David Platt: Secret Church

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I received the newest copy of Christianity Today and I am simply blown away by a new article. The article is called “Secret Church” and it is highlighting Pastor David Platt (@plattdavid) of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. I believe about 4,500 people attend his church.

I have had the honor of listening to him preach on a few occasions and thanks to the internet I get to listen to his churches podcast occasionally. He is passionate, deeply theological, and intensely practical in his preaching and pastoral ministry. He is also probably one of the greatest missions-mobilizers in North America.

The point of this article in CT is to highlight what David Platt has started at his church called, “Secret Church.” First of all, David Platts sermons are an average of 55 minutes, much longer than the average church. Yet, in his opinion, it seems to short. The article says that Platt was “struck in his travels by underground Asian house churches that study the Bible together, under the threat of persecution, for as long as 12 hours in one sitting.” I’m not sure about you, but that would definitely strike me as well!

Pastor Platt has now imported this practice into a biennial event at his church, they call it “Secret Church.” Platt preaches for six hours on a single topic, such as the Atonement, Old Testament survey, spiritual warfare, etc.. Here is a quote from Platt in the article, ” It’s one of my favorite sights as a pastor to look out at 12:30 am and see a room full of 2,500 people, their Bibles open, soaking it in.” I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it. Maybe that will one day change.

This article makes we want to move to Birmingham just to be a part of the things they have going on. 2,500 people listening to Scripture be taught for a 6 hour or so time period; it is simply amazing and very rare. Pastor David Platt has certainly cultivated a hunger for the Bible in the hearts of his congregation.

Here are some more quotes from this article:

Equating serious biblical engagement with seminaries rather than the local church has impoverished both institutions.

The New Testament pattern is churches raising up leaders and missionaries. We have people begging for this. The more they taste the Word, the more they want it, and the more they want to minister. We’ve had about 1,000 each year go overseas making disciples. The more they go, the more they realize they need to be equipped to be a part of what God is doing around the world.

Disciples of Christ do not merely pursue Bible knowledge for its own sake. It changes the way they live, but not merely offering them tips for parenting or financial freedom. Rather, the Bible gets them in touch with the Holy Spirit, who conforms the to Christ’s image.

If we believe the gospel, then our opulent living compared to the rest of the world does not make sense. We need to make major changes.

Biblical literacy is a precursor to biblical transformation.

I feel like I could go on and on about David Platt and his church. Sadly, a lot of churches are afraid of doing serious, deep, long biblical study. Some people wrongly think that we need to stay away from “academic” and “formal” forms of discipleship. The fact is, the only way to get people to live their lives in accordance with the Word is to help them become deeply saturated by the Word.

The last quote says it best, “Biblical literacy is a precursor to biblical transformation.” People will not be transformed by the gospel and through the Word of God if they are not deeply saturated in it. When we try to get people to “live like Jesus” apart from serious, deep biblical study, we are chasing our tails.