The other big problem with this book is how Chan describes this radical Christian life that we ought to be living. I spent years of my life trying to be 100% devoted to Jesus and couldn't figure out why I kept failing spectacularly. The Christian life is a constant battle with indwelling sin. He acts like we could be 100% sold out for Jesus if we just wanted to, but consider Romans 7 where the apostle Paul- as mature a Christian that'll ever walk this earth- bemoans his own divided heart and how he doesn't always do what he wants to do but he does things that he hates. I also think Chan doesn't consider the believer's battle with sin realistically. The book is also not especially Christ-centered and leans heavily on the unhelpful sacred/secular divide in several places. He talks of taking four day retreats to be alone in the woods with God and uses lots of the warm, fuzzy, quasi-romantic "fall in love with God" language which I keep hoping will run its course in our culture. Chan gives us a heavy individualism with very little attention given to the Church. There are some other unfortunate theological choices as well. Sure, Chan says once or twice that he doesn't want us to be motivated by guilt, but simply saying that doesn't remove the guilt-driven ideas throughout the book. 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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