During the 15th century, a tradition began to arise where school children would invite their teachers over for dinner to thank them for the work that they did. As time went on, the tradition evolved into meals being nothing more than apples, polished to perfection, which the students would then give to their teachers in hopes of receiving favor, such as better grades, in exchange.

This is where the term apple-polisher came from and it is a perfect description of what many popular Evangelical church leaders have devolved into today.

One of those apple-polishers is popular author and speaker and pastor of The Village Church, Matt Chandler. Chandler, like much of Evangelicalism, has polished his theological apples in an effort to set himself up as one of the favored students of wokeness and to appease and receive favor from woke Evangelical Black people. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here are three reasons why Chandler needs to be avoided.

1.) Matt Chandler has traded the biblical gospel for the social gospel

Matt Chandler has fully embraced the social gospel–that is, the false gospel of wokeness which has its roots in a secular Marxist movement. While Chandler denies that he teaches Marxism, his teachings in many ways are fully aligned with Marxist theories, such as Critical Race Theory.

Recently, Matt Chandler partnered with Latasha Morrison–a prominent speaker who once had an entire stadium of white students stand up and repeat a prayer denouncing their “whiteness”–to denounce America as a racist nation with racism “theologically woven into its foundation.” Chandler’s insincerity toward this issue is quite telling as he acknowledges that Critical Race Theory is evil, yet still says that it is good and useful.

Chandler also took part in a Woke Church conference in 2019 where the entire premise of the conference was based on tearing down hierarchies of “white privilege.” Much of Chandler’s devotion in recent years has been to addressing social causes rather than the gospel.

2. Matt Chandler is given to unbiblical mystic and charismatic ideology

Matt Chandler is not only woke, but he has embraced the continuationist movement which intrinsically denies the sufficiency of Scripture. Continuationism is a serious theological error that has its roots in the early 2nd-century heresy known as Montanism. Montanism held that the apostolic sign gifts, such as tongues and prophecy, still continue past the time of the apostles.

Chandler takes a somewhat muddy approach to continuationism where he believes that God still speaks to us today outside of Scripture, but, unlike the prophets and apostles in Scripture, we don’t really have any way of knowing for sure, so we should avoid being dogmatic about our personal revelations. This approach, of course, has no biblical or theological grounding and is, itself, a false teaching which even prompted Justin Peters to rebuke him for this.

Chandler also endorsed a book by Andrew Wilson that envisions what he calls “Eucharismatic Worship,” or a mixing of Christianity with the heresy of charismaticism, stating “God has graciously given us the historic formalities meant to shape us and the wildness of the Spirit!”

Think about the implications of that for a moment. “The wildness of the Spirit.” The Scripture nowhere describes the Holy Spirit as “wild,” but as one who constantly points to Christ. The charismatics, in actuality, blaspheme the Holy Spirit by attributing to Him an ostentatious character and describing Him as an attention whore.

3.) Matt Chandler endorses feminism and unsound women preachers

By definition, a woman preacher is not biblically sound because the very notion of a woman preacher is antithetical to the Scriptures. However, what’s worse is a woman preacher who has embraced and teaches other false teachings and twists the Scriptures to say things the Scriptures don’t actually say.

Of these false teachers are, of course, Beth Moore. Chandler has called Beth Moore, a false teacher who regularly preaches and teaches men, his “rock sister” and has repeatedly given her glowing accolades despite her continual Scripture-twisting.

Chandler also endorses another popular lady-preacher, Ann Voskamp, who also authored a book where she stated she flew to Paris to “make love to God.” Voskamp is notorious for sexualizing her relationship with God–something the Scriptures do not teach–and making God’s salvation sound like a high school prom.

Matt Chandler, of course, loves her for this.

And, of course, there is Jen Wilkin. Jen Wilkin is Matt Chandler’s very own in-house lady preacher at The Village Church. Wilkin has said some pretty disturbing things over the years including that women teachers are “essential” to local churches–in contradiction to 1 Corinthians 14:34–and coining the phrase famously used by Southern Baptist president, JD Greear, that the Bible only “whispers about homosexuality.”

But, most disturbing, is Wilkin’s description of the crucifixion where she compares it to women’s periods. “I want you to think for a second about what the implications might be about the way that women understand the gospel as a result of being embodied females,” Wilkin says, “women’s bodies every 28 days tell them a parable about the shedding of blood for the renewing of life.”

As you can see, that’s pretty disgusting.

So, for these three reasons–among many others–it is clear that Matt Chandler should be avoided and disregarded as a faithful minister of God’s word. Chandler has embraced so much error and has refused any correction by sound bible teachers. Chandler continues to double down and dig his heels into the errors of wokeness, feminism, and continuationism. And the Scriptures are clear on how we are to treat these people.

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. –Romans 16:17-18