Francis Chan, a Protestant author, educator, and preacher from the United States, was born on August 31, 1967. In 1994, Chan established the nondenominational Cornerstone Community Church, an Evangelical church in Simi Valley, California, where he served as its teaching pastor. Additionally, he established Eternity Bible College in 2004 and presided over it as chancellor until 2010.
He has been on the boards of numerous social justice and Christian organizations, such as Gospel for Asia and the Children’s Hunger Fund. Among the many novels he has written and co-written is the New York Times bestseller Crazy Love. Chan has also represented Care for Children as an ambassador.
Francis Chan Multiply
Francis Chan was born in San Francisco to immigrants Wan-bing Mui [梅韻冰], a “Bible woman of the Hong Kong Baptist Church, Caine Road,” and Pak-sum Chan [陳柏森], a former preacher of the Leighton Road Baptist Church in Hong Kong. He was their third child, and his mother passed away from “excessive bleeding” during labor, leaving his father with a sister called Grace, a brother named Paul, and a newborn named Francis, who was named after the city where he was born and the tragedy.
For a number of years, Francis Chan was transported to Hong Kong to be nurtured by a Buddhist grandmother. His father gave Francis a half-sister named Gloria during this period when he married Amy Law (羅笑容). His stepmother, Amy Chan, passed away in a car accident when Chan was eight years old in 1976.
The four children were reared by Josephine Leung [梁克閲], his father’s subsequent remarriage. His father’s younger sister and her husband, Marion and William Wong, as well as a sizable extended family and church family, provided support to his father and new stepmother in rearing the four. Although he and his father did not get along as a child, he claims that his dread of his father has given him a greater understanding of God’s fear. He said that until he became a father himself, he didn’t fully comprehend God’s love. Francis lost his father to cancer when he was twelve years old in 1979.
Francis lost his father to cancer when he was twelve years old in 1979. Chan was involved in Christian youth organizations during his high school and junior college years, which fueled his passion in ministry and deepened his trust in Christ.
After completing his high school education, Francis Chan went on to obtain a Master’s College Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master’s Seminary Master of Divinity degree.
Francis Chan’s Church Model
In 1994, Francis Chan, his wife Lisa, and thirty other people established Cornerstone Community Church. Two months later, the congregation had expanded to one hundred members. Attendance at the church kept rising, and by 2000, local authorities had given the church permission to quadruple its building’s size in order to accommodate its 1,600 members. In Ventura County, California, Cornerstone was one of the biggest churches as of January 2008.
Chan claimed to have felt inspired to make greater sacrifices for God after taking a three-month leave of absence from Cornerstone in 2008. Chan did not receive a salary from his church, gave away almost half of his money, and gave the majority of his book royalties—roughly $2,000,000—to several organizations.
The entire amount is donated to groups that rescue sex slaves abroad. Additionally, it was claimed in 2008 that Cornerstone will donate 55% of its profits to philanthropic organizations.
With 100 students, Chan founded Eternity Bible College in 2004 as a ministry of Cornerstone Community Church. Eternity started an overseas mission in Ecuador in 2008. 47 of the college’s graduates were serving in different countries as of 2009.
Francis Chan told his congregation on Sunday, April 18, 2010, that he felt compelled to step down.
He claimed to have felt drawn to San Francisco in June 2011. After relocating to Northern California, he founded the “We Are Church” network of house churches.
As of August 2016, Francis Chan was no longer an elder at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, where he had joined the board of elders in September 2014.
Up until 2020, he was a senior leader in the We Are Church network.
Chan returned to Hong Kong in 2020 and now resides and works in Sham Shui Po, the city’s poorest neighborhood and the site of his mother’s ministry work in the 1950s.
Following the denial of his HK visa, Chan declared in January 2021 that he and his family had returned to the United States. He has declared his intention to visit Hong Kong again as soon as he can.
Francis Chan Theology of the Holy Spirit
“What the Bible is really saying” and “really living our lives that way” are topics Francis Chan discusses a lot. One author [who?] claims that he is not scared to face “lukewarmness” in the Christian life.
Regarding Communion, Francis Chan started looking into his position openly in January 2020. The Reformed Protestant tradition, with whom Chan has previously been linked, holds a more relaxed view of the actual presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.
A number of Catholic priests prayed over Chan’s address at the (Neo-charismatic Protestant) Onething conference in 2018 before this change in the Eucharist. In February 2021, he gave a speech at the SEEK conference of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.
Personal Life
Lisa, a singer, is Chan’s spouse. They got married in 1994 and has seven kids as of December 2014. Singer Rachel Chan is the oldest of them.
Francis Chan Books
- Danae Yankoski (2008). Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. David C. Cook.
- Danae Yankoski (2009). Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. David C. Cook.
- Matt Daniels (2010). Halfway Herbert. David C. Cook.
- Matt Daniels (2010). The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village. David C. Cook.
- Preston Sprinkle (2011). Erasing Hell: What God said about eternity, and the things we made up. David C. Cook.
- Mark Beuving (2012). Multiply. David C. Cook.
- Bill Hybels; Eugene Peterson (2014). The Road We Must Travel. Worthy Publishing.
- Lisa Chan (2014). You and Me Forever: Marriage in the Light of Eternity. Claire Love Publishing.
- (2018). Letters to the Church. David C. Cook.
- (2021). Until Unity. David C. Cook.
