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."
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I was very excited and pleased at first when I came upon his explanation as to why he left. But then it changed to sadness when various questions came flooding my mind:
ReplyDeleteWhy did he just abandon the people to a system that he knew was wrong?
Why didn't he try to change things?
If he knew that what's going on wasn't of God, didn't he just abandon those people to possibly be led to hell because their weren't really serving God?
Why didn't or isn't he attacking the errors that God showed him?
Why isn't ANYBODY openly and directly challenging the system and the leadership?
Is God waiting on someone to step up or is it up God to send someone?
Hey there! I can understand that, but for years if you followed Chan's ministry there he told his people that they needed to change what they were doing...and like most folks in the church they did not listen.
DeleteI actually just happened across this subject as I was doing research into a related topic and it caught my attention. I'd heard of Francis Chan before, but I don't really follow anyone else's ministry as I am focused on my own. I dug a little deeper, though, and came across some of his more recent speeches and found out that the answer to many of my questions was that he was scared. He freely admits that he liked being liked. He didn't want to change things. These things he freely and directly admitted. As he spoke I could see that at the time of the speeches I listened to, years after he left his assembly, he was still very young in his walk. So I could only imagine how immature he was when The Lord revealed that truth to him. I understand that and can sympathize.
DeleteBut the truth is that nothing is really going to change until someone openly stands up and declares open and uncompromising war on the system.
I totally agree! Maybe this move will be a good move that will help the cause and we can see actually, BIBLICAL change!
DeleteAnd the church board probably holds the reins of the church, as in many cases (not the pastor).
ReplyDeleteThe pastor in these churches serves more as a messenger than God's shepherd.
I've held a pastoral position, so I understand the dynamics of that. But at the same time, there were a great many things he could've done to change things. Furthermore, regardless of any impediments he may have encountered, as one looked to for leadership, his main loyalty is to The Lord, regardless of politics. As I said in my previous reply, though, I realize that at that time he was also very immature in his walk.
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