Letters to the Church

by Francis Chan

  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.

  WHAT WORKS

  I have been in church leadership for thirty years. I spent years asking myself, “What will work?” And by that I meant, “What will get more people to attend gatherings?” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. My intention was that I wanted more people interested in Christ, and I wanted to see their lives changed. In my zeal for results, however, I neglected some of His commands. Paul didn’t do this. If you read Romans 9:1–3, you see that Paul was far more zealous for the salvation of others than any of us. Yet in his pursuit of people, he was still careful to guard what was sacred.

  Paul was careful to refrain from using merely human rhetoric and make sure the Spirit’s power was predominant. I was busy doing whatever worked. I learned how to keep an auditorium filled. I learned how to give people the experience they wanted.

  Paul rose above all this. The Corinthians wanted Paul to preach with eloquence like the skilled orators they enjoyed listening to, but Paul refused (1 Cor. 1:17). They wanted a preacher who would give them the best of human wisdom, but Paul gave them the opposite. He actually limited his words because he didn’t want to diminish the cross of its power. He wanted their faith to rest on the Spirit’s power (2:1–5). They wanted a Christian celebrity they could all praise (2 Cor. 11), but Paul refused to let it be about him. He gave them what they needed and what was best for them rather than what they were demanding.

  “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

  1 Corinthians 1:17

  “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

  1 Corinthians 2:1–5

  As long as I have been alive, church attendance has been in decline (compared with overall population growth).1 So it’s not surprising to see well-intentioned pastors trying to make the Church more popular. But this is actually an old game that has never worked out well. In nineteenth-century Denmark, Søren Kierkegaard was appalled at the state church, which he believed had grown apathetic and insincere. Kierkegaard believed that true Christianity is costly and demands humility. Because the gospel exposes our failures and insists that we can find life only through the grace of God, our self-esteem comes under attack as we acknowledge that Jesus alone saves. But what Kierkegaard saw in the Church were constant attempts to make Christianity more palatable, more popular, and less offensive. He said if we strip away the offense from Christianity and try to make things fun and easy for everyone, “then lock the churches, the sooner the better, or turn them into places of amusement which stand open all day long!”2

  Does that sound pertinent for today?

  Alan Hirsch explained his experience with building a megachurch in Australia: “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 because that is what people buy in to.… Win them with entertainment, and you have to keep them there by entertaining them. For a whole lot of reasons, this commitment seems to get harder year after year. We end up creating a whip for our own backs.”3

  If we focus too much of our attention on what people want, we will only increase the amount of complaining. The more we try to fulfill their desires, the more they complain when their desires are not met. Now we have many people who genuinely believe their unhappiness is the church’s fault! Much of the fault lies with leaders like me for addressing these problems the wrong way.

  If it’s 11:00 p.m. and your ten-year-old asks for a latte because he’s tired, you need to tell him to go to sleep. Sleep is the right solution for his fatigue. Too often we have given people what they ask for rather than what they need. There are times when the most loving thing we can do is teach people that joy will come only when they stop screaming for attention and save their voices for the throne.

  “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”

  Revelation 5:11–14

  Can you imagine being in that setting and feeling bored? Feeling like you needed something more? Wishing people were being more attentive to your needs? There’s no way! This is what we were made for! We’re not doing people any favors by pretending they are the center of the universe. Either people will be awed by the sacred or they will not. If the sacred is not enough, then it is clear that the Spirit has not done a work in their lives. If the sheep don’t hear His voice, let them walk away. Don’t call out with your own voice.

  Too often we add in our own voices, thinking if we offer just the right services or package the gospel in just the right way so no one gets offended, we can convince people to stay. By catering our worship to the worshippers and not to the Object of our worship, I fear we have created human-centered churches.

  I don’t say this to condemn anyone or to point any fingers. I am guilty of it too. When I look back at my life and the times when I fell prey to this consumerist mentality, I don’t believe that my intentions were evil or that my love for Christ was weak. God may say otherwise in the end, but I really believe my biggest mistake was that I didn’t think things through. Or that I didn’t consult the right Person enough. I got caught up in consumerism like everyone else, and I paid too much attention to what I wanted and what others wanted.

  Many of us make decisions based on what brings us the most pleasure. This is how we choose our homes, jobs, cars, clothes, food, and churches. We pursue what we want; then we make sure there are no biblical commands we are violating. In essence, we want to know what God will tolerate rather than what He desires. Maybe we are afraid to ask what will bring Him the most pleasure. Ignorance feels better than disobedience.

  The good news is that by the grace of God, some of us are seeing our failures now and are training ourselves to prioritize His desires. Scripture is our starting point, not desire or tradition. Rather than thinking of what we would enjoy or asking others what they would like, we ask the simple question, What would please God most?

  DEVOTED TO HIS ORDERS

  The first church was built on the things that pleased God most. It was their focus on the right things that actually made them attractive. You can’t read through the book of Acts without thinking, That’s a community of people I want to be part of. What they were doing was unique. It was compelling in a way that nothing else in the world could rival. This was something the world had never seen.

  “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were b
eing saved.”

  Acts 2:42–47

  Absent from this account is any attempt on the part of the early Christians to conjure up some sort of powerful experience. They weren’t strategizing ways to get people interested. After Jesus left them to return to His Father, they were gathering together to ask God to direct them and work through them: “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). It was in one of these gatherings that the Spirit of God descended on them and the entire Church was launched as they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42).

