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My Church Would Be Bigger Than Jesus’

Posted by Chris Case | October 12, 2007 .

I recently attended the Catalyst conference here in Atlanta. The conference is made for Christian leaders, both in vocational ministry and in secular vocations, and attracts a slew of well-known speakers and authors such as Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, Shane Claiborne, Erwin McManus and others. The conference was an entertainment spectacle, with North Point Church worship leaders, humorous bumpers and skits, and speakers who, for the most part, spoke well regarding their topic and area of expertise.

My entertainment level was greatly diminished when Francis Chan took the stage and spoke, in a good way. Up to that point, there was a lot of ‘encouraging words’ and teaching from the speakers, but I am not one to desire that. Francis Chan came in, full of honesty and personal conviction regarding his own life and what he has learned from leading a church in Southern California. To give you a brief background, he leads a Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California. They recently were on the brink of buying a new church building, with all the bells and whistles that modern mega-churches have. But instead, they chose to spend that money for missional good and built themselves an outdoor amphitheater, saving a few million dollars. Here’s a video about the decision:

Download Video

Francis won a lot of respect from me for that decision, but what he said during his talk was phenomenal and to this day I am still processing the full weight of what it would look like. Here’s an excerpt taken from the Catalyst booklet, but he repeated it on stage:

I’ve being led by the right or wrong desires of the people.

God calls us to give people what they need, based on His word, regardless of whether they stick around. Jesus led. Few followed, but He kept leading.

Last summer, I came to the shocking realization that I had to share with my wife: If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger. People would leave His church to attend mine, because I call for an easier commitment. I know better how to cater to people’s desires so they stick around. Jesus was never really good at that. He was the one who said, “He who loves father or mother… son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt 10.37). I’m much more popular than Jesus.

This statement was all at once simple and profound to me. As a seminarian, previous worker at a church, and currently volunteering at a church through music and media, I struggle with this very concept. At what point do we seek to entertain to draw people in to hear the Good News and when do we eventually draw the line to personally confront individuals with the radical call of the Gospel?

Mark Driscoll’s sermon from this past week pointed out the uniqueness of the call. As Christians we are called to be rebels. We are the ones who are rebelling against the status quo. We are born sinners, so the conformist thing to do is to keep on sinning. Our culture tells us to get rich, live for yourself, collect the most toys, eat, drink, try to look sexy, and figure everything out yourself. The Christian life tells us the exact opposite of most of our cultural messages. So, catering culture is a dangerous world, when we are called to be rebels in face of our culture.

This is something I think both Emergent and traditionally Reformed churches struggle with. Both use culture different as part of their church, often Emergent seeking to engage culture more, but why can’t both sides stand there and simply say, let’s create culture.

I am often cynical about megachurches and I think Francis’ statement above is why. If American churches preached the full extent of Jesus’ hard call to discipleship, would we have many mega-churches? I go back to John’s writings when he says of the church in Sardis, “I know your deeds; you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Rev 3.1). The Gospel of Luke also offers a similar critique, saying “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets” (Luke 6.26). At the end of the day, it is not the “mega” part of the church that I am cautious about. Just with the early church, God add to the number those groups of Christians who are faithful. If evangelism is a focus of the church, then a church should grow, hopefully exponentially. But dare churches speak the full call of discipleship or simply discipleship lite?

Let’s pray for our leaders, that they not be afraid to preach how Jesus would.

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3 Comments so far
  1. johnMark October 12, 2007 11:45 pm

    What Chan did was great! And what he said about building a bigger church than Jesus was even better and true. It makes me think of Jesus in John 6 and how he let all the people go away and didn’t try to chase them down, etc.

    I remember listening to a sermon by Matt Chandler where he said that instead of spending thousands of dollars to build a Starbucks cafe in the church he would use the money to reach and help people. Something along those lines. :)

    Mark

  2. Rick October 13, 2007 7:38 am

    Considering the organizers and speakers, I respect his boldness is giving that message in that setting. Not that many of those speakers/organizers would support his actions, but it had to be a little uncomfortable.

  3. Jeremy October 25, 2007 10:23 am

    Francis Chan gave a similar message earlier this year at the Orange Conference, which has many of the same organizers.

    While I applaud his resolve and convictions, I do think there is room for some of the other stuff in our churches…but where we get it wrong is when the other stuff happens to the exclusion of mission (not missions, but the mission of seeking and saving the lost)

    any well intentioned means that has that end at heart, can be a good thing…perhaps not the most effective, but at least they gave it the old college try.

    if the starbucks is going in because the pastor loves coffee, then the idea is kind of stupid…but if said coffee shop brings in people off the street and they encounter Jesus, I have to believe that is a good thing.

    Churches can be both attractional and missional…it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

    btw. kudos on this blog Chris…and thanks for being a friend.