Truth Really Matters

buy Pregabalin 150 mg online He was visiting an underground church in China, marveling at how the young people prayed so passionately, praying for God to send them to the most dangerous places, expecting to die as martyrs.  He kept asking for more stories of their witness under persecution.  Finally, they asked him why he was so intrigued.  Well, the church in America is nothing like this!  He was embarrassed to explain how people attend 90-minute services once per week in a comfortable, air-conditioned building, how people switch churches for better music or more exciting programs for their kids.

They began to laugh, and laugh hysterically.  They found it ridiculous that we could start with the same Bible and then create a “church” so completely different.

Another time, he talked to a pastor from the Philippines who used to send missionary candidates to the U.S. for Bible training.  But they didn’t come back!  America was too comfortable and it was too easy to find a comfortable salaried position on a church staff.  That pastor stopped sending his people to America.

These and other experiences led Francis Chan to a drastically different perspective on what church is all about, as he describes in his 2018 book, Letters to the Church.  In this essay I will pull out a few nuggets, as I usually do, and offer some comments.  This is NOT a careful assessment of Francis Chan’s theology or practice, whether he’s the ‘real deal’ or not, and it’s certainly not an assessment of how his new work in San Francisco is going.  I simply don’t know.  But I resonate with many of his ideas and that’s what I believe is important, especially whether those ideas are in sync with the New Testament, wherein we find God’s prescription for the church.

Chan offers a thought experiment.  Imagine you’re stranded on an island with nothing but a Bible.  You know nothing of Christianity, but begin to read, carefully.  In the end, “how would you imagine a church to function?”  Now, open your eyes and “think about your current church experience.  Is it even close?”  Furthermore, “Can you live with that?”

Around 2010, Francis left his megachurch pastorate at Cornerstone Church, Simi Valley, California.  He and his wife had started that church in their living room in 1994 at age 26.  Later he started a college, wrote bestselling books, and developed a huge podcast following.  But then he walked away and moved his family to Asia for several years.

When he launched Cornerstone, his goal was to build the kind of church he wanted to be part of.  First, he wanted everyone to sing directly to God, with reverence, with emotion, not going through the motions.  Second, he wanted everyone to “really hear the Word of God . . . to dig deeply into Scripture – even the passages that contradicted our logic and desires . . . and I wanted us to take it seriously.”  His preaching and teaching were verse by verse through the Bible.

Finally, he “wanted all of us to live holy lives.”  James 1:22 – “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”  He wanted everyone to help and challenge each other toward action, “expecting change.”

Over the years good things happened and the church grew, enormously.  But, “I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still missing.”  There was too much dependence on one person . . . Francis.  He was distressed that too many people came to hear Francis Chan, and not experience the moving of the Holy Spirit.

“I saw a few other people and me using our gifts, while thousands 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.”

In the book Francis describes a variety of things they tried in order to shift the culture.  Finally, he left and moved his family to Asia and was able “to see a glimpse of what the church could be and the power it could have.”  He felt God leading him to start over in America and plant a church on New Testament principles.

Francis laments our social media culture, where young people speak quickly and loudly to be heard, where offense is taken quickly and sharply; whereas the Bible commands us to be “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19) and, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin:  but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”  (Prov 10:19)

The speed and tempo of the culture has penetrated the church and its people, in its “worship services” and in its lively, ‘exciting’ programs.  Yet . . . “Be still, and know that I am God:  I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”  (Ps 46:10)  There must be time for the sacred, time for the thoughtful, time to insure that our words to each other and to the world are grounded in Scriptural truth, and clothed in compassion and grace.

Francis envisions the privilege the redeemed will have in Revelation 5:13 (look it up), suggesting that those who are accustomed to being god over their own blogs and Twitter accounts, who have built their own shrines on Facebook and Instagram, may despise the reality of God’s glory and the joy we will have in sharing it . . . according to God’s plan.  I would go further and claim that the self-glorification of the social media culture works viciously against the need for humility, repentance, and saving faith that will mean the difference between Heaven and Hell for multitudes of young people.

Francis Chan:  “Heavenly beings are shocked by God’s church, while many on earth yawn.”  The early church didn’t have the sound systems, pop music, and winsomely educated and carefully coiffed leaders that we see today, but somehow they reached the world with the Gospel and lived lives of holiness foreign to our pampered sensibilities.  Francis confesses to having been part of the problem, training “people to become addicted to lesser things.  We have cheapened something sacred, and we must repent.”

He suggests you imagine that you walk into a restaurant and order a steak.  Later, the waiter delivers you a plate full of what he assures you is the best spaghetti you’ll ever eat.  Are you content?  How big a tip do you leave?

Analogously, God gave us an ‘order’ for how to do church.  We think we have better ideas.  After all, what design would please us more?  What will attract more people?  Francis does an exercise when he meets with church leaders, asking them what people expect from their church.  The list typically includes a great music service, exciting age-group programs, compelling sermons, a clean building, childcare, etc.

