Popular author and preacher Francis Chan walked away from his megachurch to try something completely different – a series of tiny house churches in inner city San Francisco. Why the change? And what can we learn from his big experiment in going “small?” This week on the podcast with Francis Chan – is the future of the church tiny??
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Really loved hearing about this new church work. Interestingly, the approach Francis Chan is describing sounds an awful lot like the Open Brethren movement that was started in the 1830s in England by people like George Mueller and included missionaries like Hudson Taylor and Jim Elliot. There were some unfortunate branches of Brethrenism over the years (including the Darbyites [the founder of which invented dispensationalism]), but the movement’s general emphasis on the empowerment of the laity, Bible study, and regular communion would resonate with many of the distinctives Francis mentioned.
I also really enjoyed hearing about what Francis is doing. As a family, we are searching for something different. We have tried doing Church at Home, but this doesn’t work very well… and it is too easy to let it slide. I was inspired by this, and have found a small church in the area that we are going to look at. Sounds fairly similar, and intentionally small. I like the sound of this.