In a recent letter published online, Pastors Chase Davis and Matt Patrick of The Well Church in Boulder, Colorado, have announced their disaffiliation from the Acts 29 Network due to theological concerns. Founded by Mark Driscoll and then taken over by Matt Chandler in 2012, the evangelistic church planting network was designed to exemplify a deep, deep biblicism, mostly on the back of its Calvinistic soteriology, but in the years since downgrade has crept in.
One example would be Park Church in Denver, Colorado, which is a church body that is part of the Acts 29 Network and is absolutely drenched with wokeness and streaks of compromise. With this lack of trust degraded, being an Acts 29 church no longer has the pedigree it once had, which the Well Church has realized with stunning clarity. According to the Dissenter:
The pastors stated that the direction and leadership of the network, including the promotion of women preaching and transgenderism, went against biblical truth and the network’s distinctives. They also expressed concerns about the sudden firing of the Director of Global Partnerships and a lack of clarity on how their required annual giving was being used. Despite repeated efforts to raise their concerns with the network’s leadership, including vice presidents and regional leads, the pastors were suddenly removed from the network without warning or explanation.
“We have been glad to partner with like-minded churches and have experienced great joy from the friendships and brotherhood in the network,” the two wrote. “However, due to various concerns with the direction and leadership of the network itself and its effect on our church-planting efforts in Colorado, our elder team has been praying and reevaluating our relationship with Acts 29.”
“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,” they continued, “which go against both Acts 29’s distinctives and biblical truth.”
Davis and Patrick note that they’re not the only ones talking about this:
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. Another red-flag concern we had was with the sudden firing of the Director of Global Partnerships, Shaun Garmen, from Acts 29. For churches in Acts 29 West, Shaun had been a stabilizing presence and his abrupt firing seemed odd and eroded trust with many churches.
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.” In our conversations with network leaders, including vice presidents and regional leads, we made concerted efforts to communicate clearly and honestly and with charitable hearts.
On January 17th, 2023, and without warning, our lead pastors Matt Patrick and Chase Davis were summoned into an unplanned Zoom call with two Acts 29 Network vice presidents. They informed us that they were removing us from membership in Acts 29, effectively immediately. They claimed the board of Acts 29 unilaterally determined we are no longer a good fit for the network. We were not given any specific examples of what that means, and there were not any prior conversations about us not being a good fit prior to this meeting.
Unless the ship is righted, many more will follow.
