to heaven," it is a vow not to be taken lightly. From the wealthy of McLean to the poor of Southeast Washington -- all are in his sights, especially the area's Jews, whose conversion Solomon considers his God-given calling. While other Christian leaders might have similar goals, none has the advantage of Solomon's perch as pastor of McLean Bible Church, a glitzy megachurch with an evangelical mission that might seem an unlikely fit for Washington's most affluent suburb....

<p>The nation's largest Messianic Jewish organization is criticizing leading evangelical Christians -- including the Rev. Billy Graham -- of caving into Jewish pressure to downplay the Gospel.</p> <p>"There are those who have worked both overtly and subtly to demonize Jewish believers in Jesus and to make the work of Jewish evangelism seem unacceptable," David Brickner, president of Jews for Jesus, wrote in a six-page letter titled "The War on Jewish Evangelism" sent to 110,000 donors.</p>

Evangelicals defy easy labels. Here's why--and why their numbers are growing What would Jonathan Edwards think of suburban Chicago's Willow Creek Community Church, where every weekend some 17,000 congregants arrive in their Chevy Tahoes and Toyota minivans to worship in the enormous brick-and-glass auditorium? More specifically, what would the 18th-century Puritan preacher who penned the fire-and-brimstone sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" make of "seeker-friendly" services that use "drama, multimedia, and contemporary music" to serve "individuals checking out what it really means to have a personal relationship with Jesus"? Gazing across the packed rows, would Edwards recognize...