In turn, he offers them Scriptural commands like, “love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12), “visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27), “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them . . .” (Matthew 28:19), and “Bear ye one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2).

I have noticed over the years that many churches, including megachurches, have a wealth of resources and programs, some listing over one hundred ‘ministries’ on their web site, but having no evangelistic outreach to their community at all.  (Local charitable programs don’t count if the volunteers never share the Gospel, which is usually the case.)

Francis notes that Scripture says nothing about a senior pastor delivering a 40-minute sermon on Sunday.  He particularly laments that the most vocal members of churches, those with the most complaints or suggestions about music, youth ministry, etc., “have not shared their faith in months (or years) and couldn’t care less about making disciples of the billions of people who have no idea who Jesus is!”

Those billions include the vast majority of Americans who do not know the most basic truths about the Gospel.  Ask most Americans – the ones who believe that God exists – what they must do to quality for Heaven and avoid Hell and they will tell you that they live a good enough life.  I experience this every time I knock doors to share the Gospel, even in “Bible-belt” country.

Church attendance in America, Francis observes, is in decline with respect to the growth of the population.  The temptation of salaried pastoral staff, who depend on that cha-ching every Sunday, is to make church more popular and more comfortable.  Despite appearances, it’s a losing game, because it is God’s enterprise.  He judges the ‘game’ by New Testament rules.

Alan Hirsch talked about his experience in building an Australian megachurch:  “If you have to use marketing and the lures of entertainment to attract people, then you will have to keep them there on the same principle . . . it gets harder year after year.”

As with young children, if you continually respond to their wants and their whining, you will only magnify the behavior you reward.  Francis sees multitudes of churchgoers “who genuinely believe their unhappiness is the church’s fault!” The bigger problem, as I see it, is that these multitudes are still unsaved and are being coddled along the road to Hell.

When does a megachurch deliver the news that sin condemns, that the sinner must humble himself, repent, trust Christ, and get a new heart, a new attitude, new behavior, sacrificial love for others, and a zeal and a practice of reaching out to others with the same news?  Francis concludes, “I fear we have created human-centered churches.”

In the book of Acts we see the early Christians devoted to prayer, evangelism, teaching (discipleship), fellowship, and taking care of their own who needed help.  What we do not see are strategy sessions and marketing campaigns to get people ‘interested.’

But if we just do what the early Christians did, especially in these modern times, our churches might be small!  Yep, but they might consist of genuine and fervent born again believers.  But how are we going to take our city or our country for Christ?!?  We’re not.  The last days of this age are days of apostasy and wickedness.  Just look around.  This is ‘lifeboat’ time.  Individuals can still be saved, but only if genuine Christians proclaim a Biblical Gospel – no sugarcoating.

As Francis observes, “Not everyone is interested in God.  We just need to make sure that it’s really God we are putting on display.”  We are not trying to win them over to us or to simply attract them to a great ‘show.’  We are looking to make genuine, blood-bought converts who will, in their turn, live right and reach out to the lost around them.

A friend from India drove Francis to a speaking engagement in Dallas.  When ‘the show’ started he said, “You Americans are funny.  You won’t show up unless there’s a good speaker or band.  In India, people get excited just to pray.”  His fellow believers in India loved sharing the Lord’s supper and they flocked to simple prayer gatherings.  Francis writes, “It’s embarrassing.”

Francis sees more commitment in criminal gangs.  A gang member knows “his homies have his back.”  In most churches, though, you have as much connection with your “spiritual family” as those who might attend the same movie theater as you.

This is intentional, though.  It’s safe for the salaried clergy.  If you have a dozen people meeting in a house church, you can’t hide from each other.  You will get to know your Christian brothers and sisters and they will get to know you.  It is far more comfortable for almost every American Christian to sit anonymously and passively in a crowd, and then return to the important things in life – sports, social media, work, entertainment, whatever stimulates the carnal senses.

Francis asks when are we going to take the Scriptural commands of unity and love for the brethren seriously, “where we meet one another’s needs and care for one another regardless of the time or effort required.”  I believe it will never happen ‘top-down.’  The clergy class cannot handle the concept.  For the people in the church to enjoy true interactive and caring fellowship means loss of scripted control for the salaried clergy.  Indeed, who needs salaried clergy when the brothers and sisters take responsibility for building up one another?  So it was in the early churches, but no more.

I share his perspective that most churchgoers come as consumers, not servants.  It seems natural to put money in the basket to pay for the facility and the staff salaries, so the staff can put on the program.  I summarize this as “show up, shut up, and pay up.”  Francis:  “It’s not what God wanted, but it works.”  Well, it ‘works’ only in superficial appearance.  If God is not in it, there is no eternal value.

