Francis Chan says he and his family will move to Asia in February as missionaries.
Chan made his announcement during a sermon at Azusa Pacific University on Wednesday. He shared with the audience about a recent trip he and his family took to Myanmar, going “from hut to hut” sharing the gospel with the help of a translator.
Days after his announcement at Azusa, Chan posted an update online to share the exact location of his family’s next home: Hong Kong.
In was on the plane ride home from this trip that Chan and his wife made the decision to move.
“I describe it like this: I feel like I’ve been fishing in the same pond my whole life and now there’s like thousands of other fishermen at the same pond, and our lines are getting tangled and everyone’s fighting over stupid things, and one guy tries some new lure and we go, ‘Oh he caught a fish; let’s all try his method!’ And it just feels like, what are we all doing here?
“What if I’ve heard of a lake that’s like a 5-mile hike away, and no one’s fishing it. And they’re saying, ‘Man, the fish are biting—just throw a hook in there and they’ll go for it!’ Man, I’ll make that 5-mile hike if I love fishing.
“What would keep me at that same pond? I’ll tell you what would keep me at the pond, is I built a house on the pond, and all my friends have houses on the pond. And we don’t even fish that much, we just go out, and we hang out, and we talk, and we play, and I don’t want to leave my friends.
“But if my calling is to go fish, and there’s no one fishing over there, why wouldn’t I go?”
Chan used to pastor Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California. He stepped down when he began to feel God calling him to minister on the streets of San Francisco. Since founding We Are Church in 2013, Chan has been spreading the gospel to the least of these in home meetings.
In his message at Azusa, Chan told the crowd that Christians cannot afford to water down God’s Word to placate people’s feelings.
“I’m going to come under this because I’m going to stand before Him one day and I’m going to be judged by Him, and I don’t want to be judged as a coward,” Chan concluded. “That’s the greatest joy you’re going to find in life, is when you understand you have a holy, holy judge for a Father who is rich in mercy and full of love for you and is knocking on the door.”
Watch the full message in this article.
