Letters to the Church

by Francis Chan

God used this book to rekindle my missional flame. Francis Chan is a unique person who experienced immense “success” at the megachurch and international speaker level, but chose to leave that behind in order to embrace something quite different in terms of structure and externals.  Among the reasons he gave for making this move that most struck me was that he did not want the church to be so dependent upon him as the leader. He felt that he was holding back the development of other people by the way they were doing church. He wrote:

When I looked at what went on in Cornerstone, I saw a few other people and me using our gifts, while thousands just came and sat in the sanctuary for an hour and a half and then went home. The way we had structured the church was stunting people’s growth, and the whole body was weaker for it. (Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church p. 19), David C. Cook. Kindle Edition)

He eventually walked away from the church he planted and pastored, with the leadership’s blessing, to pursue something different overseas. Eventually God called him back to the United States to live as “biblically as knew how” and to “walk around the city [of San Francisco] sharing the gospel,” eventually meeting the people God would give him to disciple. (p.24) Over time those disciples became what is now know as We Are Church, a small group based disciple making church. This book contains insights and principles that Chan has learned and feels are worth sharing.

Chan deeply loves the church and this book is not meant to be a criticism, but he does speak forthrightly about things that need to be addressed. I have included some salient quotes from the book below.

It is imperative that we differentiate between what we want and what God commands. Not that our desires are all bad, but they must take a back seat to what He emphasizes. (p.61)

He addresses the unfortunate state of affairs created by the adoption of the attractional church model that uses superfluous, sometimes gimmicky techniques to draw people to meetings. Even if we allow that people who would otherwise not attend at least get to hear the gospel, we must admit that sometimes people attend as consumers without ever becoming disciples.

By catering our worship to the worshippers and not to the Object of our worship, I fear we have created human-centered churches. (p. 67)

Below are some of his quotes about the current state of affairs.

There’s a keyword in this passage that separates the attempts of our modern church from the first church: devoted. In our impatient culture, we want to experience biblical awe without biblical devotion. At the core of our dysfunction is not necessarily style or structure but lack of devotion. (p. 71)

We should be asking why Christians are willing to give only ninety minutes a week (if that!) to the only thing that really matters in their lives! So leaders work tirelessly to squeeze prayer, teaching, fellowship, and Communion into a ninety-minute service because they believe that’s all they have to work with. (p. 71)

“Most of us have become quite good at the church thing. And yet, disciples are the only thing that Jesus cares about, and it’s the only number that Jesus is counting. Not our attendance or budget or buildings.” (p. 83)

The Church as Family

Chan insists that a sense of family is core to New Testament church life. Pursuing this sort of relational life takes an enormous amount of time and effort.

Meanwhile, in many churches, you have about as much of a connection to the people who are supposedly your spiritual family as you would to someone who visited the same movie theater as you. (p. 91)

Have you ever even considered loving a fellow Christian as sacrificially and selflessly as Christ loved you? (p. 94)

Jesus pursued those people from heaven to earth to bring them into His family; what barriers could hold you back from pursuing a deep familial relationship with them? (pp. 94-95)

Chan calls the church to the practice of sacrificial love in the pursuit of unity.

We have come up with countless strategies to reach the lost when God promises that unity is the method that will work. (p. 101)

While we design strategies to slowly ease people into Christian commitment and grow attendance at our services, Jesus called people to count the cost from the very start (Luke 14: 25– 35). He didn’t expect His followers to be perfect, but He did demand that they be committed. (p. 105)

 Servants

At the core of our faith lies this belief that almighty God humbled Himself to serve us and die for us. At the root of our calling is a command to imitate Him by serving one another. (p. 108)

The church doesn’t have to remain a group of needy people complaining that they haven’t been fed well enough. It really can become a group of servants who thrive in serving. (p. 111)

We have to stop viewing church leaders as people who minister to us. God clearly explained their role. It was not to coddle you but to equip you. Think personal trainer, not massage therapist. (p. 114)

A church grows to maturity only when each part is “working.” If we give up on the goal of having all members exercise their spiritual gifts, we are destined for perpetual immaturity. (p. 117)

No team puts up with players who refuse to contribute. No army puts up with soldiers who don’t carry their own weight. Why do churches continue to put up with Christians who refuse to serve? (pp. 122-123)

