There are some books you read once and appreciate.
And there are others that you come back to years later and appreciate even more.

I first read Letters to the Church when it was released in 2018 and found it challenging and inspiring. I find it rare to resonate with a book as much or more after years of cultural change and experience gained – including church hurt, and disillusionment.

Letters to the Church by Francis Chan is one of the few books that fit this category for me. Not because it offered a clean solution, but because it puts words to a misalignment many Christians feel and don’t know how to articulate.

There’s healing in having someone express the same groaning you’re experiencing.

The Question That Won’t Leave You Alone

Chan opens the book with a simple but unsettling exercise:

Imagine you found yourself stranded on a deserted island with nothing but a Bible. You have no experience with Christianity whatsoever, and all you know about the Church comes from Scripture. How would you imagine the Church functioning?

Now compare that picture with your current church experience. Is it even close?

That question lingers because it cuts through the familiarity that masquerades as faithfulness.

Most of us don’t question the shape of church—not because we’ve studied Scripture deeply and found confirmation, but because what we’ve inherited feels normal. Chan presses on that assumption with gentleness and clarity.

Consumers, Spectators, and the Shape of Church Life

People attend inside a building once a week, sit through a service, and call themselves members of the Church. That doesn’t sound strange to us because it’s what we grew up with. But Chan asks the uncomfortable question: do we see anything remotely like this pattern in the New Testament?

In many churches, the relational depth between members resembles the connection you might feel with someone who attended the same movie theater as you. Warm. Polite. Superficial.

Chan doesn’t argue that programs or traditions are inherently wrong. Instead, he warns about confusing traditions with obedience—a mistake Jesus confronted sharply in the Pharisees. Optional practices become emphasized, while clear biblical commands are sidelined.

When that happens, it’s possible to feel faithful without actually being formed.

Quick Hits: My Favorite Quotes

There were so many mic drops in the book, that I thought I’d collect some of my favorites. These were some of the most thought-provoking for me…

