What could the church do with 1 million dollars?

A few years back, when Francis Chan's church was booming in membership and budget, they were planning on a new $20 million dollar building project for a new sanctuary. However, one of the church's core values was modeling Christ's love for the poor. They came to the conclusion that it would be dishonoring to God to spend so much on a building when people around the world were in need.

They finally decided to build an outdoor amphitheater for much less than a huge worship facility. The reasoning was that in Southern California, the weather is beautiful most of the year, and on days with bad weather, people would be reminded of the suffering of those around the world. Today the church gives upwards of 50% of it's multi-million dollar income to the needy through organizations such as Children's Hunger Fund.

This video was made to explain their decision to the church. I've never been a big fan of mega-churches, but something about this reminds me that this is how church is supposed to be.



More about the building project.

Francis Chan and ethnicity

I have a feeling that Francis Chan will be one of the most influential leaders of this generation. The interesting thing is that Chan is a Chinese American, serving in a largely non-Asian context (at his church and in Passion Conferences). I think God has used his background to open doors for him as a messenger of grace. Seeing how most Asian American Christians struggle to really understanding God's grace, it is fitting that God would use an Asian American to take that message to the church at large.

Also interesting how being an Asian American has opened up a lot of doors for him to communicate this message of grace:

EN: What are some advantages of being a Chinese American amongst mostly Caucasian Americans?

FC: There really hasn’t been a ton. It really opens the doors to so many different venues like some of the more Caucasian venues are open to me because they want a token Asian. So I think that’s cool. And then at the Asian events I feel at home because I totally understand the youth and their upbringing. I feel like I relate because I get the way some of them were raised because that was me. Because of my nationality, when I work in inner-city ministries, it breaks any prejudices or barriers. I feel like God’s used my ethnicity to open a lot of doors for me.

Full article here. Thanks, DJ for the link.