David Platt, pastor of McLean Bible Church in Washington, D.C., and the founder of Radical, announced Wednesday, Jan. 24, that Secret Church 24 will be take place April 19. The purpose of Secret Church is to provide an opportunity for people to study God’s Word and pray for persecuted believers; participants can join the event from any location in the world.
“Secret Church 24 is finally happening on April 19 and I want to personally invite you to be a part of this powerful night of studying God’s Word and passionately praying for the persecuted with thousands of believers around the world,” said Platt in a post about the event on X, formerly Twitter.
Secret Church 24 is finally happening on April 19 and I want to personally invite you to be a part of this powerful night of studying God’s Word and passionately praying for the persecuted with thousands of believers around the world.https://t.co/rwjOwURWeS pic.twitter.com/ZxbTLGCz1e
— David Platt (@plattdavid) January 24, 2024
“We’re going to be diving into the Book of Ruth,” said Platt, who shared that Ruth is one of his “favorite” books and “one of the most beautiful books in the Bible.”
Platt said that during the event, “We’re going to pray for our persecuted sisters and brothers around the world, specifically learning about the persecuted church in North Korea. It’s going to be a really unique night.”
RELATED: David Platt on How He Has Been Challenged To Stop Following the ‘American Gospel’
Secret Church 2024
Secret Church was inspired by Platt’s experience meeting with members of an underground church in a part of the world where Christians are persecuted. The believers he met at the time were risking “houses, jobs, lands,” going to prison, and even losing their lives for the sake of the gospel.
Platt joined these Christians for a Bible study that he thought would last one hour but ended up going for eight hours because the believers were “so hungry for the Word.” They wanted to meet again to study Scripture, and Platt and the underground church members ended up meeting to study the Bible for eight to 12 hours per day for the next two weeks.
“When we came back from that trip and were talking with some other folks in the church, somebody said, ‘Why don’t we do that now? Why don’t we gather together for hours at a time just to dive into God’s Word?’” said Platt. “And so that led to the first Secret Church where we said, ‘Well, let’s try it.’”
For their first event, church leaders planned for six hours on a Friday night, from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., to study God’s Word and pray for persecuted Christians around the world.
RELATED: David Platt: Pride Is What Is Stopping Us From Praying
