That’s something Matt Chandler has learned over the past 17 years of pastoring The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He learned it by watching Christians in his church suffer. “I learned, from listening to and praying with and watching my brothers and sisters, that in the day of trouble, [God will] be there,” Matt said. “That doesn’t mean the day of trouble’s not a day of trouble. It really is a day of trouble. But that’s where he meets us.”
Matt and Lauren Chandler’s own “day of trouble” came in 2009 when, on Thanksgiving Day, Matt collapsed from a malignant brain tumor and was given two to three years to live. Despite that diagnosis, Matt is healthy today, and he joins me on The Gospel Coalition Podcast to talk about his own experience of suffering, which he tells in a new book, Joy in the Sorrow: How a Thriving Church (and Its Pastor) Learned to Suffer Well (The Good Book Company). Along with Matt and Lauren’s story, the book includes nine other stories of suffering and joy told by members and former members of The Village Church.
Listen to this episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast.