Sunday, November 8, 2009

Lunch with Francis Chan


Let me start with this point of our trip....lunch with Francis! When I read his book, Crazy Love, this spring/summer..(ok...so I am a slow reader!) I actually read it twice...which for me is like un heard of!! It was exactly what I had been struggling with...love...loving God and loving others. I had a pretty negative attitude toward loving others unconditionally. So I was really looking forward to meeting Francis and listening to his testimony. Let me tell you...it was a lesson in humility. He tells us that he gives all the proceeds from the book to charity. He told us...now he is talking to ministers/leaders of churches and there is only about 25 of us...so I think he is a little more comfortable than in a typical crowd...that just this last week he got a check for over $300,000 and about how fun it was to write checks to charities and people in need. He said he and his wife never dreamed the book would be so popular. He said they joked about how cool it would be to be one of those people who could just write checks to people in need...and God said...ok..I will let you do just that thru this book! I think he will soon give away close to 1 million dollars...WOW!! And to top it off...he no longer takes a salary from his church. He only gets what he receives from speaking. He is a pastor and loves his church. I was just so humbled by his love for the kingdom and truly following God in a radical way. He said people told him he was dumb and that he should save the money for an emergency...his response...millions of orphans are not considered an emergency...people dying of aides isn't an emergency...people not knowing the gospel isn't an emergency? If those aren't emergencies...I don't know what an emergency is? Matt and I had a chance to speak with him and he is just a down to earth real guy. I spoke with his wife for awhile, a completely humble woman of God. Someone I would love to spend more time learning from. He had a lot to teach us about loving the church and how Jesus established it and His love for it. I will post more about that later. But lunch was a great experience for us. I felt so blessed to be there, filled my heart up!

4 comments:

  1. How awesome Steph :) What an awesome testimony....a loving heart clearly! I love it when these people live what the teach/preach!
    Brian is reading or I should say "listening" to the book right now and he is loving it!

    Love you

    If it is ok with you I would like to add Lori to a prayer blog but I wanted to get your permission. Check out the blog first. She is my friend and a pastors wife. Beth. She is an amazing woman of God and prays fervently for all on her prayer blog!
    www.athisfeetinprayer.blogspot.com

    been praying for all of them

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  2. That's just soooo awesome!
    What an incredible opportunity you had to learn and soak up Francis Chan's love for the Lord, his commitment, and his gratitude toward Christ in his financial areas. :) WOW!

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  3. How cool for you! I just read an article about him starting house churches, very interesting. Looks like he is a truly, awesome guy!

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  4. I just finished Crazy Love about two weeks ago... That book rocked my world! Francis Chan exudes humility. What a blessing to meet him!

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