I remember all of this and now I get to pick who she marries and you answer like that? I adore you I adore you,” Francis gushed, his heart overflowing with gratitude for the remarkable way God answered his ‘ridiculous’ prayer. But a swift trip to the top of a church hierarchy in a new place makes it easy to forget that everyone stands on level ground before God, as beloved equals. He had a strong desire to serve God and others not to mention he is very handy to have around. “Earlier this year in February I prayed and I asked God for something that was just ridiculous,” Francis Chan told a group at the Finishing the Task conference held at Saddleback Church on December 8th. “I love you I love you I love you. He made it clear that there were two things I had to do in the States before I could go anywhere else: He wanted me to display a different picture of Church and a different picture of marriage/family. When I considered the need and opportunity, I knew I wanted to be based in Asia. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. I hope you will at least consider the burden of trying to weigh potential outcomes good and bad.
He and his family traveled to India, Thailand and China before settling in San Francisco, where they started "We Are Church," a house church movement that has grown to 25 pastors. In his sermon, Chan addressed Myanmar Christians saying, “I’ve just seen the faith of some of you and I wanna be attached to you. Why didn’t they include the testimony of a Myanmar pastor? But I’ve been changed by my relationships with Myanmar people—people who, as it turns out, know more than I do. Megan is passionate about seeking and proclaiming the truth. The trail opened up to a clearing on the bluff, with a spectacular view of the ocean as a backdrop. Refuse the proffered podium indefinitely. Some of them persist in various forms of resistance and civil conflict. In marketing himself to American Christians as someone doing something in uncharted, unreached territory, The. I also have an opportunity there to work with the ultra poor (living off less than 50 cents a day)—to bring relief, share the gospel, and plant churches among them. The goal has to be that we are forgotten, and that Jesus is lifted up.” Chan critiqued individualism and competitiveness in American Christianity, and confessed to the group: “I’m done with my own strategy. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; } After his mother died, he lived with his grandmother in Hong Kong until he was five. The pictures show his mother nearly 70 years ago as she was living in Hong Kong. A friend of mine here will often go out of her way to tell me how she is certain that Americans are “smarter” and “better” than Myanmar people. Some churches I’ve visited, eager to honor me even as a first-time guest, whisked me away to a VIP private room for a meal with the leaders immediately after the service. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s something to consider.’”, Francis Chan speaks in Myanmar this summer on a vision trip with others from his Crazy Love Ministries team. I have struggled over the years with whether it is wrong to sign books or take pictures with people. I hope you take this in the spirit in which it was written. God’s faithfulness in hearing our specific prayers. I, too, used to look at things through that lens. One final thought- We should all be careful to guard against false teaching of any kind. He refused to be their genie, granting every wish they might have.
It was not a call to come and prosper but rather the opposite- a call to come and suffer. “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.” Titus 3:10, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? When you say that he is the “Lord” of your life, that means your master now is going to ask you to do things that you don’t want to do.” One of the Bible’s unpopular teachings that Chan mentioned is the idea that God is someone to be truly feared. Then Francis and the rest of their family emerged from hiding places to surprise her.
Chan said they were taken in the same neighborhood he was considering moving into and doing ministry.
I want to make sure that I am not guilty of the same thing. I feel stronger when I am connected to you. Chan announced during a student chapel in November 2019 that his family would be moving to Asia in 2020 to do ministry work and plant churches in unreached places.