Matt Chandler

Chandler is an elder and the lead pastor of teaching at The Village Church, which is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and (as of October 2019) consists of three campuses: Flower Mound, Southlake, and Fort Worth. The Village Church considers itself to be “gospel-centered.” Their mission statement reads, “At The Village Church, the means by which we will pursue the glory of God in the making of disciples is four-fold: gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, gospel-centered service and gospel-centered multiplication. The church has an average growth rate of over one thousand people per year. Chandler believes the growth after his arrival helped him to make many changes, including switching to all male eldership.

Chandler believes in Christian hedonism, a phrase coined by John Piper, teaches that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” and that God’s highest pursuit (“His glory”) and man’s deepest and most durable joy come together in one pursuit—namely, the pursuit of satisfaction in God.

In March 2012, Chandler was named president of Acts 29 Network, succeeding Mark Driscoll who had helped found the network of church planters but was later removed for a pattern of “ungodly and disqualifying behavior”. Acts 29 Network is a partnership of church plants that has grown to over 400 churches in the United States and around the world.

Chandler’s first book is titled The Explicit Gospel. The book was published by Crossway Books in 2012, and was written with the help of Jared Wilson. RELEVANT Magazine explained that the purpose of the book was to clarify the gospel and its implications. The book is divided into three main sections: The Gospel on the Ground, The Gospel in the Air and Implications and Applications. His second book is titled Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church, and was written with fellow Village pastor Josh Patterson and LifeWay Vice-President Eric Geiger. Published by B&H Publishing Group, the book is described in B&H’s promotional materials this way: “When the gospel is rightly declared and applied to God’s people, the church becomes “a creature of the Word.” She understands, embraces, and lives out the reality of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection in more than her doctrinal statement. The gospel impacts all the church is and does.” His latest book, Take Heart: Christian Courage in the Age of Unbelief was published in 2018 by The Good Book Company.

On Thanksgiving morning in 2009, Chandler had a seizure at his home and was later diagnosed with anaplastic oligodendroglioma, a malignant brain tumor. Chandler commented in June 2010 that he believed that God healed his cancer. He received treatment at Baylor University Medical Center and was given a clean bill of health in September 2010.

A woman on the board of his non-profit organization asked Chandler to put in a résumé at Highland Village First Baptist Church. Chandler claims he did not expect to get the job due to conflicts in beliefs. Despite this, he was offered the job, and in 2002 he accepted the position. The church at that point had an attendance of 160 people. Now known as The Village Church, it has since grown to over 14,000 attendees. Chandler says his character was partially shaped by John Piper.

Following high school, Chandler acquired his first job, as a janitor at Pine Drive Christian School in Dickinson, Texas. Chandler first spoke in front of a crowd when he was asked to share his testimony at a high school chapel. He was then offered a job as a youth minister at a small Baptist church in La Marque, Texas at the age of 18. Chandler moved to Abilene, Texas where he attended Hardin-Simmons University. While there, Chandler began leading the weekly Grace Bible Study at the Paramount Theater, which grew from a couple of hundred attendees to a couple of thousand. Chandler earned a Bible degree from Hardin-Simmons University. In 1996, Chandler was hired by Beltway Park Baptist Church under pastor David McQueen. In 1999, Chandler started a non-profit called Waiting Room Ministries with close friend Shane Barnard. Chandler twice started seminary classes but dropped out both times because he felt that he had acquired the tools he was learning from seminary back in bible school. He married his wife, Lauren, on July 31, 1999, and they have three children: Audrey, Reid and Norah.

Matt Chandler (born June 20, 1974) is the lead pastor of teaching at the Village Church, a Southern Baptist church in Flower Mound, Texas, and the President of the Acts 29 Network. Chandler’s first book, co-authored with Jared Wilson, The Explicit Gospel, was released in 2012. In it he explains what the gospel is and how it has been misunderstood.