false 3206011 1434768511 9781434768513 651 212 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1231909957m/3206011.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3206011.Crazy_Love_Overwhelmed_by_a_Relentless_God 1362751 Francis Chan 699 229 0 2009-08-20T18:14:12-07:00 1192429 192 2009-08-20T18:14:12-07:00 0 2009-08-20T13:30:35-07:00 1191205 111 2009-08-20T13:30:35-07:00 2 0 false Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 09:59:03 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 18:55:08 -0700 2009
First, I generally agree with Chan's evaluation of the present state of the church and the visioning of what the church should look like. Second, I agree that God's love for us is crazy and it will prompt us to do crazy things.

So, given those broad agreements, why only two stars? Here are my main two reasons. First, the book over promised and under delivered. I was told that "once you encounter [God's:] love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same." Honestly, I'm still not sure where God's love was described in the book. Sure the standard, "You really suck and God loves you anyway was in there." but if that's "as Francis describes it", then most people have heard it and not been changed. In the end, this left me really disappointed because I was anticipating "Ragamuffin Gospel" type writing about God's love.

Second, I think Chan's method of moving from where the church is to where the church should be is wrong. Rather than it being about us actively pursuing Jesus, I believe it's us passively resonating in the reality that we've been and continue to be pursued, and allowing a life of love for others to flow from that. Although, on this second point, I realize that I think that way because I'm Lutheran and that's just how Lutherans are different in our understanding of the Bible.]]>