Matt Chandler Sees Massive Movement of God in U.S., Driven by the ‘Death of Secularism’
Michael Foust
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By Michael Foust, Crosswalk.com
The pastor of one of America’s most influential churches says he believes the nation is in the midst of a sweeping movement of God, driven by what he calls the “death of secularism” and a growing search for meaning and purpose among Americans.
Matt Chandler is the pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, a Dallas-area congregation that has appeared on Outreach Magazine’s lists of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing churches and has helped launch multiple congregations across its region that now operate independently.
He is also the author of the new book Becoming Like Jesus: The Everyday Journey to Living a Life of Holiness, set for release April 28.
“We are in the middle of something. I hope it's the beginning, not the middle. The last three years here have been just marked by supernatural activity,” he said of his church, adding that a friend described the harvest like fruit “falling off the tree into the basket.”
Chandler said his church has prayed that God would bring the same movement they’ve been witnessing in other communities across the U.S. and around the world to their congregation. That prayer, he said, was answered last year when The Village Church experienced a record number of baptisms.
“We don't want to watch it play out on YouTube – we want to avail ourselves to the Lord and ask Him to do it here. And He has honored that prayer here in really stunning ways,” he told Crosswalk Headlines.
The Village Church has seen “unbelievable spiritual hunger” and “the kind of radical salvations that make you break out in goose bumps,” Chandler said.
“It’s been among all ages – certainly our students and young adults have kind of led the charge in it. But it has spread.”
Chandler pointed to the Unite US gatherings on college campuses, which have sparked thousands of salvations since launching in 2023, saying church leaders have wondered whether that spiritual fire would eventually spread into local congregations. He says it has.
“By the grace of God, it seems to be doing just that. We're humbled and thrilled,” he said.
Such a movement didn’t seem possible during the 2020 pandemic, he added. Since then, however, Bible sales have surged, mega-popular podcasters like Joe Rogan have hosted apologists and Christian leaders, and Bible-based series such as House of David and The Chosen have soared in popularity.
Chandler believes the current spiritual movement has been fueled in part by the collapse of secular influence.
“[We ]have watched the death of secularism,” he told Crosswalk Headlines. “I think it crested and crashed. And you have a whole generation that watched the generation before them go at it, and they're like, ‘No, thank you.’ I think secularism is dead. I don't think it's dying – I think it's dead.
“And so what's going to take its place?”
Church leaders, he said, should not assume Christianity will automatically fill that void, warning that “neopaganism” and other spiritual alternatives are rising as well. He described a recent encounter with a stranger who said he and his wife worship a Celtic god – and that she identifies as a witch.
“And so that stuff's growing too. Why? Because secularism is dead. So they're looking for the transcendent. … People are going to go towards the new age paganism, demonic stuff, if we don't get them to see and marvel at the beauty of Jesus by the grace of God.”
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Photo Credit: ©The Village Church Facebook
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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