Acts 29 Church Planting Network Exposed 

Went to Matt Chandler’s The Village Church from 2005 to 2019. And we lived through the change/shift left. While I think Matt’s heart is in the right place, what I heard was just not biblical and veered political. Out of the 10 families in our Homegroup, 9 left the church over the last 4 years. Matt often made a point to say “if you don’t agree, this might not be the place for you” …. And he was right. We left.

My church, Frontline Church in Oklahoma, just announced that we are leaving Acts 29

So glad this is coming out and brothers are stepping up and saying, "Hey wait this isn't right." Thanks Chase and Jon

His story sounds so similar to our own. Not necessarily with Acts 29 but just the slow journey of realizing what was/is happening. For years, we would be scratching our heads, wondering if there was something wrong with us through various teachings, books, etc. 2020 was our family’s turning point of fully waking up to what was going on at a SBC church where we had been for over a decade and all the big Eva woke influence that we had. We stumbled upon a video by you, Jon, in that year, explaining how woke theology is anti-gospel and we were so glad to know we weren’t crazy. We left our church and have still been occasionally turning from bad theology we have regarding different things that creeped in starting in college. Praise the Lord for your channel!

I Left my church in 2022 because it had become apparent to me that it was becoming extremely seeker sensitive and started having DEI undertones. That was a year AFTER I gave the pastor Voddie Baucham’s book Fault Lines. I was not raised Baptist but found a country Baptist church and that’s where I am now.

We planted with Acts 29 in 2014. We partnered with an Acts 29 church in our planting community. After about 2-3 years it became clear that there was something different that we were preaching and what that other church was. They went from not engaging things like politics to our frustration, to hosting events to talk about social justice issues. My wife had women who supported abortion in her small group. Things like this ended friendships we had within this partnership. I couldn't understand how members of this church could believe these things and hold to them so firmly that they would end personal friendships. I can see clearly now that they continued with this Acts 29 path as we were going a different direction. MLK50 was a major shake up for us and we quietly stepped away from the network.

In 2018 my old church wanted to be more diverse and got a black pastor name Edward Robinson who brought his woke, social justice agenda. Doug Logan brought him from a Acts 29 church in Philly to Riverside church in South Florida and talk about a little leaven the church became woke really quick. I stud up against all the social justice and woke garbage and I was the bad guy😂 Thank God I left in 2021

2 Timothy 4:3. KJ21. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but having itching ears, they shall heap to themselves teachers in accordance with their own lusts.

How can I not be so ticked after listening to this? Thankful for Pastor Matt and Pastor Chase and commitment to God’s Word. Today I found out about Bruce Ashford too. The whole thing makes me ill.

I had a inside joke with my former church’s executive pastor about A29. We both looked at the business model and realized it was the largest Christian Pyramid Scheme aimed at new churches. It’s pretty strange that many “mega-pastors” and their organizations eventually dissolve into this “loyalty to the brand” attitude as mentioned here. We aren’t built to claim glory. We’re built to give it to God. Praying the Lord would guide all the past/present A29 affiliates away from this hurtful and deceptive environment and back towards true Godly fellowship.

Bottom line is when you deviate from biblical precepts, you’re bound to be exposed

My wife and I live in Nicaragua and it is so sad to see what is happening in the churches and Biblical institutions. I have Friends here who want to go to Seminary in the states but is worried about all of these woke schools. And not sure which is best. My wife and I word with a church we started in 2009. We are still young but we are trying to stick strictly to Biblical standards. There is alot of women preachers here and men who have been married 2 or 3 times. So we had a little push back on that but I think we got past those issues.

We gotta do better with our Discernment guys!!....The writing was on the wall years ago!

I recently made the mistake of attending an Acts29 church. Can't say I was ever a member, it never felt right. They don't outright get the gospel wrong. It's what they think they can read in it. Acts should of died with Driscoll. A lot of the churches are small independent churches that would be better off realising they don't need it.

I thank God he got me out of the Village Church 5 yrs ago. It’s more of a nightmare than I thought.

Everything woke goes to crap.

