Francis Chan says he healed deaf boy, girl in rural Myanmar village

Online communication is difficult. You picture me as spitting at the screen as I wrote those words. I wasn’t. I was just saying, matter-of-factly, that Chan appears ignorant and irresponsible. If any pastor displayed a cluelessness about the Lord’s Supper, then told me he’d healed people, I’d stay far away from him. I wouldn’t do it because I despised him. I would just think he’s unhinged and unstable.

My apologies if I seemed angry. I was just making observations based on what I saw. He seems like a troubled guy who is searching for something. I hope he finds it. I suspect he’ll eventually only find more disillusionment in Hong Kong. I will try to couch my opinions in more moderate tones in the future, even if the substance is the same.

For what it’s worth, I’m also not a fundamentalist.

[DLCreed]

But hey, if you and Tyler think that a Donald Trump style of scorched-earth rhetoric is effective these days for convincing people of spiritual truths, go ahead and knock yourselves out. I am just pointing out that, from my perspective, it’s as weak in efficacy as it is in Christian grace.

Where did I insult you in my post? But you did me.

….if you were insulted by my words, you and I have different calibrations or definitions for the term “insult”. Usually, we boomers/busters have a higher standard for what makes us feel insulted.

[DLCreed]

….if you were insulted by my words, you and I have different calibrations or definitions for the term “insult”. Usually, we boomers/busters have a higher standard for what makes us feel insulted.

No matter the generation, DL, your tone is abominable.

Here’s the point. You posted a criticism of Tyler for being ungraceful, but in that critique you were ungraceful. I pointed out what you missed in your criticism, and you attacked me with both barrels. Twice.

[Joeb]

Take it easy guys. Bert where are you when your needed. Shine some light on this matter. Yikes!

Joeb, I’m not the one making personal attacks. What did I do wrong?

I sure am a dog faced pony soldier, or whatever. :^) Let’s get the “dislikes” going!

Seriously, regarding Chan, there have been a number of things with which I’ve disagreed over the years. I was very uneasy, for example, with his choice to leave the church he founded to do other ministries—I tend to think that vocational ministry really ought to involve “going to the mat” with individual believers, and I felt that he was dodging that to do more of an academic, “lecture style” ministry. I also am uneasy at his easy endorsement of the miracles at Moody; there have been enough frauds (e.g. Benny Hinn crusades) that we ought to be skeptical of purported miracles.

On the flip side, what I really value about Chan is that he goes back and concentrates more on the Gospels; I’ve felt for years that evangelicals tend to do the epistles at least superficially better than the Gospels, and one big reason for this is that the Gospels seem to challenge dominant cultures far more than we’re comfortable with.

How to criticize Chan effectively? Be specific. If he’s mangling doctrines of the Lord’s Supper, tell us how, for example.