I know that Matt Chandler has been in the hospital and in the fight for his life. I have seen videos of him preaching a couple of times and went searching for another sermon tonight. The first one I came across was from June of this year. It was about the church at Ephesus and what happened to them over a span of 40-45 years. Within this sermon there are many applicable topics for us including the reliance of many churches on pragmatism rather than knowledge of and complete trust in God to make ministry work.
I remember sitting in a Board of Directors meeting many years ago at Mt. Calvary. We had brought in another outside "expert" who was schooled in church building. He used the illustration of a barrel which had 8 slats - each slat supposedly represented one of the key tenets of a healthy growing church. I don't remember what they were off the top of my head but I knew, courtesy of the Holy Spirit, that we were on the wrong path. You can't plan your way to growth...and if you do happen to grow because of your plans rather than the draw of the Holy Spirit to the magnificence of Christ...you are in BIG trouble. I was just too young to really be able to verbalize my reservations intelligently. Now my sense is that Mt. Calvary has gotten away from this approach and is more about Gospel and God's glory and following His call. I certainly pray that is the case.
So, here is a brief excerpt from the sermon.
The entire sermon video can be found here:
http://theresurgence.com/matt-chandler-preaching-gospel-de-churched
The audio only version is at Desiring God here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/45/3956_Preaching_the_Gospel_to_the_Dechurched/
I'll tell ya what. If I was a pastor...this is how I would want to preach. I have great respect for the way Matt allows God to use him and I pray for his recovery.
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