"Betrayal" is the perfect word for all of this. My (I guess now former) church closed for a year, then banned unmasked for 1 week short of another year, went woke, and I wouldn't be surprised if they began platforming women as preachers. Every time I click on a video, there's more and more women leading more and more of the service. Bizarre. I've lost all my friends there. I've lost children that I used to babysit on a regular basis. They don't even know me anymore. I was essentially alone for 2 years. I went through the final stages and now death of my mother, alone. Now I am expected to act like none of this ever happened?! What else is that, but betrayal?

When Driscoll took over this concept and began to threaten organizations that already used Acts 29 for certain projects, it became clear that Driscoll's Acts 29 was going to end up in a bad place. It just took longer than I thought.

"You will know them by their fruits," Matthew 7:16

14:00 much of this I deeply resonate with as a pastor in the SBC and having gone to the last 2 annual meetings "Everything is great, we're on the up swing etc"

Thank you for this video, Jon!

This video is very helpful for Acts 29 churches which are awake. Hopefully they see clearly to leave. Maybe they should start Acts 29B where the B is for "based" or "Biblical" It would be helpful to do a video on who the CBN is running against Bart Barber this year at SBC 23. In particular, this might help pastors who have been tricked by the Saddleback excommunication to understand that CBN is neither ready, willing, or able to reform the SBC. Sorry, but here we are in March and I have yet to hear who is opposing Bart this year. Yet, we're supposed to wait it out and see what happens in N.O.... with Bart controlling the stage we'll have a new stack of excuses for all the unaccomplished reforms. At the end of it all, the same players who have centralized control and denied calls for transparency will still sit in their positions of power. How is the CBN going to cause change in the SBC when as far as I can cipher they don't even have a game plan for how specifically they're going to take back the trustee boards ? I'd love to be able to avoid attending an SBC church, sadly 1/6 churches in the USA is SBC. Many of these are locally good churches. We need arguments to give our pastors courage to leave. So many of them are bound up in their traditions and they can't even see it for what it is (ironic, Baptist institutional tradition when you think about it...). It's a full time job to properly unravel the lies, duplicity and grift. Moreover, it's not going away or getting easier even if the CBN somehow gets lucky and wins despite their lack of an attack plan (prove me wrong, please).

I was going to put myself through a church planting assessment with them. They put me with one of their local poster boys who planted a church from scratch in the local area. He was so extroverted that he made for a good church planter but was also reckless in his methods behinds the scenes. He called me a title seeker and said all people of my race were title seekers. But this is what most church planting franchises are looking for: metrics driven results who care more about numbers, their own kingdom then Gods. I quit pastoral ministry 2 years later.

I used to attend an Acts 29 church in the KC area (shouldn’t be hard to figure out which one) where our “Directional Leader” was big in leadership circles for Acts 29. He is no longer with the church because he treated people like trash and eventually was forced to leave after an investigation. Leadership was very avoiding of hard questions throughout that process. I’m thankful to have ended up at a solid church after all of that, but it’s disappointing because there were so many great people there.

Interesting info here. Years ago, when I was first introduced to Acts 29 I knew something wasn't right and didn't trust them. So many with "good theology" seem to have bad practices and corruption throughout. Makes you wonder how good their theology actually is.

Great info thank you !

Chase Davis, it makes PERFECT sense why they asked you to leave WITHOUT evidence. The lesson is to avoid Big Eva. Keep your eyes on Christ and just remain faithful. Numbers on the seats is not a measure of success or faithfulness. All of our works will be evaluated in heaven and any crowns we earn we will return to Christ Jesus, the True object of our worship and who is Truly interceding for us before the Father.

Apparently I'm the only one scratching my head at what is an "Acts 29 Church" or "Church Network" never heard of it

Wow, what a tragedy. Well, judgement does start with the church so the sifting has obviously begun.

Great convo, fellas

You're right about similar things happening across the different denominations and streams of Christianity. I'm non reformed, grew up AG, and it's the same kind of stuff. It's sad when leadership abandons its denominational roots, and worse, when they abandon the word of God. It's like they've become politicians and pharisees: plenty of *religion*, but the wrong Jesus.... 😔😔

Acts 29 has the same issues as does the NAMB at SBC - preach what we want, give us money, and don't question us abut going "woke".

I have been a bit surprised at some of the experienced well known pastors which I considered to be theologically conservative that have gone woke. This shows just how seductive the woke movement is. One one hand I am so scared at the liberal direction so many churches appear to be taking, but one the other hand I know that God is in control and this could just be a purging to separate wheat and tares.

