Review: Letters to the Church

Letters to the Church by Francis Chan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book from audible because I had a couple of credits to spare and it sounded interesting. I've read (or listened) to all of Chan's books EXCEPT for 'Multiply' and this by far could be considered his most critical book (I don't say that in a negative sense...more of a "hey, this is some heavy/pointed stuff, and there's probably going to be some things said that are going to be REALLY hard to hear). While that may be the case, he approaches the message from a position of humility and love.

Overall this book is a call for us in the American church to take a step back and evaluate if what we're doing is actually what's best for the KINGDOM, or if it in reality is just what's best for us. Some pretty hard things were said in this book, and I don't envy Chan for being the one to say them. Yet I do highly appreciate and respect his obedience to the calling he felt he received to share this message with us. Being in campus ministry and not in a 'congregational setting', I found a few of his suggestions and challenges compelling but not directly applicable to my situation. However, I DO feel like (based upon his tone and heart poured out in this book) that if he were to read this, he would want me to pray about taking that and trail blaze by figuring out what Jesus wants and what that looks like in our context.

If you're in leadership of any sort of ministry, I'd recommend giving this book a read. I could EASILY see great merit coming from engaging this book in a community (group of pastors, elders, ministry leaders, laymen, etc.) as well! Our culture seems to thrive on shrinking from proper confrontation and instead hide (especially behind the anonymity of social media and the internet when dealing with conflict between people). The confrontation you'll find through this book is NOT with a person (per se), but rather with complete surrender, discernment, and obedience to one who is to be both Savior AND Lord. I would encourage/challenge you to resist that temptation (as easy as it is) to shrink back from the confrontation here (i.e. making excuses, becoming defensive, etc.), and allow yourself to seriously engage what Chan's discovered on his journey with both church and Jesus over the past decade.

View all my reviews