What Can the American Church Learn from Pastor Francis Chan’s House Church Model?
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There are many reasons people step down from leadership in a church setting – a whole list of them in fact. They can be for sinful reasons, burn out, or simply feeling called to pursue something different. Pastor Francis Chan felt pulled to the latter, to try something different.
Chan is a global church leader today who has written impactful Christian books such as Crazy Love, You and Me Forever, and Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. Today we are going to look at Biblical reasons for Francis Chan’s new church model and what we can learn.
Humility Means Hard Choices
In all honesty, what Francis Chan has done really isn’t “new” per say. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” However, this new church model is new for him. After growing a church from 30 to 6,000 members in California, Chan felt the Holy Spirit leading him and his family to doing something different.
A Premier Christianity interview with Chan shares, “He was leading a typical Western, evangelical church, and that, according to Chan, was exactly the problem. Everything centered around ‘a speaking gift and a sermon,’ he says. In other words, people were flocking to preacher-man Chan, rather than seeking an encounter with God. When this magazine last interviewed him, in 2010, he put it this way: 'One of the problems at our church is when I hear the words ‘Francis Chan’ more than I hear the words ‘Holy Spirit.’”
What amazes me is that Francis humbled himself in the midst of great power and fame. He chose to become a servant, rather than a star. He actually moved overseas with his family to serve others and learn, leaving his pastoral position at the mega church which he had grown. His family has since moved back to America and began a church-planting network called We Are Church.
The churches are small and include 10-12 people gathering within homes. Every leader is a volunteer and the tithes are given to the poor and missions. Each leader or pastor of the home is an elder of their church network and trains up another person among them to eventually begin another. It is truly multiplying faith in a new way.
What America Can Learn from the World
Chan says in the interview “I read just yesterday, if you look at how much we spend as the evangelical Church in America, and how many people got baptized last year, it cost on average $1.5m per baptism… So how is it possible that the underground Church in China grew to 100 million people without any super-preachers or budgets? It’s because they use the everyday person.”
I have heard of house churches before and to be honest, it has made me a little nervous and one edge. How is there accountability? What if someone doesn’t teach what the Bible says? How are new people welcomed in? These are legitimate questions and concerns, just like any type of church structure. However, the important first question to ask would be, is this Biblical, and what does God think about it?
Biblical Reasons for House Churches
Matthew 18:20 - “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Acts 1:13a - “When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.”
Acts 2:2 - “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
1 Corinthians 12:7 - “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
1 Corinthians 16:9 - “The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.”
Colossians 4:5 - “Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.”
Check out more information from Bible Study Tools on 14 Things to Know About Attending a House Church.
What Can We Learn from This Model?
They changed from a megachurch to house churches led by elders within their church, but they aren’t anti-church building or structure; they are just doing things differently to reach their city. You can learn more about this model here.
1. Remember That the Church Is People, Not a Building
It is easy to get caught up in where we meet, but the point is not the structure, it is the people. Francis Chan reminds us to not cling so tightly to the lesser things.
Pastor John Piper from Desiring God speaks on the matter. He begins by sharing that the word for church is “ekklesia, which means ‘called out ones’ or ‘assembly.’” He says that the church meets locally. Piper shares that people appear to gather in some type of assembly building in 1 Corinthians 11:17 and 22, so it was not just house churches. Piper says it is neither commanded nor forbidden to meet in homes. He says that leaders should pray through the pros and cons of how to gather.
He concludes, “So, whatever the limitations are culturally, financially, legally, it is a wonderful and fitting and helpful thing when local churches can find both small expressions of fellowship and mutual ministry, one-another ministry, and larger gatherings for worship and encouragement and witness. And I think it is significant that Acts 5:42 says, ‘Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus,’ which seems to imply that there was an early sense of need that there be both larger and smaller gatherings.”
2. Are We Loving Well?
1 Corinthians 13:1b says, “…if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
Where is your Christian community? How are you loving God? How are people being loved well? Where is the heart and the focus? Is it Christ-centered or “me” centered? I appreciate the way that Chan, like Billy Graham, saw greater value in the gospel than his own personal success and financial gain. This takes a lot of character and strength by the Holy Spirit.
3. Are We Sharing Our Faith and Inviting Others In?
A big pro to the house church model is that unbelievers might be more likely to step into a house than a church building. In today’s post-Christian culture, we need to think strategically about the most effective way to share Christ. What worked 30 years ago may not work well today.
In thinking about the Jesus Revolution which took place in the beginning of the ‘70s, it was the hippies and teaching and music meeting nonbelievers where they were, not trying to confirm them to hymns or traditions. They did not condone sin, but they stepped toward the sinners like Jesus (Matthew 9:10-13). Are we doing this well?
It is fascinating to me, and I think worth looking at, how this has been helpful through the pandemic and even in general for evangelism. In our current time and place, maybe this is something to consider, or at least learn from as people who might meet in a more traditional way, to think through how are we multiplying, be it through small groups, or outreach, and how we are creating genuine connection.
Ultimately, we are all trying to seek Jesus and share His gospel to the world. The enemy loves to divide, but we are called to follow the Holy Spirit and be obedient to the great commission. To God be the glory.
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