Letters to the Church

by Francis Chan

We wanted people to come to Cornerstone to experience almighty God and the moving of the Holy Spirit—not to hear Francis Chan.

Because my leadership was so prominent in the church, I also began to see that it was holding back others who should have been leading. As I started to encourage some of my staff members and elders to leave and began releasing them into new ministries, I saw how much they grew from being given the opportunity to pastor.

When I looked at what went on in Cornerstone, I saw a few other people and me using our gifts, while thousands just came and sat in the sanctuary for an hour and a half and then went home. The way we had structured the church was stunting people’s growth, and the whole body was weaker for it.

He explained that for years he was taught salvation was a free gift and the gospel meant he could have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Now suddenly he was being told that the skates were actually given to him because he was supposed to be a part of our hockey team working together to pursue a championship.

It’s as if I can sense His actual presence in the room with us. It makes me want to stay in a room with them all because I want to get as close to Jesus as possible. Just the other day, a one-hour teaching session spontaneously turned into thirteen hours of prayer! We were enjoying His presence together so much that no one wanted to leave!

The Church has real issues, but Jesus still refers to the Church as His body, His Bride! We must love His Bride, not gripe about her or leave her.

Since the beginning of time, there has been worship God loves and worship He rejects. As I examine the state of the Christian Church today, I can’t help but think that God is displeased with many of the churches in America.

Imagine how difficult it would be to coach a team where each player refuses to follow because he or she has a better plan than the coach. Welcome to the American Church in the twenty-first century. Let’s exercise some humility.

Before you get overwhelmed by all that is wrong with the Church, remember that He is not placing an insurmountable burden on your shoulders. He is asking you to fellowship with Him and join Him in what He is doing. We should be filled with faith and anticipation, remembering what He did at the Red Sea and the empty tomb.

To us, many situations in Scripture involve a punishment that was too severe for the crime. But why do we feel this way? We don’t understand what it means for something to be “sacred.” We live in a human-centered world among people who see themselves as the highest authority. We are quick to say things like “That isn’t fair!” because we believe we deserve certain rights as humans.

Productivity is no sin, but when it comes to the sacred, God commands us to proceed with caution. Others may treat these things as common, but we cannot. While others quickly judge God’s actions and question His commands, we are to be careful even to speak His name. We don’t carelessly question His actions or inaction. Instead, we pray, “Hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2). While others rush into prayer with opinions and demands, we cautiously approach His throne in reverence. Like the high priest entering the Holy of Holies, we are to treat prayer as sacred.

Paul referred to it as a profound mystery. If achievement is your idol, you won’t make time for mystery. You will rush to the next sentence so you can finish this book rather than meditate on the miracle that you are a human being who is currently joined to a God “who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16).

The sun is ninety-three million miles away, and you are unable to stare at it.1 You obviously can’t touch the sun and live, so how is it possible that we are currently attached to the One who shines brighter than the sun?

When Paul talked about this concept, he used the plural form of you and the singular form of temple. We are all joined together to form one house for God. Somehow I am a block of a temple that transcends time and space. And because the structure is a temple, this means that God makes His home among us!

Every time you speak evil about a member of the Church, it is like taking a sledgehammer to the temple. Are you sure you want to keep doing that?

We point out the flaws in our pastor’s sermon with the same conviction we critique a movie star’s acting or our favorite team’s recent loss. Could it be that we are taking a sledgehammer to the temple in so doing?

Consider this: 2 Chronicles 7—when the temple was dedicated—was not the only time fire fell from heaven onto the temple. It also happened in Acts 2 when the Church was born. The disciples were united and praying when tongues of fire fell on them. They were the temple. Fire fell on them. And you know the rest of the story.

If you’re not fascinated by your inclusion in His Church yet, it may help you to know that there are beings in heaven that stare at the Church in wonder.