Great interview.

As bad as this is at least they now have a commitment to wokeness. I just left a denomination who had a commitment to "not offending anybody" and in the process constantly offending the patriarchal, conservative, orthodox Christians. They liked the idea of "having space for differences on non-salvation issues". It sounds like Acts 29 was leaning woke for a long time and drug along good churches for a long time softening them up for their woke ideologies.

Thank you for doing everything you do ❤

Friend’s CO church became ACTS 29. Three years ago they preached “diversity” constantly as if it is a Biblical goal. Recently the church celebrated their 5th anniversary. In their pics it is all “lily white.” They must have been feeling the pressure to repeat the ACTS 29 mantra but God has not seen fit to do it that way in their body.

I feel even more grateful after listening to this. God has prepared works for us beforehand that we might walk in them. We don’t need all this to love Jesus. Find people and do what Jesus says! You don’t need mama permission!

As a Colorado native, thank you and God bless you

As a former pastor who has been hurt by others, this guest is showing huge restraint and grace to a29... Keep going brother and look to king Jesus!

After hearing this, it sounds like Acts 29's governance is no different then Mars Hill's was. The authority and branding is eerily similar. As Chase said, it was all baked into the cake.

It’s sad how common this story is nowadays

Wow. Absolute power ALWAYS corrupts.

This just further confirms that the local church should be just that, a LOCAL church. Glad to hear he’s starting a local organization focused on his immediate area

I had two doctoral seminars with Tony Merida at Southeastern. This is interesting. He may still be adjunct faculty at Southeastern, but I know a while back he went full-time with his church Imago Dei. I believe he is on the board at Gospel Coalition as well.

Pastor Chase, thank you for your clarity and courage. The church that I attend is a member of the IFCA, the Independent Fundamental Churches of America, for accountability, guidance, and encouragement. You might consider them as an alternative.

Why waste your time asking questions and dealing with confusion, being ignored etc? Lying hypocrites will never tell you who they are and what they're doing. It's not your people, just leave!

great interview, appreciate the transparency and sincerity. quite illuminating and revealing. however, I have only gotten through 12 minutes. guess I need to work on my attention span and focus.

It is outrageous Acts 29 would suck all this great amount of money out of a local church and then dismiss them without explanation or justification.

I'm just starting this. But all he had to say was "Eric Mason." After watching him call people "Angloid" at the MLK50 conference, I want NOTHING to do with that disgusting, racist man. Is he still even in the pulpit as a pastor? How?!

Good info !

Just discovering this video as I am a newer subscriber. I am interested. Wow! How do you know if the church you attend supports Acts 29 is what I am exploring.

This is very enlightening

This same kind of thing happened to my Acts 29 Church in Carson City NV. Harvey Turner Lead Pastor fired My Pastor Fred Kingman and then slandered him on Social media. It was in 2018. They answered no questions and made no attempt to repent.

Driscoll seemed to be (based on what I heard) heavy handed in leadership, but he was certainly never woke.

Is the SEND Network affiliated with Acts at sll?

All you need is God’s word and the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth

In these days before the harpazo of the church, the Word of God is very clear regarding vast amounts of churches becoming more as the church at Laodicea. The great commission has been replaced with these churches, replacing winning the lost for Christ with the false Gospel of the false church.

It’s a mystery to me what happens in these peoples brains. Matt Chandler would be a good case study.

I have been to 2 churches in central Fl. That I think have ties to the acts 29 network but you cant find them on the church finder. My question is are there churches in the network that cant be found in there church finder? I had a close friend for years that is pastor that has been invited to a confrence by Mark Dever. My understanding is he heavy involved maybe I am wrong.

The default is for things to get worse. When has any woke group ever repented? Let Acts 29 implode on itself, then start over with a new organization true to Jesus.

Transgender rights? From a church? How hateful, to not minister to such sin and brokenness, and just lend a hand of acceptance? Don't condemn what God doesn't condemn, but also don't approve of what God doesn't approve of!

Cancun!!

