The Crazy Love of Francis Chan

Another great book I read over the Summer was Francis Chan's "Crazy Love". He does a brilliant job in attempting to fathom the greatness of God's love for us. He contrasts this with how so many of us seem so complacent and lukewarm in our faith. Chan believes that if we truly grasped the awesomeness of God's love, that alone would motivate us positively to live for Him in all areas of our life. Chan also has some videos at http://www.crazylovebook.com/ that will accompany your reading. His video on the "Awe Factor of God" and "Just Stop and Think" were both very compelling videos that helped to set the stage for his book. I know for me that there is a big difference between reading about God's amazing love in comparison to experiencing His love. Probably one of the biggest breakthrough moments for me to experience God's love was when I went on the retreat weekend called "Walk to Emmaus" at the request of my pastor about 4 years ago. Going with my arm twisted behind my back and having low expectations, I was completely blown away by being overwhelmed by God's love for me. So as I read this book, it took me back to the feelings, emotions and thoughts of that weekend. I just know from my life that those spiritual "mountaintop" experiences are precious moments to cherish but there is so much of life that is lived in "the valley". So at times I wrestled a little bit with Chan's book, knowing that in my head I agreed with just about everything he said, and I recognized very specific times in my life where I was "overwhelmed by a relentless God", but I also know that I continually wrestle with my imperfections, sin, the mundane stuff of everyday life, and doubts. I am a work in progress where God is continually transforming me through His Spirit and just about everyday is a wrestling match between my will and His Will. But I am still climbing up the proverbial mountain as God creates in me a new heart day by day.

Favorite Quotes

Chan on our View of God: The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He's great and deserves to be the center of our lives. Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. He commands everything from His followers. (p. 22)

Chan on the Irony about God: The irony is that while God doesn't need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don't really want Him must of the time. (p. 61)

Chan on the parable of the sower in Luke 8: My caution to you is this: Do not assume you are good soil. I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sin, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it. Most of us have too much in our lives. As David Goetz writes (in "Death by Suburb), 'Too much of the good live ends up being toxic, deforming us spiritually.' A lot of thinks are good by themselves, but all of it together keeps us from living healthy, fruitful lives for God. . . Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live? Do you see evidence of God's kingdom in your life? Or are you choking it our slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things of this world?" (p. 67)

Chan on Commitment: Jesus's call to commitment is clear: He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a 'Christian' without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd. (p. 85)

Chan on Failure: In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us. Each of us has lukewarm elements and practices in our life; therein lies the senseless, extravagant grace of it all. The Scriptures demonstrate clearly that there is room for our failure and sin in our pursuit of God. His mercies arenew every morning (Lamentations 3). His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). I'm not saying that when you mess up, it means you were never really a genuine Christian in the first place. If that were true, no one could follow Christ. The distinction is perfection (which none will attain on this earth) and a posture of obedience and surrender, where a person perpetually moves toward Christ. (p. 88)

Chan on Love: Personal experience has taught me that actions driven by fear and guilt are not an antidote to lukewarm, selfish, comfortable living. I hope you realize instead that the answer is love. . . . Isn't that what brings Him glory - when believers desire Him and are not merely slaves who serve Him our of obligation? (p. 101)

Chan on Change: God wants to change us; He died so that we could change. The answer lies in letting Him change you. Remember His counsel to the lukewarm church in Laodicea? 'Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.' (Rev. 3:20). His counsel wasn't to 'try harder,' but rather to let Him in. As James wrote, 'Come near to God and he will come near to you' (4:8). Jesus Christ didn't die only to save us from hell; He also died to save us from our bondage to sin. In John 10:10, Jesus says, 'I have come that they may have live, and have it to the full.' He wasn't talking about the future. He meant now, in this lifetime (p. 103-104).

Chan on Comfort: But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through. (p. 124).