  No modern church-growth movement would take this approach seriously. Where’s the excitement? Sure, these elements are the basic building blocks, but do you really think you can accomplish anything with just the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer? After all, haven’t there been many who have chased this simple approach without experiencing the “awe” the early church felt? No. 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. So much of the discussion nowadays revolves around how to make the most of our Sunday morning services. If people are willing to sacrifice ninety minutes a week, should we spend that time singing, preaching, or praying? Should we meet in a large group or a small one? These are all the wrong questions. 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.

  While we can’t force people to be devoted, it may be that we have made it too easy for them not to be. By trying to keep everyone interested and excited, we’ve created a cheap substitute for devotion.

  Rather than busying themselves with countless endeavors, the early followers devoted themselves to a few. And it changed the world. It seems like the Church in America is constantly looking for the next new thing. We want to follow the latest trends of church growth, believing there is something we are missing. Once we add one more staff position or one more program, our churches will become healthy. It’s a never-ending game. Haven’t we tried that long enough?

  THE APOSTLES’ TEACHING

  The early church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. There is a miraculous power to the apostles’ teaching that no other writings have (Eph. 2:20; 2 Tim. 3:16–17). Most Christians have heard all their lives that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). We’ve heard it, but do we believe it?

  If we genuinely believed that the Word of God was this powerful, what would we do? We would read these words and expect them to have a life of their own. We certainly wouldn’t put so much emphasis on different preachers and their ability to “make the Scriptures come alive”!

  Think of movies you’ve seen where a witch recites a spell. Everything has to be repeated exactly, because the power comes from the words themselves. Obviously, I’m not trying to compare the Word of God to a spell book, but if anything, we should treat these words as more sacred and powerful, not less.

  “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

  John 6:63

  If I was at the park playing basketball and LeBron James wanted to play on my team, I’d find every opportunity to pass him the ball. Then I would stand back and watch in amazement. What if we spent more time publicly reading the Word and encouraging others to read it too? I suspect we would be able to sit back and watch in amazement as the Word of God accomplishes what it sets out to do.

  “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

  Isaiah 55:10–11

  My preaching habits over the years have shown that I believe His words are dead and require my creativity to bring them to life. Paul said, “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:13). Maybe if we did more of this, we could raise a new generation that is addicted to God’s Word and less fanatical about preachers.

  A friend of mine gathered some people for a time of public Bible reading. They read in shifts, starting at Genesis 1 and finishing with Revelation 22 three days later. In seventy-two hours, they read the entire Bible aloud! He tried to describe the feeling they had when the final words were read. Ultimately, it was unexplainable. The Word did something that far exceeded their expectations. They did in three days what most professing Christians in America won’t do in their lifetimes.

  What would it mean for us to strip away the distractions and become a people who devoted ourselves to Scripture? I firmly believe that we would see a power in our churches like we’ve never experienced before.

  Just a few weeks ago, at our church gathering we read the entire book of Revelation out loud. I started by reading Revelation 1:3: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

  Isn’t it ridiculous that God promises a blessing to anyone who reads Revelation out loud yet no one actually does this? So we took turns reading a chapter each until all twenty-two chapters were read. It was powerful. The Word of God read simply and without embellishment brought us to a deeper and purer form of worship than anything I could have said.

  We have all seen videos of people in Third-World countries washing their clothes in dirty water. While it might be better than not washing them at all, they’re not actually clean. That is how I feel like my preaching can be. It’s certainly better than nothing, but my words will always be dirty compared with the purity of the Word of God. Only His Word is unstained by the world. It is the only thing with the power to cleanse us thoroughly. If we really want to come before God with clean hands and pure hearts, we need to have a greater awe and longing for His Word alone.

  THE BREAKING OF BREAD

  The first disciples devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, which in the New Testament refers to a shared meal in which they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Think of what this would have been like for them. Jesus had a profound impact on all the people in the early church. His sacrificial death on the cross and subsequent resurrection were real for them. They were misunderstood and opposed by the people around them; some were beaten or even put to death for following Jesus.

  So imagine what it would have meant to them when they gathered with the few people who shared their mission and beliefs. Imagine sitting around a table and sharing a meal with people who loved you unconditionally and whose lives had changed in the same way as yours. As you gather, you can’t help but remember those who used to sit at the table with you but were killed for proclaiming His death. Some who gather with you have injuries and scars from the persecution. You break the bread and eat it, remembering that Jesus had broken His body so you could find life in Him. Imagine drinking wine with these fellow believers as you recall how His blood was shed. He did this for you so you could be cleansed and forgiven of all your sins. Can you see how powerful this experience would have been for the church every time they gathered?

  If Communion has become boring for us now, it could be that we’ve lost sight of the value of Jesus’ sacrifice. When Communion feels like an obligation rather than a life-giving necessity, a serious heart scan needs to take place. God
wants us to love the Lord’s Supper so much that we feel as if we can’t live without it! Have you ever felt this way, or have you allowed the broken body and shed blood of Jesus to become just another theological concept?

  God designed Communion to be an intimate act of remembering His flesh and blood. More than just an exercise of the mind, He wanted us to actually eat of the bread and drink of the cup. And Communion is not just about intimacy with Jesus; it’s also about intimacy with one another. Remember that Jesus had just washed the disciples’ feet and commanded them to love one another just as He loved them. It was after this that He taught them to stare at His broken body and blood to remind them of how He loved them. As we consider the cross and look around the room, we should be asking ourselves, “Am I willing to love the people in this room to that extent?” This probably sounds impossible to most churchgoers, yet it’s what Christ asks for. Just imagine if the Church was made up of people who would literally go to the cross for one another. How could people shrug their shoulders as they witnessed that kind of love? This is what unbelievers should see when they watch us break bread with one another. If Communion feels like a curious add-on to our church services rather than the very core of everything we’re about, then we’re missing the point of the Church.