If Jesus or Paul Had a Church in Madison

A pastor from Simi Valley, CA named Francis Chan spoke at the Catalyst Conference, of which our pastoral staff was a part two weeks ago. His message had a lasting impact on me, and although he "had command of the room," as a good speaker should, he somehow seemed far more humble than anyone else in the room, and there were about 11,000 of us.

Having grown up in church, I have heard the phrase, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" a hundred kabillion times. I believe this (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 12:2), but the idea gained new relevance for me when Chan said something like, "There is something that God has for you to do that He doesn't want anyone else in the world to do."

Below is a little more of what he said. Take it to heart, and bear in mind that he's essentially preaching to himself in the first paragraph. When we receive the audio and video recordings of the conference and I confirm that it's legal, I intend to post either the audio or video here.

Without further ado (and by the way, don't say, "But Jesus does have a church in Simi Valley!" You'll understand the point he's making):

"If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, I bet mine would be bigger. If the apostle Paul had a church in Simi Valley, I bet mine would be larger. In fact, I bet people would leave their churches to come to mine. I would be more popular than Jesus. Why? Because I don’t call them to the same commitment Jesus would call them to. He would challenge them to a tougher calling of sacrifice and crucifixion.

"When I get to heaven, I don’t want to watch Jesus spew my sheep out of his mouth. No, I’d rather have a few behind me and be able to say, 'Jesus, these are all I had left, but they are crazy in love with You. They sacrificed all of their lives to serve You.'

"I’m concerned we say a lot about ourselves but don’t really mean it. If we love people who are suffering, wouldn’t we spend the same on them as we would on ourselves? The truth is that we don’t want to part with our comforts.

"God wasn’t the one who gave you a spirit of timidity. God made you for a purpose. He empowered you for a purpose, He dwells in you for a purpose, and He will hold you accountable for that purpose."

Posted in: Catalyst Conference, Christianity, Jesus, The Church