“This is Wrong, Unfounded, and Mean” Church Releases Audio Of Acts 29 Network Kicking Them Out for Unspecified ‘Public Critique’
Three months ago, Pastors Chase Davis and Matt Patrick of The Well Church in Boulder, Colorado, posted a letter online announcing their disaffiliation from the Acts 29 Network due to theological concerns. Founded by Mark Driscoll and then taken over by Matt Chandler in 2012, Acts 29’s evangelistic church planting network was designed to exemplify a deep biblicism, mostly on the back of its Calvinistic soteriology, but in the years since downgrade has crept in. At the time the pastors explained some of the issues they’d been having.:
“We have also become alarmed by systems within Acts 29 that have led to things like women preaching and the promotion of transgenderism within Acts 29 churches, which go against both Acts 29’s distinctives and biblical truth…
We have brought our concerns to the attention of leaders in Acts 29 over the past two years through many phone calls and town halls. We have also questioned, sincerely, how our required 2% annual giving to the network is being used and have found no more clarity over the matter than when we first inquired. We had also requested to see Acts 29’s bylaws, but we were told that they are “in-house documents…”
We are not alone in our concerns around these theological issues. Other churches have recently left the network because its leadership has not provided clarity on such matters. For example, you can read Coram Deo’s recent letters to the board, which went unanswered. You can also read Garden City Church’s letter highlighting concerns regarding a lack of financial transparency and not being an example that we wish to follow.“
Chase and Patrick are not wrong to be concerned over the direction some Acts 29 churches are headed. One example that we can think of would be Park Church in Denver, Colorado, which is absolutely drenched with wokeness and streaks of compromise.
Chase and Patrick explain what happened in light of their requests for clarity: “In early 2023, Acts 29 removed our church from the network without warning. We had been members in good standing in Acts 29 for 12 years. There was no indication that this action would be taken against our church. It was a unilateral decision made by the board of the network. There is no process of appeal.”
Since being kicked out of the network, which they’ve given hundreds of thousands of dollars to, they’ve been hearing that Acts 29 representatives have been misrepresenting them and the reasons they were forced out; bad-mouthing them and describing them as “unhinged” while claiming they had many warnings before being removed from the network. The pastors have released the January 2023 phone call to combat these lies and because “we feel it is our responsibility to provide transparency to our brothers currently pastoring Acts 29 affiliated churches about the precarious position in which their fellowship rests.
You can see a snippet here or watch the full video here. Notably, Acts 29’s reasons for giving them the boot are vague and unspecified, and they seem terminally unable to give clear, concise, and transparent examples of precepts they have violated that would warrant them being removed.
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Acts 29: Yet another (former) Christian organization that has gleefully replaced God’s Word with the world. Run, saints.