Chan on Christians: A friend of mine once said that Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly. Which are you? The kind that reeks, around which people walk a wide swath? Or the kind that trusts God enough to let Him spread you out - whether that means going outside your normal group of Christian friends, increasing your material giving, or using your time to serve others? (p. 168)

Chan on the Holy Spirit: What really keeps me going is the gift and power we have been given in the Holy Spirit. . . . Our view of the Holy Spirit is too small. The Holy Spirit is the One who changes the church, but we have to remember that the Holy Spirit lives in us. It is individual people living Spirit-filled lives that will change the church. (p. 171)

Chan on Christians: The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives. (p. 172)

Conclusion

Overall this is really a great book for all to read - skeptics, complacent, lukewarm Christians as well as Christ-followers who are living their faith on the outside of their comfort zone. Chan excites his reader about the amazing depth of God's love for us and how if we truly grasp that concept it will forever change our lives as we just can not settle for a dull, bland, vanilla faith that just gets us by.

The New Christians 2

In this chapter Jones sees the emergent church and the establishment church through an allegory of the frontier of the West in contrast to the established settlements on the Eastern seaboard. He brings up 3 Dispatches in explaining the Emergent church.

Dispatch 3: The gospel is like lava: no matter how much crust has formed over it, it will always find a weak point and burst through.

A basic reading of the Gospels show that Jesus did not play by any one's rules but the Father's. And ironically that really upset the status quo in the religious establishments of his day. But all throughout history we see time after time when religion becomes domesticated, institutionalized and bureaucratic, somewhere along the way God brings something or someone along to break through the crust and breath new life into the body of believers yearning for more than what the institutions are offering. We even see this prior to Christ as the prophets call out to the nation of Israel to let them know that God wants obedience over the sacrifices, their hearts rather than their token offerings. I do believe that we are at a time when a thick crust has hardened over the church as we know it and in considering all of the seismic shifts that have been occurring within the world, new life is going to break through in ways that we can not imagine or control.

Dispatch 4: The emergent phenomenon began in the late 1990s when a group of Christian leaders began a conversation about how postmodernism was affecting the faith.

The is no doubt that in my experience growing up the Bible was interpreted through a very modernistic mindset. The Bible was systematized and explained very scientifically as if the truth could be like a pure diamond with no flaws. But it wasn't until I entered into college and took Dr. Ellis's history classes at Lorain County Community College that I began to discover deconstructionism. As we looked at various times of American history and read many books, we discovered that with every single book there will always be bias. There is a particular filter or grid in which the author interprets history as well as how the reader interprets the book for himself. It is the same when a community studies the Bible together. Their micro-narrative of that community will have specific ramifications for how they look at Scripture. I noticed this in a huge way when I moved from North East Ohio ( a very strong liberal, Catholic, blue collar area) to Lynchburg, Virginia (a very militant conservative, fundamentalist area). There were times when I was shocked by the massive differences in how the faith was lived out by those two communities both using the same Bible.

Dispatch 5: The emergent movement is not exclusively North American; it is growing around the globe.

Jones believes that the DNA of this movement comes from "the golden era of American youth ministry" during the 70's and 80's. My youth group experience was during the early to mid-80's. It was fun to belong to a large youth group and have many of the experiences I had growing up. I even learned a lot, both good and bad, as I turned my back on it all my Senior year. Ironically, over the course of 3 different colleges and a seminary education, I ended up in career youth ministry. Although I do see that postmodern thought has influenced the emergent church I really had to think about the implications of this emergent movement possibly being heavily influenced by those of us who have come out of "the golden age of youth ministry." Did the church accomplish what it had hoped through the establishment of youth ministry or did youth ministry evolved into something else? Did the advent of youth ministry inspire the new thoughts and ideas that would break through the crust that was hardened over during the end of the 20th century by the establishment church? Either way, it is exciting that with today's technology and the new forms of communication, this is definitely a movement that has long reaching influence all around the world.

The New Christians 1

In the preface of his book Tony Jones instantly has me intrigued with this quote,"Many in church leadership today - not to mention everyday believers - feel that the church made a wrong turn somewhere in the twentieth century. At the dawn of a new century, the emergents are one of the few groups offering a way out of this mess, and lots of people are listening." Jones then opens up his book on the Emergent church by first of all giving a cursory glance back on the old country that is being left behind as he reflects on the 20th Century.

