Matt Chandler is the lead pastor of teaching at the Village Church, a Southern Baptist church inFlower Mound, Texas, and the President of the Acts 29 Network. Chandler's first book, co-authored with Jared Wilson, The Explicit Gospel, was released in 2012. In it he explains what the gospel is and how it has been misunderstood.
Biography
Chandler was born in Seattle, Washington. His father was in the military, causing him to move multiple times. They lived in Olympia, Washington; Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Alameda, California and Galveston, Texas. In Texas, the 6' 5" Chandler was a member of the high school football team. He often refers to the fact that Jeff Faircloth, a football teammate, was quick to share the good news of Jesus with him in a way that intrigued Chandler. Over the course of two years, Chandler attended church gatherings, opposed the beliefs, raised questions, and doubts against Christianity and eventually submitted his life to the Lordship of Christ. Following high school, Chandler acquired his first job, as a janitor at Pine Drive Christian School in Dickinson, Texas. Chandler first spoke in front of a crowd when he was asked to share his testimony at a high school chapel. He was then offered a job as a youth minister at a small Baptist church in La Marque, Texas at the age of 18. Chandler moved to Abilene, Texas where he attended Hardin-Simmons University. While there, Chandler began leading the weekly Grace Bible Study at the Paramount Theater, which grew from a couple of hundred attendees to a couple of thousand. Chandler earned a Bible degree from Hardin-Simmons University. In 1996, Chandler was hired by Beltway Park Baptist Church under pastor David McQueen. In 1999, Chandler started a non-profit called Waiting Room Ministries with close friend Shane Barnard. Chandler twice started seminary classes but dropped out both times because he felt that he had acquired the tools he was learning from seminary back in bible school. He married his wife, Lauren, on July 31, 1999, and they have three children: Audrey, Reid and Norah. A woman on the board of his non-profit organization asked Chandler to put in a résumé at Highland Village First Baptist Church. Chandler claims he did not expect to get the job due to conflicts in beliefs. Despite this, he was offered the job, and in 2002 he accepted the position. The church at that point had an attendance of 160 people. Now known as The Village Church, it has since grown to over 14,000 attendees. Chandler says his character was partially shaped by John Piper. On Thanksgiving morning in 2009, Chandler had a seizure at his home and was later diagnosed with anaplasticoligodendroglioma, a malignant brain tumor. Chandler commented in June 2010 that he believed that God healed his cancer. He received treatment at Baylor University Medical Center and was given a clean bill of health in September 2010. In March 2012, Chandler was named president of Acts 29 Network, succeeding Mark Driscoll who had helped found the network of church planters but was later removed for a pattern of "ungodly and disqualifying behavior". Acts 29 Network is a partnership of church plants that has grown to over 400 churches in the United States and around the world.
Theological views
Israel and the Church
Chandler makes a distinction between Israel and the church, as two different bodies that God created at different points in history. Chandler sees the church as being created by God through Christ's preaching: "God created the Church through the proclaimed gospel of the revealed Word, Jesus Christ."
Chandler believes in Christian hedonism, a phrase coined by John Piper, teaches that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" and that God's highest pursuit and man's deepest and most durable joy come together in one pursuit—namely, the pursuit of satisfaction in God.
Historic Creationism
Regarding creationism, Chandler refers to himself as a "historic creationist", taking the view presented by Old Testament professor Dr. John Sailhamer in his book Genesis Unbound. Chandler describes the view, in his words, that God created the universe "in the early stages of an unknowable period of time" and that the days of creation were when "God groom a section of land that was uninhabitable...and prepare it for Adam and Eve and plac them in the garden and g them the cultural mandate, 'Go and make the rest of the world look like this. You're going to need a lot of help. Have a lot of babies.'" He affirms that the creation of the universe took place before the biblical Creation Week.
Complementarianism
Chandler holds to a complementarian view of gender roles. This view states that man and woman are equal in essence, value and dignity, but were created and called by God for distinct roles within the home and church. Husbands are charged to lead, protect and provide for their wives and families and wives to affirm and submit to their husbands' leadership. Men are also to bear the primary responsibility of leading the local church; therefore, the office of pastor/elder is restricted to men. Chandler believes that men were designed to be "cultivators, growers, nurturers, and builders".
Calvinism
Chandler's soteriology is Calvinistic. This view states that a person's “response to the gospel is rooted and grounded in the free and unconditional election of God for His own pleasure and glory.”
Continuationism
Regarding spiritual gifts, Chandler is a continuationist. He believes that supernatural gifts such as prophecy, miracles, healings and speaking in tongues have not ceased and should be exercised within the church under the authoritative parameters that Scripture provides.
The Village Church
Chandler is an elder and the lead pastor of teaching at The Village Church, which is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and consists of three campuses: Flower Mound, Southlake, and Fort Worth. The Village Church considers itself to be "gospel-centered." Their mission statement reads, "At The Village Church, the means by which we will pursue the glory of God in the making of disciples is four-fold: gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, gospel-centered service and gospel-centered multiplication. The church has an average growth rate of over one thousand people per year. Chandler believes the growth after his arrival helped him to make many changes, including switching to all maleeldership.
Books
Chandler's first book is titled The Explicit Gospel. The book was published by Crossway Books in 2012, and was written with the help of Jared Wilson. RELEVANT Magazine explained that the purpose of the book was to clarify the gospel and its implications. The book is divided into three main sections: The Gospel on the Ground, The Gospel in the Air and Implications and Applications. His second book is titled Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church, and was written with fellow Village pastor Josh Patterson and LifeWay Vice-President Eric Geiger. Published by B&H Publishing Group, the book is described in B&H's promotional materials this way: "When the gospel is rightly declared and applied to God's people, the church becomes "a creature of the Word." She understands, embraces, and lives out the reality of Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection in more than her doctrinal statement. The gospel impacts all the church is and does." His latest book, Take Heart: Christian Courage in the Age of Unbelief was published in 2018 by The Good Book Company.
