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Thread: Francis Chan on why he left his megachurch

  1. #1

    Francis Chan on why he left his megachurch

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/fr...church-190136/

    Bestselling author Francis Chan recently exposed his heart to Facebook employees, detailing why he left the helm of his thriving megachurch in California seven years ago.

    Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, was drawing around 5,000 people and growing in 2010. But Chan felt the megachurch he founded was not as God intended it to be.

    "I got frustrated at a point, just biblically," Chan said during a talk at the Facebook headquarters in California last Thursday. "I'm going wait a second. According to the Bible, every single one of these people has a supernatural gift that's meant to be used for the body. And I'm like 5,000 people show up every week to hear my gift, see my gift. That's a lot of waste. Then I started thinking how much does it cost to run this thing? Millions of dollars!"

    "So I'm wasting the human resource of these people that according to Scripture have a miraculous gift that they could contribute to the body but they're just sitting there quietly. ... [T]hey just sit there and listen to me."

    Moreover, he felt the church wasn't following God's command to love one another — attendees would simply greet each other for 30 seconds and mainly hang out in cliques once a week.

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  3. #2
    Senior Member Pentecali's Avatar
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    I didn't know he moved from LA up to San Francisco to start house churches.

    He said everyone serves in ministry for free. I would really love to know how he makes it financially. The Bay Area is the most expensive place to live in the nation. Maybe he explains it in his book (i didn't see it in the article).

    As for house churches, maybe they work for some, but in my experience, everyone I know that has left the traditional church for house church has eventually stopped going at all. It seemed to have been a stepping stone to total independence. Most of them got burned out, disillusioned or hurt and I think a few of the ones I know personally didn't want to give of their time and finances.

    Persecution would necessitate house churches but I don't think we are quite there yet

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    Senior Member Romans828's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pentecali View Post
    ...He said everyone serves in ministry for free. I would really love to know how he makes it financially.
    Good question! - He said the mega-church was operating on millions of dollars, so perhaps his home is paid for and he had a nice, little "nestegg" stashed away when he left?

    Or, maybe he's living off the proceeds from his book sales? - Or, maybe he's walking by faith, depending on "donations" from the House Churches he is establishing (kinda like Paul), and living a very simple, modest lifestyle?

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Becoming independently wealthy for life doesn't take that much money if one lives relatively modestly on it. A few million dollars will do, less if the person is close to retirement age.

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  8. #5
    Maybe he's actually living by faith. You know, like George Mueller and the old guys did when living by faith was the norm for Christians.

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    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bookman View Post
    Maybe he's actually living by faith. You know, like George Mueller and the old guys did when living by faith was the norm for Christians.
    What a concept!

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Francis Chan is listed as 50 with a net worth of $300k. Not much but add book sales revenues and income from various sources and he might get by without having a regular job.

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  13. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Pentecali View Post
    I didn't know he moved from LA up to San Francisco to start house churches.

    He said everyone serves in ministry for free. I would really love to know how he makes it financially. The Bay Area is the most expensive place to live in the nation. Maybe he explains it in his book (i didn't see it in the article).

    As for house churches, maybe they work for some, but in my experience, everyone I know that has left the traditional church for house church has eventually stopped going at all. It seemed to have been a stepping stone to total independence. Most of them got burned out, disillusioned or hurt and I think a few of the ones I know personally didn't want to give of their time and finances.

    Persecution would necessitate house churches but I don't think we are quite there yet
    There was a fellow (Sean, I don't remember his nickname here) that used to post here, he was a big proponent of house churches..the people I've met that do house church tend to be bitter against IC's (institutional churches). I can understand why..I even considered finding a house church for a minute. But Francis is right--a lot of "megachurches" (certainly not all) are like man-centered and personality-centered little kingdoms unto themselves.

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    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    Sadly even small ones are a lot of the time..size is not the problem....the heart is the problem...

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  17. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by FaithfulOne View Post
    There was a fellow (Sean, I don't remember his nickname here) that used to post here, he was a big proponent of house churches..the people I've met that do house church tend to be bitter against IC's (institutional churches). I can understand why..I even considered finding a house church for a minute. But Francis is right--a lot of "megachurches" (certainly not all) are like man-centered and personality-centered little kingdoms unto themselves.
    MegaChurch seems to be a bad word these days .

    Funny enough I was just watching on FB a video of a non mega church where the members literally engaged in fisticuffs with the pastor .

    Cant think of anything more man centered than the degree of strife and bickering that often exists in small churches . Matter of fact when I think back to all the small churches, hpouse fellowships etc I have been a part of or affiliated with even as a young-ling, one constant was the presence of strife ..

    Francis Chan is certainly free to do as God leads him but he shouldn't smear mega churches by his own inability to handle anything big and frankly speaking I don't see 5000 attendees as a mega church

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