Rather than diligently studying His commands and delivering exactly what He asked for, we have been influenced by so many other things. We think about what we want, what others would want, what others are doing. In the spirit of Cain, we bring an offering we think He should accept rather than what He actually asked for.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Do you remember the last time you gathered with believers just to pray? Or is prayer something you do only before you eat or something your church does only when it needs to transition out of the sermon while the band walks onto the stage?

Would you say that prayer plays any meaningful role in the life of your church? If prayer isn’t vital for your church, then your church isn’t vital. This statement may be bold, but I believe it’s true. If you can accomplish your church’s mission without daily, passionate prayer, then your mission is insufficient and your church is irrelevant.

I believe there is something deep in you that would love to pray intensely with like-minded people, hoping to see a supernatural response.

Our job is to reveal God to people. He is present in His Word, fellowship, Communion, and prayer. Rather than creating our own pep rallies, our calling is to simply put Him on display and watch as He draws people to Himself.

If they are not interested in Him, what do we think we’re accomplishing by trying to lure them by other means? We have to accept the fact that not everyone is interested in God. We just need to make sure that it’s really God we are putting on display. Otherwise we run the risk of people attending our services who have merely fallen in love with us.

Imagine if I pulled her aside during the party, put my arm around her, and said, “Look at all the people who came to be with you!” Would she actually believe those people were there because they love her and want to spend time with her? Or would my comment actually be insulting?

Dream of groups that tremble as Scripture is read. People are on the edge of their seats, giving God’s words the honor they deserve. It matters little who is reading. It is the Bible they find riveting. Explanations are given when needed, but people are mainly listening for truth so they can repent and worship.

From what you know about gangs, could you ever imagine gang life being reduced to a weekly one-hour gathering? No group would meet briefly once a week and call that a gang. Imagine one gang member walking up to another one and saying, “Yo, how was gang? I had to miss this week because life has been crazy!”

Think of a few of the people in your church. Picture their faces. Now think about the lengths to which Jesus went to bring those specific people to Himself. Think of the whippings He endured so that they could be forgiven. Imagine the way He thought of each of those people as He hung on the cross. No sacrifice was too great; there was nothing He would hold back.

Jesus pursued those people from heaven to earth to bring them into His family; what barriers could hold you back from pursuing a deep familial relationship with them?

Jesus prayed that the unity of His followers would be equal to the oneness of the Father and Son! He wants you and me to be one just as the Father and Son are united.

For some of us, that prayer doesn’t make sense. How could our unity result in the world’s belief? How could seeing us love one another make someone believe that Jesus truly came from heaven? It feels like saying two plus two equals a thousand. Just remember that Scripture is filled with impossible equations.

We have come up with countless strategies to reach the lost when God promises that unity is the method that will work.

What I see today is many people choosing to opt out of the Church. Claiming a continued love for Jesus, they have decided that the Church only gets in their way. It’s a sad time when those who want to be close to Jesus have given up on the Church.

It is crazy to me that we live in a time when people are voluntarily doing this to themselves! No church has placed them outside the fellowship; instead, they’ve handed themselves over to Satan!

Sadly, there are a lot of people in our churches who aren’t interested in living out loving family like this. I’m going to say something that might be hard to hear: What if we let them leave? I know that goes against all the wisdom of modern church-growth strategies, but it’s exactly the kind of thing Jesus would do. While we design strategies to slowly ease people into Christian commitment and grow attendance at our services, Jesus called people to count the cost from the very start (Luke 14:25–35).

We have to stop viewing church leaders as people who minister to us. God clearly explained their role. It was not to coddle you but to equip you. Think personal trainer, not massage therapist.

Leaders have become like personal trainers who lift the weights for their clients. They run on the treadmill while their trainees sit and marvel. Then we wonder why we the people aren’t developing.

Are we creating the space necessary for every person to feel like he or she can be used by God to encourage and build up others? Have we made our churches so professional and impressive that only the polished few can contribute?