This lack of gospel-centeredness is the biggest problem here, because then all of the imperatives that follow are guilt-driven, not gospel-driven. He's united us to Christ and his love for us is because we are "in Christ.". What? We do know the answer, God loves us because of Jesus. In one cringe-inducing paragraph Chan actually asks, so why does God love messed up people like us so much and his response is that he doesn't really know. It's not rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, but in this amorphous notion of God's love. The problem is, the house Chan builds has a pretty soggy foundation. But because this book has made such a big splash in the Church in the last few years, I felt that it warranted a very careful consideration and, to be honest, I found it to be a well-intentioned but profoundly flawed book. I have no doubt that Francis Chan is a solid follower of Christ with a big heart for his God and his neighbor. Chan argues that our call to live radically is rooted in God's crazy love for us, and that's certainly true. The American Church certainly is lukewarm and quickly going the way of the increasingly churchless countries in Europe. Chan seeks to combate the "lukewarmness" of the American Church by calling us to live a radical "obsessed" life for Jesus. Mark this one under the Good Premise, Terrible Execution category.
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