Why would you force yourself into a place that you no longer fit the spirit of God is no longer with Acts 29 the things that they're preaching the ungodliness I don't believe the spirit of God is there I wouldn't be mad about being kicked out you guys should have left a long time ago on your own when you have to ask so many questions it is time to leave you no longer trust that body that leadership it is time to leave

Question: Glad that there was a lot of pushback against a woman being allowed to preach in an Acts 29 church in North Carolina, but hasn't Matt Chandler himself allowed Jen Wilkin to preach in the Sunday morning service in the Village Church?

Speaking just as an average "sheep", the churchgoer: What is still desperately needed, especially after the last few years of woke and Covid insanity, is a church directory of biblical, non woke, non Covid measures, non female pastors (you get the idea) churches. I did try the Church Finders(?) that Jon mentioned a few times, but it was limited to suburbs that I can't get to because I don't drive. This is Chicago, not some small town.

What I find mind blowing is that it took wokeness to get people to leave when this lack of authenticity and transparency has been around for a long time. I left an A29 church some years ago after being inside for 12 years and frankly was the best decision of my life. Honestly, I still am working through a lot of what I experienced. And grieve over the lost time spent in an unhealthy community. But am so glad to be in a better church that does have a much better culture. That’s the bigger issue with A29 and sadly many other groups. Autocratic leaders and boards that are more concerned with protecting the Brand than caring for the people God has entrusted to them. And it will not go well for them in the time of Judgement if they do not practice the same repentance they preach.

If it were not for Acts 29 forcing the well out, the well would still be joined to Acts 29. That says a lot about the whether they would be good to join up with in a new association of churches.

Jesus said if you love me feed my sheep, not slaughter them and turn them over to the wolves!

The organized minority will always defeat the disorganized majority.

I'll admit to being naive with church matters, Driscoll , Chandler, ERIC MASON you do business with this group and you wonder why things are not quite right? All you guys are way more educated than I am, you are way smarter than I, so why would you have anything to do with these people. I'm confused as to what you were giving them all this money for. From what you are saying they are taking in millions and for what? Oh and I'll assume that wasn't your money but the money taken from the congregation that you're giving away to these millionaires so you could go to exotic places for a confrence every year. They lie about you they have already robbed your congregation, corruption, money, and power it seems like that is all these so called church organizations are about, like billy crone says no wonder you can't witness and tell people about Jesus why would anyone want to be apart of this.

Shoot. Just be focused on "The People Republic of Boulder". (32:05 time stamp) That alone has enough opportunity for discipleship for 14 generations. Good job. Thanks for exposing this. Enlightening and grateful to not be a part of Acts 29.

Former A29 pastor here who was very involved with high level leadership in the network (VP’s and other directors). I haven’t quite finished the video, but I can assure you it is worse than many think. The network is more about stuffing pockets of leadership than planting churches. I have personally witnessed money from the network fund meals for a handful of leaders upwards of many thousands of dollars, and pay for VP’s to travel to other country’s to have lunch for the day and fly back. It is far worse than people realize

Back when people were listening to Driscoll and Chandler DW was listening to MacArthur. Hard to believe MacArthur did join events with some of these woke clowns. I guess that's before they knew what the word woke meant

Since the very name of the network is extra-Biblical, it is not surprising that the network itself eventiually became extra-Biblical.

I could tell what this video was going to be like as soon as I heard the banjos in the intro.

What is the Theology of Acts 29? We believe that through the work of the Holy Spirit, God will draw the elect to faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously and effectually overcoming their stubborn resistance to the gospel so that they will most assuredly and willingly believe. Is this accurate ?

You mention SBC, E Free, and PCA in the first minute of you're video. I have not watched all those videos, but your intro to this one seems to suggest you put all three of those, plus Acts 29, in the category of no longer faithful. Is that what you intended? Is that a fair summary of your perspective in the other vids? If not, maybe re-do the intro on this one.

The church I attended one day, is complementation. But it had no real children/youth ministry in which a woman could participate. The women I saw were cooking food and cleaning. That's fine, but they should have good opportunities for women other than nursery, etc. Complementary doesn't mean patriarchal. Also there small groups were heavily pushed and my concern was how trained would the leaders be, plus they would allow alcohol to be served in those homes during the small groups. And I think they delve heavily into confessing sins publicly which I found potentially dangerous to a person's walk with God. They don't know psychology or the real person enough to have deep conversations and should do consouneling in private if a person needs it not in a group situation. I thought about trying them again but the only way to do mission outreach there is in those small groups which I think are close to mandatory and my husband works a swing shift and I want to be available to him if he's off that day.

