Doug Wilson Announces Establishment Of DC Church Plant

Doug Wilson is up to something. Earlier this month, Doug Wilson announced a church plant in Washington, DC. The church plant would be part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). Wilson acknowledged the need to both evangelize and for there to be a quality church in DC for people (who are working in politics) to attend.

Wilson announced:

So why are we doing this just now? The first reason is that we are reading providence in a particular way. With the change in administration, we believe that there will be many strategic opportunities with numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump administration. These believers are obviously culturally engaged already, but we happen to believe that every form of cultural engagement needs to have a solid theological foundation and support, and we want to help to provide it. Without a theological foundation, cultural engagement tends to morph into something that resembles wind surfing on the various breezes of doctrine that tend to blow through evangelicalism. We don’t want anything like that.

As a practical matter, we (meaning both Christ Church in Moscow and the CREC at large) now have members who are living and working there.

Doug Wilson alludes to the Trump Administration as a reason for his decision, and definitely sees long-term viability for the vibe shift in the country. The church plant is called Christ Kirk DC. Kirk is a Scottish term commonly used to refer to the Church of Scotland. The church is listed as being on Pennsylvania Avenue and is in short walking distance to Capitol Hill and the Library of Congress.

We do grant that we have landed upon an unusual method for church planting. Part of our prep work for this consisted of raising sufficient funds to able to fly different ministers in each week. This will consequently be a team effort. The men coming in will include me, Joe Rigney, Jared Longshore, Toby Sumpter, and other CREC ministers from around the country. If the plan and the plant go as we expect, we believe that God will supply us with the permanent minister in due course. In all this, we will be working together with Christ Reformed Evangelical Church of Annapolis.

If you are at all interested in this vital work, please pray for us. In addition, you can sign up for updates on the web site. Please be certain to do this if you are at all interested in attending. We need to be able to gauge the number of folks we are going to be dealing with. And watch for news about summer gatherings in the DC area. There will be a one-day conference at the end of August, for example. And of course, we would welcome any gifts designated for this effort. We do need to raise substantial funds to cover the variety of costs. There is a link at webpage for that.

Doug Wilson’s plan is to astroturf the church plant. It’s less focused on trying to win the DC natives and more focused on serving the people who work in government. This is perhaps likened to the business concept called “blitzscaling.” In military, blitzkrieg (lightning war) is when an army advances beyond its supply lines in order to achieve strategic objectives quickly. Similarly, in business, blitzscaling is a business strategy focused on rapid growth and scaling at an unprecedented pace, often prioritizing speed over efficiency to dominate the market before competitors can catch up. The term was popularized by Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder) and Chris Yeh.

Key Principles of Blitzscaling:

1. Speed Over Perfection – Sacrifice optimization and profitability in the short term to capture market share quickly.
2. Aggressive Investment – Raise and spend large amounts of capital to fuel hypergrowth (e.g., hiring, marketing, infrastructure).
3. Network Effects – Leverage platforms where each new user increases the value for others (e.g., Facebook, Uber).
4. First-Mover Advantage – Become the dominant player before competitors can react.
5. High Risk, High Reward – Accept inefficiencies, operational chaos, and potential losses in pursuit of massive scale.

This fits the description of what Doug Wilson is doing. A permanent minister in the church plant would be more cost effective than flying the Moscow Mood into BWI, Dulles, or Reagan National on a weekly basis, renting parsonage, renting vehicles, and other church operational expenses.

But Doug Wilson believes, and perhaps rightly so, that investing an unsustainable amount early will result in a successful church plant in a strategic and prestigious area of the country, ministering to people who influence politics.

But will the church itself be able to function with this speed of development? This will be fascinating to watch unfold, especially as even Doug Wilson admits it’s not a conventional method of church planting.