Lucas Humble's Reviews > Letters to the Church

At the end of the book, Chan says “obviously, I’m not talking about some kind of works salvation.” But after having read the book, I am not sure that is obvious given that this is the most works-based focused book I have read in a very long time.

On the one hand, I applaud him for identifying concerns in the church. We are complacent. Good for him in calling that out.

But: Chan extols the virtue of the Chinese church growth while ignoring the contributions, monetary and otherwise, from the Western churches that have helped make that happen. He ignores the fact that people will come to his church because he is Francis Chan. I suspect the average person who walks up to a lost person and says, hey stranger, come over to my house to read the Bible, will find little success.

He laments the lack of tightly bound family environments of less than 20 people meeting out of homes in American churches while ignoring the fact that many American churches have community/small groups that offer that very thing. (For example, my family hosts a community group — we meet in homes and pray together, read the Word together, and break bread together. I would never have met these people but for my church of 300+ people that, heaven forbid, meets in a building on Sunday mornings.)

Chan rails against children being taught with puppets in American churches — yet I suspect he would be enthused with growth in other countries using an identical approach. Much as a first time visitor to a different country returning to their home country, Chan assumes that the different approach he has seen elsewhere is better. Perhaps it is not — perhaps God has designed his Church to uniquely adapt to the unique cultural background different geographic areas present.

I admire Chan’s genuine appreciation for the wonder of God and the desire that the Church look like what God intends. We should all seek that. And, indeed, I wanted to like this book and was excited about reading it. Instead I just found it exhausting.