Book Review: Radical

Here's the short book review. I liked this book so much that I ordered a case of them to give to our staff and other leaders at TrueNorth Church. I read non-fiction books with a pen to mark and underline significant thoughts or passages. Radical is one of the most marked up books that I own now.

The longer review: Why did I like this book so much? David Platt and I think alike. :)

You can tell he struggles as the leader of a megachurch trying to lead others to follow the leader of a minichurch movement, i.e., Jesus. The subtitle is "Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream." American Christians have confused Biblical Christianity with the American way. Our wealth and independence have made us a little too self-sufficient. Our churches have learned how to grow and operate just fine without the power of God. All churches need to exist today is a good performance on Sunday mornings by musicians and teachers. A nice building to put everyone in and programs for all ages to keep people coming back. It is sad but true.

Platt contends and shows by clearly using the Bible as a guide that our purpose in life is NOT to grow nice big churches for American families to thrive. Our purpose here is a global mission. We exist to enjoy God's glory and to extend God's glory. Jesus called his followers to a new lifestyle. Christ-followers are called to leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. We are to abandon everything for the sake of the gospel. We are to take up our crosses daily and follow him (Luke 9:23).

Unfortunately, our churches tend to disinfect us from the world. We have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. We have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe. In our world where church success is defined by bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings, Platt challenges his readers to realize that these values are not important to Jesus at all. What is important is that we believe and obey what Jesus teaches. All of his teaching.

You can't take the privileges of Christianity without also fulfilling the obligations of Christianity. We are guilty of picking and choosing what we want from Jesus. Everyone wants the abundant life Jesus promised in John 10:10 but then we say, "We are not called" when we read the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.

One of the few original thoughts I've had in a long time is "Every Christian needs a passport (see link)." David Platt confirms it. But this book isn't just about global missions, it's about living simply, praying sincerely, giving sacrificially, and much more. The truth is what Platt calls "Radical" is really just living Biblical. Unfortunately, we are so far removed from Biblical living it seems to be radical.

If you want a FREE COPY let me know. Amazon shipped them yesterday. I'll give copies away on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you live out of town, I will mail it to you.

Some things I highlighted in my reading:

We've missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We've settled for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.

"God's Word is enough for millions of believers who gather in house churches...His Word is enough for millions of other believers who huddle in African jungles, South American rain forests, and Middle Eastern cities. But is his Word enough for us? This is the question that haunts me when I stand before a crowd of thousands of people in the church I pastor. What if we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs? What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated? What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts are removed? Would his Word still be enough for his people to come together?"

"The goal of the American dream is to make much of ourselves. The goal of the gospel is to make much of God."

"God blesses his people with extravagant grace so they might extend his extravagant glory to all peoples on the earth."

"One of the unintended consequences of contemporary church strategies that revolve around performances, places, programs, and professionals is that somewhere along the way people get left out of the picture. But according to Jesus, people are God's method for winning the world to himself. People who have been radically transformed by Jesus. People who are not sidelined to sit in a chair on Sundays while they watch professionals take care of ministry for them. People who are equipped on Sundays to participate in ministry every day of the week. People who are fit and free to do precisely what Jesus did and what Jesus told us to do. Make disciples."

"We look back on slave-owning churchgoers of 150 years ago and ask, 'How could they have treated their fellow human beings that way?' I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, 'How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in such affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn't have food and water? How could they go on with their lives as though billions of poor didn't even exist?'"

"There is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, 'I wish you would have kept more for yourself.'"

"Why not begin operating under the idea that God has given us excess, not so we could have more, but so we could give more.?"

"What would happen if we stopped asking how much we could spare and started asking how much it was going to take?"

(After explaining that the origin of the ichthus/fish symbol is traced back to persecuted and martyred Christians.) "How far we have come when we paste this symbol identified with martyred brothers and sisters in the first century onto the backs of our SUVs and luxury sedans in the twenty-first century."

"Church-goers today want short-term commitments with long-term benefits."