WATCH: David Platt Lays Hands on Donald Trump in Prayer

President Donald Trump surprised David Platt’s church on Sunday when he showed up unannounced after leaving his private golf club.

According to the White house, Trump was stopped at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, “to visit with the pastor and pray for the victims and community of Virginia Beach.”

Platt, a prolific author and former president of the International Mission Board, called the president on stage to pray over him:

Oh God, we praise You as the one universal king over all,” Platt prayed with one hand holding an open Bible and the other hand on Trump’s back. “You are our leader and our lord and we worship You. There is one God and one savior and it’s You. Your name is Jesus and we exalt you, Jesus.

And we know, we need Your mercy. We need Your grace, we need Your help, we need Your wisdom in our country. And so we stand right now, on behalf of our president, and we pray for Your grace, and Your mercy, and Your wisdom upon him.

God, we pray that he would know how much You love him. So much that You sent Jesus to die for his sins, our sins, so we pray that he would look to You. That he would trust in You. That he would lean on You. That he would govern and make decisions in ways that are good for justice, and good for righteousness, and good for equity, every good path.

Lord we pray, we pray that You would give him all the grace he needs to govern in ways we just saw in 1 Timothy, chapter 2, that will lead to peaceful and quiet lives, Godly and dignified in every way.

God, we pray for your blessing, in that way, upon his family. We pray that you would give them strength, we pray that you give them clarity, wisdom.

Wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Please, oh God, give him wisdom. And help him to lead our country, alongside other leaders.

We pray today for leaders in Congress. We pray for leaders in courts. We pray for leaders at national and state levels.

Please, oh God, help us to look to You. Help us to trust in Your word. Help us to seek Your wisdom and live in ways that reflect Your love and Your grace, Your righteousness and Your justice. We pray for Your blessings on our president toward that end. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

Trump then left the stage without public comment.

Watch the video to see the full encounter.

Though Platt prayed scripture over the president, he received flak from members in his congregation.

Platt wrote a heartfelt letter, posted to the church website, in response:

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that we didn’t see coming, and we’re faced with a decision in a moment when we don’t have the liberty of deliberation, so we do our best to glorify God. Today, I found myself in one of those situations.

At the end of my sermon at the 1:00 worship gathering, I stepped to the side for what I thought would be a couple of moments in quiet reflection as we prepared to take the Lord’s Supper. But I was immediately called backstage and told that the President of the United States was on his way to the church, would be there in a matter of minutes, and would like for us to pray for him. I immediately thought about my longing to guard the integrity of the gospel in our church. As I said in the sermon today, Christ alone unites us. I love that we have over 100 nations represented in our church family, including all kinds of people with varied personal histories and political opinions from varied socioeconomic situations. It’s clear in our church that the only reason we’re together is because we have the same King we adore, worship, fear, and follow with supreme love and absolute loyalty, and His name is Jesus.