Francis Chan and Gangs

First, I mostly wanted to show off a picture that David and I took with Francis Chan. This was the reward we got for skipping out on the Fee concert early when we ran into Francis (we're on a first name basis now) in the parking lot. When I think about the communicators from Conclave I sum it up by saying that Gregg Matte encouraged, Matt Chander challenged, and Francis Chan inspired. Francis shared a story about a former gang member that accepted Christ and was baptized in their church. He said that he ran into that gang member in a grocery store a few months later and asked how things were going. The former gang member told him that he had stopped going to church. He still believed in God, but church just wasn't what he expected. He thought that when he was baptized it would be like when he was jumped into the gang. He thought that he would from that point on be surrounded in the community but what he had experienced that even more than before the community became even less connected when he was baptized. He was desperate for community and seemed to find more community in his gang than he did in the church. Do gangs understand how to do community than we as the church do? I don't know about you, but this story challenges me as I know that it is true of the churches that I have been a part of and ministries that I lead. Jeff Mangum regularly challenges our Segue community to fight for community. I want to challenge you as Francis Chan did to read Numbers 20 and consider the community that you are a part of and what role you need to play in deepening and widening that community.