CHASING FRANCIS by Ian Morgan Cron

I chose to read this book on recommendation of Gordon MacDonald, who suggested it in one of his Leadership/CT articles.

The book follows Pastor Chase Falson, who admits to loosing his faith in front of his mega-church congregation on a Sunday Morning. He is a sabbatical to “pull it together,” and makes his way to Italy at the invitation of a cousin, a Franciscan friar and spiritual director.

I finished the book and oh what a challenge!! Chase comes home and wants to lead his church on a new road with a new vision, one radically different than the one it was founded on. The church is not ready for his direction, so he resigns and plans to plant a new church with a new direction.

I believe Ian Cron has written a book that challenges the modern church in America to reassess its values and decide if they are going to be relevant to the culture or relevant to itself. I have little issue with purpose driven or prevailing church ideas, but they do not always lead us to a servant posture to those who are not part of us. As I have heard said, the church exists first for those who are not members of it. If this is true, we have not oriented ourselves towards those who need Jesus’ good news.

This is a great read. Pick it up and let it challenge you!!