Listen Now: Spotify | Apple | YouTube
In today’s conversation, Jason is joined by Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, and author of Becoming Like Jesus: The Everyday Journey to Living a Life of Holiness. Matt tells the unlikely story of how a call out of itinerant ministry landed him at a tiny suburban church, and how a three-year stopover became nearly twenty-five years in one place. He and Jason talk about handing real authority to people gifted where he is weak, and the Spirit-led decision to release The Village's campuses as autonomous churches, and giving away sixty million dollars in buildings and resources along the way.
In the back half of the conversation, they turn to Becoming Like Jesus. Matt offers the image of a horizontal coil to describe sanctification, where every high and low still moves you forward, and where the benchmarks of Christian maturity and faithfulness are found in your readiness to repent. Matt also shares how a word study on "quench" in 1 Thessalonians exposed years of neglecting the Spirit, the six years of waiting that followed, and a pastoral word for leaders hungry for renewal.
Jason and Matt discuss:
How a nap in Colorado became a call out of itinerant ministry and into the local church,
How Matt's early leadership was driven more by anti-vision than vision,
Giving real authority to trusted people gifted in his areas of weakness,
Why The Village released its campuses as autonomous churches, and what it cost,
The coil as an image for sanctification, and why repenting more quickly is a sign of growth,
Confessing that he had neglected the Spirit, and the six years of creating space and waiting,
Removing impediments, positioning yourself, and crying out for renewal, starting with your own heart,
and why Psalm 27 should show up on a pastor's calendar.
Matt Chandler
Matt Chandler has served as lead pastor of The Village Church in the Dallas–Fort Worth area for over twenty years and is the executive chairman of Acts 29, a global church-planting network. He is known for clear, gospel-centered preaching, a deep commitment to biblical theology, and a passion for forming healthy disciples and churches. Matt is the author of several books, most recently Becoming Like Jesus: The Everyday Journey to Living a Life of Holiness, and co-hosts the podcast Between Sundays with the Chandlers with his wife, Lauren. Matt and Lauren have three children.