Good Shepherds

Contrary to popular belief, we are all called to pastor (a word that simply means “shepherd”). Older women are to shepherd the younger (Titus 2: 3– 5). Parents are to shepherd their children (Eph. 6: 4). Timothy was told to teach others what he himself had been taught (2 Tim. 2: 2). We’re all called to be making disciples (Matt. 28: 19– 20). If you can’t find a single person who looks to you as a mentor, something is wrong with you. (p. 133)

Too many pastors are aspiring to be great writers, speakers, and leaders. There are not enough who are known as great moms and dads. And those who serve well as moms and dads never become known because this isn’t highly valued. You won’t be celebrated on a large scale for humbly caring for a group of people. (pp. 146-147)

One of the most debilitating issues facing the Church is the lack of maturing her members. Churches are filled with children who never grow up to become parents. And they’re not expected to. (p. 149)

While many pastors boast of how many children sit under their care, doesn’t it make more sense to boast of how many have graduated from their care? Isn’t it more a sign of failure when children are unable to leave the house? Raising thousands of consumers is not success. (p. 152)

Crucified

There are millions of people in our country who call themselves Christians because they believe the Christian life is about admiring Christ’s example, not realizing it is a call to follow it. If they really understood this, the numbers would drop drastically. The New Testament could not be clearer: we are not just to believe in His crucifixion; we are to be crucified with Christ. (pp. 159-160

According to Jesus, far from having no cost, following Him will cost you everything. Far from promising a better life, He warned of intense suffering…Run from any teacher who promises wealth and prosperity in this life. (p. 163)

We may never have to run from physical suffering like our brothers and sisters around the world, but many have chosen to run from the suffering of rejection. More and more often, people are starting to water down their convictions because they don’t want to offend anyone. Instead of embracing the persecution that comes with standing out from and against the world, we have begun to embrace the world to try to convince it to tolerate us. (pp. 172-173)

Jesus and the apostles were persecuted because what they said and taught was so countercultural. The culture of our world is just as ugly, if not more so, than it was in Jesus’ time. The teaching of the church should be radically different from that of the world. There will be backlash, and church attendance might decline, but the church will be purified. (pp. 174-175)

Part of the reason we have created a culture of noncommittal Christianity that avoids suffering is that we don’t treasure Him enough. (pp. 175-176)

Unleashed

All anyone wanted was a Jesus and a church that served their needs and kept them comfortable. What started as a movement became a bunch of people sitting safely in services. (p. 191)

After all, how can a Christian possibly survive outside a… cage with weekly feedings? We’re busy reassuring one another that God wants us to do what’s safest for our families and to pursue God in a way that looks suspiciously similar to what we’d naturally do if our only concern was our own comfort and happiness. Church, the answer is not to build bigger and nicer cages. Nor is it to renovate the cages so they look more like the wild. It’s time to open the cages, remind the animals of their God-given instincts and capabilities, and release them into the wild. Alan Hirsch said, “In so many churches the mission of the church has actually become the maintenance of the institution itself.”  The way to destroy the victim mentality is not by giving them more but by sending them out. (pp. 193-194)

I honestly believe we in the American Church need to get on our knees and repent of our condescending attitudes toward God’s Holy Spirit. (p. 206)

Should we consider that placing people in comfortable classrooms and auditoriums for years may not be the best way to train fearless leaders? (p. 207)

Church Again

We might all benefit from a simpler experience of Church. It would lead to deeper relationships and a stronger dependence on God. We might find that the things we added to improve our churches are the very things that crowd God out. (p. 223)

As I said earlier, structure matters. It’s easy to say these are our values, but unless we structure in weekly practices to achieve these goals and structure out anything that distracts, we will never become the church we want to be. (p. 223)

I believe God is leading a movement in this country toward simple, smaller gatherings. (p. 223)

My hope is simply to convince you that there are compelling ways of living as the Church that look nothing like our traditional models. My goal is to get you dreaming, to keep you from settling, to affirm that nagging sense you can’t shake that God wants something more for His Church than what you’re experiencing.(p. 223)

Conclusion

Whether or not you embrace a simpler version of church life that majors on small groups or not, this book will both challenge and encourage you. It is written by a man who is passionate for Jesus, something we should all aspire to be.