Pastor David Platt, author of New York Times best-seller Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream and often known as the youngest megachurch pastor in America, plans to teach on "The Cross and Everyday Life" for the next Secret Church gathering, to be held on April 18. Although live tickets were sold out today, registration for online streaming of the live simulcast is now open for those who desire to participate.
Secret Church is a six-hour event with fire-hose-style teaching from Pastor David Platt, with the goal of equipping those gathered to disciple others. Platt began hosting Secret Church gatherings at The Church at Brook Hills in 2006, hoping to encourage the body of Christ to remember their persecuted brothers and sisters around the globe and to stir a passion for discipleship and missions in believers.
"The objective of Secret Church is not just to come and learn for one night but to take what we've learned and pass it along to others," Platt says. "We also want to recognize the great need to pray and come alongside our brothers and sisters who live in places around the world where there is little to no gospel, or where the gospel is met with resistance. We want to use what we've learned during this gathering to make disciples of Christ both locally and globally."
The idea for Secret Church gatherings was birthed from some of Platt's experiences in underground churches around the world, where believers cram as much teaching as they can into each gathering they have because they are not able to meet frequently.
"We have many brothers and sisters who are forced to gather in secret," Platt says - "The qualification to get into those meetings was not to get online, the qualification to get into those meetings was that you were willing to lose your life to know this word." Simulcast options are made available for viewers outside of the Alabama area, and Platt has been joined by over 50,000 people - including believers in closed countries - in previous Secret Church events.
"Imagine going to a late-night worship service in the middle of Asia. You put on dark pants and a jacket with a hood on and you get in the car late at night and drive you under the cover of moonlight into this remote village. You get out with your hood on and this Asian believer meets you and takes you down this winding path where you're around the corner into this small room, nowhere near even the size of this stage and there's 60 believers just crammed in on little stools, one little light bulb hanging in the middle. They don't have any of this stuff that we have," Platt says - "Somewhere along the way, they've just begun to believe that the Spirit of God and the word of God and the people of God are enough to accomplish the mission of God, and that's enough for them."
The Secret Church gathering on Good Friday will explore how the cross of Christ affects the everyday lives of Christians. Small groups and churches are encouraged to host simulcasts together, and individuals can participate online from home as well. "The Cross and Everyday Life" will begin at 6 p.m. CST, and is expected to last until midnight (though the gatherings have sometimes extended into the wee hours of the morning, historically).
Platt will explore how the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ should affect believers' lives, from practicing spiritual disciplines to how we view our vocations, set our priorities, make decisions, and spend our free time.
"As we explore the implications of the death of Christ for our daily lives, we will discover the exhilarating joy that is found in following Jesus to the glory of God on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis," he says.
Registration for "The Cross and Everyday Life" is available online.
