David Platt

On June 2, 2019, Platt prayed for President Donald Trump when he made an unscheduled stop at McLean Bible Church during Sunday services. Platt published a letter explaining the situation and his prayer, highlighting the biblical command to pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-6) as his motivation.

In February 2017, Platt began serving as interim teaching pastor at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia while continuing his primary role as president of the International Mission Board. In September 2017, Platt was hired as pastor-teacher of McLean Bible Church. In February 2018, he announced his plans to resign as president of the IMB on the hiring of his successor.

David Joseph Platt is an American pastor and author. He is currently pastor-teacher at McLean Bible Church, and previously he was the senior pastor at the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, at the time he was the youngest megachurch pastor in the United States. He is the author of the New York Times Best Seller Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream and since then has released numerous other books. From 2014 though 2017, Platt was president of the International Mission Board. Platt founded a resource ministry, Radical.net, which promotes his books, sermons and podcasts and multiple simulcasts throughout the year and provides resources concerning persecuted believers. He is known for conducting the intensive bible study simulcast, Secret Church, meant to imitate the bible study experiences of the underground church.

In 2014, Platt was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board. The International Mission Board is one of the largest missionary sending organizations in the world. He was appointed to this position after a trip to Nepal.