McLean Bible Church is a popular D.C.-area church. With five campuses and an online presence employing 150 people — including 50 pastors — it brings nearly 16,000 people to services each week.

Christmas decor makes up the main floor of the McLean Bible Church Christmas Village.

This week, the church launched its inaugural Christmas Village, drawing over 11,000 people on the first three nights alone to ride a carousel, listen to Christmas concerts and hear the truth of Christianity. Nearly 900 people volunteered those same nights.

“Our mission, as every church’s mission, is the Great Commission,” Associate Senior Pastor Dale Sutherland told The Stream. “Jesus said, ‘Go make disciples.’ We’re here in this wonderful area, with wonderful people, and we want them to hear more about our Lord Jesus.”

He came. The reason He came was to seek and to save that which was lost. We see a lot of lostness, and we want to reach people in their greatest need, which is to get their sins taken care of, and Jesus can do that.

Christmas Village

“There’s a lot of way you can get the Gospel out,” said Sutherland. “You can do church services, you can do lots of things in great ways. This was a unique way we thought about, and prayed about, and thought — maybe — and then it came together this fall.”

The Village takes over multiple levels of the enormous McLean Bible Church main campus. Side rooms are dedicated to what Sutherland called “an iceless skating rink,” cultural symbols of Christmas from around the world, children’s entertainment and more.

A five-step process allows Christmas Village attendees to pick a gift to donate to the poor. McLean Bible Church hopes to give at least 5,000 gifts to poor children in the D.C. area on Saturday.

According to Sutherland, there’s something for everyone. “We’ve met Hindus here, a Muslim I was talking to last night, certainly a lot of Catholics, a lot of different folks, some of no faith. That’s the nice thing about this event. It’s very open and easy to attend. You’re going on merry go-rounds, you’re enjoying Christmas.”

“We’re communicating [Christianity] in a lot of ways — a live Nativity scene, and through some preaching, but we have that in the middle of our Christmas concert. So there is Truth. We have about 10 different ways we’re trying to get the real Gospel out, but at the same time, it’s in a way that a Hindu, or a Muslim, or whatever, would be able to come and be totally comfortable, and still feel challenged by God’s Word,” explained Sutherland.

The methods of evangelization are as diverse as the audience Sutherland wants to attract. “We have a mini-concert three times during the night. We have a Gospel presentation during all three of those. We have greeters and other roving, kind, welcoming people who are also evangelists. We have written material that goes out.” There is also a video explaining the events that led up to the birth of Christ. 

The poor are remembered in powerful ways. “We have a merry go-round, we have an iceless skating rink, a moon bounce, a polar bear bounce, we have Gingerbread houses, we are raising gifts for the poor — we have a whole room where [attendees] can package gifts to go internationally. Everyone who comes, we ask them to bring with them a gift for a poor child. And on Saturday, we’re rolling that out, we’re delivering, we pray, 5,000 gifts downtown in Washington, and more internationally.”

Christmas Village attendees are greeted by an empty bin where they can drop off gifts for the area’s poor children.

The on-site packaging takes place in five steps. The Stream was brought to a hallway where empty boxes await. The boxes are taken to a room where gifts are ready for the taking and the wrapping. On a column near the empty boxes was a poster encouraging prayer for the poor.

“Trying to Get Where God Really Wants us to be”

 “When I first started coming here as a congregant, there were 300 people here,” said Sutherland. “Sticking to the mission of the Great Commission, making the goal to reach lots of people, to make an impact in our particular area, has been the emphasis. God has used our senior pastor, Lon Solomon, to be the spokesman for this effort. And without any of us charting a course, God has turned us from 300 into thousands of people who gather.”

“As a result, over the last two years, we’ve been even more specific, and trying to get where God really wants us to be. We’ve had a total overhaul, really, as a church, in every way we can. First in our pastor’s heart, and then as he’s rolled that out, and communicated that to us, God is doing real life change here in our church. So we’re more focused than ever on being a Biblical church that is pleasing to God as required by Scripture.”

While McLean Bible Church is non-denominational — “We believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and that is what we try to hold ourselves to” — they frequently work with other denominations. “We started a thing a couple of years ago where we did the Washington Prayer Gathering, and we ran that for the last three years. We bring all the pastors together in the D.C. area, and all the churches together, who are committed to the Gospel, committed to the Bible’s explanation of the Gospel, and pray for our city.”

“We also formed a group of 600 pastors. That became a ministry called One Heart. It’s really allowing a group of pastors together, after one heart of reaching Washington and caring about Washington.”

“One thing is, we’re a diverse church. We thank God for that. About 35 percent of our congregation is from other nations, about 84 nations represented here at this one campus. Our whole focus is really to match the area we’re working in.”

McLean Bible Church has a variety of Nativity Scenes at its inaugural Christmas Village, including a live Nativity that is not pictured.

Message for 2017 — Trust God, not Politicians

“The message is that politicians and kings and kingdoms have never solved the problems of this world,” said Sutherland. “And any look to there is an expectation that will be very disappointing. The truth of the message that we need to proclaim and make very clear is the same one that Jesus brought when there was a government that was very unpopular.”

“So we would join with Him, and follow exactly what he told us to say: He came to seek and save that which was lost. That’s His purpose, so that has to be my purpose. I’m a Christian, I have to do what He says, and proclaim what He says.”