Truth is...

I didn't know I was going to have a four-part series of posts about Letters to the Church by Francis Chan, and yet, here we are.

I held back on posting a summary of each chapter because that wouldn't do Chan's thoughts justice. It would be far better for everyone to actually read the book. (And you should!) But a single sentence in the final chapter jumped off the page and demanded to be featured here.

In fear that some critics of the Church would take the chapters of this book that spell out how we've strayed from the biblical imperatives about being the Church and march into their pastor's office to berate them to a pulp, Chan closes the book with what he calls "A Leader's Guide to Loving the Arrogant." (He wanted to write the chapter to the arrogant and self-righteous, but realized they probably wouldn't recognize themselves anyway.)

That single sentence that stopped me in my tracks?

[God's] desire is for us to view church leaders as God's gifts to the Church since He sees them that way.

Here's the context:

God wants the Church to be the one institution that loves authority. He wants us to be different, a strange group of people who actually love having a King and are grateful for His commands. His desire is for us to view church leaders as God's gifts to the Church since He sees them that way.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
(Ephesians 4:11-12)

God "gave" these leaders to the Church in order to bring her to maturity. When's the last time you heard someone refer to leaders as gifts?

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Truth is...not every pastor is the kind of Scripture-soaked, Spirit-led servant-leader Yahweh wants them to be. All of us are works in progress. But still, when's the last time you've encouraged yours?

      

Last week (Click Here), I quoted quite a bit from Francis Chan's book, Letters to the Church. It was from a chapter contrasting the closeness and camaraderie involved in being a gang member to how an awful lot of people (and I do mean awful) think about being a church member as if it were a gym membership.

Here's last week's closing thought:

Truth is...Don't you long at least a little bit for that sense of belonging and mutual commitment to each other? Isn't there something within each of us that can't be satisfied by GOING to church instead of BEING THE CHURCH?

Not two days after having written that post, a guy I follow on The-Social-Networking-Site-Formerly-Known-As-Twitter posted the following:

A well-motivated attempt to give God some glory, to be sure, but great googily-moogily! Not only is it acceptable/normal to categorize my Christian experience as "going to church," but I can now be perfectly content to merely watch church?

There is no need for me to be a participant, apparently. I am an observer. An audience member. A consumer of content.

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Truth is...may it never be.

      

The more I get into Letters to the Church by Francis Chan, the more I just want to reprint the whole thing so everyone will read it (as if "everyone" reads this blog!).

Chapter 4 is titled "The Gang" and contrasts the idea of "going to church" with the concept of being part of a group committed to each other...like a gang.

We live in a time when people go to a building on Sunday mornings, attend an hour-long service, and call themselves members of the Church. ... But have you ever read the New Testament? Do you find anything in Scripture that is even remotely close to the pattern we have created? Do you find anyone who "went" to church?

Try to imagine Paul and Peter speaking like we do today: "Hey, Peter, where do you go to church now?"

"I go to The River. They have great music and I love the kids' program."

"Cool. Can I check out your church next Sunday? I'm not getting much out of mine."

"Totally. I'm not going to be there next Sunday because little Matthew has soccer. But how about the week after?"

"Sounds good. Hey, do they have a singles' group?"

It's comical to think of Paul and Peter speaking like this. Yet that's a normal conversation among Christians today.

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Chan then introduces us to an elder of his church, Rob, who spent most of his life in gangs but who met Jesus while in prison.

Rob tells me stories of gang life and the fear he felt when he left his gang to join the body of Christ. ... It wasn't just the physical torture or death he feared; he dreaded the rejection by those he loved. The gang was his family. These were loyal and dear friends who looked out for him 24 hours a day. There was love and camaraderie from being in a gang that he enjoyed since childhood. Now he would lose those relationships and be hated by them all.

When Rob describes gang life much of it sounds like what the Church was meant to be. Obviously, there are major differences (drugs, murder  -  you know, little details like that), but the idea of "being a family" is central to both gang life and God's design for the Church. ... Could you ever imagine gang life being reduced to a weekly one-hour gathering? No group would meet briefly once a week and call that a gang. Imagine one gang member walking up to another one and saying, "Yo, how was gang? I had to miss this week because life has been crazy!"

We all know enough about gangs to know that's ridiculous. Yet every week we hear Christians asking each other, "How was church?" Something that God has designed to function as a family has been reduced to an optional weekly meeting."

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Truth is...Don't you long at least a little bit for that sense of belonging and mutual commitment to each other? Isn't there something within each of us that can't be satisfied by going to church instead of being the Church?

      

In 2018, Francis Chan published a book titled Letters to the Church. In 2024, I borrowed that book from the library and started reading it. In just the second chapter, I began to feel excited, and perhaps a little chastised, by what I was reading.

Having explained, in Chapter One, why he left the megachurch he helped establish, Chan bursts out of the starting gate of Chapter Two with a Scriptural examination of just how amazing and sacred the church is meant to be...and how all the modern emphasis on church growth and bringing in people with professionally-produced worship services is missing the mark.

"Through the cross, people of every nation and tongue become members of one body? Amazing! God Himself is joining His creation and allowing them to be a part of His body? Unbelievable!"

Chan talks about how "the modern church" has failed to see itself as the sacred organism it is and has sunken to using business models and entertainment models instead of the Spirit's guidance.

"I can't help but see our own lameness in failing to see the beauty in God's design for the Church. Heavenly beings are shocked by God's Church, while many on earth yawn. The early church didn't need the energetic music, great videos, attractive leaders, or elaborate lighting to be excited about being a part of God's body. The pure gospel was enough to put them in a place of awe.

Aren't you at least a little embarrassed that you have needed the extra stuff? It's not all your fault. For decades church leaders like myself have lost sight of the powerful mystery inherent in the Church and have instead run to other methods to keep people interested. In all honesty, we have trained you to become addicted to lesser things. We have cheapened something sacred, and we must repent."

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Truth is...There's nothing inherently wrong with being a megachurch. But filling huge auditoriums is not a guaranteed sign that the Spirit is moving within. The WWF and the NFL can fill thousands of seats as people observe their events. And if a congregation is attracting people to a great show instead of a great savior...is it really a church?

      

Have you ever felt like, even though you want to think of yourself as a unique individual with a special set of abilities and experiences, there's nothing about you that really stands out?

John Koenig, in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, has a term for that:

the standard blues  -  n. the dispiriting awareness that the twists and turns of your life feel new and profound but are not unique - marked by the same coming-of-age struggles as millions of others, the same career setbacks, the same family strife, the same learning curve of parenting - which makes even your toughest challenges feel harmless and predictable, just another remake of the same old story. [A riff on blues standards, the catalog of the most popular songs in the blues genre, which is itself famous for chord progressions that cycle through variations on a theme.]

Paul put it this way in 1st Corinthians 10:13 (CSB): "No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity." But then he adds this bit of encouragement: "But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it."

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Truth is...This reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 16:33 (NIV): "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world"