below taken from an interview by mark galli in december 2012 christianity today on chan's new book..
what are you hoping to accomplish in your new book?
i try to explain the most important things a believer needs to know. it's an attempt to teach the basics of what i fee needs to be passed on to new believers..
unlike many other discipleship manuals, yours does not begin by explaining about how to pray..etc..instead, you begin by talking about the importance of church..
in our culture, people have a very low view of church
(note- if i read him right he's talking about acts 2.42 practice which i personally know nothing of and have not yet experienced in my life (if this take is correct may chan's tribe of believer increase!..seems everyone is 'doing the church program' rather that being obedient to the word in a costly way, experiencing persecution as the norm of every day life and being intimately and regularly involved in the lives of other such 'practicing' believers..)
and i didn't want readers to forget the church. for a person to be truly discipled and growing in their faith, they need more than one person discipling them. they need to see the gifts of the body; that's how God created it and intended it...this is how He is going to reach the world.
your book is also not topical but mostly a journey through the bible, where you let the biblical narrative shape the content of chapters.
one weakness in the chu4rch is that we can make things too formulaic, with a blanket statement for every situation about what you do. i want to help people understand how
to study the scriptures with other people,
to give them an over view of scripture
and assume that by understanding the scriptures better, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the right stories, the right teachings...
you say that every disciple needs to disciple others. if discipling is essentially teaching-in word and example-why is it everyone's job, and not just those with the gift of teaching..
there is a gift of teaching..that's not what we're talking about.
it has more to do with, for example,the older women teaching the younger women.
parents are supposed to instruct their kids.
it doesn't mean that necessarily have that gift of teaching
the teaching in the great commisision is about obedience to Jesus.
it's not necessarily,
'now let me teach you what this means in the greek.
its,
let me teach you how to obey this.
so often we teach these great lessons but we don't push it to the point of obedience.
and satan loves that because we're deceiving ourselves.
the teaching i'm talking about is like walking alongside someone
rebuking, exhorting and getting them to the point where they realize they
need to repent
or they're living in disobedience.
in places, you say the church's mission is for the sake of the world;
the church exists to help us each fulfill that mission.
but revelation 4-where the church in heaven gathers in joyful worship of god-suggests that the church is not a means to an end, but the end.
so is the church a means or an end for you?
i definitely don't think it's an either/or.
i really do believe it has to be both.
i know that there's no direct command to go plant churches.
there is a command to make disciples.
as we make disciples, churches form..together they form a body.
if i had to lean one way, it really seems like you start with the mission
and then the church forms,
and then the church continues the mission.
sometimes we get so focused on creating a gathering the mission becomes optional.
that hurts the church.
for example, in the gatherings i have in san francisco, everyone knows that we're on a mission because that's such a big part of what we do.
our gatherings involve the mission. we gather and go out and gather back again.
it creates an incredible sense of unity, because these people i consider my brothers and sisters, because they're serving along side me. i've seen how the mission really makes the church so beautiful because the mission is so central.
...when you read the scriptures, the verses that grab you run along the lines of
'go and make disciples' and
'sell all you have.
others are most taken with verse like
'come to Me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest' and
'your sins are forgiven'.
do you ever wonder why you are taken with the former more than the latter?
we, i wouldn't say the latter don't engage me, because there are times when they do. i just preached on the faithfulness of God, and i was bawling my eyes out.
i was memorizing ephesians and got to chapter two and i was just screaming out to God when it says,
'but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us...
it's like, aaah!
but i try to consider my audience and what they hear all the time.
i see Christ doing that;
He preaches one way to the pharisees and another way to the woman caught in adultery.
i speak primarily to an american audience involved in a consumer driven culture.
right now i'm speaking to a lot of drug addicts and people whom the world has discarded, people who just feel like they're of no worth. my message is very different to them. it's
'you are of worth. you've been lied to and you bought into the lie. it led to death. but here's the truth. the truth will set you free. you are the ones who are going to change the world. you're the very ones God would choose.
in every congregation, there's going to be both kinds of listeners. but to generalized, in my perception, the majority is unruly and rebellious. look at the different barna stats on how many people claim to be christian and yet their lifestyle is absolutely no different from the rest of the world. so that's what i tend to attack, rather than believing people are too diligent and that they are way too works oriented.
...if francis chan were to die tonight, what would be one thing you'd regret at 'being called home' sooner than later?
i'm pretty happy with my life, but there are still some fears in me.
i'm still a coward when it comes to sharing my faith.
i've gotten better, but as far as character, that would be the one thing that stands out to me.
I DON'T LOVE PEOPLE AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO
(note: ME NEITHER AND I'M NOT CONCERNED ENOUGH TO SEEK THE LORD CONTINUALLY THROUGH PRAYER AND FASTING UNTIL HIS LOVE IS IN, AND FLOWING OUT OF, ME.)
..i'm just not as bold as i should be at times.
and so i wish i could grow in those character qualities.
(note: or be filled with the Holy Spirit
acts 2.4 'and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak...as the Spirit was giving them utterance (margin, 'the ability to speak out.
2.14 but peter taking his stand with the eleven, raise his voice and declared to them...v41 so then, those who had received his word were baptized (same day) and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
4.8 then peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
'rulers and elders of the people...v13 now as they observed the confidence of peter and john and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus..
v18 and when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. but peter and john answered and said to them,
'whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God you be the judge;
for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard..
v23 and when they had been released, they went to their own companions, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
and when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said...
'and now Lord,
take note of their threats and
grant that Thy bond servants may speak Thy word with all confidence,
while Thou dost extend Thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Thy holy servant Jesus.
and when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness....)
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