After serving as pastor of Student Ministries at Cornerstone in Simi Valley, CA, Chuck Bomar planted Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon. He is the founder of CollegeLeader and has created numerous resources for college ministry leaders. Chuck speaks frequently and has a tremendous heart for youth workers, especially those in college-age ministry. Chuck is married to Barbara, and together they have two daughters; Karis and Hope. Oh, and lest we forget, Chuck is a regular ConversantLife.com blogger. His latest book is Worlds Apart (Zondervan 2011).  

We've heard rumors that you drink more coffee than anyone else in Portland, and that's saying something. Talk about your strategy of frequenting cafes as the pastor of a growing church in Portland.

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Francis Chan 2009 Interview – The Start of Great Things

 

Given that Francis is out there again fighting a great fight, I thought I would post my full interview with him from 2009.  There is a lot left on the cutting room floor from this interview, but both during the interview and in spending some time with him since my book came out, I have found Francis to be present, focused, and compassionate beyond expectation.  Of all the “big” Christian leaders I have met, he is the one that surprised me the most because he was self involved the least.

 

Whether you like Francis or not it is good that he is out there.  And as far has hell goes, to quote myself as only a jerk can do – it either hangs in the balance or we should all go home.

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This video is from YouTube and is a preview video of Chan's new book about hell.

It should be very interesting to see how he enters into the current discussion and debate.

One can't help but notice a similarity in how this is being released (with a vague intro video) to Rob Bell's recent book.  He seems to be addressing Bell in some of this, but only time will tell.  I am sure this will ignite a whole other round of discussion prior to the book in the same way as well.  

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You opened your best-selling book Crazy Love by saying “something is wrong with the American church.”  More than a million copies have sold to date, so do you think American church members agree.

At first I thought it was just me. Then I stood before twenty thousand Christian college students and asked, “How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the Church are missing it?” When almost every hand went up, I felt comforted. At least I’m not crazy. And I think those reading Crazy Love find this message resonating.

I think it’s far too easy to blame the American church without acknowledging that we are each part of the church and therefore responsible. But I think we all feel deeply, even if we haven’t voiced it, that the church in many ways is not doing well.

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By Jon Hirst

Our team at Novo Ink is very excited to share some news with the Conversant Life community. This morning we launched the enhanced eBook version of Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This is a collaborative project with Francis’ publisher David C. Cook.

To find out more about the book click here.

We are very excited about this enhanced eBook because it takes a unique approach to this new medium. As you know we have been blogging about how eBooks can be tools of incarnational ministry among us. That lens is how we look at projects like this.

So when we sat down with David C. Cook and brainstormed this project, our goal was to create an intentional and incarnational resource that allows you to jump into the idea along with Francis Chan and learn new things as you hear from him and interact with the many other resources. And we are so excited with how the team at Cook brought the project together!

The tendency out there is to create a book with “extras” but that is simply more information overload. Instead we believe an enhanced eBook needs to be an organic experience where audio, video, and support web resources make the reading experience richer and more meaningful.

Our hope is that as you read this enhanced book, you will connect with the author and his passion, but more importantly, that you will get new insights into how you can grow in your love for Jesus.

In order to model that, I will be reading the enhanced book, one chapter a week, and blogging on conversant life about the total experience and what I am learning. I challenge you to join me in that journey and read along. I would love to hear your comments as we read it together.

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When it came to writing a book on the social gospel and Christian humanitarianism, Ryan Dobson and I decided that it would be important to engage people who were active in the work and ideas -- people who were living out the notion that God has called us to invest in His world for His glory and His mission.

That led me on a journey last year during which I interviewed thirteen passionate, interesting, and highly invested servants.  Some of them you will know (like Tony Campolo, Francis Chan, Franklin Graham) and some of them you might not (like Jim Moriarty, Gilbert Lennox, Brad Corrigan) but all are worth the read.

This series is an effort to introduce them to you.  The full interviews are in the book, but I hope these passages will be engaging and uplifting as you consider what it means to follow the Humanitarian Jesus.

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Some might think the two crafts have very little in common... But I will be the first to disagree. After co-creating Clover as well as having the privilege of attending Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley with Francis Chan as the teaching pastor, I have realized the common DNA that makes great websites and great preaching. Drum roll please...

Caring about your audience.

I know, I know... You've heard it before. Maybe in seminary or from a mentor. The crazy thing is that, for as easy of a concept as this is, very few people actually do it. This is why sometimes in services you find yourself disconnecting with the pastor and thinking about what's for lunch or who's playing the football game at 1PM.

You'll see the same disconnect when browsing websites poorly created. So often in the web world we have programmers or designers who fancy a certain design style or web language, that when creating a site for a certain audience, have failed to ask the question "What is the best way to communicate to my audience?".

I have been reminded of the discipline of designing and programming for your audience for the past 6 years or so since attending Cornerstone Church and sitting under Francis' teaching. Each week Francis conveys the Word of God clearly, concisely, and in the language of the people. He jokes that he's the Dr. Suess of preachers. Maybe it's time there were less PhD's in pulpits and more Dr. Suess'.

I propose the same for website design. It's time that websites are created for people, not programmers. This begins with asking the question, "How do I communicate best to my audience?" Unfortunately, in both preaching and design, our own tastes and bents have a nasty habit of popping up and distracting us from our ultimate goal of communication. But know that when all is said and done, even if nothing is said beautifully, it is still nothing. So keep it simple, and remember your people.

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