Letters to The Church – Francis Chan

Book Synopsis – If God had it His way, what would your church look like?

The New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Love challenges readers to be the Church as God intends.

Do you want more from your church experience?
Does the pure gospel put you in a place of awe?
Are you ready to rethink church as you know it?

Sit with Pastor Francis Chan and be reminded that you are a part of something much bigger than yourself, something sacred.

In his most powerful book yet, Chan digs deep into biblical truth, reflects on his own failures and dreams, and shares stories of ordinary people God is using to change the world.

Chan says, “We’ve strayed so far from what God calls Church. We all know it. We know that what we’re experiencing is radically different from the Church in Scripture. For decades, church leaders like myself have lost sight of the inherent mystery of the Church. We have trained people sitting in the pews to become addicted to lesser things. It’s time for that to change.”

When Jesus returns, will He find us caring for His Bride—even more than for our own lives? Letters to the Church reminds us of how powerful, how glorious the Church once was … and calls us to once again be the Church God intended us to be. (Amazon)

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Notes

Chapter 3 – The Order

The Prayers

“If prayer for your church isn’t vital, then your church isn’t vital….If you can accomplish your church’s mission without daily, passionate prayer, then your vision is insufficient and your church is irrelevant.”

I think I need a lot more of this in my own personal life but I don’t have a hard time understanding how prayer work and why prayer is necessary. Not that I don’t want to do it or that I don’t do it, but I just have a hard time understanding the purpose of prayer when God knows everything about us and knows all our thoughts. I’ve heard the viewpoint that prayer isn’t for God but it’s for us but it still doesn’t seem to fully explain prayer. Regardless if I fully understand or not, I see that it’s a leg in which in our spiritual growth is standing upon. I’ll continue to pray and continue to try to understand it.

A Better Experience

God commands us to be devoted to His Word, to fellowship, to the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer.

God himself is what we should be drawn to. It’s not the band, pastor, or church building that should draw us to Him. It’s God himself. Francis gives an example of his friend from India that tells him that it’s funny that American’s need to have all the fancy stuff to go to service whereas in India people gather together for prayer. Do we really love God or do we love the experience we get from going to church?

Chapter 4 – The Gang

Francis compares being a Christian to a gang. He states that being a Christian isn’t just something where we show up on Sunday, go through service, and leave. Being a Christian is like being in a gang but without the bad stuff. The reality is, people in gangs like being apart of it because it feels like a place they belong. They can count on their “brothers” backing them up. It’s not a perfect comparison but the point is the Christian life should be more than just Sundays. We should be like family and integrated into each other’s lives.

Chapter 5 – Servants

We should serve one another out of love for each other instead of just taking from the church. Jesus, the Son of God, washed his disciples feet. He served them. He mentored them. He lived with them. Instead of just being a consumer of the Church, we should be partakers as servants to one another and givers.

Experiencing God

The church should come expectant that God is going to show up. We should expect that the Holy Spirit will move through people and use the church body to build each other up. Each person in the church is given spiritual abilities that needs to be used.

Chapter 6 – Good Shepherds

“For those not currently leading others, don’t assume you shouldn’t. It could be that your fear of failure is keeping you from doing what God created and called you to do. No one is called to be sontantly fed without leading and feeding others….”