Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Our pilgrimage too, September 12, 2006
This review is from: Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale (Paperback)
Chase Falcon, megachurch pastor, has lost his faith. When a young girl falls off her bike and never wakes up, Chase's answers suddenly seem hollow. His faith comes crashing to the ground at the worst possible time: in the middle of a sermon.
"I used to have all the answers, just opened the Bible and there they were. The truth is, they aren't all there - or if they are, I can't find them. I've tried to convince you that Christianity is logical and straightforward, as if God can be codified and stuffed into files he can't jump out of. Each time uncertainty knocked on the door, I hid behind the couch until it went away. Now I'm the one who's thirsty. And the Jesus I've known for twenty years isn't making it go away."
"And what about our church? I mean, is this all there is?..."
Understandably, few at the church know how to react to Chase's crisis. When the elders ask him to take a leave of absence, Chase goes on a surprising pilgrimage, chasing and learning from Francis, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi. Through this novel, Chase's pilgrimage also becomes our pilgrimage too.
Near the end of the book, Chase says, "When I left here, I wasn't sure what a Christian looked like anymore. My idea of what it meant to follow Jesus had run out of gas. I started feeling less like a pastor and more like a salesman of a consumerized Jesus I didn't believe in. Learning about Francis helped me fall in love with Jesus again - and with the church again, too."
I didn't think I could learn so much from a novel, but then again, I've never read a novel that has a study guide before. This book expresses some of what I have experienced, minus the exotic pilgrimage. I was genuinely sad when the book ended because I wanted more.
Not everyone will appreciate this book. Some will not know what it means to go through a crisis of faith, and will not appreciate Saint Francis as an example. But for those of us who long for more, Chasing Francis may take you on a pilgrimage, from a faith with all the answers to a more robust faith and genuine love for Jesus and the church.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging Story, Thought-Provoking Perspective, August 11, 2006
This review is from: Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale (Paperback)
In Chasing Francis, author, singer/songwriter and pastor Ian Morgan Cron shares his vision for the postmodern church through an engaging story about a pastor who finds his way forward as a follower of Christ and leader in the church by looking back at the life and beliefs of St. Francis of Assisi. Chase Falson is the founding pastor of a New England church who becomes disenchanted with many aspects of modern evangelicalism. The senseless death of a young girl in Chase's congregation and his inability to help the girl's mother make sense of it devastates him to the point that he questions his own faith in a sermon before his church. No surprise, church elders then ask Chase to take time off to figure out where he stands.
Seeking to figure it all out, Chase turns to his Uncle Kenny, a Franciscan priest living in Italy. Kenny invites Chase to join him for a time in Italy, which ends up being a pilgrimage for Chase to learn about St. Francis and what he believed the church and Christians should be. As Kenny and his fellow Franciscans take Chase to the places and recount the events that shaped Francis's life and beliefs, Cron paints a literary picture of what he believes the church should become. To try to summarize here the issues that Cron raises and thoughtfully addresses throughout the story and accompanying study guide in the appendix would not do them justice.
My advice: read the book. In fact, I would encourage everyone in the leadership of spiritual communities to read this book and meet with others to dialogue about the issues raised in it. Cron creatively and intelligently addresses issues that are essential to the church's future. Like Chase Falson, most churches are trying to find their way in a postmodern world. How surprising, and wonderful, to find wisdom for today in the life of one of the spiritual giants of history who lived during the transition from the Middle Ages to Modern Times.
Two other points I would like to make about Chasing Francis. First, I thoroughly enjoyed the interesting characters and vivid descriptions of places Cron weaved into the story. After my wife and I read Chasing Francis, we decided to change our upcoming travel plans to go to Rome and Florence instead. Second, I appreciated that Cron didn't paint the characters in unrealistic terms. These are real people with real problems who become the body of Christ to one another. They celebrate the joys in life together and, by being there for one another during life's trials, they cushion the inevitable blows we all experience.
When I finished Chasing Francis it made me hope that Cron will write a sequel about Chase's experience trying to bring to life his new vision for the church. I'm also interested in what happens to the characters and relationships we learn about in Chasing Francis. Let's hope Ian Cron will keep this story going.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A slightly monocular search for an alternative to modern evangelicalism, November 25, 2008
This review is from: Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale (Paperback)
This is a winsome and helpful fictional exploration of an alternative to the non-denominational, generic evangelicalism of modern America. The entire novel could be said to be an extended narrative on how, by consideration of the example of Francis of Assisi, one Protestant minister in the throes of a crisis of faith comes to a better understanding of the basic Christian mandate that faith without works is dead. This work is a useful corrective to the notion that Christianity is solely an affair of the head, an intellectual parlor game for the comfort of the initiated right-believers. It is also a reminder to those who might be "light" on church history that the church had its saints well before the advent of Martin Luther and John Calvin. The book is not without its flaws. On a literary note, there are a few cliches too many, not the least of which is the "fallen woman with a heart of gold" whose challenge to the protagonist about the problem of evil in the world seemingly precipitates the crisis that is the focus of the book, and whose devotion to the protagonist eventually enables him to courageously embrace a neo-Franciscan model of being the church for his own ministry. The author also betrays his own cultural captivity through recurring references to haute cuisine and (perhaps especially) through his choice of a trip to Italy as a curative for his theological malaise; it would have undoubtedly been cheaper (and more realistic) to check a copy of Dorothy Day's "A Long Loneliness" out of the local public library rather than swilling espresso with traveling priests and monks in the Italian countryside. But the most significant limitation of the book (and the author's project) is its rosy exaltation of a version of Franciscan spirituality. In my experience, the Christian faith is at its most beautiful when an active love for God and neighbor is married to a robust and hopeful faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Just as faith without works is dead, works of charity without a firm foundation of faith and hope risk becoming indistinguishable from any other secular social work program, with all the attendant limitations and weaknesses. Perhaps the author's next project will be a novelization of how our neo-Franciscan pastor subsequently rediscovers the joy of faith, restores his hope, and attains a theological balance in his life after suffering burnout working at the soup kitchen or the drug treatment center. I would be interested in seeing how he does with that! Although somewhat dated, I recommend Evangelical is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament by Thomas Howard, as an alternative autobiographical exploration of similar issues with a slightly different corrective.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
