This past Sunday, McLean Bible Church (MBC) held a church family meeting to vote on Mike Kelsey, the current MBC Montgomery County location pastor, to be the church’s new lead pastor alongside David Platt.
According to a Q&A on church’s website and a panel discussion including Platt (elder, lead pastor), Mike Hollingsworth (elder), and Mike Kelsey (teaching pastor), a recent change to the church’s constitution allows for more than one lead pastor to be elected by the members of MBC.
Article VI, Section 2 of MBC’s church constitution reads:
One or more Lead Pastors may be elected only by the Church membership in accordance with this section. The Board of Elders may nominate a candidate for Lead Pastor to be voted upon by the Church membership according to the process for electing elders in this Constitution. Each Lead Pastor shall provide Word-driven, Spirit-directed vision and leadership for the Church and shall serve as an elder in office, including as a voting member of the Board of Elders as described in this Constitution.
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The MBC elders believe that God has gifted Kelsey to “shepherd” MBC “to reach current and coming generations in our increasingly secular city with the gospel,” and him doing so will allow Platt to focus on how God has called him “to mobilize the church for the spread of the gospel to unreached people in the world.”
If elected, Kelsey will assume primary leadership over the church’s pastors. MBC members have until Wednesday, Sept. 27, to cast their votes.
Platt shared in the meeting that affirming Kelsey as a lead pastor doesn’t mean he has plans to leave MBC, nor is it the first step in a process for him to do so.
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“I don’t know how I can convince people enough that I’m not going anywhere,” Platt said.
“The reason I left a mission organization (International Mission Board) and came here is because I have a conviction that as long as I’m in a local church, I think—by God’s grace—I have gifts and a calling to pastor a local church,” Platt explained. “I love pastoring. I love shepherding people with the Word on mission. I love just seeing Galatians 4 people conformed to the image of Christ through the Word and through pastoral ministry.”
 held a church family meeting to vote on Mike Kelsey, their current MBC Montgomery County location pastor, to be their new lead pastor alongside David Platt.){kind=link}