I attended one service of this church they called Sacred City. I kind of liked the less strict liturgy, but didn't like the Acts29 premiss which seems like adding to the scriptures. But I also didn't like their Creed which talks about bolstering and spreading the word to "the city." Idk something about it put me off. The pastor talked to me but don't know if I'd have a place there as a woman.

Acts 29 appears to be going the way of T4G and 9Marx should follow along.

25 minutes in, I have a question about the management's behaviour. If Chase is correct then those particular individuals in management have been lying about Chase and then doubling down on those lies, saying publicly untrue things about Chase's church. My question: are these people even christian, to behave so badly to others, or are they like David in the O.T who started and continued in sin until confronted but was still saved. Are these people christian brothers, or are they tares sown amongst the wheat? How are we to think and or pray about them?

So who was this female pastor? I want to make sure her teachings aren’t promoted in my church.

Mr. Harris -- I have a very interesting story about the name "Acts 29" that you might be interested in hearing. (Bottom line: The name may have been "borrowed" from my work without attribution.) Let me know, if you would like to hear it. Shalom, -- KC

I’m confused. Chase said that he wasn’t publicly discussing this or discussing this with anyone other than the leadership, but he was trying to get the others to collaborate and press the issues? Not that I disagree with his concerns but that seems to be a case of double speak. Maybe be misspoke on his timeline but if in fact he had been trying to get them to go with him to confront then that’s technically the charge of sowing discord regardless of the need for it.

It sounds a lot like The Acts 29 Network is more a fifth column than a parachurch or even a Christian network. Or, maybe it is a secret chapter of Scientology.

Sounds identical to what happened to our Sovereign Grace Ministries church. Glad that season is over.

Sadly, the "oligarchy" you have described has become cultural within individual church doors in a trickle-down sort of fashion. Local leaders are behaving in an eerily similar way in relating to their flock, as they have seen this modeled, tolerated, and even revered within the network, apparently. Accountability gets weaponized and only works in one direction. A self-appointed elder board accountable to none; a flock afraid to speak up, rendered powerless.

Tony Merida was my preaching professor.

My concern with Chase Davis is that he didn’t leave five years ago. From what he said it was decidedly woke by then. I’d have greater respect for him if he had left on his own rather than waiting to be kicked out. That said, I do think what he’s saying is worth hearing.

Assemblies of God has a good doctrinal paper and "positions" paper thoroughly written and relevant to modern ideas, winds of doctrines blowing through the land and the church. All churches should make available and encourage reading doctrinal and positions of their pastor/church so they know what to expect in there sermons or whether to leave/join/attend the church. Its not complicated and very important to know this stuff. However, many churches seem to hide this information or are seemingly afraid of having their attendees know where they stand. Moreover, many websites dumb down doctrinal/belief statements on their website. This is one way to quickly determine if a church is worth attending or not. . .Are they dumbing/hiding doctrinal positions? If not, they are straight shooters and you should consider making that church your home. If they dumb it down/hid it, you will get the same thing from the pulpit and it will ultimately reflect in the peoples lives who attend that church.

See how Marc Driscoll now speaks about against about 'woke' in his Elijah-sermons.

"started" by Mark Driscoll. Legacy

Theology for A29 - reformed

Please pray for the Acts29 network. We need more gospel preaching churches to speak truth and it looks like a lot of people in leadership need to repent and reevaluate their stance on certain issue. I seriously believe that at first Matt Chandler meant well. He got caught up in wokeism like a lot of people during Tamir Rice, George Floyd, etc. I believe he later realized that he was misled but was too deep in it and too proud to admit it.

Petronius Arbitar quote is appropriate. Reorganization

Let me recommend to you all that you start making friends with some CREC guys in your area.

Religion without power talking about religion without power.

Years ago I went to a Denver A29 church (the pastor Hunter is now on the A29 board). Focus was on pseudo-intellectual Tim Keller style to appeal to hip city audience. Never heard the gospel there. Non-pc topics (sin) were kept out of the main sermons and forced to rare off-time special “discussion” nights. Maybe it’s better now. No idea.

Tony Morita or Tony Merida?