Francis Chan Jokes About How Not to Make Disciples
Preacher Francis Chan uses a little humor to explain how Christians often do things that don't make any sense, including when it comes to the Great Commission, or the command to make disciples.
"When I was a kid, we used to play a game called 'Simon Says,'" Chan, former teaching pastor of Cornerstone Community Church, one of the largest churches in Ventura County, California, tells the audience.
The game involves three or more players where one of the players takes the role of "Simon" and issues instructions, such as "jump in the air" or "tap your head," to the other participants, which should only be followed if prefaced with the phrase "Simon says."
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"It was a very simple game, but it's so weird how in the Church, 'Jesus Says' is a totally different game," continues Chan in a video of his sermon posted on Facebook by a Texas-based group, Verge Network.
Chan, the author of the best-selling book, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, among others, then explains, "If Jesus says something, you don't have to do something, you just have to memorize it… You study it, you memorize it… it doesn't make sense a lot of thing we do."
He adds, "Jesus says, 'Go on and make disciples.' How many people are actually making disciples? But they have memorized it."
Chan then gives an example. He tells the listeners that it's something like when he tells his daughter to go clean her room, and she comes back later and says she's memorized it. "You, said, 'Go clean your room.'" And she adds that she can say that in Greek as well. And then she also says, 'My friends are going to come over and we're going to study what it would look like if I cleaned my room.'"
She know better than that, the preacher adds. "So why do we think we are going to come before the Judge one day, and quote everything He said, talk about how much we know?" he asks.
The scripture is clear, that we have been asked to make disciples, he says, referring to Matthew 28:18-20, which reads, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"
"Start making disciples," Chan concludes.
Chan resigned from the Cornerstone church, which he and and his wife, Lisa, had founded, in 2010, saying he wanted to pursue what God had laid on his heart. The couple later moved to San Francisco and launched a countrywide discipleship movement among their involvement in other ministries.
