Why is McLean Bible’s New City Network Promoting 9 Marks’ Church Revitalization Conference?

A disturbing development comes out of McLean Bible’s New City Network. New City Network is helping to launch a church in Fairfax, Virginia that has ties to Fellowship Memphis. However the church planting arm of McLean Bible also is promoting 9 Marks Church Revitalization Conference. Just as McLean Bible silently joined The Gospel Coalition is this church silently going to join 9 Marks? It begs the question if criminal allegations surface out of this mega church in the D.C. area will Lon Solomon be like C.J. Mahaney and flee and hide behind Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church?

“Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor work in business at all times.”

John Gerzema

“The moment there is a suspicion about a person’s motives everything he does becomes tainted.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:14-16 NLT

 

9 Marks Church Revitalization Conference

Jonathan Leeman of 9 Marks

 

As we are discussing Jonathan Leeman and 9 Marks its time to respect 9 Marks “authoritah!”

There is an interesting new development regarding McLean Bible’s New City Network. It is the church planting arm of McLean Bible. But before I get into this post let’s do a quick refresher. 

Brief Overview of McLean Bible

I have written about McLean Bible before at the Wondering Eagle. Almost a year ago I penned the following post called, “Not a Sermon Just a Blog Post; McLean Bible’s Affiliation with The Gospel Coalition.” In that post I explore the issues in The Gospel Coalition and ask why would McLean Bible join the premier Neo-Calvinist organization that is deeply corrupt? After all McLean Bible use to be neutral on Neo-Calvinist theology. They used to have a church statement which is absent from their website.  That said if Lon Solomon is going to hijack the church into that direction, shouldn’t members know and be aware so they can leave? Especially if they do not believe in Neo-Calvinist theology?  The Gospel Coalition is deeply corrupt and there  are a couple of situations to highlight. You have D.A. Carson from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School who went to bat for C.J. Mahaney and attacked someone who was raped in Sovereign Grace at 13 years old. He did this along with Kevin DeYoung and Justin Taylor. You can read that bastardized statement from The Gospel Coalition right here. To read more about the situation in greater detail I would direct you to this post called, “From D.A Carson to Steve Estes the Following Question Must be Asked: Is the Evangelical Free Church of America a Safe Place for Sexual Assault Victims?”  Then there is The Gospel Coalition promoting and defending Douglas Wilson. Douglas Wilson describes himself as a “Paleo-Confederate” and wrote a book defending the institution of slavery in the American South prior to the Civil War of 1861 as being “Biblical. ” But as disturbing as his other views are the situation of Douglas Wilson marrying pedophile Steve Sitler and Katie Travis, which was against the wishes of the state of Idaho are most alarming.  After they had their first kid the state of Idaho intervened to protect the child. As a pedophile Steve Sitler was sexually simulated as he held his infant. To read all the details and look at the documentation on this incident in Idaho I would refer you to this post here. When a church like McLean Bible joins an organization so corrupt as The Gospel Coalition it begs many questions. The biggest in my mind is this one. Why would a person who has been a victim of sexual assault, child molestation or another sexual crime want to call McLean Bible home? Especially if its going to align itself with an organization that is going to defend celebrity pastors and attack those who were victimized and assaulted? Is that how Jesus would operate?

 

New City Network & Kenji Adachi’s All People’s Community Church

McLean Bible has launched a church planting network called New City Network. In the future I plan to do a comprehensive analysis of the New City Network which as of this writing is planting or has planted 40 churches in the states of Virginia and Maryland and the District of Columbia. In glancing over the churches that are in McLean Bible’s network the key daughter church of Mark Dever’s Capitol Hill Baptist Church stood out. Called Del Ray Baptist I have written about them twice. “A Critique on 9 Marks’ Del Ray Baptist Church’s Sample Statement on Church Attendance” and “Garrett Kell, the Role Campus Crusade for Christ Played in his Coming to the Christian Faith; Plus the 9 Marks Elephant Standing in the Corner” should be read to understand the culture of this church affiliated with Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

The newest church plant of the New City Network is by Kenji Adachi and takes place in Fairfax, Virginia called All People’s Community Church.  Kenji Adachi was trained at Fellowship Memphis and this church partners with the Acts 29 network. I checked on the Acts 29 network church search and as of this posting I do not see it listed there. This is all being done in conjunction with Send DC which is the mission arm of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. So much for McLean Bible being non-denominational. The real question that needs to be asked in regards to Send DC is this: is Send DC primarily planting Neo-Calvinist churches in the Washington, D.C. area?

This blog has written plenty about Acts 29. One of this blogs readers annulled her marriage to a child pornography addict at Matt Chandler’s The Village Church. Karen Hinkely was placed under church discipline. You can read more about that  in “The Explicit Gospel” at Matt Chandler’s “The Village” Includes Child Pornography, Church Discipline and Membership Covenants.” Then there is The Journey in St. Louis and what happened to Darrin Patrick. We still don’t know what happened…my question still stands as the Chaplain for the St. Louis Cardinals is Darrin’s sin privately supporting the Chicago Cubs? You can read more about this subtle power play in this Acts 29 church in Missouri in “Darrin Patrick is Removed from The Journey in St. Louis Amidst Questions; My Main Question…Will One of the Key Charges Also Be Applied to Matt Chandler?” One of the problems with the Acts 29 network is that the DNA of Mark Driscoll still remains in the organization. Mark Driscoll was notorious for proclaiming that women are penis homes, which you can read about in this New York Daily News article. One of my questions is this…if McLean Bible’s New City Network is going to partner with Acts 29 does that mean Lon Solomon believes that women are penis homes also?

