Francis Chan

In a talk to Facebook employees, Francis Chan explained why he left his thriving mega church in California and started a house church.

I got frustrated at a point, just biblically. I'm going; wait a second. According to the Bible, every single one of these people has a supernatural gift that's meant to be used for the body... And I'm like. 5,000 people show up every week to hear my gift, see my gift. That's a lot of waste.

Then I started thinking how much does it cost to run this thing? Millions of dollars! So I'm wasting the human resource of these people that according to Scripture have a miraculous gift that they could contribute to the body but they're just sitting there quietly. Meanwhile, they go to their companies, and they are running big companies, and doing this and that, yet they just sit there and listen to me.

I got so convicted.

The Bible says we are supposed to love one another. That is not a small command. Jesus said this over and over again. They will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another. There are fifty one anothers in the New Testament.

I said to God, “I am so sorry”. Our people don’t even like each other. I make them greet each other for 30 seconds, but that is the extent to it. We like people if they are like us, so we pick little cliques.

I was like, God, you wanted a church that was known for their love. You wanted a group of people where everyone was expressing their gifts... We're a body. I'm one member, maybe I'm the mouth. But if the mouth is the only thing that's working and... I'm trying to drag the rest of the body along, chewing on the carpet...

What would a body look like where everyone is using their gifts, and where everyone is seriously seeking the spiritual gifts, like in 1 Corinthians 12. What would it look like? Is it even possible?

Could we, by the power of the Spirit, love each other so much that it would blow people’s minds? Where none of us have a need. Can we be known for this?