Matt Chandler - The Plagues

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. We’re going to start in Exodus 8:20. If you don’t have a Bible with you, I want to encourage you to grab one of the hardback black ones somewhere around you. If you don’t own one, that’s our gift to you, so feel free to take that. I think it’s important—actually, I always think it’s important—but especially this week, as we are going to cover a lot of scripture together. In fact, we’ll read almost three chapters in a moment, which will take about 20 minutes of the message as we read through the scriptures. I want you to be able to see that I’m not making anything up; we’re just letting the Word of God read us as we read it.

Before we dive in, I want to lay this before you. Two years ago, we felt, as an elder board, that we needed to think, pray, and read the scriptures to figure out if we were doing everything we could to help us mature as a body and maximize the years that God has given us together to serve Him. About two years ago, we felt compelled through study and prayer to consider how we are planting churches and how we are helping other churches start. In the midst of that, we began to feel drawn towards what we called campus transition, which is to take some of our campuses and transition them into autonomous churches.

There’s nothing humanly speaking that seems wise about this; it means giving away millions of dollars of real estate and some of our most gifted and talented people. It also means purposefully shrinking the size of our own church. Yet, compelled by the Spirit of God, we stepped out in faith. A little over a year ago, the Denton campus became The Village Church Denton, which is no longer affiliated with us in any real way other than strong relational ties. They have flourished as an independent church with their own elder board, deacons, staff, and finances. They have thrived in Denton.

Now, there has been a lot going on in the background that I want to present to you today, so that you might join us in prayer. In January, our Fort Worth campus will vote on whether or not they will be the next campus to transition off of The Village Church and become an autonomous campus. If you’re wondering how they are taking this, no one in the room is shocked. We have had Town Hall meetings and various discussions around the Fort Worth campus regarding this. Denton voted at about 96%, which, to be honest, was a little offensive to me. I was hoping for about 80% or something like that. But no, 96% was the core response, and we’re fine with that. How beautiful is it when mission takes precedence over individual preferences?

So when a campus rolls off or when we plant a church, when we spend money sending people to the ends of the earth to herald the good news of the Gospel to all who will hear, these are things that we need to celebrate and love. In Flower Mound and in PLO, while we might not feel the full impact of the transition, they are us, and we are them. They have come from us. I want you to begin to pray with us as we navigate various matters in the background. I want you to begin to pray that this transition would go smoothly. We’ll know more in January, as they will vote then, and depending on that vote, they could be autonomous starting in August. Every time this happens, I want us to learn to celebrate and be excited because we are showing through our actions, not just with our words, that we believe in a kingdom that is bigger than The Village Church and that we believe in a faith that reaches to the ends of the earth.

The model we see in the New Testament is not that of an ever-increasing church at Jerusalem, but rather an understanding that God will be known to the ends of the earth, and our glad participation in that mission. When my time with you is finished—I think I’ve promised you 40 years—and as much as it depends on me, I can’t control whether I’m alive or not. However, when our 40 years together are up, I would love to look out on the horizon and see hundreds and hundreds of new churches that have been started all over the world. That would be such a better legacy than just one gargantuan mega-church that someone poor has to come in and try to manage. So ultimately, will you pray with us for these ends? We want to celebrate that the mission is greater than any one place and that God is serious about the ends of the earth knowing and hearing the beauty of His grace.