But then there is the latest scandal involving Acts 29 which The Wondering Eagle helped reveal. It involves Kenji Adachi’s home church which trained and sent him to the Washington, D.C. area. Kenji Adachi was Fellowship Memphis’s church planting resident for nine months I believe. What this blog helped dragged out is this deeply disturbing and dark scandal from the Acts 29 network. The worship pastor, Rick Trotter,  at Fellowship Memphis was into voyeurism. He placed and allegedly recorded females against their consent and also allegedly recorded two underage children in the process. It is my belief that child pornography was manufactured in a restroom in Fellowship Memphis. The church pressured and intimidated females from going to the police. They let Rick Trotter go quietly. This alleged cover up was done by Bryan Loritts, John D Bryson and lead Elder Hamp Holcomb. Bryan Loritts told Mid America Seminary that 100 females were caught on film in a two month period. While Bryan Loritts allegedly banned Rick Trotter from his home he had no problem sending a deviant sexual predator onto another church. Then Rick Trotter became the worship pastor of Downtown Presbyterian Church in Memphis and allegedly engaged in voyeurism there as well for three years. A conservative estimate is that at least 1,500 people were allegedly recorded at Downtown Church restroom over a three year period. Now my question to Kenji Adachi is this…if there is a sex abuse scandal at All People’s Community Church will he engage in a cover up as Fellowship Memphis has allegedly done?  Is that how John Bryson trained him? For more on the situation with Fellowship Memphis you can read, “The Sordid Tale of Rick Trotter, Bryan Loritts, John Bryson and Acts 29 Fellowship Memphis and Downtown Presbyterian Church.”  There are about 20 articles written about this highly corrupt Acts 29 church.

 

McLean Bible’s New City Promoting 9 Marks?

This afternoon New City Network sent out an email not only promoting Kenji Adachi’s church plant but also is promoting the upcoming 9 Marks conference at Capitol Hill Baptist Church called Church Revitalization Conference. As you can see from the screen shot above if you are a church planter with New City Network and you register with the 9 Marks conference by October 15 you will get a ticket for free. The normal ticket cost is $25.00. At this conference you can hear Mark Dever the Senior Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church speak. You also have Jonathan Leeman the editorial director of 9 Marks speaking. Plus you have Kevin Smith the Executive Director of the Mid America Baptist Network as well as Brian Croft who is the Senior Pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Finally you have Dhati Lewis the Lead Pastor of Blueprint Church in Atlanta, Georgia speaking. Now here are the questions that members of McLean Bible need to be asking. Do those in attendance at McLean Bible know that their church planting network is partnering with Acts 29? Do they know that 9 Marks is being promoted by the New City Network? Just as McLean Bible silently joined the Gospel Coalition to the shock of some of the people I know, is McLean Bible going to join 9 Marks silently? Is this church being theologically hijacked unknowingly to the members or the attenders?  Oh the ties that bind in modern day evangelical Christianity…no wonder why the dones are done with church! And here is the million dollar question that needs to be asked. If it becomes known one day that allegations of criminal activity surface out of McLean Bible church will Lon Solomon high tail his ass across the Potomac River and hide behind Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church just like C.J. Mahaney once did? It was a time when in all his manliness Mahaney fled Covenant Life Church and hid behind Mark Dever’s “Gospel Centered”  rear end! Oh wait you don’t know the story? I’ll gladly tell you in the next section. 

 

How Mark Dever Made 9 Marks Useless in Playing Favoritism Toward C.J. Mahaney

If McLean Bible is drifting in the direction of 9 Marks I would like to have you read this post which is one of my most read posts here at The Wondering Eagle. “9 Marks: What is it? How Mark Dever Undermined it and Made it Worthless.” In it you will learn of the scandal of C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace. In the summer of 2011 as the scandal was building in the denomination and the dysfunction inside Sovereign Grace broke open; thousands of documents detailing the inner corruption of C.J. Mahaney spilled out on the internet. People learned that he had practiced blackmail (you can read the transcript right here by the way) and that he spurned reconciliation. People in the course of time learned of allegations of criminal activity to include the alleged cover up of child sex abuse would also eventually emerge on a blog called SGM Survivors. C.J. Mahaney who was all about church discipline fled and hid at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. C.J. Mahaney once referred to his local church as being “the dearest place on earth” which is a reference to a claim that Charles Spurgeon once said. Mark Dever was all about 9 Marks and his church had pioneered and developed a ministry and even helped plant 9 Marks churches which you can find in the 9 Marks Church Search. Church discipline is one of the key pillars of the Neo-Calvinist movement, yet was C.J. Mahaney going to be disciplined by his friend and business partner Mark Dever who built “Together4The Gospel?” Of course not and with a wave of his wand C.J. Mahaney was exempt from church discipline. In this disturbing tale of double standards what many Christians learned is that Evangelical Christianity, especially of the reformed bent, has a caste system exists just like India. There are the leaders and the pew peons and the leaders are always exempt from church discipline. You will never see Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, Matt Chandler, or David Platt ever face church discipline. Even if they engage in allegations of criminal activity as C.J. Mahaney had allegedly done. That’s why the question must be asked…if McLean Bible eventually joins  9 Marks will Lon Solomon be exempt from church discipline? In the case of Mark Dever making an exemption for C.J. Mahaney I also think that was done because of how C.J. Mahaney threw around money. In the process of practicing favoritism Mark Dever violated 5 of the 9 Marks. Those 5 are:

1. Membership
2. “The Gospel”
3. Leadership
4. Church Discipline
5. Discipleship

This should all be viewed as a disturbing development and if I were involved in McLean Bible I would quietly make for the back door especially if this church is being hijacked. That’s it for the day guys, know that I love you!