‘The most powerful man in there isn’t the president; it’s God Himself,’ pastor says of Oval Office visit
After a trip to the nation’s capital last month, three Evangelical pastors are opening up about their visit to the White House and how they believe God is working in and through the Trump administration.
In a May 9 episode of the “Resurge Season 1” podcast hosted by Pastor Josh Howerton, Pastors Josh McPherson, Ryan Visconti and Landon Schott discussed the influence of Evangelical Christians in the second Trump administration, addressed objections to their involvement and offered guidance for pastors on engaging with politics.
The pastors reflected on their April 26 White House visit, which involved a four-hour briefing with key staff, and, they say, revealed a strong Christian presence around President Donald Trump.
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“I was struck by how clear each of the White House staffers who were in positions of authority and influence around our president, how clear each of them presented a personal articulation of their belief in Jesus Christ,” said McPherson, lead pastor of Grace City Church in Wenatchee, Washington.
Howerton, senior pastor of the multicampus Lakepointe Church in Texas, shared an encounter with a Lebanese Christian counterterrorism official who told a powerful story about targeting a persecutor of Christians, highlighting the administration’s decisive action.
“Day one, he took that file to President Trump and said, ‘Here’s this man who’s persecuting Christians abroad. … What would you like us to do?’” said Howerton. “And Donald Trump gave our U.S. military the green light and … 24 hours later that man was dead.”
The official, said McPherson, ultimately emphasized the Gospel’s role over military solutions.
“We cannot kill our way out of the hole we are in,” he said. “We need the Gospel of Jesus Christ to spread.”
He also shared an exchange with one White House aide who showed the group a waiting area in the West Wing outside the Situation Room.
“She says, ‘This is where every world dignitary who goes into the Oval Office sits and waits to meet with the president. I want you to look at the picture he had commissioned on this wall that they have to stare at before they go in.’”
The group turned around to find a “huge picture of President Trump sitting at the Resolute Desk with about 30 pastors and Paula White with their hands on him, praying over him when he established the Faith Office” back in his first term in 2017.
“She said he asked for that picture to be put there because he wanted every world leader to know and see and feel that when he walks in that room, he’s not just dealing with a man,” said McPherson. “That’s a statement that says we are a Christian nation, and we want to align ourselves with the principles of God. We’re going to seek the help of God, the power of God, the leading of God in all that we do. When you go in the Oval Office, the most powerful man in there is not the president; it’s God Himself.”
The pastors briefly responded to criticisms from “Never Trumper” Christian figures like David French, who, earlier this month, criticized the “MAGA Christian right” as “cruel,” comparing their approach unfavorably to Jesus’ humility.
After rejecting French’s characterization of Trump as “cruel to immigrants,” Schott, pastor of MercyCulture in Fort Worth, Texas, dismissed French’s credibility due to his support for same-sex marriage.
“I don’t care what you say because you’re pretending that Scripture is your authority, but it has to go through some filtered pseudo-philosophical lens in everything that you do. And so, at that point, everything that you say is now null and void because you don’t believe in the authority of Scripture,” said Schott.
The pastors acknowledge that some in their respective circles objected to aligning with Paula White, a charismatic televangelist who is Trump’s closest spiritual advisor and senior advisor to the White House Faith Office, due to theological difference. But McPherson praised her courage and faith.
“I left about a four-hour interaction with her having more respect for her than most of the Reformed pastors I’ve grown up around,” he said.
Her long-term, unpaid service to Trump was seen as divinely appointed.
“She told the story [of how] she met President Trump 26 years ago,” said McPherson. “It’s a little hard for me not to see the sovereignty of God in positioning that person in somebody’s life 20-some odd years before he would ever ascend to the position of the most influence in the entire known world.”
Last month, Visconti shared images on social media from the group’s visit, including photos with White, White House Faith Director Jenny Korn and others, along with a video showing a time of worship led by Sean Feucht.
The video, shot in an unidentified area of the White House, showed a small group of attendees raising hands and singing in worship.