As Tony Jones looks at the horizon behind him he makes two definitive statements, called dispatches in Chapter 1. He states:

Dispatch 1: Emergents find little importance in the discrete differences between the various flavors of Christianity. Instead, they practice a generous orthodoxy that appreciates the contributions of all Christian movements. (p. 8)

Our church, Epiphany United Methodist Church in Loveland, Ohio did a sermon series a year ago about different denominations. Now growing up in a fundamentalist, evangelical past I wasn't sure where the pastor was going with this. It was my experiences in the past that something like this would be an opportunity to blast the mainlines, Catholics, and charismatics. But instead, Doug took this sermon series as an opportunity to celebrate what we can learn from the emphases that other denominations bring to the table when you consider the entire body of Christ. Needless to say, it was an awesome series.

Dispatch 2: Emergents reject the politics and theologies of left versus right. Seeing both sides as a remnant of modernity, they look forward to a more complex reality. (p. 20)

I have studied church history enough to know about the great divide during the 20th Century between the fundamentalists and liberals. Most of my experiences in churches has been of the Conservative evangelical flavor. I heard my share of sermons demonizing youth culture, Hollywood, rock music, and anything that actually seemed interesting to me. Needless to say, I grew up with a lot of guilt! In fact we had to reject modern culture and immerse ourselves in the counter-Christian culture. You know, that sub-standard, vanilla flavored, bland, boring thing that Christian culture produces when it tries to entertain ONLY a church audience. I actually remember being frightened into saying the "salvation prayer" after a showing of "A Thief in the Night" which was the 70's version of Tim LaHayes amazingly awful "Left Behind" movies. And I also remember one guy at our house who came over for a haircut from my mom ranting about how terrible it was that Amy Grant would dare to sing a "secular" song with Peter Cetera who was the lead singer of Chicago. I remember looking at the guy thinking he was crazy because I didn't understand why Amy Grant should be forced to entertain ONLY US CHRISTIANS!

In the youth groups that I have been a part of it always seemed like the most important thing was to create programs in which we can somehow trick people into hearing the "plan of salvation" and get 'em saved! After they say the pray, sign the card, which was a kind of guaranteed ticket to heaven, our work was done! Unfortunately, no assimilation would occur, no discipleship, no follow up, no caring for the needs of those we manipulated into saying "the prayer". When I was alone with my friends we would often talk about if this was really effective at all and are people really beginning a new relationship with God or are they just repeating some prayer for "fire insurance" under the false pretense that we encouraged, that if you just say this prayer you will be saved. The culture was to be feared and we were to "separate" and wait for the rapture to take us ragtag bunch of Christians home to be with God. It was a very depressing and weak eschatology that drove the evangelical church.

It wasn't until I took a very nervous step into the Methodist church that I discovered some new thoughts and ways of thinking. Mind you, God had to really humble me to enter into the mainline churches. I really had an arrogant view of the mainlines as I was growing up. But it wasn't until the fundamentalists and Baptists told me to find another job that I was finally willing to consider some other alternatives I would have never really considered in my younger years. Now, within the Methodist church I have discovered this thing called "Social Justice" and a view of culture that is transformative instead of condemning and hopeless. Needless to say, this has been like an awakening for me as I discovered a new eschatology that brings hope and courage and God's love that is much more holistic.

But the mainline is not above criticism here as Tony points out some of its glaring faults. During the industrial age,big business and monolithic bureaucracies were the forms that our culture created in the areas of work and industry. Sadly to say, I see that this is a big problem within the church I am in. In the evangelical churches once I was hired I was considered an official pastor. But as I came to the Methodist Church I got the label of Director of Student Ministries and that really bothered me at first. A mere title, I know. I believe that I have been called by God to be a youth pastor. Titles that people put on my door really do not matter. But after some time I did want to pursue becoming clergy within the Methodist church for a variety of reasons. It has been shocking to me to amount of bureaucratic red tape and overbearing process that has been created for someone to serve as a pastor! So many of those coming out of seminary, and not even seminary trained adults for that matter, are realizing that all it takes to start a church is a vision, persistent and passion and with that anybody could pretty much do it, from the gifted to the insane! If the mainline wants to survive they will need to seriously reevaluate the monolithic government that has been created in their denominations.

I am excited about this new thinking outside-of-the-box that Jones is presenting. Instead of accepting that 20th century Christianity was the way it has always been, he is presenting new and fresh ideas that will hopefully shake the foundations of the church and cause so many of us to rethink church, evangelism, discipleship, culture, etc.