Session About To Timeout

• How can I be a part of our Church Family Meeting on Sunday evening, September 24?
• What are we voting on at this Church Family Meeting?
• How does leadership work when there is more than one Lead Pastor?
• If David is already a Lead Pastor and Mike is affirmed as a Lead Pastor, then who will be the primary leader among the Lead Pastors: David or Mike?
• Does this mean David is stepping down as a Lead Pastor or even leaving our church? If not, then what will David do as a Lead Pastor?
• Since Mike has been the Location Pastor at MBC Montgomery County, who will be the Location Pastor there?
• What do MBC elders and pastors do, and how do they work together?
• Weren’t Mike Kelsey and Wade Burnett already Lead Pastors?
• Who is Wade Burnett, and why isn’t he being nominated by the elders as a Lead Pastor at this time?
• Where can we go if we have further questions?

Our Church Family Meeting will be hosted online at mcleanbible.org/churchfamilymeeting at 7 pm. If you are not able to join online at that time, the meeting will be available for you to view online through Wednesday evening, September 27. MBC members will be able to vote as part of this meeting through the link they receive in their email anytime between September 24-27.

In addition to voting to affirm new members in our church family, we are voting to affirm Mike Kelsey as a Lead Pastor in our church. According to Article VI, Section 2 of our church’s constitution, “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.”

Biblically, we believe that God calls a plurality of elders and pastors (these terms are interchangeable in the New Testament) to lead in a local church. In one of the most significant recent revisions to our church’s constitution, we intentionally did not include a Senior Pastor role. Instead, we affirm a plurality of elders and pastors across our church who have different roles and responsibilities. For example, we have a Chairman of our elders who is no more an elder than the others, but he has primary responsibility for leading our elders. On a practical level, the Chairman leads meetings, sets agendas, carries a unique weight for the overall direction of the elders, and works toward consensus in decisions made by the elders. Similarly, as we affirm more than one Lead Pastor, one of them will carry primary responsibility for leading the other Lead Pastors in partnership with the elders (Lead Pastors actually report to our elders) and other pastors in the church.

As our elders, Mike, and David have prayed through what this team of Lead Pastors will look like in practice, we believe that God has uniquely called and gifted Mike to shepherd our church to reach current and coming generations in our increasingly secular city with the gospel, and God has uniquely called and gifted David to mobilize the church for the spread of the gospel to unreached people in the world. Based on God’s call and gifting in both Mike and David, all of our elders (including David) believe that Mike should carry the primary leadership responsibility among our Lead Pastors.

David is definitely not stepping down as a Lead Pastor or leaving our church. He will continue to serve and shepherd our church as a Lead Pastor and Elder alongside Mike and the other elders and pastors. He will continue to preach regularly, help shape the vision of our church, equip our leaders, and care for our members as we follow Jesus fully. As a Lead Pastor and Elder, David will also spend time working alongside other MBC pastors and MBC’s Global Outreach Team to mobilize and train MBC members to pray, give, and go as God leads us for the spread of the gospel to all nations. He will work to strengthen MBC’s partnerships with other churches on mission while mobilizing the broader church to reach the approximately 3.2 billion unreached people in the world. As a church, we earnestly desire to steward our resources well, including the unique giftings of our pastors and the unique diversity of our church family that represents over 100 different countries, as we work toward the day when Jesus will return and receive praise from a great multitude that no one can number from every nation, tribe, people, and language. As a Lead Pastor, David will continue playing a vital part in leading our church family to accomplish our church’s mission to glorify God by making disciples and multiplying churches among all nations, beginning in greater Washington, DC.

The elders are carrying out a process to discern who God is calling to pastor our MoCo location. We are so thankful for the staff and leadership teams at MoCo (including many new members of the staff team!), and we are confident in God’s grace in and through them during these days as we work diligently to identify a new Location Pastor as soon as God provides. In the meantime, Mike will continue to share leadership responsibilities at MoCo with the other MoCo pastors and staff.

To summarize the biblical responsibilities of all elders/pastors, they teach the Word of God, shepherd the people of God, model the character and mission of Jesus, and possess responsibility, authority, and accountability for leading the church to become more like Jesus. Every pastor at MBC carries the weight of these biblical responsibilities, even as they have different titles and responsibilities outlining the scope of their leadership. Our elders (including Lead Pastors) oversee the doctrine and direction of our church. Lead Pastors provide general oversight to other pastors and staff across all of our locations. Location Pastors provide specific oversight to the other pastors and staff at their individual locations.

In 2020, Mike Kelsey and Wade Burnett began serving as Lead Pastors alongside David but were not formally affirmed as such by the congregation (which was not required in our previous constitution). Three years later, we revised our church’s constitution to include Lead Pastors, and this revision stipulates that Lead Pastors must be elected by the church membership. As soon as our constitution was revised, we removed the title of Lead Pastor from Mike and Wade until such time as the church would affirm them in this role.

Wade Burnett joined our staff one week before the COVID shutdown in March 2020, and amidst all that was happening in the world and in our lives during those days, many people in our church missed the opportunity to meet and get to know him. He and his wife, Amy, and their three children moved here from Nashville, TN. Wade previously planted and pastored a church, and he then served for years as a coach and consultant for church planters and pastors in the U.S. and around the world. Since joining our leadership team at MBC, Wade has worked alongside David, Mike, and the elders to provide executive leadership to our staff and to help our church navigate multiple significant challenges. His core function is to help implement the vision of our church across every facet of our church family, and he serves in countless and invaluable ways. While we believe Wade is qualified to serve as a Lead Pastor, Wade was actually the first to say that we should affirm Mike alone at this time in a way that highlights the significance of Mike’s role and honors the significance of Mike’s leadership over 16 years in our church family. As outlined in our constitution, we may affirm other Lead Pastors in the future, and our elders will communicate to the church when we believe it is the appropriate time to nominate anyone else to this role. At this time, we are focusing on affirming Mike as a Lead Pastor.

Please reach out to any of our elders or pastors if you have additional questions. Also make sure to be a part of our Sunday gatherings leading up to September 24 as David and Mike share from God’s Word about our desire to grow in biblical health and reach our city and world more effectively with the gospel through this process. Then you will have an opportunity to hear from David, Mike, and others at our Church Family Meeting online at mcleanbible.org/churchfamilymeeting at 7 pm on Sunday evening, September 24.

David is definitely not stepping down as a Lead Pastor or leaving our church. He will continue to serve and shepherd our church as a Lead Pastor and Elder alongside Mike and the other elders and pastors. He will continue to preach regularly, help shape the vision of our church, equip our leaders, and care for our members as we follow Jesus fully. As a Lead Pastor and Elder, David will also spend time working alongside other MBC pastors and MBC’s Global Outreach Team to mobilize and train MBC members to pray, give, and go as God leads us for the spread of the gospel to all nations. He will work to strengthen MBC’s partnerships with other churches on mission while mobilizing the broader church to reach the approximately 3.2 billion unreached people in the world. As a church, we earnestly desire to steward our resources well, including the unique giftings of our pastors and the unique diversity of our church family that represents over 100 different countries, as we work toward the day when Jesus will return and receive praise from a great multitude that no one can number from every nation, tribe, people, and language. As a Lead Pastor, David will continue playing a vital part in leading our church family to accomplish our church’s mission to glorify God by making disciples and multiplying churches among all nations, beginning in greater Washington, DC.