Five current and former members sued, claiming that MBC barred them from voting in the subsequent election and wasn’t following its constitution. In December 2021, a judge rejected MBC’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
In June 2022, MBC enacted a lawsuit-resolution plan, which involved a re-vote for elders, with anonymous ballots and neutral observers. The church moved to dismiss the lawsuit, which the court initially granted, but plaintiffs appealed. In June 2023, an appellate judge revived the suit, noting that “factual disputes” remained.
Another lawsuit by disgruntled members alleged that MBC had improper ties with and made improper donations to the SBC. After discovery, that lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed.
The MBC report described a tactic of “lawfare,” defined as “using the courts to damage or delegitimize an opponent without actually seeking resolution by the court.” It stated:
This strategy enables someone to take information they find and form a narrative they want to promote without having to actually prove that narrative is true in light of all the information. Because the lawsuit was dismissed by the plaintiffs themselves prior to trial, they never had to actually prove their claims.
According to the MBC report, the plaintiffs use documents from discovery in “‘documentary’ attacks that aim to malign MBC leaders, specifically David Platt.”
The report names Jeremiah Burke as leader of the disgruntled members, alleging that he used tactics from a Capstone Report guide about “How To Oust Your Woke Pastor.” The report also described how Burke and his wife, Laura, reportedly disrupted church meetings, leading local law enforcement to “formally [cite] Jeremiah Burke with criminal trespass.”
According to the church, the Burkes also refused to participate in mediation efforts. “The purported issues related to the SBC or election procedures or church finances were only important to [the Burkes] to the extent that those things created negative video footage or helped them pursue their goal of ‘ousting’ David Platt,” the report stated.
Jeremiah Burke: Lawsuit Report Is ‘Fallacious’
Although McLean Bible Church said it has identified other parties involved, it doesn’t name these people in Burnett’s report because they “have not been as public in their attacks as Jeremiah and Laura Burke and/or have not yet been subject to formal church discipline.”
In October 2024, Jeremiah Burke’s group Church Reform Initiative (CRI) released a two-part documentary titled “The Real David Platt: The Hijacking of McLean Bible Church.” CRI also operates the anti-Platt Facebook page “Save McLean Bible Church.”
In a statement to ChurchLeaders, Jeremiah Burke said, “The fallacious lawsuit ‘report’ will be shown invalid—and therefore worthless—in the next documentary.”