• Imagine you find yourself stranded on a deserted island with nothing but a copy of the Bible. You have no experience with Christianity whatsoever, and all you know about the Church will come from your reading of the Bible. How would you imagine a church to function? Seriously. Close your eyes for two minutes and try to picture “Church” as you would know it. Now think about your current church experience. Is it even close? Can you live with that?
• Because my leadership was so prominent in the church, I also began to see that it was holding back others who should have been leading. As I started to encourage some of my staff members and elders to leave and began releasing them into new ministries, I saw how much they grew from being given the opportunity to pastor. The Bible tells us that every member of the body has a gift necessary to the functioning of the Church. When I looked at what went on in Cornerstone, I saw a few other people and me using our gifts, while thousands just came and sat in the sanctuary for an hour and a half and then went home. The way we had structured the church was stunting people’s growth, and the whole body was weaker for it.
• The early church didn’t need the energetic music, great videos, attractive leaders, or elaborate lighting to be excited about being a part of God’s body. The pure gospel was enough to put them in a place of awe. Aren’t you at least a little embarrassed that you have needed the extra stuff? It’s not all your fault. For decades church leaders like myself have lost sight of the powerful mystery inherent in the Church and have instead run to other methods to keep people interested. In all honesty, we have trained you to become addicted to lesser things. We have cheapened something sacred, and we must repent.
• There is a simple exercise I walk through with church leaders. First, I have them list all the things that people expect from their church. They usually list obvious things like a really good service, strong age-specific ministries, a certain style/volume/length of singing, a well-communicated sermon, conveniences such as parking, a clean church building, coffee, childcare, etc. Then I have them list the commands God gave the Church in Scripture. Usually they mention commands like “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12), “visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27), “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19), “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), etc. I then ask them what would upset their people more—if the church didn’t provide the things from the first list or if the church didn’t obey the commands in the second list.
• Washing hands and dishes before eating is one example. It wasn’t wrong for them to do it. It’s actually a great idea. That’s not why Jesus called them hypocrites. He rebuked them so harshly because they had created their own traditions to obey (which aren’t important) and emphasized them more than the actual commands God had given them (which are extremely important). Honoring traditions made the Pharisees feel like they were obeying God when they actually weren’t. If we are not careful, we can be guilty of the same sin resulting in the same divine displeasure.
• We live in a time when people go to a building on Sunday mornings, attend an hour-long service, and call themselves members of the Church. Does that sound shocking to you? Of course not. This is perfectly normal. It’s what we grew up with. We all know good Christians go to church. But have you ever read the New Testament? Do you find anything in Scripture that is even remotely close to the pattern we have created? Do you find anyone who “went” to church?
• In many churches, you have about as much of a connection to the people who are supposedly your spiritual family as you would to someone who visited the same movie theater as you.
• It’s no secret that most people who attend church services come as consumers rather than servants. We see the foolishness in this, but it feels as if we have resigned ourselves to it. We have learned to accept it as though there’s nothing we can do about it. People put money in the offering basket, which pays for the staff salaries, so the staff should do their jobs and minister to the people. It sounds like a fair and efficient system, and it works pretty well in some places. It’s not what God wanted, but it works.
• Our Father thinks all His children are extremely gifted. God is convinced He did an amazing job in creating each of them and supernaturally empowering them. His desire is to see all His kids serve to their full potential. He placed church leaders on the earth to ensure this would happen. Few people understand this to be the role of their church leaders, and the leaders themselves often don’t understand their role. Leaders have become like personal trainers who lift the weights for their clients. They run on the treadmill while their trainees sit and marvel. Then we wonder why we the people aren’t developing.
• Most new parents are measuring and weighing their newborns to make sure they are being fed enough. If the baby isn’t growing, they panic and make serious changes. Growth is expected.  Why isn’t this expected in the Church? Week after week, the same faces show up with little to no change in their lives. Insanely, we just keep doing the same thing, hoping it will yield different results. Every week, same small talk, same “Good sermon,” same “See you next week.” If there’s no fruit, isn’t it time for change? I recently heard someone say, “Your organization is perfectly designed for producing the results you’re experiencing right now.” It may be time for a serious shift.  Even if we wanted all people to use their gifts, is it even possible with the way we currently do things? There isn’t time. When we reduce “church” to a ninety-minute service where one person teaches for forty-five minutes and another leads music for thirty minutes, we are left with fifteen minutes for announcements and forced handshakes with the people sitting near you. Are we creating the space necessary for every person to feel like he or she can be used by God to encourage and build up others? Have we made our churches so professional and impressive that only the polished few can contribute?  In speaking of the church, Paul said, “When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16). A church grows to maturity only when each part is “working.” If we give up on the goal of having all members exercise their spiritual gifts, we are destined for perpetual immaturity.
• No one is called to be constantly fed without leading and feeding others. Turn around and look. If there is no one following you, something is wrong with your life. God has called you to the work of making disciples. He has called you to lead in some capacity.
• Part of my responsibility as a good dad is to make sure I raise my kids in such a way that they are capable of leaving my home to start their own. I have a few short years to prepare them for the world out there. My job is to train them to stand on their own rather than be dependent on me. This should be the goal of every pastor as well. If we are not careful, we end up with people who have been sitting in churches for years and complaining they aren’t being fed to their liking. This is the same kind of dysfunction as a thirty-year-old complaining about his mom’s cooking. The goal of a good pastor is to raise up good pastors.
• Many pastors expect their members to sit under their teachings till they die rather than training them to leave and shepherd others. Paul was clear that church leaders are to equip the saints for work. Hugh Halter sees this as a trap we build for ourselves: “Many vocational ministers are stuck doing the work of ministry because they take a paycheck from consumer Christians who fail to see the full scope of their calling.”
• My goal in shepherding has changed so much. Long gone are the days when I am content with a bunch of people who sing loud, don’t divorce, and give to missions. I now want to know I can drop off any member of my church in a city and that person could grow in Jesus, make disciples, and start a church. My faith in the Holy Spirit’s power convinces me this is possible. It is in our very DNA. We all have been given a spirit of courage and the power to do beyond what we can imagine. We must train our people to be independently dependent on the Holy Spirit.  While many pastors boast of how many children sit under their care, doesn’t it make more sense to boast of how many have graduated from their care? Isn’t it more a sign of failure when children are unable to leave the house? Raising thousands of consumers is not success.
• I have learned from years of attending and pastoring churches that we have to be intentional about the way we structure our churches, because it dictates the direction the church will go. Solid, biblical structure is absolutely necessary to keep us from going astray.  Your church model often communicates your true theology. In reexamining what the Church was meant to be, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis borrowed the concept of “heretical structures” from John Stott. Here’s how this works. I’m assuming your church’s doctrinal statement says something about every believer using his or her spiritual gifts to manifest the Holy Spirit. That’s good theology. But let me ask you this: Does your church structure convey a different theology? Does your structure demonstrate that the gift of every believer matters? Or does it suggest that only the gifts of the teaching pastor, a couple ministry leaders, and a few musicians matter? If so, you’re functioning with a heretical structure. Your heretical structure almost certainly speaks louder than your orthodox theological statement. “The theology that matters is not the theology we profess but the theology we practice.”1  I continue to run into people who assume certain modern traditions are necessities. The reality is that some of these optional practices can actually hinder the Church from living out the biblical principles meant to shape the Church. There are elements of modern churches that on the surface seem like good ideas, but they can actually keep us from the biblical vision of unity, true fellowship, mutual love, and pursuit of the mission. Too many look at these elements and insist you can’t have a church without them.

How Letters to the Church Helped Me

This book helped me describe the gap between the type of faith we see in the bible, and the models and systems we experience in the American Church

Chan’s insistence that leaders exist to equip people to lead and eventually leave reframed success entirely. The goal isn’t to gather people indefinitely, but to raise spiritual children capable of following Jesus faithfully without constant dependence.

That vision—spiritual grandchildren and great-grandchildren rather than lifelong spectators—has stayed with me.

The book also reinforced something deeply needed: faith grows when people are placed in positions where they actually need faith. Removing every barrier may make participation easier, but it often makes formation weaker.

Where Letters to the Church Fell Short for Me

Since the book’s release, Chan has spoken openly about some of the challenges inherent in house-church models. It’s important to say clearly: Letters to the Church is not a simple endorsement of house churches as a silver bullet.

Structure alone is never the solution.

Without the underlying values Chan describes—humility, mutual submission, obedience, and shared responsibility—any model can drift into dysfunction. House churches have strengths, but they also have limitations. The form only works if the heart and vision are in place.

I love the analysis, but the book doesn’t present a universally transferable model.

Why I Still Recommend This Book

Francis has a way of challenging without mocking, confronting without contempt, and calls people forward without pretending the road is easy.

It speaks to what many people mean when they talk about “deconstruction”—not as rebellion, but as a necessary parsing between biblical faith and cultural Christianity.

Most importantly, Francis consistently reminds readers not to let critique turn into pride. Loving the Church means refusing to treat her lightly, even when naming her wounds.

For Christians who are still committed to Jesus but struggling with the gap between Scripture and experience, this book offers clarity without cynicism.

If that describes your season, it may be worth your time.