Considering Crazy Love

Whenever you read an insanely popular book, there are some traps and snares along the way.  The first of which is the insane popularity of the book.  That can create enormous expectations of the book.  As a result, your expectations are unrealistic.  The other side of that coin is really annoying those who love the book.  It could be as simple as not buying into the hype, or as serious as recognizing huge theological problems (like in Velvet Elvis or The Shack).  Either way, those who have been (rightly or wrongly) impacted by the book will be mad at you.

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God is one of those insanely popular books.  Francis Chan became a well-known pastor as a result of this book.  As a result, I had very high expectations for this book.  It didn’t meet those expectations (that does not mean it is a bad book).  On the positive side, it was not dripping with heresy like either Velvet Elvis or The Shack.

Books of this sort are to be both practical and theological.  John Frame rightly, I think, notes that you haven’t really understood a doctrine until you apply it (or at least begin to).  Each book has its own blend of them.  Some are heavy on the practical, and some are heavy on the theological.  Sadly, some are so far skewed as to be no good to the soul.

Chan’s book, which I suspect is adapted from a sermon series, is skewed toward the practical.  There is theology in the book, but it leans toward the practical.  This is part of its appeal to many.  But I prefer to have my heart warmed and stirred by theological truth so I am pursuing a sound lifestyle (see 1 Timothy 1).  I felt more manipulated than instructed.  I don’t mean it to sound that terrible, really.  Francis is very passionate about his topic, and says many things we American Christians need to hear.  My issue was more with the presentation, if that makes sense.

The title, particularly the subtitle, pointed me in the direction of God’s relentless love as the main point.  I got the direction all wrong.  He does talk about that, but his emphasis is on our “crazy love” (in the eyes of the unbeliever and lukewarm professing Christian) for God.  But that makes no sense without delving deeper into the relentless love of God for us.  This would make, I guess, a great companion book to The Ragamuffin Gospel which emphasizes God’s crazy love for sinners like us (Brennan Manning already wrote its companion in Relentless Trust).

So, I expected to hear about God’s relentless pursuit of me in Christ and hear more about my relentless pursuit of God.  Make sense.  Not wrong, just misplaced expectations.

As I noted, there are many things that Francis says that are important for the church to hear.  One of the most common words is lukewarm.  He’s confronting our easy believism, our low standards for discipleship, and our enculturation.  He is attacking cultural Christianity, which is no real Christianity.

“I believe that a very large majority of church goers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshippers of an unknown God.”  Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 11

The problem is he’s focusing on the imperatives without basing them on the indicatives.  “Huh?” you say.  Scripture grounds God’s commands (imperatives) in both His character and His redemptive work (indicatives).   This is clear in Paul’s letters.  He lays out chapter after chapter of who God is and  what He has done and our new identity before issuing a single command.  We see this in the 10 Commandments; Exodus 20 starts with “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt.”  Chan neglects this pattern at the risk of being moralistic and emotionally manipulative- neither of which produces true gospel sanctification.

Life is full of ironies.  In the first chapter Francis tries to move you by the holiness of God.  He even tells you to go to the website and watch a few videos.  I wasn’t moved toward awe.  You might be tempted to think I was unregenerate.  But later in the day I was at the gym.  While Switchfoot’s Your Love is a Song was playing, I was moved to awe and worship contemplating His love for me (he even sings songs of love over us).  So I guess I’m spiritually alive.

I did pull lots of good nuggets and quotes from the book.  He does have important things to say.

A last concern I had was the personal stories he told in the final chapter.  I see here the danger that Mark Driscoll wisely cautioned Francis about after he resigned from Cornerstone.  Some of the people he highlights chose their own suffering, or unnecessary suffering instead of submitting to God’s providence in their lives which may include both suffering and abundance (see Philippians 1:29 AND Philippians 4).  A missionary who has all his teeth pulled so he won’t have to leave the field again sounds heroic to Francis.  I see a man despising God’s gifts and making the mission field as something of an idol.  Perhaps he thought himself too important, and forgot that God Himself is the only essential person.  He’s like the football player who had his finger amputated so he didn’t have to miss games waiting for the oft broken finger to heal.  Something just isn’t right there.

Suffering is an important element or ingredient to our sanctification.  This is something large portions of the American (and western) church lives in denial about (Chan titles a chapter My Best Life Later as a corrective to Joel Osteen’s false teaching).  I’ve had friends think I’m nuts because I didn’t flee suffering.  I saw it as appointed for me for my growth and humility.  The Puritans highlighted this aspect of biblical doctrine.  But to make myself suffer, that is something different.  God knows the suffering from which I will best learn and He will bring it at the best time.  I am not to run around looking for ways to suffer.  That sounds too much like the ascetic errors of monastic living.  There is a self-sanctification there that is unbiblical.  Or at least I was uncomfortable with (though I embrace the truth that suffering is ordained for us on this side of heaven).

This book is popular because many recognize the need to reject casual Christianity in its many forms.  Chan rightly diagnoses a very real cancer eating away at the church.  I’m just not convinced he has the right treatment for that cancer.  Many people will be able to read the book and walk away with a good sense of conviction.  There is good here.  But also a few bones to take out too.