4.5 stars out of 5:
“Imagine you find yourself stranded on a deserted island with nothing but a copy of the Bible. You have no experience with Christianity whatsoever, and all you know about the Church will come from your reading of the Bible. How would you imagine a church to function? Seriously. Close your eyes for two minutes and try to picture ‘Church’ as you would know it. Now think about your current church experience. Is it even close? Can you live with that?”
This was a challenging book in the modern spirit of letters to the church in the book of Revelations; however, instead of addressing sins of various churches and commending faith of few, Francis Chan solely address the American Church with all its many pros and cons. I have long admired and respected Chan for his lifelong pursuit to draw closer to God and to draw others as well. And I’ll be honest, this book stirred many different feelings within me: joy, sadness, self-reflection, appreciation, awe, anger, guilt, love, grace, gratitude, and ultimately humility and hope. As someone who loves the church, the Bride of Christ, I also see its current faults and the need for a call to action; that we could be more servants than consumers, and that our goal as a church is to equip disciples rather than be mere observers of a few doing most of the work. Francis Chan admits that he doesn’t have all the answers. He admits how his small home churches with unpaid pastors has paid dividends by growing people closer to Christ, love each other more, and equip disciples, but might not be for everyone. It’s a radical approach but one I can see working well. And I can also see it’s hard to start something new when you currently belong to a church that has a lot of things you do enjoy (knowing that you as an individual has to put in your own work during the week outside of church with devotion and prayer). But again, I can see the benefits of what he is saying.
Some of the things I really enjoyed about this eye-opening book is his call to more prayer and spiritual maturity. And we can do this by living this one truth he pointed out: “We are not just to believe in His crucifixion; we are to be crucified with Christ.” We need to live out our faith. We need to take a stand for our beliefs. We need to reach a lost and dying world. We need to devote ourselves to prayer and His Word. We need to grow. We need to worship in spirit and truth. We need to love the least of these. Love our enemies. Meet the needs of widows and orphans. So whether it’s small home churches, the moderate sized church down the street, or the megachurch, we need to be united in the things above daily over the programs, leaders, and music. And if we do this, then we will truly be the Bride of Christ.