Regarding the consumer attitude:  “Takers are the most miserable people on earth.”  In startling contrast he supposes, “Have you ever been in a room filled with humble people who count others more significant than themselves? . . . Everyone is built up.”

God’s purpose for the leaders in a church is to use their gifts to develop the gifts and service and leadership abilities of everyone else in the church.  Build and replicate.  A leader in God’s church, no matter how talented, is in rebellion if he is the performer, the one on stage, the one people come to see, the one everyone marvels at.  Ugghh!!  “Then we wonder why we, the people, aren’t developing.”

At the time he wrote the book, Francis Chan reports that in his house church network in San Francisco there are about forty pastors – all work other jobs, none are paid by the church.  All their training has been on-the-job from the elders.  “Every church should be equipping people and sending them out.  Unfortunately, the trend is the opposite.  We send out want ads, asking for pastors to come serve at our churches.  Some churches even hire professional headhunters to find pastors for them.  Rather than sending, we are recruiting.  This has become normal.”

Those who are ‘recruited’ are hirelings, are they not?  Jesus had something to say about hirelings in John chapter 10.

Francis:  “I can’t tell you how much freedom I feel now that I’m ministering in a church with no salaries and no potential for any of us to be pastoring a large church.”  Once one of their house churches exceeds twenty people, they divide and multiply.

When Francis was in China he was deeply affected by what a local pastor said:  “In America, pastors think they have to become famous to have a big impact.  In China, the most influential Christian leaders had to be the most hidden.”  By the way, if you haven’t read Randy Alcorn’s novel, Safely Home, which describes the underground church in China, get yourself a copy quickly, and then several more for people you know.

A pastor in India told Francis that the biggest mistakes he had made were when he allowed people into leadership who were not humble.  So now he consistently looks for people who are humble and who desire to know Jesus deeply.

I might also mention the epidemic in the western churches of pastors who acquire the title of “Dr.”  Many of these are honorary, and so not even earned.  Yet many of the earned doctorates entail academic efforts that are pitiful in comparison to earning a typical secular Ph.D.  But why the lust for the world’s title?  Isn’t ‘brother’ enough?

I resonate deeply with Francis’ prescription for solving annoying people problems in a church, for resolving self-centered fussing . . . “The answer is not just telling them to stop being so selfish.  Pastors need to engage them in helping the lost and desperate around the world.”  I’ve seen that everywhere I’ve gone in America, churches with an internal, satisfy-the-customer mindset while their neighbors go to Hell.  Frankly, most of the membership is one heartbeat from Hell, and they are never warned.

Suffering is woven into the history of early Christians, and into the experiences of Christians throughout the world today.  It hasn’t hit America, but suffering is on its way.  Francis reports that a house church in Iran has new believers sign a written statement that they understand they are likely to lose their property, be jailed, and even martyred for their faith.  Fellowship in such a church has a different quality than what we experience here.

In China, Francis marveled at the stories he heard in an underground church . . . people would hide in the walls when the police raided them, some had narrowly avoided gunshots.  There was much laughter at how God had preserved them.  They expected persecution.  They embraced suffering.  Acts 5:40-42.

I regularly hear accounts of wondrous events displaying God’s power . . . overseas, not in America.  Francis writes of an evangelistic ministry in Africa, in which children travel to villages too dangerous for adult missionaries, who have been killed for sharing the Gospel.  In one village a great spiritual darkness reigned, with village children dying mysteriously every week.  The missionary kids stayed and prayed for hours, then shared the Gospel.  The deaths ended.  Many became Christians.

Francis:  “Don’t you find it even a bit discouraging that these kids are transforming villages while our kids are watching puppet shows on Jonah and learning songs with hand motions?”

Isn’t the Holy Spirit capable of doing more in America?  But the vast majority of Christians are content to watch the weekly Sunday show, put on by the talented few, the salaried elite.

In the New Testament we find that the followers of Jesus began immediately to reach out to people around them, to lead them to the Savior.  Within months the Lord sent out 70, two by two, on an evangelistic trip throughout the land.  Going out was part of their initial training.  Yet today ‘saints’ who have attended church for decades are still too timid to reach out to their neighbors or co-workers or people they cross paths with on their errands . . . most won’t even include a Gospel tract with the candy they give to trick-or-treaters who walk right up to their door, asking them for a gift.

I do heartily recommend the book Letters to the Church.  I expect that it will encourage and challenge you.  Have you noticed the world is spiraling toward a certain prophetic climax?  Our days are short and precious on this Earth.  I hope you are working to make your days count for eternity.  Please check out my ‘church’ essays in the Discipleship section of this site – those are the ones with the word “church” somewhere in the title.  And, especially, check out my essays in the Evangelism section.  Then get busy.  And let me know how it’s going.

• drdave@truthreallymatters.com